Cut a 15-Second Audio Clip from a YouTube Video

Most of the time you want fifteen seconds of a four-minute video, not the whole file. Thirdwatch's YouTube Audio Downloader produces real MP3 or WAV files in a hosted store with public URLs — including exact server-side segment trims, no full-length download needed.

Skip the setup: Run this as a ready-to-go task on Apify — pre-loaded with the configuration from this guide.

Why cut a clip without a full download

Clipping a quote, a hook, or a soundbite usually means downloading the full video, opening an editor, and cutting by hand — a five-minute detour per clip.

The downloader trims server-side: pass startSeconds and endSeconds and the file that lands in the store is already the clip.

The downloader fetches the audio server-side, trims it, and publishes the file to a key-value store — the dataset row's fileUrl is the artifact.

How does this compare to the alternatives?

Why this Actor

• Real downloadable files — fileUrl points at the hosted MP3/WAV, not just metadata.
• startSeconds/endSeconds cut the file server-side, so you only keep the segment you need.
• Sticky proxy sessions keep signed media URLs valid through the whole download.
• Title, channel, duration, format and byte size land on every row.
• Batch input handles a list of videos in one run.

How to do it in 3 steps

Step 1: Configure the input

Set the inputs as shown below — videoUrls takes the targets, format picks mp3 or wav, and startSeconds/endSeconds trim the file server-side.

Step 2: Run the Actor

Run it from the console, the API, or the linked saved task. One dataset row is written per file.

Step 3: Use the output

Each row carries video metadata plus fileUrl — a public download URL for the audio file in the key-value store.

{
  "videoUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
  ],
  "format": "mp3",
  "startSeconds": 0,
  "endSeconds": 15,
  "proxyCountry": "US"
}

Each dataset row looks like:

{
  "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Video)",
  "channel": "Rick Astley",
  "duration": 213,
  "segmentStart": 0,
  "segmentEnd": 15,
  "format": "mp3",
  "sizeBytes": 194560,
  "fileUrl": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/.../records/dQw4w9WgXcQ.mp3"
}

What to watch for

Cost scales with audio length — bandwidth is the dominant factor, so trim segments when you only need clips. Age-gated and members-only videos return error rows. Make sure you have the right to download and reuse the audio.

Related use cases

• Download a YouTube Video's Full Audio Track as MP3
• Export YouTube Audio as WAV for Editing
• Trim a YouTube Segment and Feed It to Transcription
• Download Audio from Several YouTube Videos in One Run
• All Thirdwatch use-case guides

Run the YouTube Audio Downloader on Apify Store — pay per result, free to try, no credit card to test.