Bilibili opened in 2009 as a site for animation, comics and games, built by fans for fans. Its defining feature was borrowed from a Japanese site called Niconico: danmaku, comments that fly across the picture in real time, synchronised to the moment in the video they refer to rather than sitting in a list underneath.
That single idea changed how the audience behaves. Watching becomes collective even when you are alone, because the screen fills with what hundreds of previous viewers were thinking at that exact second. It produced an unusually dense community culture, and the site grew from a niche fan project into a Nasdaq-listed company with hundreds of millions of users.
It has since broadened well past its origins into documentaries, lectures, technology, cooking and long-form essays, while keeping the long-video format that most short-form platforms abandoned. A great deal of what is there runs to twenty or forty minutes, which is precisely the length people want to watch offline rather than stream.
Why people save Bilibili video
Length is the first reason. Bilibili kept long-form video when nearly everyone else chased short vertical clips, and a forty-minute documentary is a far better thing to have as a file than to stream on an unreliable connection.
Access is the second. The site is oriented towards mainland China, and playback outside it can be slow or intermittent depending on where you are. A download once is much less frustrating than buffering repeatedly.
The third is that uploads are removed. Rights claims, channel closures and moderation all take material down regularly, and a good deal of what is valuable there — fan translations, community projects, archival uploads — is exactly the kind of thing that does not survive long term.
Saving a Bilibili video
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1
Copy the Bilibili Bilibili address
Take the bilibili.com address out of your browser, or use the share control under the player. Both the BV-code addresses and the older av-number form are accepted, and short b23.tv links work too.
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2
Offer the address to the box above
Paste it into the field at the top of this page, which begins reading it straight away.
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3
Take the resolution you want
The resolutions the video was published in are listed with their file sizes. Long videos at 1080p produce sizeable files, so it is worth checking the number first.
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4
Land the file on your device
Tap the row when it turns blue. Downloads on Android, the Files app on an iPhone.
Danmaku and what you actually download
The scrolling comments are not part of the video. They are a separate stream of text that the player draws on top as it goes, which has a useful consequence when you save something.
| Element | Included in the file? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| The video itself | Yes | This is the file being saved |
| Danmaku comments | No | They are drawn by the player, not burned into the picture |
| Subtitles | Usually not | Also a separate track in most uploads |
| Multi-part videos | One part at a time | Each part has its own page and address |
| Paid or member-only video | No | Those require an account with access |
For most people the absence of danmaku is an improvement rather than a loss — a documentary is easier to follow without several hundred comments crossing the screen. If you specifically want them, they only exist inside Bilibili's own player.
Bilibili download questions
Will the scrolling comments be in my file?
No. Danmaku is drawn over the video by Bilibili's player rather than being part of the picture, so what you save is the clean video.
Do b23.tv short links work on Bilibili?
Yes, along with both the BV-code and the older av-number addresses.
How do I handle a multi-part video on Bilibili?
Each part has its own page and its own address, so they are saved one at a time.
Can I download paid or member-only content?
No. That requires an account with the relevant access, and nothing here logs in.
Will I get subtitles?
Usually not, because subtitles are generally a separate track rather than part of the picture.
What resolution can I expect?
Whatever was uploaded, commonly up to 1080p and sometimes higher. Very old uploads offer considerably less.
Where is the Bilibili file saved?
Downloads on Android, the Files app on an iPhone.
My Bilibili link stopped working.
The upload has probably been removed, which happens regularly over rights claims, or it requires an account. Prepared links also expire if the page sits open a long time.
Is there a limit on how many?
No cap and no queue.
Is it acceptable to save from Bilibili?
Much of the site is original work by creators who are active and identifiable, and a fair amount is fan labour like translation and subtitling that took somebody a great deal of unpaid time. Keeping a copy is ordinary; passing that work off as your own is not.