best way to save what you love
cobalt.tools

💬 community discord server 🐦 twitter/x

cobalt is a media downloader that doesn't piss you off. it's fast, friendly, and doesn't have any bullshit that modern web is filled with: no ads, trackers, or paywalls.

paste the link, get the file, move on. it's that simple. just how it should be.

supported services

this list is not final and keeps expanding over time. if support for a service you want is missing, create an issue (or a pull request 👀).

service	video + audio	only audio	only video	metadata	rich file names
bilibili	✅	✅	✅	➖	➖
bluesky	✅	✅	✅	➖	➖
dailymotion	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
instagram	✅	✅	✅	➖	➖
facebook	✅	❌	✅	➖	➖
loom	✅	❌	✅	✅	➖
ok.ru	✅	❌	✅	✅	✅
pinterest	✅	✅	✅	➖	➖
reddit	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌
rutube	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
snapchat	✅	✅	✅	➖	➖
soundcloud	➖	✅	➖	✅	✅
streamable	✅	✅	✅	➖	➖
tiktok	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌
tumblr	✅	✅	✅	➖	➖
twitch clips	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
twitter/x	✅	✅	✅	➖	➖
vimeo	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
vine	✅	✅	✅	➖	➖
vk videos & clips	✅	❌	✅	✅	✅
youtube	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅

emoji	meaning
✅	supported
➖	impossible/unreasonable
❌	not supported

additional notes or features (per service)

service	notes or features
instagram	supports reels, photos, and videos. lets you pick what to save from multi-media posts.
facebook	supports public accessible videos content only.
pinterest	supports photos, gifs, videos and stories.
reddit	supports gifs and videos.
snapchat	supports spotlights and stories. lets you pick what to save from stories.
rutube	supports yappy & private links.
soundcloud	supports private links.
tiktok	supports videos with or without watermark, images from slideshow without watermark, and full (original) audios.
twitter/x	lets you pick what to save from multi-media posts. may not be 100% reliable due to current management.
vimeo	audio downloads are only available for dash.
youtube	supports videos, music, and shorts. 8K, 4K, HDR, VR, and high FPS videos. rich metadata & dubs. h264/av1/vp9 codecs.

partners

cobalt is sponsored by royalehosting.net, all main instances are currently hosted on their network :)

ethics and disclaimer

cobalt is a tool for easing content downloads from internet and takes zero liability. you are responsible for what you download, how you use and distribute that content. please be mindful when using content of others and always credit original creators. fair use and credits benefit everyone.

cobalt is NOT a piracy tool and cannot be used as such. it can only download free, publicly accessible content. such content can be easily downloaded through any browser's dev tools. pressing one button is easier, so i made a convenient, ad-less tool for such repeated actions.

cobalt license

for relevant licensing information, see the api and web READMEs. unless specified otherwise, the remainder of this repository is licensed under AGPL-3.0.

acknowledgements

ffmpeg

cobalt heavily relies on ffmpeg for converting and merging media files. it's an absolutely amazing piece of software offered for anyone for free, yet doesn't receive as much credit as it should.

you can support ffmpeg here!

ffmpeg-static

we use ffmpeg-static to get binaries for ffmpeg depending on the platform.

you can support the developer via various methods listed on their github page! (linked above)

youtube.js

cobalt relies on youtube.js for interacting with the innertube api, it wouldn't have been possible without it.

you can support the developer via various methods listed on their github page! (linked above)

many others

cobalt also depends on:

• content-disposition-header to simplify the provision of content-disposition headers.
• cors to manage cross-origin resource sharing within expressjs.
• dotenv to load environment variables from the .env file.
• esbuild to minify the frontend files.
• express as the backbone of cobalt servers.
• express-rate-limit to rate limit api endpoints.
• hls-parser to parse m3u8 playlists for certain services.
• ipaddr.js to parse ip addresses (for rate limiting).
• nanoid to generate unique (temporary) identifiers for each requested stream.
• node-cache to cache stream info in server ram for a limited amount of time.
• psl as the domain name parser.
• set-cookie-parser to parse cookies that cobalt receives from certain services.
• undici for making http requests.
• url-pattern to match provided links with supported patterns.

...and many other packages that these packages rely on.