About VideoGrab

Last updated: July 2026

What VideoGrab is

VideoGrab is a small, free web utility for saving video you already have the right to keep. You paste a link, the site reads the formats the source makes available, and you choose one to save to your own device. There is no account to create, no software to install, and nothing stored on our servers once your file has been delivered.

Alongside the main downloader there are four narrower tools: a thumbnail fetcher, a subtitle downloader, a tag and keyword extractor, and a clip trimmer for saving a single section of a longer video. They exist because those were the requests we kept receiving from people who had already found the main tool useful.

Why it exists

The site was built to solve a genuinely mundane problem: people who own video often have no straightforward way to get a copy of it back. Three groups in particular kept running into this.

Creators archiving their own uploads. Anyone who has published to a platform for a few years usually discovers, eventually, that the platform holds the only remaining copy of some of their work. Original project files get lost, hard drives fail, and the upload becomes the master. Being able to pull your own material back down is a reasonable thing to want.

Educators working with openly licensed material. Creative Commons and public-domain video is published specifically so it can be reused, but classrooms and training rooms frequently have unreliable connectivity, or none at all. A licensed clip that only plays when the network cooperates is not much use in a lesson.

Researchers and journalists archiving public-domain footage. Government footage, agency releases, and other public-domain material can move or disappear. Keeping a local copy of something you are permitted to keep is ordinary practice.

Where we stand on copyright

VideoGrab is intended for videos you created, videos you own the rights to, videos published under Creative Commons or public-domain terms, and videos you have explicit permission to download. It is not intended for anything else, and using it to copy work that belongs to somebody else without their permission is a breach of our Terms of Service.

We do not attempt to circumvent DRM, defeat paywalls, or work around technical restrictions a platform has put in place. If a source requires a login or blocks downloading, VideoGrab does not try to get past that. If you believe your work has been infringed, our DMCA policy explains how to file a notice and what happens next.

If you are unsure whether a particular video is yours to save, our guide on how to check a video's licence covers the practical steps, and the Creative Commons guide explains what each licence actually permits.

Who runs it

VideoGrab is run by an independent developer. It is not a company, not venture funded, and not affiliated with any video platform. The site is supported by advertising so that it can stay free to use.

Questions, corrections, and bug reports are all welcome at support@videograb.app, or through the contact page.

No affiliation

VideoGrab is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to YouTube, TikTok, Meta, or any other video platform. All trademarks belong to their respective owners. Every platform's own Terms of Service continue to apply to you when you use this site, and nothing here overrides them.