Cobalt — Open-Source Media Downloader for Any Platform

Introduction

Cobalt is a media downloader that extracts video and audio from popular social platforms. It runs entirely without ads, tracking, or paywalls, and can be self-hosted as a private API instance for personal or team use.

What Cobalt Does

• Downloads video and audio from YouTube, Twitter/X, TikTok, Reddit, Instagram, and more
• Supports multiple quality options including highest available resolution
• Provides both a clean web UI and a REST API for programmatic access
• Strips tracking parameters and does not log user activity
• Converts and remuxes media into common formats like MP4 and MP3

Architecture Overview

Cobalt is a Node.js application that acts as a proxy between the user and upstream media platforms. When given a URL, it resolves the media source, fetches stream metadata, and either redirects to the direct download link or tunnels the content through the server. The frontend is a lightweight single-page app that communicates with the backend API.

Self-Hosting & Configuration

• Deploy with Docker using the official ghcr.io/imputnet/cobalt image
• Configure via environment variables for port, rate limiting, and CORS
• Supports reverse proxy setups with Nginx or Caddy for HTTPS
• No database required; the service is stateless
• Resource usage is low; a 1-core VPS with 512 MB RAM is sufficient

Key Features

• Completely ad-free and tracker-free by design
• No account registration or API key required for self-hosted instances
• Supports downloading with or without audio, and audio-only extraction
• Clean API that integrates easily with scripts, bots, and automation tools
• Active development with frequent updates for platform compatibility

Comparison with Similar Tools

• yt-dlp — CLI-focused with broader site support; Cobalt adds a web UI and API layer
• Invidious — Focuses on YouTube playback, not downloading; Cobalt handles multiple platforms
• MeTube — Self-hosted YouTube downloader wrapping yt-dlp; Cobalt has its own extraction engine
• Stacher — Desktop GUI for yt-dlp; Cobalt is web-based and self-hostable

FAQ

Q: Which platforms does Cobalt support? A: YouTube, Twitter/X, TikTok, Reddit, Instagram, Tumblr, SoundCloud, Twitch clips, and several others. The list is updated as new extractors are added.

Q: Is Cobalt legal to self-host? A: Cobalt is open-source software. Legality of downloading specific content depends on your jurisdiction and the terms of service of each platform.

Q: Does Cobalt store downloaded files on the server? A: No. Cobalt streams or redirects content directly to the client without caching files on disk.

Q: Can I use the Cobalt API in my own applications? A: Yes. The JSON API accepts a URL and returns download links. It is straightforward to integrate into bots or automation scripts.

Sources

• https://github.com/imputnet/cobalt
• https://cobalt.tools