megatools
- Free allowance
- 'Megatools is a collection of programs for accessing Mega service from a command line of your desktop or server.' Free software; the command set includes 'dl Download file from a "public" Mega link (doesn't require login)'.
- Verdict
- self-hosted, last resortverdict qualifies-with-caveat: usable, with a named limit or an unprobed read path. Self-hosted options are listed last, because this site is for users who have no hardware.
- Cost
- free tier
- Identity
- anonymousno card, no phone
- Binding limit
- per-ip-shapingMEGA counts downloads from the IP over six hours; no fixed number published
- Evidence
- documented4 sources; a first-party page was read and the sentence quoted
- Freshness
- stale on 2026-11-23checked 2026-10-23 (live); stale on 2026-11-23
| Free tier | 'Megatools is a collection of programs for accessing Mega service from a command line of your desktop or server.' Free software; the command set includes 'dl Download file from a "public" Mega link (doesn't require login)'. unit unlimited; metered on none; The project site megatools.megous.com answered HTTP 503 'We'll be back soon' (scheduled maintenance) today, so the man page was read from a mirror of the same document. |
|---|---|
| Price | USD 0 |
| Limits |
MEGA's help page lists third-party tools as a hazard: 'these tools can't detect your quota', and using them with account credentials can lock the account. Public-link download avoids the credential risk. |
| Binding | per-ip-shaping The six-hour per-IP window is the only quota in the path; megatools does not rotate proxies, so a user meets it directly and must wait for the reset. |
| Identity | anonymous 'megatools dl' takes a public link and needs no login. Account subcommands exist for private files but are not required for the public-link path. |
| Egress | MEGA's IP-based six-hour transfer window applies to the machine running megatools; there is no megatools-side quota or proxy rotation. free allowance: dynamic, IP-based, six-hour window |
| Per-object cap | not applicable: MEGA states it has no file size limit; the local disk is the cap. |
| Retention | not applicable: writes to local disk; no service-side storage. |
| Interface | cli Subcommands: df, ls, get, put, copy, rm, mkdir, export, reg, test and 'dl' for public links. Streaming is supported with '--path -', so a wrapper can pipe a public link into another process without touching disk. |
| Tooling | Native builds for Windows and Linux, plus source. A shell wrapper is enough; nothing needs a GUI or a display. |
| Composes with | The streaming flag makes it the cheapest MEGA leg for a pipeline that must not stage the file on local disk: piped output can go straight into an uploader or a hash check. |
| Reliability | The project site was 503 today and the man page had to be read from a mirror; the tool is maintained but the distribution site is not always up. Over-quota downloads fail mid-transfer and resume after the window resets. |
| Notes | Tooling note applies: a CLI is not a hosted path, but this one is a single binary and a one-line wrapper, and it streams, so it is the least-bad local MEGA leg. It does not satisfy 'no install'. |
| Evidence note | documented Man page and MEGA quota page read; the project site's 503 is measured. Running 'megatools dl' against a real link would raise this to measured. |
| Parsed numbers |
|
Evidence 4
| date | source | what it proved |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-23 | xff.cz/megatools/man/megatools.html | 'dl Download file from a "public" Mega link (doesn't require login)'; streaming with 'megatools get --path -' |
| 2026-10-23 | megatools.megous.com/ | the project site is down for maintenance: HTTP 503, 17 words, 'This site is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance.' |
| 2026-10-23 | help.mega.io/plans-storage/space-storage/transfer-quota | per-IP six-hour download limit for free and anonymous users; no fixed limit |
| 2026-10-23 | help.mega.io/files-folders/transfers/download-files-folders | third-party tools 'can't detect your quota' and may cause account lock-ups when given credentials |
More fields 3
| public link command | megatools dl <link> |
|---|---|
| streaming command | megatools get --path - <remotefile> |
| site status today | 503 maintenance |