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b31fdeed 17</div>
c76eb41b 18
b31fdeed 19yt-dlp is a [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) fork based on the now inactive [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc). The main focus of this project is adding new features and patches while also keeping up to date with the original project
5c0e5bc4 20
034b6215 21* [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
53ed7066 22 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
c76eb41b 23* [INSTALLATION](#installation)
17fa3ee2 24 * [Update](#update)
0e5927ee 25 * [Release Files](#release-files)
cf59cd4d 26 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
17fa3ee2 27 * [Compile](#compile)
b31fdeed 28* [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
29 * [General Options](#general-options)
50865ca8 30 * [Network Options](#network-options)
b31fdeed 31 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
50865ca8 32 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
33 * [Download Options](#download-options)
34 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
b31fdeed 35 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
50865ca8 36 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
0744a815 37 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
50865ca8 38 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
39 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
40 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
41 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
50865ca8 42 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
7a340e0d 43 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
50865ca8 44 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
c76eb41b 45* [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
50865ca8 46 * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
c76eb41b 47* [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
50865ca8 48 * [Output template and Windows batch files](#output-template-and-windows-batch-files)
49 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
c76eb41b 50* [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
50865ca8 51 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
52 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
53 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
73cd218f 54* [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
55 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
5d3a0e79 56* [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
f74980cb 57* [PLUGINS](#plugins)
8c6f4daa 58* [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
e167860c 59* [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
8c6f4daa 60* [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
61 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
62 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
c76eb41b 63* [MORE](#more)
b31fdeed 64</div>
50865ca8 65
66
034b6215 67# NEW FEATURES
f20f5fe5 68The major new features from the latest release of [blackjack4494/yt-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) are:
034b6215 69
7a340e0d 70* **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
034b6215 71
7581d246 72* **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using `-S`. This allows for much easier format selection than what is possible by simply using `--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
034b6215 73
6aecd871 74* **Merged with youtube-dl [commit/379f52a](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/379f52a4954013767219d25099cce9e0f9401961)**: (v2021.06.06) You get all the latest features and patches of [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) in addition to all the features of [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc)
034b6215 75
0fdf490d 76* **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from [animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including `--write-comments`, `BiliBiliSearch`, `BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that the NicoNico improvements are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
29b6000e 77
f5546c0b 78* **Youtube improvements**:
6ccf351a 79 * All Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`) and private playlists supports downloading multiple pages of content
0fdf490d 80 * Search (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`), search URLs and in-channel search works
81 * Mixes supports downloading multiple pages of content
6ccf351a 82 * Most (but not all) age-gated content can be downloaded without cookies
f703a880 83 * Partial workaround for throttling issue
f20f5fe5 84 * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to `/video` to preserve the old behaviour
e6f21b3d 85 * `255kbps` audio is extracted (if available) from youtube music when premium cookies are given
9ee4f0bb 86 * Youtube music Albums, channels etc can be downloaded ([except self-uploaded music](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/723))
f20f5fe5 87
245524e6 88* **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[:PROFILE]`
89
597c1866 90* **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
91
b31fdeed 92* **Multi-threaded fragment downloads**: Download multiple fragments of m3u8/mpd videos in parallel. Use `--concurrent-fragments` (`-N`) option to set the number of threads used
8d801631 93
b31fdeed 94* **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
f20f5fe5 95
dec0d56f 96* **New extractors**: AnimeLab, Philo MSO, Spectrum MSO, SlingTV MSO, Cablevision MSO, RCN MSO, Rcs, Gedi, bitwave.tv, mildom, audius, zee5, mtv.it, wimtv, pluto.tv, niconico users, discoveryplus.in, mediathek, NFHSNetwork, nebula, ukcolumn, whowatch, MxplayerShow, parlview (au), YoutubeWebArchive, fancode, Saitosan, ShemarooMe, telemundo, VootSeries, SonyLIVSeries, HotstarSeries, VidioPremier, VidioLive, RCTIPlus, TBS Live, douyin, pornflip, ParamountPlusSeries, ScienceChannel, Utreon, OpenRec, BandcampMusic, blackboardcollaborate, eroprofile albums, mirrativ, BannedVideo, bilibili categories, Epicon, filmmodu, GabTV, HungamaAlbum, ManotoTV, Niconico search, Patreon User, peloton, ProjectVeritas, radiko, StarTV, tiktok user, Tokentube, voicy, TV2HuSeries, biliintl, 17live, NewgroundsUser, peertube channel/playlist, ZenYandex, CAM4, CGTN, damtomo, gotostage, Koo, Mediaite, Mediaklikk, MuseScore, nzherald, Olympics replay, radlive, SovietsCloset, Streamanity, Theta, Chingari, ciscowebex, Gettr, GoPro, N1, Theta, Veo, Vupload, NovaPlay
f20f5fe5 97
dec0d56f 98* **Fixed/improved extractors**: archive.org, roosterteeth.com, skyit, instagram, itv, SouthparkDe, spreaker, Vlive, akamai, ina, rumble, tennistv, amcnetworks, la7 podcasts, linuxacadamy, nitter, twitcasting, viu, crackle, curiositystream, mediasite, rmcdecouverte, sonyliv, tubi, tenplay, patreon, videa, yahoo, BravoTV, crunchyroll playlist, RTP, viki, Hotstar, vidio, vimeo, mediaset, Mxplayer, nbcolympics, ParamountPlus, Newgrounds, SAML Verizon login, Hungama, afreecatv, aljazeera, ATV, bitchute, camtube, CDA, eroprofile, facebook, HearThisAtIE, iwara, kakao, Motherless, Nova, peertube, pornhub, reddit, tiktok, TV2, TV2Hu, tv5mondeplus, VH1, Viafree, XHamster, 9Now, AnimalPlanet, Arte, CBC, Chingari, comedycentral, DIYNetwork, niconico, dw, funimation, globo, HiDive, NDR, Nuvid, Oreilly, pbs, plutotv, reddit, redtube, soundcloud, SpankBang, VrtNU, bbc, Bilibili, LinkedInLearning, parliamentlive, PolskieRadio, Streamable, vidme, francetv
fac98805 99
3de7c2ce 100* **Subtitle extraction from manifests**: Subtitles can be extracted from streaming media manifests. See [commit/be6202f](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/be6202f12b97858b9d716e608394b51065d0419f) for details
034b6215 101
597c1866 102* **Multiple paths and output templates**: You can give different [output templates](#output-template) and download paths for different types of files. You can also set a temporary path where intermediary files are downloaded to using `--paths` (`-P`)
0bc0a322 103
104* **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
105
418964fa 106* **Output template improvements**: Output templates can now have date-time formatting, numeric offsets, object traversal etc. See [output template](#output-template) for details. Even more advanced operations can also be done with the help of `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
fac98805 107
418964fa 108* **Other new options**: `--print`, `--sleep-requests`, `--convert-thumbnails`, `--write-link`, `--force-download-archive`, `--force-overwrites`, `--break-on-reject` etc
0bc0a322 109
418964fa 110* **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in `--match-filter`, multiple `--postprocessor-args` and `--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection) etc
c69911e4 111
b31fdeed 112* **Plugin extractors**: Extractors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
113
7a5c1cfe 114* **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`
aa837ddf 115
29b6000e 116
7a5c1cfe 117See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
a26c99ac 118
119
90505ff1 120**PS**: Some of these changes are already in youtube-dlc, but are still unreleased. See [this](Changelog.md#unreleased-changes-in-blackjack4494yt-dlc) for details
f20f5fe5 121
b9650873 122If you are coming from [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl), the amount of changes are very large. Compare [options](#options) and [supported sites](supportedsites.md) with youtube-dl's to get an idea of the massive number of features/patches [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) has accumulated.
f20f5fe5 123
53ed7066 124### Differences in default behavior
125
126Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc.
