There are two ways to download the videos in a YouTube playlist. With YouTube Premium you can save the whole list in the YouTube app, but only for watching offline in that app. To get the videos as files on your computer, use yt-dlp, a free command-line tool.
And if what you need is what is said in those videos, not the videos themselves, skip the download: see the last section.
Option 1: YouTube Premium, offline in the app
- Open the playlist in the YouTube app on your phone or tablet.
- Tap the download button under the playlist title.
- Choose a quality.
The videos stay inside the YouTube app; you cannot copy them to another app or another device. Premium also asks you to go online at least once every 30 days to keep your downloads.
Option 2: yt-dlp, files on your computer
yt-dlp is free and open source. Install it with brew install yt-dlp on a Mac, winget install yt-dlp on Windows or pip install yt-dlp anywhere Python runs. Install FFmpeg as well: YouTube serves the best quality as separate video and audio, and yt-dlp needs FFmpeg to join them.
Download the whole list, numbered in order:
yt-dlp -o "%(playlist_index)03d - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAYLIST_ID"
Useful additions, one per job:
| You want | Add |
|---|---|
| Only some videos, say 1 to 5 and 8 | --playlist-items 1-5,8 |
| At most 1080p, to keep the files smaller | -S res:1080 |
| Audio only, as MP3 | -x --audio-format mp3 |
| Only new videos the next time you run it | --download-archive done.txt |
| The subtitles as well | --write-subs --sub-langs en |
| A private playlist your account can see | --cookies-from-browser firefox |
The last one reads your signed-in session from the browser you name (chrome, edge, safari also work). yt-dlp can only download what your account is allowed to watch.
If you need the words, not the videos
Many playlist downloads end in a transcript: lecture notes, quotes for an article, a course to search through. You do not need the video files for that.
From code, the transcription API takes a YouTube URL and returns a transcript, so a script can work through a list one video at a time. Or let Claude or ChatGPT do it through MCP. Each video uses its own length in minutes, the same as on the site.
What is allowed
YouTube's Terms of Service only allow downloading through features YouTube offers, such as Premium's download button. Saving videos with another tool is fine for your own uploads and for videos whose owner gave permission, for example under a Creative Commons license. Publishing someone else's video again needs their permission. This is general information, not legal advice.