Is It Legal to Download YouTube Videos for Personal Use?

I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. What I can do is show you the one sentence in YouTube’s own terms that decides the question, and separate it from copyright, which is a different thing.

What YouTube’s Terms of Service say

I read YouTube’s Terms of Service on 10 November 2026. The page is dated as effective 5 January 2022.

Under “Permissions and Restrictions”, item 1, you may not “access, reproduce, download, distribute, transmit, broadcast, display, sell, license, alter, modify or otherwise use any part of the Service or any Content except: (a) as expressly authorized by the Service” or with prior written permission from YouTube and, where it applies, the rights holders.

In plain words: the terms allow downloading only where YouTube itself offers it, or where you have permission. A download tool is outside that. Breaking the terms is a contract matter between you and YouTube. Whether a copy also infringes copyright depends on the video and where you live, and I have not checked any country’s law for this post.

Three cases, side by side

What you do	YouTube’s terms	Copyright question
Save your own upload	The clause above covers the Service itself, so read it	You hold the rights, so no question about someone else’s work
Save someone else’s video to watch offline, using a download tool	Outside the clause above unless YouTube offers it or you have permission	Depends on the video and your country’s law. Not checked here
Repost, sell or share someone else’s video	Outside the clause above	The clearest risk, because you pass on someone else’s work

Where Grabio fits

Grabio is a free iPhone Shortcut. It does not host or store videos. For a YouTube link it opens a download page on a third-party site, and the file comes to your phone from that site, not from Grabio.

What you do with the file is your decision, and the terms above apply to you the same way whichever tool you use.

If you want the practical steps, see how to download a YouTube video on iPhone, and for the wider comparison see the best free video downloader for iPhone.

Downloading YouTube videos: FAQ

So is it legal or not?

There is no single answer for every case, and I am not a lawyer. Downloading a video for private use can break YouTube’s terms, which is a contract question. Reposting, selling or distributing someone else’s video raises copyright questions on top of that.

Does the Grabio Shortcut change the answer?

No. Grabio is a free iPhone Shortcut that opens a download page on a third-party site for YouTube links. The terms above apply to you either way, so check them before you download.

Does downloading my own uploaded video count differently?

If you own the rights to a video you uploaded yourself, saving a copy of your own work does not raise the same question about someone else’s content.

Related on iPhone: how to rip YouTube videos on iPhone, SnapTube for iPhone and what to use instead.