127
28b0eb0f 128* The options `--id`, `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
129* `avconv` is not supported as as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
130* The default [output template](#output-template) is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`. There is no real reason for this change. This was changed before yt-dlp was ever made public and now there are no plans to change it back to `%(title)s.%(id)s.%(ext)s`. Instead, you may use `--compat-options filename`
e4f02757 131* The default [format sorting](#sorting-formats) is different from youtube-dl and prefers higher resolution and better codecs rather than higher bitrates. You can use the `--format-sort` option to change this to any order you prefer, or use `--compat-options format-sort` to use youtube-dl's sorting order
28b0eb0f 132* The default format selector is `bv*+ba/b`. This means that if a combined video + audio format that is better than the best video-only format is found, the former will be prefered. Use `-f bv+ba/b` or `--compat-options format-spec` to revert this
133* Unlike youtube-dlc, yt-dlp does not allow merging multiple audio/video streams into one file by default (since this conflicts with the use of `-f bv*+ba`). If needed, this feature must be enabled using `--audio-multistreams` and `--video-multistreams`. You can also use `--compat-options multistreams` to enable both
134* `--ignore-errors` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
135* When writing metadata files such as thumbnails, description or infojson, the same information (if available) is also written for playlists. Use `--no-write-playlist-metafiles` or `--compat-options no-playlist-metafiles` to not write these files
136* `--add-metadata` attaches the `infojson` to `mkv` files in addition to writing the metadata when used with `--write-infojson`. Use `--compat-options no-attach-info-json` to revert this
137* `playlist_index` behaves differently when used with options like `--playlist-reverse` and `--playlist-items`. See [#302](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/302) for details. You can use `--compat-options playlist-index` if you want to keep the earlier behavior
138* The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
3acf6d38 139* All *experiences* of a funimation episode are considered as a single video. This behavior breaks existing archives. Use `--compat-options seperate-video-versions` to extract information from only the default player
28b0eb0f 140* Youtube live chat (if available) is considered as a subtitle. Use `--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use `--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent live chat from downloading
09f1580e 141* Youtube channel URLs are automatically redirected to `/video`. Append a `/featured` to the URL to download only the videos in the home page. If the channel does not have a videos tab, we try to download the equivalent `UU` playlist instead. Also, `/live` URLs raise an error if there are no live videos instead of silently downloading the entire channel. You may use `--compat-options no-youtube-channel-redirect` to revert all these redirections
28b0eb0f 142* Unavailable videos are also listed for youtube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
18e674b4 143* If `ffmpeg` is used as the downloader, the downloading and merging of formats happen in a single step when possible. Use `--compat-options no-direct-merge` to revert this
e858a9d6 144* Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
e4f02757 145* Some private fields such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use `--no-clean-infojson` or `--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
b51d2ae3 146* When `--embed-subs` and `--write-subs` are used together, the subtitles are written to disk and also embedded in the media file. You can use just `--embed-subs` to embed the subs and automatically delete the seperate file. See [#630 (comment)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/630#issuecomment-893659460) for more info. `--compat-options no-keep-subs` can be used to revert this.
53ed7066 147
148For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
28b0eb0f 149* `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options
150* `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams`
151* `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
53ed7066 152
f20f5fe5 153
d19bb9c0 154# INSTALLATION
b31fdeed 155yt-dlp is not platform specific. So it should work on your Unix box, on Windows or on macOS
50865ca8 156
7bc877a2 157You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
e6f21b3d 158* Download the binary from the [latest release](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest)
b8773e63 159* With Homebrew, `brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp`
a61f4b28 160* Use [PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp): `python3 -m pip install --upgrade yt-dlp`
161* Use pip+git: `python3 -m pip install --upgrade git+https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp.git@release`
162* Install master branch: `python3 -m pip install --upgrade git+https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp`
163
164Note that on some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`
5f326cf5 165
5ba4a0b6
A
166UNIX users (Linux, macOS, BSD) can also install the [latest release](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest) one of the following ways:
167
168```
169sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
170sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
171```
172
173```
174sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
175sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
176```
177
178```
179sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
180sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
181```
182
b8773e63
THD
183macOS or Linux users that are using Homebrew (formerly known as Linuxbrew for Linux users) can also install it by:
184
185```
186brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp
187```
188
cf59cd4d 189### UPDATE
190You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are using the provided release.
191If you are using `pip`, simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program.
b8773e63 192If you have installed using Homebrew, run `brew upgrade yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp`
cf59cd4d 193
0e5927ee
R
194### RELEASE FILES
195
196File|Description
197:---|:---
198[yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform independant binary. Needs Python (Recommended for UNIX like OSes)
199[yt-dlp.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)|Windows standalone x64 binary (Recommended for Windows)
200[yt-dlp_x86.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_x86.exe)|Windows standalone x86 (32bit) binary
201[yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged windows executable
202[yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|MacOS standalone executable
203[yt-dlp_macos.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos.zip)|Unpackaged MacOS executable
386cdfdb 204[yt-dlp_min.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_x86.exe)|Windows standalone x64 binary built with `py2exe`. Does not contain `pycryptodomex`, needs VC++14
0e5927ee
R
205[yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball. Also contains manpages, completions, etc
206[SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
207[SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
208
e58c22a0 209### DEPENDENCIES
cf59cd4d 210Python versions 3.6+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
b31fdeed 211
c9652aa4 212<!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
213<!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
cf59cd4d 214On windows, [Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86)](https://download.microsoft.com/download/1/6/5/165255E7-1014-4D0A-B094-B6A430A6BFFC/vcredist_x86.exe) is also necessary to run yt-dlp. You probably already have this, but if the executable throws an error due to missing `MSVCR100.dll` you need to install it manually.
c9652aa4 215-->
fac98805 216
cf59cd4d 217While all the other dependancies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
218* [**ffmpeg** and **ffprobe**](https://www.ffmpeg.org) - Required for [merging seperate video and audio files](#format-selection) as well as for various [post-processing](#post-processing-options) tasks. Licence [depends on the build](https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html)
cf59cd4d 219* [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen) - For embedding thumbnail in certain formats. Licenced under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
b5ae35ee 220* [**pycryptodomex**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome) - For decrypting AES-128 HLS streams and various other data. Licenced under [BSD2](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
e36d50c5 221* [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets) - For downloading over websocket. Licenced under [BSD3](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
982ee69a 222* [**keyring**](https://github.com/jaraco/keyring) - For decrypting cookies of chromium-based browsers on Linux. Licenced under [MIT](https://github.com/jaraco/keyring/blob/main/LICENSE)
cf59cd4d 223* [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For embedding thumbnail in mp4/m4a if mutagen is not present. Licenced under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
224* [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licenced under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
225* [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or [**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading `rstp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licenced under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
226* [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licenced under [BSD3](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
7a340e0d 227* [**sponskrub**](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) - For using the now **deprecated** [sponskrub options](#sponskrub-options). Licenced under [GPLv3+](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub/blob/master/LICENCE.md)
cf59cd4d 228* Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
b31fdeed 229
cf59cd4d 230To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
231
f85e6be4 232The windows releases are already built with the python interpreter, mutagen, pycryptodomex and websockets included.
