How To Download Youtube Playlist: A Comprehensive Guide

Table of contents

The honest legal caveat

Downloading YouTube content you don’t own — or that the platform hasn’t explicitly made available for download — is against YouTube’s Terms of Service. It may also infringe copyright depending on the content and your jurisdiction. Before you use any downloader:

• Only download content you own, have a license to, or that is explicitly offered for free download by its creator.
• Creative Commons–licensed videos and public domain content are generally safer, but read the specific license.
• Backing up your own uploads is reasonable; ripping a full commercial music playlist is not.

I’m covering these tools because they have legitimate uses. Use them accordingly.

Method 1: yt-dlp (the reliable open-source option)

yt-dlp is the actively maintained fork of the older youtube-dl project. It works on macOS, Windows, and Linux, it’s regularly updated to keep up with YouTube’s changes, and it handles playlists natively with a single command.

Install yt-dlp

On macOS with Homebrew:

brew install yt-dlp

On Windows, download the binary from the yt-dlp GitHub releases page and add it to your PATH. You can also install it with pip on any platform:

pip install yt-dlp

Download an entire playlist

Paste the playlist URL directly:

yt-dlp "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=YOUR_PLAYLIST_ID"

That’s it. yt-dlp detects the playlist automatically and downloads every video in it.

Useful flags to know

Choose a specific quality — yt-dlp defaults to the best available. To cap at 1080p:

yt-dlp -f "bestvideo[height<=1080]+bestaudio/best[height<=1080]" "<playlist-url>"

Audio only (MP3) — useful for music playlists you own or that are licensed for download:

yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 "<playlist-url>"

Save to a specific folder and name files by title:

yt-dlp -o "~/Downloads/%(playlist_title)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "<playlist-url>"

Skip already-downloaded files (handy if you’re updating a playlist over time):

yt-dlp --download-archive archive.txt "<playlist-url>"

yt-dlp’s documentation on GitHub covers dozens more options. The commands above cover the majority of real use cases.

A note on ffmpeg

For the best quality merging of video and audio streams, yt-dlp needs ffmpeg installed. On macOS: brew install ffmpeg. On Windows, download a build from ffmpeg.org and add it to your PATH.

Method 2: YouTube Premium offline (official, no file export)

If you pay for YouTube Premium, the YouTube app on iOS and Android lets you save any video or playlist for offline viewing — no third-party tools needed. The trade-off is that the saved content lives inside the app only; you cannot export the files or play them in another player. For most people who just want offline playback on a phone or tablet, this is the cleanest path.

YouTube Premium also covers YouTube Music, so if your playlist is music-focused, the YouTube Music app’s download feature may be what you actually want.

What to avoid: browser-based “online downloader” sites

Search for “YouTube playlist downloader” and you will find dozens of web-based tools promising one-click downloads. In my experience in 2026, the overwhelming majority of these sites are adware-laden, push fake browser extension installs, or quietly redirect to malware. A few specific concerns:

• Many were banned from major app stores or had their domains seized after Google’s 2024 enforcement push.
• Sites with names like “y2mate,” “savefrom,” and their many variants have a long history of bundled adware and deceptive UI patterns.
• Even sites that still work often cap downloads, require email signups, or inject tracking.

If you want a GUI and don’t want to use the command line, the options that still had active maintenance as of early 2026 include 4K Video Downloader+ (freemium, Windows/macOS) and MediaHuman YouTube Downloader (free, Windows/macOS/Ubuntu). Both have had ongoing updates, but verify the current version before downloading anything — this space moves fast.

Downloading a playlist: step-by-step with yt-dlp

For readers who want a concrete walkthrough:

Step 1. Open the YouTube playlist you want in a browser. Copy the full URL from the address bar — it should look like https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxxxxxxx.

Step 2. Open a terminal (macOS: Terminal or iTerm; Windows: PowerShell or Command Prompt).

Step 3. Run the download command:

yt-dlp -o "~/Downloads/%(playlist_title)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "<paste-your-url-here>"

Step 4. yt-dlp will list each video as it downloads. When it finishes, your files are in ~/Downloads/<playlist name>/.

For audio-only, add -x --audio-format mp3 before the URL.

Downloading YouTube Playlists — 2026 FAQ

Is it legal to download YouTube playlists?

It depends on the content and what you do with it. YouTube’s Terms of Service prohibit downloading content without explicit permission from YouTube. Copyright law adds another layer: even if a tool can do it, downloading commercially licensed music or movies you don’t own is infringement in most jurisdictions. Downloading your own uploads, Creative Commons content with a permissive license, or content where the creator has explicitly authorized downloads is a different story. When in doubt, don’t.

Does yt-dlp work in 2026?

Yes, as of early 2026 yt-dlp is actively maintained and handles YouTube playlist downloads reliably. YouTube occasionally pushes changes that temporarily break downloaders; the yt-dlp project typically ships fixes within days. Keep it updated (brew upgrade yt-dlp or pip install -U yt-dlp) to stay current.

Can I download a YouTube playlist to my phone without a computer?

YouTube Premium’s in-app download is the official path — it works on iOS and Android, no computer needed. Third-party apps for mobile (Android APKs, iOS shortcuts) exist but are unreliable, frequently abandoned, and sometimes malicious. For actual files on a phone, download on a computer with yt-dlp and transfer them.

What happened to 4K Video Downloader, y2mate, and the other tools from older guides?

Google’s 2024 enforcement actions forced several tools to change how they work or exit the US/EU markets. y2mate and similar browser-based tools became significantly more adware-heavy. 4K Video Downloader rebranded to “4K Video Downloader+” and moved to a more aggressive freemium model with a lower free-tier cap. I’d verify any older recommendation is still functional and safe before using it.

Related reading: How to Make YouTube Videos · YouTube SEO tricks · How to Get More Subscribers on YouTube

This guide is part of alejandrorioja.com — written by Alejandro Rioja, who now builds AI agent systems for founders. Including the agent that keeps this site current. How it works →

Updated for May 2026

YouTube and the broader video-download tools landscape changed materially in 2024–25:

• Many third-party downloaders died after Google’s August 2024 enforcement wave (4K Video Downloader and y2mate variants got hit hardest in the US/EU). Open-source yt-dlp still works.
• YouTube Premium hit ~125M paying subs by mid-2025 — the official “download” inside the app is the path of least resistance now.
• YouTube Music absorbed Google Play Music’s last holdouts in 2024; playlist export now goes through Music’s library.
• For creators: Shorts revenue share improved meaningfully (ad share went live for all eligible Shorts channels in early 2024) — see ~$0.04–$0.07 RPM as a reasonable 2026 benchmark.

The how-to in this post still works for the cases it covers; just verify the tool you pick is still up before you commit a workflow to it.