Arroxy — Free Open-Source YouTube (+ 2000 sites) Downloader for Windows, macOS & Linux

4K · 1080p60 · HDR · Surround/Dolby audio · Playlists · MP3 · Shorts · Music · Channels · Subtitles · SponsorBlock · +2000 sites

Read in: Afaan Oromoo · Bahasa Indonesia · Deutsch · English · Español · Français · Italiano · Kiswahili · O'zbekcha · Polski · Português · Tiếng Việt · Türkçe · አማርኛ · العربية · اردو · پښتو · فارسی · বাংলা · हिन्दी · ไทย · မြန်မာဘာသာ · ខ្មែរ · Ελληνικά · Русский · Српски · Українська · 中文 · 日本語 · 한국어 · 繁體中文

Download videos, Shorts, music, channels, podcasts, or audio tracks from YouTube and 2000+ supported sites — up to 4K HDR at 60 fps, or as MP3 / AAC / Opus. Runs locally on Windows, macOS, and Linux. No ads, no bloat, no upsells.

↓ Install Latest Release  ·  Website  ·  Windows first launch · macOS first launch · Linux first launch

If Arroxy saves you time, a ⭐ helps others find it.

What is Arroxy? Arroxy is a free, open-source desktop GUI that downloads videos, audio, playlists, and subtitles from YouTube and 2000+ other yt-dlp-supported sites. It runs on Windows 10/11, macOS 13+ (Intel + Apple Silicon), and Linux (AppImage, Flatpak, tar.gz). MIT licensed. No ads, no usage limits. Distributed via Winget, Scoop, Homebrew Cask, Flatpak, AppImage, and direct download.

Last updated: 2026-10-17.

Contents

• Features
• Install and first launch
  • Windows first launch
  • macOS first launch
  • Why you may see a warning
  • Linux first launch
  • Verify your download (SHA256)
• Why Arroxy
• Privacy
• FAQ
• Roadmap
• Support Arroxy
• Built with

Features

Explore Browse YouTube inside Arroxy and download the page you're on with your active profile
Explore's first screen A quick look at Explore, and why a secondary account is the safer sign-in	Downloads tells you what needs you Links prepare in the background; a failed one offers its fix, a long playlist waits for your choice
Global download hotkey Copy a link anywhere, press once — it lands in the queue and starts downloading
Per-item playlist profiles Give each video its own profile — archive some in 4K, grab the rest as MP3
Quick Download home Paste a URL and pull it instantly with your active profile	Reusable download profiles Save format, quality, and output presets — reuse per download
Multi-language audio tracks Pick the exact audio language a video ships	Surround / Dolby audio 5.1 and Dolby tracks detected and preserved
Bulk URL mode Paste a list, auto-dedupe, queue them all at once	Parallel download queue Several downloads at once with live progress

Explore: browse YouTube inside Arroxy

• Explore tab — browse YouTube inside Arroxy and download what you find without copying links. Download · your profile queues the video, playlist, or channel you're looking at; the arrow next to it switches profiles, and the wand opens the step-by-step download for picking formats, subtitles, and more
• Address bar — type to search YouTube or paste a YouTube link. Explore only browses YouTube, so a link from another site isn't opened there, but you can download it with one click
• Downloads that need an account — sign in once in Explore and Arroxy can download private and members-only videos your account can watch, age-restricted videos if the account is age-verified, and your Watch Later and Liked lists. Arroxy still downloads signed out and only uses your Explore sign-in when a download fails in a way an account can fix. When YouTube asks you to confirm you're not a bot, Arroxy also tries your Explore sign-in
• Use a secondary account — Explore's first screen explains why: downloading with an account carries some risk of that account being restricted. Sign out of Explore from Settings whenever you want to forget the sign-in
• Ad blocker — Explore blocks ads and trackers on its own pages; downloads are unaffected. On by default, one click on the shield in Explore's toolbar turns it off, and it never acts on Google's sign-in pages. YouTube may push back on ad blockers for signed-in accounts

