cobalt is your go-to place for downloads from social and media platforms. zero ads, trackers, or other creepy bullshit. simply paste a share link and you're ready to rock!
cobalt's privacy policy is simple: no data about you is ever collected or stored. zero, zilch, nada, nothing. what you download is solely your business, not mine or anyone else's.
if your download requires rendering, then data about requested content is encrypted and temporarily stored in server's RAM. it's necessary for this feature to function.
encrypted data is stored for 90 seconds and then permanently removed.
stored data is only possible to decrypt with unique encryption keys from your download link. furthermore, the official cobalt codebase doesn't provide a way to read temporarily stored data outside of processing functions.
you can check cobalt's source code yourself and see that everything is as stated.
cobalt uses a self-hosted plausible instance to get an approximate number of how many people use it.
plausible is fully compliant with GDPR, CCPA and PECR, doesn't use cookies, and never stores any identifiable info, not even your ip address.
all data is aggregated and never personalized. nothing about what you download is ever saved anywhere. it's used just for anonymous traffic stats, nothing more.
plausible is fully open source, just like cobalt, and if you want to learn more about it, you can do so here. if you wish to opt out of traffic stats, you can do it in settings > other.
terms and ethics
cobalt is a web tool that makes it easier to download content from the internet and takes zero liability. processing servers work like limited proxies, so no media content is ever cached or stored.
you (end user) 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.
when used in education purposes (lecture, homework, etc) please attach the source link.
fair use and credits benefit everyone.
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what's new?
current version & commit
v.7.14· May 17, 2024
now helping over 1 million people monthly
yesterday, cobalt hit 1 million users around the world! it's an absolutely insane milestone for us and we're incredibly grateful to everyone saving and creating what they love with help of cobalt. thank you for being our friends.
in anticipation of 7 figure user count, we've revamped the cobalt codebase and infrastructure to be faster and more reliable than ever. a combination of many changes has resulted into incredible download speeds (up to 30 MB/s, as tested by both developers in europe).
note: there's no backend instance in asia just yet, so if you're there, you might experience average speeds *for now*. you can help us afford a dedicated server in asia by donating to cobalt in the "donate" menu.
changes since the last major update
service improvements: • youtube music support on the main instance is back! • added support for pinterest images and gifs. • cobalt will now use original soundcloud mp3 file when available. • fixed a youtube bug that prevented some videos from downloading.
ui/ux improvements: • cobalt web app is now fully optimized for ipad. you can add it to home screen from share menu to make it act like a native app! • majorly reduced vertical padding when viewing cobalt in mobile web browser, allowing for more content at once. most noticeable on smaller screens. • status bar color is now dynamic in the web browser on ios and web app on android. • web app on android feels way more native than before. • filename style icons are no longer blurry in safari. • changelog notification no longer overlaps with dynamic island on newer iphones when cobalt is installed as a web app. • fixed safe area padding.
other changes: • added support for freebind, made by one of the cobalt developers. • rate limit and max video length limits are now customizable through environment variables. • cobalt api now returns rate limit headers at all times. • majorly cleaned up the codebase: removed unnecessary functions, rewrote those that were cryptic and confusing. it's way more comprehensible and contribution-friendly than ever before. • moved the cobalt repo to our organization on github. everything stayed the same and all old links link back to it.
note for instance hosters: along with cobalt repo, the docker image also moved! please update the url for it in your config along with watchtower args to include restarting containers (just in case) as seen in updated docker compose example. we're mirroring packages to old url for now, but it won't last forever.
that's it for now! hope you have an amazing day and share the 1 million celebration with us :)
join our discord server to discuss everything cobalt there
vimeo: use api to get video info, direct download if possible (#612)
previous versions
support cobalt
help it stay online
cobalt doesn't shove ads in your face and doesn't sell your personal data, meaning that it's completely free to use for everyone. but development and maintenance of a media-heavy service used by over 1 million people is quite costly. both in terms of time and money.
if cobalt helped you in the past and you want to keep it growing and evolving, you can return the favor by making a donation!
your donation will help all cobalt users: educators, students, content creators, artists, musicians, and many, many more!
in past, donations have let cobalt: • increase stability and uptime to nearly 100%. • speed up ALL downloads, especially heavier ones. • open the api for free public use. • withstand several huge user influxes with 0 downtime. • add resource-intensive features (such as gif conversion). • continue improving our infrastructure. • keep developers happy.
every cent matters and is extremely appreciated, you can truly make a difference!
if you can't donate, share cobalt with a friend! we don't get ads anywhere, so cobalt is spread by word of mouth. sharing is the easiest way to help achieve the goal of better internet for everyone.
if selected quality isn't available, closest one is used instead.
youtube codec
h264: best support across apps/platforms, average detail level. max quality is 1080p. av1: best quality, small file size, most detail. supports 8k & HDR. vp9: same quality as av1, but file is x2 bigger. supports 4k & HDR.
pick h264 if you want best compatibility. pick av1 if you want best quality and efficiency.
twitter
converting looping videos to .gif reduces quality and majorly increases file size. if you want best efficiency, keep this setting off.
tiktok
download 1080p videos from tiktok in h265/hevc format when available.
format
when "best" format is selected, you get audio the way it is on service's side. it's not re-encoded. everything else will be re-encoded.
removes audio from video downloads when possible.
youtube audio track
uses your browser's default language for youtube dubbed audio tracks. works even if cobalt ui isn't translated to your language.
tiktok
downloads original sound used in the video without any additional changes by the post's author.
appearance
file name style
preview
preview
classic: default cobalt file name pattern. basic: title and basic info in brackets. pretty: title and info in brackets. nerdy: title and all info in brackets.
some services don’t support rich file names and always use the classic style.
accessibility
private analytics
enable if you don't want to be included in anonymous traffic stats. read more about this in about > privacy policy (tl;dr: nothing about you is ever stored or tracked, no cookies are used).