d710cc6d 233
234**Note**: There are some regressions in newer ffmpeg versions that causes various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependancy, we provide [custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds/wiki/Latest#latest-autobuilds) with patches for these issues at [yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds). See [the readme](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#patches-applied) for details on the specifc issues solved by these builds
235
5f326cf5 236
c76eb41b 237### COMPILE
5f326cf5 238
c76eb41b 239**For Windows**:
f85e6be4 240To build the Windows executable, you must have pyinstaller (and optionally mutagen, pycryptodomex, websockets)
d19bb9c0 241
49e7e9c3 242 python3 -m pip install -U -r requirements.txt
e38df8f9 243
a61f4b28 244Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, just run `py pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (32/64 bit) as the python used to build it.
5f326cf5 245
e38df8f9 246You can also build the executable without any version info or metadata by using:
247
7a5c1cfe 248 pyinstaller.exe yt_dlp\__main__.py --onefile --name yt-dlp
7581d246 249
fac98805 250Note that pyinstaller [does not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment
b96a939b 251
c76eb41b 252**For Unix**:
060ac762 253You will need the required build tools: `python`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`, `zip`, `pytest`
127d0759 254Then simply run `make`. You can also run `make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files
5f326cf5 255
e38df8f9 256**Note**: In either platform, `devscripts\update-version.py` can be used to automatically update the version number
d19bb9c0 257
b31fdeed 258# USAGE AND OPTIONS
6bcd846b 259
7a5c1cfe 260 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
b50e3bc6 261
c2b5f311 262`Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
e58c22a0 263<!-- Auto generated -->
c2b5f311 264
c76eb41b 265## General Options:
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266 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
267 --version Print program version and exit
8d801631 268 -U, --update Update this program to latest version. Make
269 sure that you have sufficient permissions
270 (run with sudo if needed)
b1940459 271 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
272 The download will be considered successfull
273 even if the postprocessing fails
274 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download
275 errors; e.g. to skip unavailable videos in
276 a playlist (default)
8a51f564 277 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
278 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
34488702 279 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
280 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
c4af7684 281 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
34488702 282 extractors and exit
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283 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
284 extractor
285 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
286 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
9ee4f0bb 287 from google videos for the search term
288 "large apple". Use the value "auto" to let
289 yt-dlp guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
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290 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
291 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
292 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
8a51f564 293 this is not possible instead of searching
298f597b 294 --ignore-config, --no-config Disable loading any configuration files
8a51f564 295 except the one provided by --config-location.
296 When given inside a configuration
298f597b 297 file, no further configuration files are
298 loaded. Additionally, (for backward
299 compatibility) if this option is found
300 inside the system configuration file, the
8a51f564 301 user configuration is not loaded
0202b52a 302 --config-location PATH Location of the main configuration file;
303 either the path to the config or its
304 containing directory
c4af7684 305 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
8a51f564 306 only list them
6623ac34 307 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
b5ae35ee 308 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate).
309 Currently only supported for YouTube
597c1866 310 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
8a51f564 311 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output
53ed7066 312 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
31654882 313 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
53ed7066 314 configurations by reverting some of the
315 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
316 default behavior" for details
08c1d0d3 317
149f05c7 318## Network Options:
28b4f736 319 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy.
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320 To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper
321 scheme. For example
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322 socks5://127.0.0.1:1080/. Pass in an empty
323 string (--proxy "") for direct connection
149f05c7 324 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
c4af7684 325 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
c4af7684 326 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
c4af7684 327 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
8c6c88c7 328
b31fdeed 329## Geo-restriction:
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330 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
331 some geo-restricted sites. The default
332 proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the
7550ea50 333 option is not present) is used for the
8a51f564 334 actual downloading
8c6c88c7 335 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
0934c9d4 336 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
8c6c88c7
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337 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
338 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
8c6c88c7
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339 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
340 explicitly provided two-letter ISO 3166-2
0934c9d4 341 country code
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342 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
343 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR
0934c9d4 344 notation
149f05c7 345
cfcec693 346## Video Selection:
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347 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is 1)
348 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
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349 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
350 indices of the videos in the playlist
351 separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
352 1,2,5,8" if you want to download videos
353 indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in the playlist. You can
354 specify range: "--playlist-items
355 1-3,7,10-13", it will download the videos
8a51f564 356 at index 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13
780083db 357 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
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358 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
359 SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
360 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
361 (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
6623ac34 362 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded in this date.
363 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
364 "(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?"
c4af7684 365 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
c76eb41b 366 this date. The date formats accepted is the
367 same as --date
c4af7684 368 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
c76eb41b 369 this date. The date formats accepted is the
370 same as --date
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371 --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Any field (see
372 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE") can be compared with a
a047eeb6 373 number or a string using the operators
374 defined in "Filtering formats". You can
375 also simply specify a field to match if the
376 field is present and "!field" to check if
377 the field is not present. In addition,
378 Python style regular expression matching
379 can be done using "~=", and multiple
380 filters can be checked with "&". Use a "\"
381 to escape "&" or quotes if needed. Eg:
382 --match-filter "!is_live & like_count>?100
2e7781a9 383 & description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'"
a047eeb6 384 matches only videos that are not live, has
385 a like count more than 100 (or the like
77b87f05 386 field is not available), and also has a
a047eeb6 387 description that contains the phrase "cats
388 & dogs" (ignoring case)
c76eb41b 389 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
c4af7684 390 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
8a51f564 391 to a video and a playlist
c4af7684 392 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
8a51f564 393 a video and a playlist
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394 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
395 age
396 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
397 archive file. Record the IDs of all
8a51f564 398 downloaded videos in it
8b0d7497 399 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
8a51f564 400 a file that is in the archive
8b0d7497 401 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
8a51f564 402 a file that has been filtered out
26e2805c 403 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest
404 of the playlist is skipped
c76eb41b 405 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
6bcd846b 406
d5a62e4f 407## Download Options:
b31fdeed 408 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
409 video that should be download concurrently
410 (default is 1)
5e3856a2 411 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
c4af7684 412 (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
6aecd871 413 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
414 below which throttling is assumed and the
415 video data is re-extracted (e.g. 100K)
c4af7684 416 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
8a51f564 417 "infinite"
0be8314d 418 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
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419 is 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and
420 ISM)
6623ac34 421 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
422 hlsnative and ISM (default)
8a51f564 423 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
6623ac34 424 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading if a fragment is unavailable
8a51f564 425 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
a82f4184 426 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
6623ac34 427 downloading is finished
c76eb41b 428 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
429 downloading is finished (default)
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430 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
431 (default is 1024)
c76eb41b 432 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
433 from an initial value of --buffer-size
434 (default)
435 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
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436 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
437 downloading (e.g. 10485760 or 10M) (default
438 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
439 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
440 (experimental)
2101f5d4 441 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
6623ac34 442 --no-playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in default order
c76eb41b 443 (default)
31487eb9 444 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
c4af7684 445 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
0934c9d4 446 expected file size
9bd20204 447 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
448 allowing some players to play the video
449 while downloading, and reducing the chance
450 of file corruption if download is
451 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
452 live streams
453 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
454 videos. This is default when not
455 downloading live streams
52a8a1e1 456 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
457 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
458 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
459 use it for. Currently supports native,
460 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
461 wget (Recommended: aria2c). You can use
462 this option multiple times to set different
463 downloaders for different protocols. For
464 example, --downloader aria2c --downloader
465 "dash,m3u8:native" will use aria2c for
466 http/ftp downloads, and the native
467 downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
468 (Alias: --external-downloader)
46ee996e 469 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
470 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
330690a2 471 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
472 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to
473 different positions using the same syntax
474 as --postprocessor-args. You can use this
475 option multiple times to give different
476 arguments to different downloaders
29b6000e 477 (Alias: --external-downloader-args)
d5a62e4f 478
cfcec693 479## Filesystem Options:
c4af7684 480 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-' for
e8dfecb3
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481 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
482 with '#', ';' or ']' are considered as
8a51f564 483 comments and ignored
1e520b55 484 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
6ccf351a 485 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
0202b52a 486 downloaded. Specify the type of file and
de6000d9 487 the path separated by a colon ":". All the
488 same types as --output are supported.
