You can download YouTube Shorts the same way as a regular video: copy the link, paste it into Skachok and choose a quality. Shorts have no "Download" button on the platform itself, and screen recording gives you a file with the player interface baked in and a loss of quality. Below we cover which link you need, what YouTube considers "original quality" for vertical video, how to save a Short to your phone and how to extract its audio. Everything works in the browser, without programs or sign-up.
How Shorts differ from regular videos
In terms of storage, they do not. A Short is an ordinary YouTube video, just vertical and short: up to three minutes. It has the same kind of ID, opens from a regular youtube.com/watch?v=… link, and YouTube serves it with the same streams as a horizontal video.
Two differences affect downloading.
Orientation. Shorts are shot in 9:16, and the typical resolution is 1080×1920. YouTube and Skachok label quality by the short side of the frame, so a 1080×1920 vertical video appears in the list as 1080p, not 1920p. That is also the maximum for most Shorts: they are shot on phones, and 4K uploads are rare.
DASH above 720p. As with regular videos, YouTube keeps ready-made files with sound only up to 720p. Everything above is stored as separate streams: video without sound and audio without picture. To deliver 1080p as a single MP4, the Skachok server merges the streams. We explained this in detail in the article on downloading in 1080p and 4K.
Which link you need
Skachok accepts any address that opens the video:
youtube.com/shorts/AbCdEf12345: the link from the address bar or the "Share" button;youtube.com/watch?v=AbCdEf12345: the same video as a regular one;youtu.be/AbCdEf12345: the short link;m.youtube.com/shorts/…: the mobile site.
The video code after /shorts/ is 11 characters of Latin letters, digits, hyphens and underscores. The ?feature=share or &si=… tail added by the app can stay: the service ignores it.
A link to a channel or to a channel's Shorts tab will not work: you need the address of a specific video.
Step by step on a computer
- Open the video on YouTube and copy the link from the address bar. Under the Shorts player there is also a "Share" button with a "Copy link" item.
- Go to the YouTube page on Skachok or the home page. Paste the link into the field and click "Find".
- In a couple of seconds a card appears with a vertical thumbnail, title and duration. Below it are quality buttons in the "Video" block and formats in the "Audio" block.
- Choose a quality and click "Download". On the free plan an 8-second timer runs before the download. The file is saved to the Downloads folder.
For 720p and below the file starts downloading immediately. For 1080p the streams are merged on the server first: a progress bar appears, and the download starts automatically when it finishes. Shorts are short, so merging takes a few seconds.
How to download Shorts on a phone
Copy the link. In the YouTube app, while watching a Short, tap "Share" and choose "Copy link".
Android. Open Skachok in Chrome or another browser, paste the link, tap "Find", choose a quality and download. The file lands in the Download folder, and the gallery sees it on its own.
iPhone. Use Safari. The file goes to Files → Downloads. To move it to Photos, open the video in Files, tap "Share" and choose "Save Video". After that you can post the video to another social network or send it to a messenger.
On iPhone, do not paste the link into the in-app browser of the YouTube app or a messenger: such browsers often will not let you save a file. Open regular Safari.
Original quality: 720p or 1080p
"Original" for Shorts almost always means 1080p: that is the resolution phones shoot them in, and the one YouTube stores them in. Free and without sign-up, Skachok delivers up to 720p. For watching on a phone and sending to a chat that is enough: on a smartphone screen the difference between 720p and 1080p in a vertical video is barely visible.
If the video is for reposting or editing, take 1080p. It unlocks on the Lite plan at $1.99 a month (99 ₽ in Russia), together with 20 downloads a day and a 3-second timer instead of 8. Every new account gets 2 days of Pro for free, no card required, so you can try 1080p before paying. The plan comparison is on the pricing page.
A special case: Shorts uploaded from a computer as regular videos are sometimes available in 1440p or even 4K. Then those options appear in the list too: 1440p is available on Pro, 2160p on Max.
There is no watermark on the downloaded file. YouTube does not stamp a logo onto the video itself, so Skachok delivers clean video exactly as the author uploaded it.
Audio as MP3 and several videos at once
Many people look up Shorts for the music or the voice. Choose MP3 in the "Audio" block, and the service extracts the audio track at 192 kbps. Audio is available on paid plans: MP3 and M4A without re-encoding from Lite ($1.99/mo; 99 ₽ in Russia), OGG from Pro, FLAC on Max. For casual listening MP3 is enough.
Keep in mind: if the author laid music from the YouTube library over speech, the MP3 will contain both. The video has no separate music track.
If you have several videos, links can be pasted in a batch, one per line. Skachok shows a card for each video, and the "Download all videos" button starts them all at once in the chosen quality. Free, up to 3 links per request are accepted; on Lite 5, on Pro 10, on Max 50. Daily limit: 3 downloads without sign-up, 5 on a free account, 20 on Lite, 50 on Pro, 100 on Max.
This is a convenient way to save your own videos before closing a channel or to gather a set of references for editing.
If the video cannot be found
- The link points at a channel. Open the specific video and copy its address: it should contain
/shorts/orwatch?v=. - The video is private. Shorts set to "Private" cannot be downloaded. "Unlisted" works.
- Age restriction. YouTube shows 18+ videos only after login, and the service may not find them.
- A temporary YouTube error. Under peak load the platform sometimes returns an error. Wait a minute and retry.
The full YouTube download guide, including long videos and playlists, is in the article on downloading without software.
FAQ
Why is a 1080×1920 vertical video called 1080p rather than 1920p?
Video quality is conventionally labeled by the short side of the frame. For horizontal Full HD that is the height of 1080 pixels; for vertical video it is the width. So a Short in original quality is 1080p.
Can I download YouTube Shorts without signing up?
Yes. For short vertical videos the anonymous limits are usually enough: 3 downloads a day, quality up to 720p. A free account gives 5 a day and 2 days of Pro, and 1080p for Shorts unlocks from the Lite plan.
Will the video have a watermark?
No. YouTube does not stamp a logo onto the file, and Skachok delivers the video exactly as the author uploaded it.
Can I download only the audio from a Short?
Yes. Choose MP3 in the "Audio" block, and the service extracts the audio track. Audio is a paid feature: MP3 and M4A from Lite, OGG from Pro, FLAC on Max.
Will a regular watch?v= link work instead of /shorts/?
Yes. It is the same video; YouTube just shows it in different interfaces. Skachok accepts both.