API & MCP

Extract and download YouTubemedia programmatically. There's a JSON REST API and a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server so AI agents can do it directly.

One-click bookmarklet

Prefer a button over an API? A bookmarklet skips the copy-paste. It opens the post you're viewing straight in the downloader, with no extension to install.

Make a new bookmark, name it something like “Save video”, and paste this as the URL. Click it while viewing any YouTube post to open it here with the link already filled in.

javascript:(function(){window.open('https://download-youtube-video.drummerduck.com/?url='+encodeURIComponent(location.href),'_blank')})();

Authentication & rate limits

Auth is optional. Without a key you get 30 requests/hour and 100/day per IP. Send an API key for higher limits (300/hour, 2000/day on the free tier). Every response includes X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining, and X-RateLimit-Reset; exceeding the limit returns 429 with a Retry-After header.

Header

Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY
# or
X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY

Get a free API key (no signup)

Mint a key with a single request — no account, no dashboard. The key is returned once, so store it. An agent can do this itself, either over REST or via the get_free_api_key MCP tool below. Key creation is rate-limited per IP.

cURL

curl -X POST "https://download-youtube-video.drummerduck.com/api/keys" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"label":"my-bot"}'
# → { "ok": true, "data": { "apiKey": "dtv_live_…", "tier": "free",
#       "limits": { "perHour": 300, "perDay": 2000 } } }

Check a key's tier and limits any time by sending it to the same endpoint with GET.

cURL

curl "https://download-youtube-video.drummerduck.com/api/keys" -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Extract media

Returns author, text, thumbnail, and every media variant with direct URLs.

cURL

curl "https://download-youtube-video.drummerduck.com/api/extract?url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"

JavaScript

const res = await fetch("https://download-youtube-video.drummerduck.com/api/extract", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "content-type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({ url: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" }),
});
const { ok, data } = await res.json();
const best = data.media[0].variants[0]; // highest quality
console.log(best.quality, best.url);

Response (trimmed)

{
  "ok": true,
  "data": {
    "source": "youtube",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "author": { "name": "…", "handle": "…", "avatar": "https://…" },
    "text": "…",
    "thumbnail": "https://…",
    "media": [
      {
        "type": "video",
        "durationMs": 30000,
        "variants": [
          { "quality": "1080p", "width": 1920, "height": 1080,
            "container": "mp4", "url": "https://…1920x1080….mp4" },
          { "quality": "720p", "container": "mp4", "url": "https://…" }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Download a file

Streams the chosen variant as an attachment (correct filename + Content-Disposition). Use quality to pick a resolution and n for the media index.

cURL

curl -L -o video.mp4 \
  "https://download-youtube-video.drummerduck.com/api/download?url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ&quality=1080p"

MCP server (for AI agents)

A Streamable-HTTP MCP endpoint. Point any MCP client at it to give your assistant three tools: extract_youtube_video, get_youtube_info, and get_free_api_key (so the agent can raise its own limits).

Endpoint

https://download-youtube-video.drummerduck.com/api/mcp

Client config (Claude Desktop, Cursor, …)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-video": {
      "url": "https://download-youtube-video.drummerduck.com/api/mcp"
    }
  }
}

stdio-only clients (via mcp-remote)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-video": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://download-youtube-video.drummerduck.com/api/mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Errors

Failures return { "ok": false, "error": { "code", "message" } }. Codes: INVALID_URL, NOT_FOUND, NO_MEDIA, PROTECTED, RATE_LIMITED, UPSTREAM_ERROR.