489 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
6ccf351a 490 (default) and "temp" paths. All
491 intermediary files are first downloaded to
492 the temp path and then the final files are
493 moved over to the home path after download
494 is finished. This option is ignored if
495 --output is an absolute path
d818eb74 496 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
c76eb41b 497 TEMPLATE" for details
0bc0a322 498 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder value for unavailable meta
499 fields in output filename template
500 (default: "NA")
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501 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
502 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
503 filenames
c76eb41b 504 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
505 filenames (default)
c2934512 506 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be windows compatible
507 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames windows compatible only if
508 using windows (default)
509 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
510 extension) to the specified number of
511 characters
9b45b9f5 512 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
513 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files.
514 This option includes --no-continue
515 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
516 related files (default)
c25228e5 517 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
518 (default)
519 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
e58c22a0 520 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
c25228e5 521 restart download of the entire file
c76eb41b 522 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
6623ac34 523 into output file (default)
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524 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
525 into output file
c76eb41b 526 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the
527 file modification time (default)
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528 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
529 the file modification time
530 --write-description Write video description to a .description
531 file
6623ac34 532 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
1dc2726f 533 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
c25228e5 534 (this may contain personal information)
6623ac34 535 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
cac96421 536 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
537 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
538 --write-description etc. (default)
539 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
540 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
75d43ca0 541 --clean-infojson Remove some private fields such as
542 filenames from the infojson. Note that it
543 could still contain some personal
544 information (default)
545 --no-clean-infojson Write all fields to the infojson
2305e2e5 546 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
547 infojson. The comments are fetched even
548 without this option if the extraction is
549 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
550 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
551 extraction is known to be quick
552 (Alias: --no-get-comments)
d845622b 553 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
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554 (created with the "--write-info-json"
555 option)
556 --cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump cookie
557 jar in
982ee69a
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558 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
559 (default)
560 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[:PROFILE]
561 Load cookies from a user profile of the
562 given web browser. Currently supported
0ef787d7 563 browsers are: brave, chrome, chromium,
564 edge, firefox, opera, safari, vivaldi. You
565 can specify the user profile name or
566 directory using "BROWSER:PROFILE_NAME" or
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567 "BROWSER:PROFILE_PATH". If no profile is
568 given, the most recently accessed one is
569 used
570 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
6623ac34 571 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
3b1fe47d 572 can store some downloaded information (such
573 as client ids and signatures) permanently.
9ee4f0bb 574 By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/yt-dlp or
575 ~/.cache/yt-dlp
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576 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
577 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
6bcd846b 578
b31fdeed 579## Thumbnail Options:
1dc2726f 580 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
6623ac34 581 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk
c76eb41b 582 (default)
1dc2726f 583 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
34488702 584 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
585 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
2b1bd292 586
732044af 587## Internet Shortcut Options:
8a51f564 588 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
589 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
590 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
591 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
592 OS caches the URL based on the file path
593 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
594 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
732044af 595
0744a815 596## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
34488702 597 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with
598 --verbose, print the log to stderr
6c072e7d 599 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
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600 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
601 anything to disk
34488702 602 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
603 options are used
0cf05715 604 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Usefull
34488702 605 for extracting metadata even if the videos
606 are not actually available for download
0cf05715 607 (experimental)
608 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
609 formats are found (default)
e167860c 610 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
611 related files (Alias: --no-download)
34488702 612 -O, --print TEMPLATE Quiet, but print the given fields for each
613 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
614 used. Either a field name or same syntax as
615 the output template can be used
616 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
617 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
618 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
619 description of available keys
620 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
621 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
622 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
623 a playlist, the whole playlist information
624 is dumped in a single line
8a51f564 625 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be
e58c22a0 626 written as far as no errors occur, even if
627 -s or another simulation option is used
8a51f564 628 (Alias: --force-download-archive)
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629 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
630 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
819e0531 631 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
1dc2726f 632 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
819e0531 633 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
634 Template for progress outputs, optionally
635 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
636 "download-title:" (the console title),
637 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
638 The video's fields are accessible under the
639 "info" key and the progress attributes are
640 accessible under "progress" key. Eg:
641 --console-title --progress-template
642 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
1dc2726f 643 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
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644 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
645 to debug problems (very verbose)
646 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
647 files in the current directory to debug
648 problems
780083db 649 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
6bcd846b 650
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651## Workarounds:
652 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
1dc2726f 653 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
c4af7684 654 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
e167860c 655 information about the video (Currently
05a7ffb1 656 supported only for YouTube)
1dc2726f 657 --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
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658 --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video
659 access is restricted to one domain
660 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
45016689 661 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
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662 option multiple times
663 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
664 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
665 or fribidi executable in PATH
1cf376f5 666 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
667 during data extraction
c4af7684 668 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
e167860c 669 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
670 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
671 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
672 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can
673 only be used along with --min-sleep-interval
1cf376f5 674 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
675 subtitle download
36f35428 676
cfcec693 677## Video Format Options:
eb8a4433 678 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
679 for more details
680 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
681 "Sorting Formats" for more details
8a51f564 682 --S-force, --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
683 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
eb8a4433 684 Formats" for more details
685 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
c76eb41b 686 specified sort order (default), see
687 "Sorting Formats" for more details
688 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
689 into a single file
690 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for
691 each output file (default)
692 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
693 into a single file
694 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for
695 each output file (default)
da9be05e 696 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
697 over non-free ones of same quality. Use
698 with "-S ext" to strictly prefer free
699 containers irrespective of quality
700 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
701 containers (default)
e8e73840 702 --check-formats Check that the formats selected are
0ba692ac 703 actually downloadable
704 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats selected are
705 actually downloadable
34488702 706 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
707 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
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708 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
709 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
710 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
711 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
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712
713## Subtitle Options:
c76eb41b 714 --write-subs Write subtitle file
715 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
716 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
e167860c 717 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
718 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
719 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
34488702 720 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
721 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
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722 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
723 preference, for example: "srt" or
724 "ass/srt/best"
c32b0aab 725 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
726 be regex) or "all" separated by commas.
