How to download Bilibili videos on PC (in HD, with sound)
Downloaded a Bilibili video and ended up with a silent clip, or no clip at all? You're not doing anything wrong. Bilibili splits its video and audio into separate streams, which is what trips up most online tools. Here's how to save a Bilibili video in full HD with the sound intact, straight to your Windows PC.
The short answer: To download a Bilibili video in HD with sound, copy its link, paste it into GrabMonkey on your Windows PC, and pick your quality. Bilibili splits video and audio into separate streams, which is what produces silent files in most online tools. A desktop app merges them back into one MP4 for you.
What Bilibili is
Bilibili started in 2009 as an anime and gaming community and grew into one of China's biggest video platforms, with hundreds of millions of monthly users. If you have never browsed it, the signature feature is danmu: bullet comments that fly across the video in real time, tied to the exact second they were posted. Wikipedia has the full history of the platform if you are curious. The official site at bilibili.com is the front door, and it now works far better for international visitors than it used to. Memeburn covered Bilibili's 2026 global push, which dropped the old passport verification and opened the platform up to viewers outside China. That is a big part of why you are seeing more Bilibili links in the wild.
Why Bilibili downloads go wrong
Two things break browser-based Bilibili downloaders: the separate audio and video streams (so you get a mute file), and the region checks that block a lot of overseas traffic. GrabMonkey handles both. It reads the link locally and merges the streams back into one file. GrabMonkey is a free Windows video downloader with built-in Bilibili support.
Then there is the quality ladder. Bilibili gates its higher resolutions behind accounts and membership tiers, so an anonymous fetch sometimes tops out lower than what a logged-in member sees. A good tool grabs the best stream available to it, but no tool can conjure a 1080p file that Bilibili never served to that request. If the video offers 1080p publicly, GrabMonkey will take it. If the top rung needs a membership, no downloader gets around that, and any site claiming otherwise is not being straight with you.
Finally, the codec lottery. Newer Bilibili uploads increasingly use HEVC or AV1 encoding, which older players and some phones cannot play even when the download itself is perfect. That is a playback problem, not a download problem, and the fix is a modern player like VLC.
Every method, honestly compared
Bilibili's own app cache. The official route is the app's built-in offline cache. It is legitimate, it keeps audio and video together, and the quality options are right there. The catch: the files live inside the app, not as MP4s you can move around, and the best quality tiers lean on membership. Great for watching on the train, useless for editing or archiving.
Online downloader sites. Paste a link into a web page and hope. With Bilibili specifically, most of these hand you a silent file because they only grab the video stream, and the usual converter-page hazards apply: pop-ups, fake buttons, redirects. We wrote a whole piece on why those pages are risky, so we will not repeat it here.
A desktop app. GrabMonkey is built for exactly this: it reads the Bilibili link on your own PC, pulls the best available quality, merges the audio and video streams, and saves a normal MP4. No ad layer in the middle, no silent files, and batch support for series.
Screen recording. OBS or the Xbox Game Bar will capture anything, Bilibili included. It always "works," but you re-record in real time, quality drops, and you have to babysit the playback. A last resort, not a workflow.
The nerd route. Tools like yt-dlp or the open-source BBDown can pull Bilibili streams if you are comfortable in a terminal, and ffmpeg merges the streams. Powerful, free, and fiddly. Most people will not enjoy this, but it exists.
Download a Bilibili video step by step
- Copy the video link. Open the video on Bilibili and copy the URL from the address bar (a
bilibili.com/video/link). - Open GrabMonkey. Not installed? Download the app, run the installer, and launch it. Nothing else to set up.
- Paste and download. Drop the link in, pick your quality, and hit Download. GrabMonkey merges the audio and video for you, so the file plays with sound.
- Open the file. It saves named by its title. Click "Open folder" to find it.
Quality notes
Bilibili serves several quality tiers, and what you can actually grab depends on the video. Public 1080p is common on popular uploads, and GrabMonkey takes the highest rung available to it, when available. Some videos top out at 720p or 480p, especially older uploads or region-limited ones. Test the specific link rather than assuming every video offers the same options.
One honest caveat: the very top quality tiers on some videos are tied to Bilibili accounts and paid membership. An anonymous fetch cannot reach those, in any tool. If a video's best public stream is 720p, that is the ceiling for every downloader, GrabMonkey included. Anyone promising to bypass that is not being straight with you.
Codec note: if your downloaded file plays video but your old player shows a black screen or refuses to open it, you probably got an HEVC or AV1 encode. The file is fine. Open it in VLC or another modern player and it will play.