Quality & formats

• Up to 4K UHD (2160p), 1440p, 1080p, 720p, 480p, 360p
• High frame rate preserved as-is — 60 fps, 120 fps, HDR
• Audio — export audio-only as MP3, M4A/AAC, Opus, or WAV. In interactive downloads, pick the source's native surround/Dolby tracks (AC-3, E-AC-3, 5.1, DRC) when available, or set a global Prefer surround / Dolby default
• Quick presets: Best quality · Balanced · Small file

Privacy & control

• 100% local processing — downloads go straight from YouTube to your disk
• Open source — every line auditable, MIT licensed
• Files saved straight to the folder you choose

Workflow

• Global download hotkey — copy a link in any app and press Ctrl+Shift+D (Cmd+Shift+D on macOS); Arroxy queues it with your active profile without opening the window, and a notification confirms it. On by default, rebindable
• Flexible start modes — choose a guided single download, playlist/channel picker, bulk URL paste, Quick Download with saved defaults, or browse and download from Explore
• Central download queue — every single, playlist, bulk, or quick job lands in one place for progress, pause, resume, cancel, retry, and priority control
• Clipboard watch — copy a YouTube link and Arroxy auto-fills the URL when you refocus the app (toggle in Advanced settings)
• Auto-clean URLs — strips tracking params (si, pp, utm_*, fbclid, gclid) and unwraps youtube.com/redirect links
• Tray mode — closing the window keeps downloads running in the background
• 31 languages — auto-detects system locale, switchable any time
• Playlist sync — re-scan a playlist against a local folder to skip already-downloaded videos; generates an .m3u playlist file updated as each video downloads
• Speed and pacing controls — cap download bandwidth, set how many parts of a video download at once, and add request delays with presets (Off · Balanced · Careful · Custom)
• Filename templates — name downloads your way with {title}, {uploader}, {id}, {date}, {resolution}, and {playlist_index}, globally or per download profile
• Downloads at once and automatic retry — choose how many queued downloads run at the same time, and let Arroxy retry a download that hit a network or server problem, waiting longer before each attempt
• Per-item playlist profiles — assign each video in a playlist its own download profile instead of one setting for the whole list, so a single pass can archive some at full quality and grab the rest as MP3
• Quick Download works in the background — the link shows up in Downloads right away and prepares there, a note with View confirms it, and the URL field clears for the next link. Start as many as you like while earlier ones prepare
• Downloads tells you what needs you — if Arroxy can't read a link, its row says why and offers the fix: Retry, turn on cookies, or sign in in Explore. With cookies off, Sign in with Explore retries it for you once you're signed in. A playlist longer than your load limit waits on its row for you to pick all of it, the first ones, or a review. The Downloads tab counts the rows waiting for you

Subtitles & post-processing

• Subtitles in SRT, VTT, or ASS — manual or auto-generated, in any available language
• Save next to the video, embed into .mkv, or organize into a Subtitles/ subfolder
• Subtitles-only batches — paste a list of URLs or open a playlist, pick Subtitles, and get only the caption files for every video
• SponsorBlock — skip or chapter-mark sponsors, intros, outros, self-promos
• Embedded metadata — title, upload date, channel, description, thumbnail, and chapter markers written into the file

YouTube + 2000 sites

• YouTube, in full — Videos, Shorts, Channels, Playlists, YouTube Music, and Podcasts handled as first-class sources
• 2000+ other sites via yt-dlp — Vimeo, Twitch, Twitter/X, TikTok, SoundCloud, Bandcamp, Bilibili, BBC iPlayer, archive.org, and many more
• Audio-only and subtitles work across every supported site, not just YouTube
• If a site changes, yt-dlp ships fixes weekly and Arroxy auto-updates the binary on launch

Install and first launch

Windows

winget install AntonioOrionus.Arroxy

macOS

brew install --cask antonio-orionus/arroxy/arroxy

Linux

AppImage:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/antonio-orionus/Arroxy/main/scripts/install.sh | sh

Flatpak:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/antonio-orionus/Arroxy/main/scripts/install.sh | sh -s -- --flatpak

Builds are x86_64 only. No curl? Swap curl -fsSL for wget -qO-.