727 (Eg: --sub-langs en.*,ja) You can prefix
728 the language code with a "-" to exempt it
729 from the requested languages. (Eg: --sub-
730 langs all,-live_chat) Use --list-subs for a
731 list of available language tags
6bcd846b 732
cfcec693 733## Authentication Options:
1dc2726f 734 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
c4af7684 735 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
7a5c1cfe 736 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
dc48a354 737 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
1dc2726f 738 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
0001fcb5 739 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
740 either the path or its containing
741 directory. Defaults to ~/.netrc
29f7c58a 742 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
f5e008d1 743 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
909d24dd 744 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
745 a list of available MSOs
f5e008d1
S
746 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
747 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
c74d1aa3 748 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
749 interactively
f5e008d1
S
750 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
751 operators
752
c76eb41b 753## Post-Processing Options:
c4af7684 754 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
e4172ac9 755 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
3de7c2ce 756 --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format to convert the audio
757 to when -x is used. Currently supported
758 formats are: best (default) or one of
34488702 759 best|aac|flac|mp3|m4a|opus|vorbis|wav
e4172ac9 760 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality, insert a
761 value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for
762 VBR or a specific bitrate like 128K
c4af7684 763 (default 5)
c76eb41b 764 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
29b6000e 765 necessary (currently supported: mp4|mkv|flv
766 |webm|mov|avi|mp3|mka|m4a|ogg|opus). If
767 target container does not support the
06167fbb 768 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
3de7c2ce 769 can specify multiple rules; Eg.
06167fbb 770 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to
771 m4a, mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv.
c76eb41b 772 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
3de7c2ce 773 re-encoding is necessary. The syntax and
774 supported formats are the same as --remux-video
1b77b347 775 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
43820c03 776 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
45016689 777 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
778 to give the argument to the specified
8fa43c73 779 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
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780 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
781 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
8fa43c73 782 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
783 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
6aecd871 784 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
785 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
8fa43c73 786 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
9ee4f0bb 787 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
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788 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
789 specified executable only when being used
790 by the specified postprocessor.
791 Additionally, for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o"
792 can be appended to the prefix optionally
793 followed by a number to pass the argument
794 before the specified input/output file. Eg:
795 --ppa "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can
796 use this option multiple times to give
e4172ac9 797 different arguments to different
5b1ecbb3 798 postprocessors. (Alias: --ppa)
c76eb41b 799 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
6623ac34 800 after post-processing
c76eb41b 801 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
6623ac34 802 post-processing (default)
803 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
804 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
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805 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
806 webm and mkv videos)
c76eb41b 807 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
6aecd871 808 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
6623ac34 809 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
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810 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also adds
811 chapters to file unless --no-add-chapters
812 is used (Alias: --add-metadata)
813 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
6aecd871 814 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
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815 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
816 (Alias: --add-chapters)
817 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default)
818 (Alias: --no-add-chapters)
73cd218f 819 --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
820 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
821 for details
e9f4ccd1 822 --replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
823 Replace text in a metadata field using the
824 given regex. This option can be used
825 multiple times
c4af7684
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826 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
827 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
828 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
829 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
830 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
831 default; fix file if we can, warn
6aecd871 832 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
833 already exists
e4172ac9 834 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
835 path to the binary or its containing
836 directory
c4af7684 837 --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
34488702 838 downloading and post-processing. Same
839 syntax as the output template can be used
9de3ea31 840 to pass any field as arguments to the
841 command. An additional field "filepath"
842 that contains the final path of the
843 downloaded file is also available. If no
7d1eb38a 844 fields are passed, %(filepath)q is appended
34488702 845 to the end of the command. This option can
846 be used multiple times
847 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
5520aa2d 848 --exec-before-download CMD Execute a command before the actual
849 download. The syntax is the same as --exec
34488702 850 but "filepath" is not available. This
851 option can be used multiple times
852 --no-exec-before-download Remove any previously defined
853 --exec-before-download
e167860c 854 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
3de7c2ce 855 (currently supported: srt|vtt|ass|lrc)
e167860c 856 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
8fa43c73 857 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
3de7c2ce 858 (currently supported: jpg|png)
72755351 859 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
860 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix
861 can be used with "--paths" and "--output"
862 to set the output filename for the split
863 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
864 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters
865 (default)
7a340e0d 866 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
2d9ec704 867 given regular expression. Time ranges
868 prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place
869 of chapters to remove the specified range.
870 Eg: --remove-chapters "*10:15-15:00"
871 --remove-chapters "intro". This option can
7a340e0d 872 be used multiple times
9ee4f0bb 873 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
874 (default)
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875 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes around the chapters before
876 removing/splitting them. Requires a
877 reencode and thus is very slow, but the
878 resulting video may have fewer artifacts
879 around the cuts
880 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
881 when cutting/splitting (default)
3ae5e797 882 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS] The (case sensitive) name of plugin
883 postprocessors to be enabled, and
884 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
885 seperated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
886 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
887 The "when" argument determines when the
888 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
889 "pre_process" (after extraction),
890 "before_dl" (before video download),
891 "post_process" (after video download;
892 default) or "after_move" (after moving file
893 to their final locations). This option can
894 be used multiple times to add different
895 postprocessors
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896
897## SponsorBlock Options:
898Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
899 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
8a51f564 900 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
901
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902 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
903 for, separated by commas. Available
904 categories are all, sponsor, intro, outro,
905 selfpromo, interaction, preview,
906 music_offtopic. You can prefix the category
907 with a "-" to exempt it. See
908 https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/index.php/Segment_Categories
909 for description of the categories. Eg:
910 --sponsorblock-query all,-preview
911 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
912 the video file, separated by commas. If a
913 category is present in both mark and
914 remove, remove takes precedence. The syntax
915 and available categories are the same as
916 for --sponsorblock-mark
917 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
918 The title template for SponsorBlock
919 chapters created by --sponsorblock-mark.
920 The same syntax as the output template is
921 used, but the only available fields are
922 start_time, end_time, category, categories,
923 name, category_names. Defaults to
924 "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
925 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
926 --sponsorblock-remove
927 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
928 https://sponsor.ajay.app
a9e7f546 929
78895bd3 930## Extractor Options:
5ef7d9bd 931 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor
d6e51845 932 errors (default is 3), or "infinite"
6623ac34 933 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
8a51f564 934 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
935 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
936 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
e409895f 937 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
938 discontinuities such as ad breaks
939 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
940 formats at discontinuities such as ad
941 breaks (default)
5d3a0e79 942 --extractor-args KEY:ARGS Pass these arguments to the extractor. See
943 "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You can
944 use this option multiple times to give
245524e6 945 arguments for different extractors
17cb02d0 946
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947# CONFIGURATION
948
7a5c1cfe 949You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
e2e43aea 950
0202b52a 9511. **Main Configuration**: The file given by `--config-location`
7a5c1cfe
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9521. **Portable Configuration**: `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the bundled binary. If you are running from source-code (`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`), the root directory is used instead.
