Cobalt Open-Source Media Downloader
source post: Video by marc.kaz
Video by marc.kaz
Source: instagram · Marc Kaz Saved: 20260428 Tags: instagram Display: Cobalt Open-Source Media Downloader — Free, open-source tool that downloads video, audio, and images from 100+ platforms by pasting a link.
TL;DR
Cobalt is a free, open-source media downloader that lets you save videos, audio, images, and posts from 100+ platforms — including YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Reddit — simply by pasting a link. No account, no ads, no paywalls, and no bloat. Most media downloaders are riddled with ads, paywalls, or require account sign-ups. Cobalt eliminates all of that friction with a dead-simple link-in, file-out interface that supports an exceptionally wide range of platforms out of the box.
What the post showed
Caption: This tool downloads literally anything from any link.
Ships with: • Full support for YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Reddit & 100+ more • Videos, audio, images, posts — everything • 100% free, open source, no ads • No accounts, no limits
Zero bloat. Zero paywalls.
Who’s downloading everything today? Drop a 🔥
Key claims from transcript: What's up guys? So we got a tool that basically you can download anything from a link anything you want from any link So it's like videos audio images post everything so you just you know, go ahead and use that and then bomb It could bomb there you go boys open
What it actually is
- What: Cobalt is a free, open-source media downloader that lets you save videos, audio, images, and posts from 100+ platforms — including YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Reddit — simply by pasting a link. No account, no ads, no paywalls, and no bloat.
- Who built it / maintained by: Developed by imputnet (independent open-source developer/team), accessible at cobalt.tools
- Status: stable
- Why it matters: Most media downloaders are riddled with ads, paywalls, or require account sign-ups. Cobalt eliminates all of that friction with a dead-simple link-in, file-out interface that supports an exceptionally wide range of platforms out of the box.
- How it compares to alternatives:
- yt-dlp
- gallery-dl
- 4K Video Downloader
- SaveFrom.net
- SnapSave
- JDownloader
- GitHub stars: 40,618 · License: AGPL-3.0 · Archived: no
Links
Kickstarter guide
Navigate to https://cobalt.tools/ in any browser. Paste the URL of the media you want to download and hit the download arrow. Choose your preferred format or quality if prompted, then save the file. For self-hosting or API access, clone the GitHub repo at https://github.com/imputnet/cobalt and follow the README setup instructions.