You can only download songs on Spotify if you pay for Premium
Spotify's free tier does not include offline downloads. If you have a free account, you will see a greyed-out download button next to songs, but clicking it does nothing. You need a Spotify Premium subscription to save any song for offline listening. Premium costs $11.99 per month in the United States, though the price varies by country and Spotify occasionally runs discounted trial periods.
Once you upgrade to Premium, the download feature becomes active across all your devices. The process itself takes just a few taps or clicks, but the song will only stay on the device where you downloaded it — a song downloaded on your phone will not automatically appear on your computer.
Key Takeaways
- Spotify Premium is required to download any song; the feature is not available on free accounts.
- Downloaded songs only work on the device where you downloaded them, not across all your devices.
- On a phone or tablet, tap the download icon next to a song to save it; on a computer, right-click the song and select Download.
- Downloaded songs take up storage space on your device and will disappear if you cancel your Premium subscription.
- You must open Spotify at least once every 30 days to keep your downloaded songs playable.
How to download a song on your phone or tablet
Open Spotify and find the song you want to save. You can search for it by name, find it in a playlist, or locate it in an artist's discography. Once you see the song listed, look for the small download icon — it looks like a downward-pointing arrow inside a circle — positioned to the right of the song title.
Tap that download icon once. The icon will fill in with a solid colour (usually green) to show the download has started. Depending on your internet speed and the song length, the download usually completes within a few seconds. Once it finishes, the icon stays filled in, which tells you the song is now saved on your device and ready to play offline.
To find your downloaded songs later, open Spotify and tap the "Your Library" tab at the bottom of the screen. Tap "Downloads" to see only the songs you have saved. You can play them even when your phone has no internet connection, as long as you have opened Spotify at least once in the past 30 days.
How to download a song on your computer
Launch Spotify on your Windows or Mac computer and search for the song you want to download. When you find it in the search results or in a playlist, right-click directly on the song title. A menu will pop up with several options, including "Download" — click that option.
The song will begin downloading to your computer. You will see a small download icon appear next to the song title, and it will fill in once the download is complete. To see all your downloaded songs in one place, click "Your Library" in the left sidebar, then click "Downloads" under the "Liked Songs" section.
Downloaded songs on your computer take up hard drive space, so if you are running low on storage, you may want to download only your most-played tracks. You can delete downloaded songs at any time by right-clicking them and selecting "Remove Download" — this frees up space without removing the song from your library.
What happens to downloaded songs if you cancel Premium
If you stop paying for Spotify Premium, all your downloaded songs will stop playing immediately. The files remain on your device, but Spotify will not let you open them. This is how Spotify protects the music rights holders — the downloads are tied to your active Premium subscription.
If you resubscribe to Premium later, your downloaded songs will work again. However, if you wait too long between cancellation and resubscription, Spotify may delete the files from your device to save space. The safest approach is to assume downloaded songs are temporary and not to rely on them as your permanent music collection.
Storage space and device limits
Each downloaded song takes up roughly 5 to 10 megabytes of storage, depending on the audio quality. A typical phone with 64 gigabytes of storage can hold several thousand songs before running out of room. However, Spotify limits you to 10,000 downloaded songs per account across all devices combined, and no more than 3,000 songs per individual device.
If you are downloading many songs, check your device's storage settings periodically. On an iPhone, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage to see how much space Spotify is using. On Android, go to Settings > Apps > Spotify > Storage. On a computer, right-click the Spotify folder in your file system and check its size. If you need space, delete the songs you listen to least often.
Keeping downloaded songs playable
Spotify requires you to open the app at least once every 30 days, even if you only listen to offline downloads. This is a security check — Spotify verifies that your Premium subscription is still active and that you still have the right to play the downloaded files. If you do not open Spotify for more than 30 days, your downloaded songs will lock and will not play until you reconnect to the internet and open the app again.
This means downloaded songs are not truly permanent. They are a convenience feature for travel or commuting, not a replacement for owning music files. If you need music that works without any subscription, you would need to purchase and download songs from a store like iTunes or Amazon Music, or use a different service that sells permanent downloads.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I download a song on my phone and listen to it on my computer?
No. Downloads are device-specific. A song downloaded on your iPhone will not appear on your Mac or Windows computer. You would need to download it separately on each device where you want to listen offline. This is why Spotify Premium is useful for people with multiple devices — you can build offline libraries on each one.
What audio quality are downloaded songs?
Downloaded songs match whatever quality setting you have chosen in Spotify's settings. You can choose between Low (24 kbps), Normal (96 kbps), High (160 kbps), or Very High (320 kbps). Higher quality uses more storage space. On most phones and tablets, Normal or High quality sounds good enough for everyday listening.
Can I share downloaded songs with someone else?
No. Downloaded songs are encrypted and tied to your Spotify account. You cannot copy them to another person's device or share the files. The only way someone else can listen to those songs is if they also have a Spotify Premium subscription and download them on their own device.
Why does Spotify say "Download" is unavailable for some songs?
Some songs and podcasts cannot be downloaded due to licensing restrictions set by the rights holders. This is rare for popular music but more common for certain podcasts or regional content. If a song cannot be downloaded, Spotify will not show the download icon next to it, and you will only be able to stream it online.
Do downloaded songs use data when I play them offline?
No. Once a song is fully downloaded, playing it uses no internet data at all. This is the main reason people download songs — to listen without using their mobile data plan. However, Spotify still needs to connect to the internet at least once every 30 days to verify your subscription is active.