9531. **Home Configuration**: `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by `-P "home:<path>"`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
e2e43aea 9541. **User Configuration**:
955 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
956 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
957 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
958 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
959 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
960 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
961
c589c1d3 962 `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%` defaults to `~/.config` if undefined. On windows, `~` points to %HOME% if present, `%USERPROFILE%` (generally `C:\Users\<user name>`) or `%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`.
07cce701 9631. **System Configuration**: `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
b7770046 964
7a5c1cfe 965For example, with the following configuration file yt-dlp will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under `YouTube` directory in your home directory:
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966```
967# Lines starting with # are comments
968
969# Always extract audio
970-x
971
972# Do not copy the mtime
973--no-mtime
974
975# Use this proxy
976--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
977
298f597b 978# Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
979-o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
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980```
981
e2e43aea 982Note that options in configuration file are just the same options aka switches used in regular command line calls; thus there **must be no whitespace** after `-` or `--`, e.g. `-o` or `--proxy` but not `- o` or `-- proxy`.
b7770046 983
7a5c1cfe 984You can use `--ignore-config` if you want to disable all configuration files for a particular yt-dlp run. If `--ignore-config` is found inside any configuration file, no further configuration will be loaded. For example, having the option in the portable configuration file prevents loading of user and system configurations. Additionally, (for backward compatibility) if `--ignore-config` is found inside the system configuration file, the user configuration is not loaded.
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985
986### Authentication with `.netrc` file
987
0001fcb5 988You may also want to configure automatic credentials storage for extractors that support authentication (by providing login and password with `--username` and `--password`) in order not to pass credentials as command line arguments on every yt-dlp execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command history. You can achieve this using a [`.netrc` file](https://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on a per extractor basis. For that you will need to create a `.netrc` file in `--netrc-location` and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
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989```
990touch $HOME/.netrc
991chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
992```
993After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
994```
0001fcb5 995machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
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996```
997For example:
998```
999machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1000machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1001```
7a5c1cfe 1002To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
b7770046 1003
0001fcb5 1004The default location of the .netrc file is `$HOME` (`~`) in UNIX. On Windows, it is `%HOME%` if present, `%USERPROFILE%` (generally `C:\Users\<user name>`) or `%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
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1005
1006# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1007
0202b52a 1008The `-o` option is used to indicate a template for the output file names while `-P` option is used to specify the path each type of file should be saved to.
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1009
1010**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
1011
e58c22a0 1012The simplest usage of `-o` is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in `yt-dlp -o funny_video.flv "https://some/video"` (hard-coding file extension like this is _not_ recommended and could break some post-processing).
a439a3a4 1013
f5aa5cfb 1014It may however also contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according to [python string formatting operations](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting). For example, `%(NAME)s` or `%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.
a439a3a4 1015
1016The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
2b8a2973 10171. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a `.` (dot) separator. You can also do python slicing using `:`. Eg: `%(tags.0)s`, `%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s`, `%(id.3:7:-1)s`, `%(formats.:.format_id)s`. `%()s` refers to the entire infodict. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use `-j` to see such fields
e625be0d 10181. **Addition**: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using `+` and `-` respectively. Eg: `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
10191. **Date/time Formatting**: Date/time fields can be formatted according to [strftime formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes) by specifying it separated from the field name using a `>`. Eg: `%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`, `%(upload_date>%Y-%m-%d)s`, `%(epoch-3600>%H-%M-%S)s`
7c37ff97 10201. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified seperated with a `,`. Eg: `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
10211. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a `|` seperator. This overrides `--output-na-template`. Eg: `%(uploader|Unknown)s`
91dd88b9 10221. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types `diouxXeEfFgGcrs`, `B`, `j`, `l`, `q` can be used for converting to **B**ytes, **j**son, a comma seperated **l**ist (alternate form flag `#` makes it new line `\n` seperated) and a string **q**uoted for the terminal, respectively
524e2e4f 10231. **Unicode normalization**: The format type `U` can be used for NFC [unicode normalization](https://docs.python.org/3/library/unicodedata.html#unicodedata.normalize). The alternate form flag (`#`) changes the normalization to NFD and the conversion flag `+` can be used for NFKC/NFKD compatibility equivalence normalization. Eg: `%(title)+.100U` is NFKC
a439a3a4 1024
1025To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1026```
7c37ff97 1027%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
a439a3a4 1028```
de6000d9 1029
80c03fa9 1030Additionally, you can set different output templates for the various metadata files separately from the general output template by specifying the type of file followed by the template separated by a colon `:`. The different file types supported are `subtitle`, `thumbnail`, `description`, `annotation` (deprecated), `infojson`, `pl_thumbnail`, `pl_description`, `pl_infojson`, `chapter`. For example, `-o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' -o 'thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s'` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video. If any of the templates (except default) is empty, that type of file will not be written. Eg: `--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for video.
e29663c6 1031
1032The available fields are:
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1033
1034 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1035 - `title` (string): Video title
1036 - `url` (string): Video URL
1037 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1038 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
597c1866 1039 - `description` (string): The description of the video
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1040 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1041 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1042 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1043 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
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1044 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
1045 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
e6f21b3d 1046 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
1047 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
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1048 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1049 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1050 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
1051 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1052 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
53c18592 1053 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
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1054 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1055 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1056 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1057 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1058 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
277d6ff5 1059 - `comment_count` (numeric): Number of comments on the video (For some extractors, comments are only downloaded at the end, and so this field cannot be used)
b7770046 1060 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
3dbb2a9d 1061 - `live_status` (string): One of 'is_live', 'was_live', 'is_upcoming', 'not_live'
b7770046 1062 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
f76ede8e 1063 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
6cfda058 1064 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
c224251a 1065 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is 'private', 'premium_only', 'subscriber_only', 'needs_auth', 'unlisted' or 'public'
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1066 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1067 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
29b6000e 1068 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
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1069 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by `--format`
1070 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
1071 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
1072 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
1073 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
1074 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1075 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1076 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
1077 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1078 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1079 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
176f1866 1080 - `dynamic_range` (string): The dynamic range of the video
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1081 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
1082 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
1083 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
1084 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
1085 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
1086 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1087 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
1088 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch when creating the file
1089 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`
e6f21b3d 1090 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
b7770046 1091 - `playlist` (string): Name or id of the playlist that contains the video
e6f21b3d 1092 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1093 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
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1094 - `playlist_id` (string): Playlist identifier
1095 - `playlist_title` (string): Playlist title
1096 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1097 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
bd99f6e6 1098 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
1099 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
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1100
1101Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1102
1103 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1104 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1105 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1106
1107Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1108
1109 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1110 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1111 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1112 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1113 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1114 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1115 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1116
1117Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1118
1119 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1120 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1121 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1122 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1123 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1124 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1125 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1126 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1127 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1128 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1129
b050d210 1130Available for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
72755351 1131
1132 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1133 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1134 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1135 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1136
53c18592 1137Available only when used in `--print`:
1138
1139 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1140 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the actual filename may be different due to post-processing. Use `--exec echo` to get the name after all postprocessing is complete
7a340e0d
NA
1141
1142Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1143
1144 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1145 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1146 - `categories` (list): The SponsorBlock categories the chapter belongs to
1147 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1148 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1149 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
53c18592 1150
a820dc72 1151Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. Note that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with placeholder value provided with `--output-na-placeholder` (`NA` by default).
b7770046 1152
bc97cdae 1153For example for `-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title `yt-dlp test video` and id `BaW_jenozKc`, this will result in a `yt-dlp test video-BaW_jenozKc.mp4` file created in the current directory.
