2 Ways to Download YouTube Videos Without YouTube Premium

Jane Zhou updated on Dec 29, 2023 to Video & Audio Downloading

If you want to watch YouTube videos offline without Premium, this guide collects some workarounds that can help you download them to your device, be it a smartphone, PC, or Mac.

By subscribing to YouTube Premium, you can enjoy more services than free YouTube users. These services include watching ad-free videos, downloading music or videos for offline playback, or playing music videos in the background. To enjoy all of these benefits, you only need to pay a monthly fee of $11.99, which is very cost-effective for users who want to continuously enjoy all the services in the package. But for those who only want to download videos to watch offline, this may seem a bit wasteful. That's why many users search for workarounds to download YouTube videos without Premium.

If you're one of the groups looking for ways to download YouTube videos to your computer without Premium, here are some methods that can help you do it with ease.

How to Download YouTube Videos Without Premium in 2 Ways

As we mentioned above, it's possible to download YouTube videos if you have no Premium subscription. But this can't be done directly within YouTube, and you need some tools to help. And in the following instruction, we'll present you with three simple tools to download YouTube videos. 

After downloading your desired YouTube videos with any one of these tools, you can transfer these videos to your iPhone/iPad or Android device by connecting your device to your computer. 

Method 1. Using EaseUS Video Downloader

If you need a YouTube video downloader to grab videos for occasional uses, this video downloader for PC - EaseUS Video Downloader can meet your needs. It offers two convenient ways to download videos - you can search for videos right in the app or copy the URL of your videos in the search bar. Then, you can save the video on your computer in a preferred quality (4K/1080P/720P/360P) and format (MP3/MP4/WAV). What's more, there are many other features you can expect from EaseUS Video Downloader, such as: 

  • Download YouTube videos in bulk
  • Download online videos in MP4 format
  • Download audio in MP3 format 
  • Download an entire YouTube playlist or channel
  • Convert any videos to MP3

In addition to YouTube, more popular video-streaming sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Dailymotion, and other 1000+ websites are also supported. Anyway, it allows you to download whatever videos you want to your device - a PC, iPhone, iPad, or Android. If you wish, you can even download videos with subtitles.

To download YouTube videos without Premium, you can follow these steps.

Step 1. Copy the URL of the YouTube video you want to download. Paste it into EaseUS Video Downloader. Click "Search" to move to next step. You can search the video title inside the application directly and click "Search."

Step 2. In the new embeded page, click "Download" to proceed.

Step 3. In the configuration window, choose the format, quality, save path, and other parameters for the downloaded YouTube video. Then click "Download" to start the downloading process.

Step 4. After the downloading finishes, you can view the downloaded items in the "Downloader" > "Finished." 

Disclaimer: Bear in mind that it's illegal to download copyrighted content and use them for commercial intensions without authorization. Before you download videos, you'd better check whether the sources are copyrighted.

Method 2. Using Online Video Downloaders

Using online video downloaders is a convenient option for users who require to download videos on different devices. No installation is required and no fee is charged. You can download any videos or audio for free. Despite these advantages, such a tool also comes with some problems, as listed below. Knowing what problems you may face is helpful to you to decide whether to use this method or not. 

  • Your downloaded videos may come with viruses and malware, which may damage your hard drive and cause data loss.
  • If your internet connection is unstable, this will slow down the download process, and even worse, stop the process.
  • These websites are very likely to be shut down because they are against YouTube's Terms of Service.

If you still insist on such downloaders after knowing their drawbacks, here are some recommendations. If any one of them doesn't work, just use another one instead.

  • https://yt5s.com/en14
  • https://us.fastfrom.com/youtube-video-downloader-3
  • https://videodownloaderpro.net/en1/youtube-downloader
  • https://givefast.link/youtube-video3-downloader/
  • https://loader.to/en24/1080p-video-downloader.html

Is It Legal to Download YouTube Videos?

At last, let's take a quick look at this question "is it legal to download YouTube videos," one of the most frequently asked questions among users. And here we'd like to show you the answers.

Downloading videos from YouTube breach YouTube's Terms of Services, and both Google and Youtube could sue you. But this has a prerequisite - they can track your download behavior. That means you may not receive any punishments if you download videos privately and do not share them with others.  But if you download copyrighted content and upload them to other websites without permission, this is a criminal act. 

The Bottom Line

As you can see, downloading YouTube videos without YouTube Premium can be easy with the tools introduced above. It's not difficult to choose the right tool after knowing the features of each method. If you want a tool with more video formats support and more functions like batch download and conversion, choose EaseUS Video Downloader. While if you prefer to download videos once or twice and don't want to install any third-party program, online downloaders are more advisable.