cobalt

best way to save what you love: cobalt.tools

💬 community discord server
🐦 twitter/x

what's cobalt?

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 invasive analytics.

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.com & bilibili.tv	✅	✅	✅	➖	➖
dailymotion	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
instagram posts & reels	✅	✅	✅	➖	➖
ok video	✅	❌	❌	✅	✅
pinterest	✅	✅	✅	➖	➖
reddit	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌
rutube	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
soundcloud	➖	✅	➖	✅	✅
streamable	✅	✅	✅	➖	➖
tiktok	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌
tumblr	✅	✅	✅	➖	➖
twitch clips	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
twitter/x	✅	✅	✅	➖	➖
vimeo	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
vine archive	✅	✅	✅	➖	➖
vk videos & clips	✅	❌	❌	✅	✅
youtube videos, shorts & music	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅

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.
pinterest	supports photos, gifs, videos and stories.
reddit	supports gifs and videos.
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.

cobalt api

cobalt has an open api that you can use in your projects for free~. it's easy and straightforward to use, check out the docs to learn how to use it.

✅ you can use the main api instance (api.cobalt.tools) in your personal projects.
❌ you cannot use the free api commercially (anywhere that's gated behind paywalls or ads). host your own instance for this.

we reserve the right to restrict abusive/excessive access to the main instance api.

how to run your own instance

if you want to run your own instance for whatever purpose, follow this guide.
it's highly recommended to use a docker compose method unless you run for developing/debugging purposes.

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

cobalt code is licensed under AGPL-3.0.

cobalt branding, mascots, and other related assets included in the repo are copyrighted and not covered by the AGPL-3.0 license. you cannot use them under same terms.

you are allowed to host an unmodified instance of cobalt with branding, but this does not give you permission to use it anywhere else, or make derivatives of it in any way.

notes:

• mascots and other assets are a part of the branding.

• when making an alternative version of the project, please replace or remove all branding (including the name).

• you must link the original repo when using any parts of code (such as using separate processing modules in your project) or forking the project.

• if you make a modified version of cobalt, the codebase must be published under the same license (according to AGPL-3.0).

3rd party licenses

• Fluent Emoji by Microsoft (used in cobalt) is under MIT license.
• Noto Sans Mono fonts (used in cobalt) are licensed under the OFL license.
• many update banners were taken from tenor.com.

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.