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1154
1155For numeric sequences you can use numeric related formatting, for example, `%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in `00042`.
1156
1157Output templates can also contain arbitrary hierarchical path, e.g. `-o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s'` which will result in downloading each video in a directory corresponding to this path template. Any missing directory will be automatically created for you.
1158
1159To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1160
91ebc640 1161The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
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1162
1163In some cases, you don't want special characters such as 中, spaces, or &, such as when transferring the downloaded filename to a Windows system or the filename through an 8bit-unsafe channel. In these cases, add the `--restrict-filenames` flag to get a shorter title:
1164
1165#### Output template and Windows batch files
1166
1167If you are using an output template inside a Windows batch file then you must escape plain percent characters (`%`) by doubling, so that `-o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"` should become `-o "%%(title)s-%%(id)s.%%(ext)s"`. However you should not touch `%`'s that are not plain characters, e.g. environment variables for expansion should stay intact: `-o "C:\%HOMEPATH%\Desktop\%%(title)s.%%(ext)s"`.
1168
1169#### Output template examples
1170
de6000d9 1171Note that on Windows you need to use double quotes instead of single.
b7770046
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1172
1173```bash
7a5c1cfe
P
1174$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
1175youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
b7770046 1176
7a5c1cfe
P
1177$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
1178youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
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1179
1180# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
7a5c1cfe 1181$ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
b7770046 1182
b050d210 1183# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
7a5c1cfe 1184$ yt-dlp -o '%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
e29663c6 1185
b7770046 1186# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
7a5c1cfe 1187$ yt-dlp -o '%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists
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1188
1189# Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
7a5c1cfe 1190$ yt-dlp -u user -p password -P '~/MyVideos' -o '%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s - %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial/
b7770046
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1191
1192# Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
7a5c1cfe 1193$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -o "%(series)s/%(season_number)s - %(season)s/%(episode_number)s - %(episode)s.%(ext)s" https://videomore.ru/kino_v_detalayah/5_sezon/367617
b7770046
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1194
1195# Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
7a5c1cfe 1196$ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
b7770046
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1197```
1198
1199# FORMAT SELECTION
1200
7a5c1cfe
P
1201By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1202This is generally equivalent to using `-f bestvideo*+bestaudio/best`. However, if multiple audiostreams is enabled (`--audio-multistreams`), the default format changes to `-f bestvideo+bestaudio/best`. Similarly, if ffmpeg is unavailable, or if you use yt-dlp to stream to `stdout` (`-o -`), the default becomes `-f best/bestvideo+bestaudio`.
b7770046 1203
c111cefa 1204**Deprecation warning**: Latest versions of yt-dlp can stream multiple formats to the stdout simultaneously using ffmpeg. So, in future versions, the default for this will be set to `-f bv*+ba/b` similar to normal downloads. If you want to preserve the `-f b/bv+ba` setting, it is recommended to explicitly specify it in the configuration options.
1205
eff63539 1206The general syntax for format selection is `-f FORMAT` (or `--format FORMAT`) where `FORMAT` is a *selector expression*, i.e. an expression that describes format or formats you would like to download.
b7770046
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1207
1208**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1209
a439a3a4 1210The simplest case is requesting a specific format, for example with `-f 22` you can download the format with format code equal to 22. You can get the list of available format codes for particular video using `--list-formats` or `-F`. Note that these format codes are extractor specific.
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1211
1212You can also use a file extension (currently `3gp`, `aac`, `flv`, `m4a`, `mp3`, `mp4`, `ogg`, `wav`, `webm` are supported) to download the best quality format of a particular file extension served as a single file, e.g. `-f webm` will download the best quality format with the `webm` extension served as a single file.
1213
1214You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1215
e094cec1 1216 - `all`: Select all formats
f8d4ad9a 1217 - `mergeall`: Select and merge all formats (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
1218 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio
1219 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio
909d24dd 1220 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1221 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1222 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality video-only format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1223 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
909d24dd 1224 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1225 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1226 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
1227 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
909d24dd 1228 - `ba*`, `bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `best*[acodec!=none]`
1229 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
b7770046 1230
e58c22a0 1231For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use `-f worstvideo`. It is however recommended not to use `worst` and related options. When your format selector is `worst`, the format which is worst in all respects is selected. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use `-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps` instead of `-f worst`. See [sorting formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
eff63539 1232
1233You can select the n'th best format of a type by using `best<type>.<n>`. For example, `best.2` will select the 2nd best combined format. Similarly, `bv*.3` will select the 3rd best format that contains a video stream.
b7770046 1234
eb8a4433 1235If you want to download multiple videos and they don't have the same formats available, you can specify the order of preference using slashes. Note that formats on the left hand side are preferred, for example `-f 22/17/18` will download format 22 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 17 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 18 if it's available, otherwise it will complain that no suitable formats are available for download.
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1236
1237If you want to download several formats of the same video use a comma as a separator, e.g. `-f 22,17,18` will download all these three formats, of course if they are available. Or a more sophisticated example combined with the precedence feature: `-f 136/137/mp4/bestvideo,140/m4a/bestaudio`.
1238
d806c9fd 1239You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using `-f <format1>+<format2>+...` (requires ffmpeg installed), for example `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg.
1240
1241**Deprecation warning**: Since the *below* described behavior is complex and counter-intuitive, this will be removed and multistreams will be enabled by default in the future. A new operator will be instead added to limit formats to single audio/video
1242
1243Unless `--video-multistreams` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, unless `--audio-multistreams` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. For example, `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --video-multistreams --audio-multistreams` will download and merge all 3 given formats. The resulting file will have 2 video streams and 2 audio streams. But `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --no-video-multistreams` will download and merge only `bestvideo` and `bestaudio`. `best` is ignored since another format containing a video stream (`bestvideo`) has already been selected. The order of the formats is therefore important. `-f best+bestaudio --no-audio-multistreams` will download and merge both formats while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore `best` and download only `bestaudio`.
eb8a4433 1244
1245## Filtering Formats
1246
b7770046
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1247You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
1248
1249The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1250
1251 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1252 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1253 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
1254 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1255 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1256 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1257 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1258 - `fps`: Frame rate
1259
1260Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains) and following string meta fields:
1261
1262 - `ext`: File extension
1263 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1264 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1265 - `container`: Name of the container format
1266 - `protocol`: The protocol that will be used for the actual download, lower-case (`http`, `https`, `rtsp`, `rtmp`, `rtmpe`, `mms`, `f4m`, `ism`, `http_dash_segments`, `m3u8`, or `m3u8_native`)
1267 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
29f7c58a 1268 - `language`: Language code
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1269
1270Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation `!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. `!*=` (does not contain).
1271
e58c22a0 1272Note that none of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by the website. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
b7770046 1273
e094cec1 1274Formats for which the value is not known are excluded unless you put a question mark (`?`) after the operator. You can combine format filters, so `-f "[height<=?720][tbr>500]"` selects up to 720p videos (or videos where the height is not known) with a bitrate of at least 500 KBit/s. You can also use the filters with `all` to download all formats that satisfy the filter. For example, `-f "all[vcodec=none]"` selects all audio-only formats.
b7770046 1275
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1276Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if you want to download the best mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480 you can use `-f '(mp4,webm)[height<480]'`.
