Download & transcribe YouTube, right on your desktop.
Yoober is a friendly desktop app for downloading video & audio and generating transcripts with Whisper — powered by yt-dlp and ffmpeg, bundled in. No setup, no command line.
YooberEverything you need, nothing you don't
A focused toolset for downloading and transcribing — no bloat, no ads, no accounts.
Video downloads
Grab videos in any quality — from 360p all the way up to 4K (2160p). Pick your container: MP4, MOV, MKV, or WebM.
Audio extraction
Strip audio to MP3, M4A (AAC), Opus, FLAC, WAV, or Vorbis. Choose your bitrate from 96 kbps up to 320 kbps.
Whisper transcription
Generate transcripts and subtitles (TXT, SRT, VTT, JSON) using a local Whisper install or the hosted OpenAI API.
Bundled binaries
No setup required — yt-dlp and ffmpeg ship inside the app. Open it and start downloading in seconds.
Live download queue
Watch real-time progress, speed, and ETA for every job. Cancel anytime. History is kept between sessions.
Privacy-first
Runs entirely on your machine. Your OpenAI key (if you use the API backend) is stored in your OS keychain.
Three steps. That's it.
From link to local file (and transcript) in under a minute.
Paste a video URL
Copy any YouTube link (or any URL yt-dlp supports) and paste it into Yoober. Hit "Fetch Info" to preview the title and thumbnail.
Pick your format
Switch between Video or Audio-only tabs, choose quality / container / bitrate, set a filename template, and pick an output folder.
Download — and optionally transcribe
Start the download and watch live progress. Tick "Transcribe audio after download" to get a transcript written next to your file.
Download exactly what you want
Full control over resolution, container, bitrate, and metadata — for both video and audio-only downloads.
Video
- Quality
- 360p480p720p HD1080p FHD1440p QHD2160p 4KBest available
- Container
- MP4MOVMKVWebM
- Extras
- Embed thumbnailEmbed subtitlesWrite metadata
Audio only
- Format
- MP3M4A (AAC)OpusFLACWAVVorbis (OGG)
- Bitrate
- 96 kbps128 kbps192 kbps256 kbps320 kbpsBest
- Extras
- Embed cover artWrite metadata
Turn any download into a transcript
Powered by OpenAI Whisper. Choose the backend that fits your workflow — run it fully offline, or use the hosted API for speed.
Local Whisper CLI
Runs entirely on your machine — nothing leaves your computer. Pick a model size to balance speed and accuracy.
- 100% offline, private by default
- Models: tiny, base, small, medium, large
- No API costs
OpenAI API
Skip the local install and get fast, high-accuracy results using OpenAI's hosted Whisper endpoint.
- No local install or GPU needed
- API key stored in your OS keychain
- Great for long files, fast turnaround
Output formats
Export transcripts in whatever format your workflow needs.
Available for every desktop
Free, open-source, and licensed under the GNU GPL. Pick your platform below.
Prefer to build from source? Check out the GitHub repository for instructions.
Enjoying Yoober?
Development takes time, and running the AI tools used to build this app isn't free — tokens are expensive! If Yoober has been useful to you, please consider supporting its continued development. Any amount is deeply appreciated. ❤️
Frequently asked questions
Everything you need to know before you download.
Yes. Yoober is free and open-source under the GNU GPL. If you find it useful, consider supporting development via the donate link.