TubeGalore

How to Download an Entire YouTube Playlist as MP3 or MP4

Step-by-step guide for converting a full YouTube playlist into MP3 or MP4 files — including how to handle long playlists, mixed content, and quality settings.

6 min readplaylist, tutorial, how-to

A YouTube playlist can hold anything from a curated workout mix to a 12-hour audiobook split into chapters. Saving the whole thing offline used to mean pasting links one by one. In 2026 the workflow is much simpler — here is the practical version that actually works on every device.

What you need before you start

  • The YouTube playlist URL (it contains list=PL… or list=OL…).
  • A modern browser. Anything Chrome, Safari, Firefox or Edge from the last two years is fine.
  • Enough disk space. A 60-track MP3 playlist at 320 kbps is around 700 MB; at 128 kbps closer to 300 MB.

Step 1: Grab the playlist URL

Open the playlist on YouTube and copy the URL from the address bar. Two formats both work:

  • https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL… — a pure playlist link, no specific video.
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=…&list=PL… — a video URL with a playlist context. Most browsers give you this one if you copy while watching a track.

Both forms are accepted by TubeGalore. If the URL has both a video and a list parameter, we treat the list as the primary intent and scroll directly to the focused track.

Step 2: Paste into the search bar

On the home page, paste the URL into the search field and submit. TubeGalore recognizes it as a playlist URL automatically and routes you to the playlist view. You will see every video in the playlist laid out as cards, with track numbers, durations and thumbnails.

Step 3: Download each track in the format you want

Click any card to open the conversion page for that video. Pick MP3 (for audio-only) or MP4 (for the full video), choose the bitrate or resolution, and click Download. The file lands on your device in seconds. Repeat for each track you want.

TubeGaloredoesn't do bulk-zip downloads (that would require packaging files on our side, which would change the privacy model). The practical workflow is to open each track in a new tab from the playlist view and run conversions in parallel — about as fast as a true bulk download, but every file is streamed directly to you.

Tips for long playlists

  • Watch the duration cap. Individual videos longer than about an hour are not supported. Most playlists are fine because they consist of song-length tracks, but if a playlist contains a 4-hour DJ set, that specific track will not convert.
  • Match your bitrate to the use case. 128 kbps is enough for podcasts and audiobooks. 256 or 320 kbps is the right pick for music you actually care about — see our piece on YouTube audio quality and bitrates.
  • Mixed-content playlists. A playlist that mixes music and videos? Pick MP3 for the songs and MP4 for the talk-show clips. There's no rule that says you have to pick one format for the whole playlist.

What about hidden or private playlists?

Public, unlisted and member-only playlists behave the same way as long as you can actually open the playlist URL in your own browser. Truly private playlists tied to a Google account won't work — they aren't reachable without authentication, and TubeGalore does not ask for your account credentials.

Quick recap

  1. Copy the YouTube playlist URL.
  2. Paste it into the TubeGalore search bar.
  3. On the playlist view, click any card and download as MP3 or MP4.

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