Vimeo Pro members and higher have access to the direct links to their converted video files, which can be used to download or play videos hosted on Vimeo through a third-party player or web page.
Here's a short video about direct links:
In this article:
- Access your video's direct links for third-party playback
- Access your video’s direct links for downloading
- 2K/4K direct links
- Privacy for your videos in third-party players
- Analytics for your videos in third-party players
- Downgrade to a Basic or Plus membership
Access your video's direct links for third-party playback
To access direct links for your video that you can play in a third-party player or web page, open your video from the video manager and select Advanced to the right of the player. Open the Distribution tab and scroll to the Video file links section. Choose Play the video.
We recommend using Open Source players (e.g. Dash.js and HLS.js) for video playback. You will see these, as well as a list of progressive mp4 links as well as an HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) and a Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) link. Click Copy link next to the one you want to grab.
HLS is Apple’s proprietary method of adaptive streaming, and sends video over HTTP from a web server for native playback on Apple devices. Using a library like HLS.js can extend HLS playback to platforms that do not natively support it.
DASH, otherwise known as Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP, links are for serving Vimeo hosted files in another player, typically non-Apple devices or environments. Known for being highly customizable, DASH supports the most features out of any other streaming protocol.
Tip: How can you know if the content you’re watching is streaming via HLS or DASH?
- Consider the viewing environment: HTTP Live Streaming - Anything Apple based (Apple TV, Safari and iOS).
- Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP - All browsers and environments except for Apple products.
Access your video’s direct links for downloading
To access your video's download links, open your video from the video manager and select Advanced to the right of the player. Open the Distribution tab and scroll to the Video file links section. Choose “Download the video” and grab any of the URLs provided.
⚠️Caution: The download URLs provided do not expire. Once your download URLs are out there, anyone who knows the link will be able to download your videos. The only way to stop this is to delete your video from Vimeo.
2K/4K direct links
Direct links for 2K/4K are not currently provided in the video settings page, but they can be obtained using our API (note: developer skills are required).
Visit developer.vimeo.com/api to review our API documentation.
Privacy for your videos in third-party players
Vimeo's privacy settings and custom embed settings do not apply to third-party player links. The third-party player you're using might support its own set of customizations, but you will need to check out their support documentation for more info.
Third-party player links do not expire, so anyone can view your videos through these URLs. If you add them to a third-party player outside of Vimeo, people may be able to find and share these links.
Please note: When you paste a third-party player link in a browser, it redirects to a link with an expiring token. When sharing third-party links, make sure that you are copying the link address directly from your video settings (which starts with https://player.vimeo.com/progressive_redirect/) and not the redirected link in the browser (which starts with https://fpdl.vimeocdn.com/ or https://gcs-vimeo.akamaized.net). Also, modifying the URL in any way will result in a 403 error.
Analytics for your videos in third-party players
We are limited by how much data we can gather from non-Vimeo players. With third-party players, we can only approximate the number of times the video file is being played.
We also cannot count finishes or engagement analytics for views outside of the Vimeo player. In many cases, we will still be able to detect the website where the view is happening, the location of the view, and the device, however, this data is less reliable in third-party players.
Downgrade to a Basic or Plus membership
If you downgrade to Basic or Plus, any direct links you've shared or embedded will no longer work (for example, your embedded video will no longer load). If you decide to re-upgrade to Pro or higher, your links will automatically reactivate.