Troubleshooting: when a Bilibili download fails
Silent file. Your tool grabbed the video stream but not the audio stream, or it failed to merge them. This is the classic Bilibili problem. Use a tool that merges both streams, which GrabMonkey does automatically.
"Video unavailable" or a region error. Some Bilibili videos are region-locked to China. If you are outside China and the video will not load in your browser either, no downloader can fix that. Try finding another upload of the same content; popular clips usually have mirrors.
A b23.tv short link fails. Links shared from the Bilibili app often come as short b23.tv URLs. These are just redirects to the real video page. Paste them in and GrabMonkey will follow the redirect for supported public links. If one fails, open it in your browser first and copy the full bilibili.com URL from the address bar.
Multi-part series. Bilibili series split into P1, P2, P3 parts, each with its own page. Paste each part's link to get the whole series, and batch them in one go.
Login-only videos. Some videos require a Bilibili account to view at all. Anonymous tools cannot reach those, desktop app or not.
Deleted or private videos. Deleted is deleted. If the video is gone from Bilibili, there is nothing left to fetch.
What about subtitles and danmu?
One thing to set expectations on: the downloaded MP4 is just the video and audio. Bilibili's danmu, those flying bullet comments, live in a separate comment layer on the website, not in the video file itself. They do not come along with any download, in any tool. If you love the danmu experience, that is a reason to keep watching on Bilibili itself.
Subtitles are a similar story. Some Bilibili videos have hardcoded subtitles baked into the picture, and those survive any download because they are part of the image. But soft subtitles, the toggleable kind, are usually a separate track that downloaders do not pick up by default. If you need subtitles for a specific video, check whether the uploader included them as a separate file or look for a fan-subtitled reupload. Test the specific video before you promise anyone a subtitled copy.
This is also where the official international app is worth knowing about. Since Bilibili's 2026 global push dropped the old ID verification, watching on the official app or site is easier than ever for viewers outside China. For casual watching, the official app is genuinely the path of least resistance. A downloader earns its place when you want a portable file: offline archiving, editing clips, or watching somewhere the app does not reach.
Just want the audio?
If it's the music or a talk you're after, switch to the MP3 option and GrabMonkey pulls out the audio track on its own.
Get GrabMonkey free
Bilibili, Douyin, RedNote, YouTube and 1,000+ more. Full quality, audio in sync.
⬇ Download GrabMonkey for WindowsA quick word on what is allowed
Creators and Bilibili own the videos, so the safe rule is the boring one: download for personal offline viewing, do not reupload someone else's work as your own, and respect region or membership restrictions instead of routing around them. Anime clips and music are exactly the kind of content where reuploads get flagged fast. Our disclaimer has the full details.
Watch: the in-app download method
The video below from HD Stock Images walks through downloading videos inside the Bilibili app itself, the fast official method for offline viewing on your phone. Note that the in-app route caches videos inside the app rather than giving you a portable file. If you want an actual MP4 on your PC, the GrabMonkey steps above are the way to go.
Video by HD Stock Images on YouTube, an independent creator not affiliated with GrabMonkey.
Quick questions
Why does my Bilibili download have no sound?
Bilibili serves the video and audio as separate streams, which is why a lot of web tools give you a silent file. GrabMonkey merges the two back together, so you get one file with the audio in sync.
Can I download Bilibili videos in 1080p or higher?
Yes, when the video offers it publicly. GrabMonkey pulls the best resolution the source offers, up to 1080p and beyond where it exists, rather than a shrunk-down re-encode.
Do I need a Bilibili account to download?
No login and no account. You paste the video link into GrabMonkey on your own PC and it downloads locally.
What is a b23.tv link?
It is Bilibili's short link format, the kind you get when you share a video from the app. It redirects to the full video page. Paste it into GrabMonkey like any other link; it follows the redirect for supported public videos. If it fails, open it in a browser and copy the full bilibili.com URL.
Can I download a whole Bilibili series at once?
Yes, with a bit of manual work. Multi-part Bilibili series give each part its own page (P1, P2, P3 and so on). Copy each part's link, paste them all into GrabMonkey together, and it works through the batch.
Why won't my downloaded Bilibili file play?
Most of the time it is the codec. Newer Bilibili uploads use HEVC or AV1, which older players cannot handle. The file is fine; open it in VLC or another up-to-date player. If there is video but no sound, your tool grabbed only the video stream instead of merging both streams.
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