Platform	Direct download
Windows
macOS
Linux
Verify

All release assets →

Windows first launch

On first launch you may see "Windows protected your PC" or "Unknown publisher." This applies to both Arroxy-win-x64-Setup.exe and Arroxy-win-x64-Portable.exe. Arroxy is free and open-source and the Windows builds are not code-signed with a paid certificate, which is why SmartScreen flags them. It does not automatically mean Arroxy is unsafe. To continue:

1. Click More info.
2. Click Run anyway.

If Windows Defender flags or removes the file

Defender heuristics sometimes flag unsigned NSIS installers and Electron portables as suspicious. If Defender quarantines Arroxy-win-x64-Setup.exe or Arroxy-win-x64-Portable.exe, restore it from Windows Security → Virus & threat protection → Protection history, then add the Arroxy executable as an allowed item under Manage settings → Add or remove exclusions. As with SmartScreen, the trigger is the missing publisher signature, not detected malware.

Only download Arroxy from the official GitHub Releases page. If you got the file from another website or someone sent it to you, delete it and download a fresh copy from the official source. The source code is public, so you can inspect it or build Arroxy yourself if you prefer.

Prefer Scoop? scoop bucket add arroxy https://github.com/antonio-orionus/scoop-bucket && scoop install arroxy

macOS first launch

Arroxy's macOS builds are ad-hoc signed but not notarized by Apple, so Gatekeeper blocks the first launch with "Arroxy.app" Not Opened — Apple could not verify "Arroxy.app" is free of malware. That means macOS cannot check the app with Apple, not that anything is wrong with the files. Installing with Homebrew avoids this dialog entirely. If you used the DMG, one Terminal command clears it:

1. Drag Arroxy.app from the mounted DMG into /Applications.
2. Open Terminal and run these two commands:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Arroxy.app
open /Applications/Arroxy.app

The first command removes the quarantine attribute macOS attached when the file was downloaded; the second launches the app. You normally do not need sudo, because the copy in /Applications belongs to you — add it only if you get a permissions error.

Apple Silicon vs Intel: on an M-series Mac (M1 / M2 / M3 / M4), download the arm64 DMG. On Intel Macs, download the x64 DMG. Running the wrong build still works via Rosetta but is noticeably slower.

macOS builds are produced via CI on Apple Silicon and Intel runners. If you hit issues, please open an issue — feedback from macOS users actively shapes the macOS testing cycle.

Why you may see a warning

Arroxy is open-source and MIT-licensed. The Windows and macOS builds are not code-signed — Apple Developer ID and Windows EV code-signing certificates each cost hundreds of dollars per year, which an indie project pays out of pocket. Without those signatures, Windows SmartScreen and macOS Gatekeeper will warn you on first launch. The warnings mean your OS doesn't recognize the publisher — they don't mean Arroxy is malware.

Three ways to verify Arroxy yourself, in increasing rigor:

• Read the source. Every line is on GitHub and you can build it from source.
• Check the SHA256. Match your file against the published SHA256SUMS — see Verify your download below.
• Run a third-party scan. Upload the file to VirusTotal.

Linux first launch

AppImages run directly — no installation. You just need to mark the file as executable.

File manager: right-click the .AppImage → Properties → Permissions → enable Allow executing file as program, then double-click.

Terminal:

chmod +x Arroxy-linux-x64.AppImage
./Arroxy-linux-x64.AppImage

If launch still fails, run it without mounting — no FUSE package needed:

./Arroxy-linux-x64.AppImage --appimage-extract-and-run

Optional desktop integration: install AppImageLauncher once, and any AppImage you double-click gets registered into your launcher menu automatically — no manual .desktop file needed.

Plain tarball (no FUSE, no install):

The .tar.gz build is the same app without the AppImage wrapper — extract it anywhere and run it. No installer and no FUSE package needed.

tar xzf Arroxy-linux-x64.tar.gz
./Arroxy-linux-x64/arroxy

The Linux downloads on the release page are x86_64 only. On ARM64 machines (Raspberry Pi, Asahi Linux) the Flatpak still installs, then fails at launch with bwrap: execvp ldconfig: Exec format error.

certutil -hashfile Arroxy-win-x64-Setup.exe SHA256

shasum -a 256 Arroxy-mac-arm64.dmg

sha256sum Arroxy-linux-x64.AppImage

Why Arroxy

A side-by-side comparison with the most common alternatives:

Arroxy is built for one thing: paste a URL, get a clean local file. No upsells, no data collection.

Privacy

Downloads are fetched directly via yt-dlp from YouTube to the folder you pick — nothing routed through a third-party server. Watch history, download history, URLs, and file contents stay on your device.

No telemetry — just one anonymous heartbeat a day: app version, OS, language, install channel and country, so we can count active users. No IDs, URLs, video titles, file paths or account info. You can turn it off in Settings.

Explore keeps its own sign-in, separate from your browser, and Arroxy never reads or fills in the sign-in form — you type into Google's own page. Downloads run signed out; only when one fails in a way an account can fix does Arroxy read the sign-in fresh, keep it in a temporary file for that download, and delete the file afterwards. Signing out of Explore in Settings forgets it.

FAQ

Is it really free? Yes — MIT licensed, no premium tier, no feature gating.

What video qualities can I download? Anything YouTube serves: 4K UHD (2160p), 1440p, 1080p, 720p, 480p, 360p, plus audio-only. 60 fps, 120 fps, and HDR streams are preserved as-is.

Can I extract just the audio as MP3? Yes. Pick audio-only in the format menu and choose MP3, M4A/AAC, Opus, or WAV.

How do I download videos that need a YouTube account? Sign in once in the Explore tab. Arroxy can then download private and members-only videos your account can watch, age-restricted videos if the account is age-verified, and your Watch Later and Liked lists. It uses the sign-in only when a download fails in a way an account can fix; everything else downloads as before. This is the Explore sign-in choice, listed first and marked Recommended in the cookie settings, and Arroxy picks it for you the first time you open Explore. yt-dlp's wiki notes that signed-in automation can flag a Google account, so a secondary account is the safer choice.

Will it keep working when YouTube changes something? yt-dlp is updated automatically on launch, and Arroxy ships fixes promptly when YouTube changes something. When YouTube asks you to confirm you're not a bot, Arroxy also tries your Explore sign-in if you've signed in there, and cookies from a file or your browser are available in the cookie settings.

What languages is Arroxy available in? 31 languages, out of the box: Afaan Oromoo · Bahasa Indonesia · Deutsch · English · Español · Français · Italiano · Kiswahili · O'zbekcha · Polski · Português · Tiếng Việt · Türkçe · አማርኛ · العربية · اردو · پښتو · فارسی · বাংলা · हिन्दी · ไทย · မြန်မာဘာသာ · ខ្មែរ · Ελληνικά · Русский · Српски · Українська · 中文 · 日本語 · 한국어 · 繁體中文. Arroxy auto-detects your operating system's language on first launch and you can switch at any time from the language picker in the toolbar. Runtime locale JSON lives in src/shared/i18n/locales/, and translator-facing PO catalogs live in i18n/locales/ — open a PR on GitHub to contribute.

Do I need to install anything else? No. yt-dlp is downloaded automatically on first launch and cached on your machine; ffmpeg and ffprobe ship with the app. After that, no extra setup is needed.

Can I download playlists or whole channels? Yes — both. Paste a playlist URL or a channel URL (e.g. youtube.com/@handle, /channel/UC…, /c/Name, /user/Old); choose how many entries to scan, then queue the whole list or pick specific videos. Date-range filters are coming soon.

macOS says "the app is damaged" — what do I do? That's macOS Gatekeeper blocking an unsigned app, not actual damage. See macOS first launch for the Terminal commands that clear quarantine and launch Arroxy.

Is downloading YouTube videos legal? For personal, private use it is generally accepted in most jurisdictions. You are responsible for complying with YouTube's Terms of Service and your local copyright laws.

Roadmap

Still planned — roughly in priority order:

Have a feature in mind? Open a request — community input shapes priority.

Support Arroxy

Arroxy is free and MIT-licensed — no ads, no telemetry, no paid tier. If it saves you time, you can support development with Bitcoin or Tron: the addresses are in DONATE.md, which is the only official source for them. Arroxy will never send you an address by email or direct message. Starring the repo, reporting bugs, and improving translations help just as much.

Built with

powershell -c "irm bun.sh/install.ps1 | iex"

brew install mise
xcode-select --install

printf '
# mise
if command -v mise >/dev/null 2>&1; then
  eval "$(mise activate zsh)"
fi
' >> ~/.zshrc
exec zsh

curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash

# Build + Electron runtime deps
sudo apt install -y build-essential python3 tar libgtk-3-0 libnss3 libasound2t64

# E2E tests only (Electron needs a display)
sudo apt install -y xvfb

git clone https://github.com/antonio-orionus/Arroxy
cd Arroxy
mise trust
mise install           # recommended; skip if you manually activated the pinned tools
bun run bootstrap
bun run doctor
bun run dev            # Electron app against the Vite renderer

bun run build        # typecheck + compile
bun run dist         # package for current OS
bun run dist:win     # package Windows targets when run on a supported host

Troubleshooting

App won't open / no window appears

The Arroxy process starts but no window shows up. Most often this is a GPU driver hang during startup. Try, in order:

1. Check the log. It records startup, GPU info, and any crash. Path:

2. Launch with hardware acceleration disabled. Open a terminal / Command Prompt and run the executable with a flag:

# Windows (Portable) — PowerShell, run from the folder containing the exe
.\Arroxy-win-x64-Portable.exe --disable-gpu

# Windows (Portable) — Command Prompt (cmd.exe), from the same folder
Arroxy-win-x64-Portable.exe --disable-gpu

# Windows (Installed) — works in both PowerShell and cmd.exe
"%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Arroxy\Arroxy.exe" --disable-gpu

# macOS
/Applications/Arroxy.app/Contents/MacOS/Arroxy --disable-gpu

# Linux (AppImage)
./Arroxy-linux-x64.AppImage --disable-gpu

If that works, the GPU/driver is the cause. Make the change permanent (next step).

3. Persist the flag via argv.json. Create the file at:

With contents:

{ "disable-hardware-acceleration": true }

Arroxy reads this before opening any window, so it works even when the window never appeared.

4. Other flags worth trying (combine if needed): --disable-software-rasterizer, --disable-gpu-sandbox, --in-process-gpu.

5. Stale window position. If the window may be opening off-screen (multi-monitor change since last run), delete <userData>\window-state.json and relaunch.

6. Still stuck? Open an issue with your OS version and any output from running with --enable-logging --v=1. If the app window does open, attach the file from Settings → Save diagnostics file: it holds both logs and your app details, with your user folder name removed. Otherwise attach main.log.

Terms of use

Arroxy is a tool for personal, private use only. You are solely responsible for ensuring your downloads comply with YouTube's Terms of Service and the copyright laws of your jurisdiction. Do not use Arroxy to download, reproduce, or distribute content you do not have the right to use. The developers are not liable for any misuse.

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