1277
eb8a4433 1278## Sorting Formats
1279
2e7781a9 1280You can change the criteria for being considered the `best` by using `-S` (`--format-sort`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...`.
1281
1282The available fields are:
eb8a4433 1283
63be1aab 1284 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1285 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
1286 - `ie_pref`: The format preference as given by the extractor
1287 - `lang`: Language preference as given by the extractor
dca3ff4a 1288 - `quality`: The quality of the format as given by the extractor
63be1aab 1289 - `source`: Preference of the source as given by the extractor
e36d50c5 1290 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > other > `mms`/`rtsp` > unknown > `f4f`/`f4m`)
155d2b48 1291 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other > unknown)
63be1aab 1292 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other > unknown)
eb8a4433 1293 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
63be1aab 1294 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `webm` > `flv` > other > unknown). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is prefered.
1295 - `aext`: Audio Extension (`m4a` > `aac` > `mp3` > `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > other > unknown). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to `opus` > `ogg` > `webm` > `m4a` > `mp3` > `aac`.
1296 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
eb8a4433 1297 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if know in advance. This will be unavailable for mu38 and DASH formats.
63be1aab 1298 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1299 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
eb8a4433 1300 - `height`: Height of video
1301 - `width`: Width of video
63be1aab 1302 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1303 - `fps`: Framerate of video
176f1866 1304 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `SDR`)
63be1aab 1305 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1306 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1307 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1308 - `br`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr`
1309 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
d806c9fd 1310
1311**Deprecation warning**: Many of these fields have (currently undocumented) aliases, that may be removed in a future version. It is recommended to use only the documented field names.
eb8a4433 1312
9ee4f0bb 1313All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in descending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+`. Eg: `+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a preferred value for the fields, separated by a `:`. Eg: `res:720` prefers larger videos, but no larger than 720p and the smallest video if there are no videos less than 720p. For `codec` and `ext`, you can provide two preferred values, the first for video and the second for audio. Eg: `+codec:avc:m4a` (equivalent to `+vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a`) sets the video codec preference to `h264` > `h265` > `vp9` > `vp9.2` > `av01` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` and audio codec preference to `mp4a` > `aac` > `vorbis` > `opus` > `mp3` > `ac3` > `dts`. You can also make the sorting prefer the nearest values to the provided by using `~` as the delimiter. Eg: `filesize~1G` prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.
1314
176f1866 1315The fields `hasvid` and `ie_pref` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using `--format-sort-force`. Apart from these, the default order used is: `lang,quality,res,fps,hdr:12,codec:vp9.2,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. The extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
eb8a4433 1316
176f1866 1317Note that the default has `codec:vp9.2`; i.e. `av1` is not prefered. Similarly, the default for hdr is `hdr:12`; i.e. dolby vision is not prefered. These choices are made since DV and AV1 formats are not yet fully compatible with most devices. This may be changed in the future as more devices become capable of smoothly playing back these formats.
eb8a4433 1318
e58c22a0 1319If your format selector is `worst`, the last item is selected after sorting. This means it will select the format that is worst in all respects. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use `-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps`.
eb8a4433 1320
1321**Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1322
eb8a4433 1323## Format Selection examples
b7770046
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1324
1325Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
1326
1327```bash
e58c22a0 1328# Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
909d24dd 1329# or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
7a5c1cfe 1330$ yt-dlp -f 'bv+ba/b'
909d24dd 1331
1332# Download best format that contains video,
1333# and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
7a5c1cfe 1334$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba/b'
2af884ff 1335
1336# Same as above
7a5c1cfe 1337$ yt-dlp
909d24dd 1338
6fd35a11 1339# Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1340# For this case, an output template should be used since
1341# by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
7a5c1cfe 1342$ yt-dlp -f 'bv,ba' -o '%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s'
909d24dd 1343
f8d4ad9a 1344# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1345# and all audio-only formats into one file
1346$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]' --audio-multistreams
1347
1348# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1349# and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1350$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba+ba.2' --audio-multistreams
909d24dd 1351
6fd35a11 1352
1353# The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
f8d4ad9a 1354# and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
6fd35a11 1355
1356# Download the worst video available (old method)
7a5c1cfe 1357$ yt-dlp -f 'wv*+wa/w'
eb8a4433 1358
1359# Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
7a5c1cfe 1360$ yt-dlp -S '+res'
eb8a4433 1361
1362# Download the smallest video available
7a5c1cfe 1363$ yt-dlp -S '+size,+br'
eb8a4433 1364
1365
909d24dd 1366
eb8a4433 1367# Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
7a5c1cfe 1368$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b'
eb8a4433 1369
1370# Download the best video with the best extension
1371# (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
7a5c1cfe 1372$ yt-dlp -S 'ext'
eb8a4433 1373
1374
909d24dd 1375
eb8a4433 1376# Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1377# or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
7a5c1cfe 1378$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w'
b7770046 1379
eb8a4433 1380# Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1381# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
7a5c1cfe 1382$ yt-dlp -S 'height:480'
b7770046 1383
eb8a4433 1384# Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1385# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1386# Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1387# So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
7a5c1cfe 1388$ yt-dlp -S 'res:480'
b7770046 1389
b7770046 1390
909d24dd 1391
eb8a4433 1392# Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1393# or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
7a5c1cfe 1394$ yt-dlp -f 'b[filesize<50M] / w'
eb8a4433 1395
1396# Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1397# or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
7a5c1cfe 1398$ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize:50M'
eb8a4433 1399
1400# Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
7a5c1cfe 1401$ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize~50M'
eb8a4433 1402
1403
909d24dd 1404
eb8a4433 1405# Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1406# or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1407$ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)'
eb8a4433 1408
1409# Download best video available via the best protocol
1410# (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
7a5c1cfe 1411$ yt-dlp -S 'proto'
eb8a4433 1412
1413
909d24dd 1414
eb8a4433 1415# Download the best video with h264 codec, or the best video if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1416$ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[vcodec^=avc1] / (bv*+ba/b)'
eb8a4433 1417
1418# Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1419# or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1420$ yt-dlp -S 'codec:h264'
eb8a4433 1421
1422# Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1423# or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1424$ yt-dlp -S '+codec:h264'
eb8a4433 1425
1426
1427
1428# More complex examples
1429
e58c22a0 1430# Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1431# or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1432$ yt-dlp -f '((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)'
eb8a4433 1433
1434# Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
f8d4ad9a 1435# or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1436# preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
7a5c1cfe 1437$ yt-dlp -S 'res:720,fps'
eb8a4433 1438
1439
909d24dd 1440
eb8a4433 1441# Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1442# or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1443# preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
7a5c1cfe 1444$ yt-dlp -S '+res:480,codec,br'
b7770046 1445```
eb8a4433 1446
73cd218f 1447# MODIFYING METADATA
1448
e9f4ccd1 1449The metadata obtained the the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
1450
418964fa 1451`--replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE` is used to replace text in any metadata field using [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax). [Backreferences](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html?highlight=backreferences#re.sub) can be used in the replace string for advanced use.
e9f4ccd1 1452
2e7781a9 1453The general syntax of `--parse-metadata FROM:TO` is to give the name of a field or an [output template](#output-template) to extract data from, and the format to interpret it as, separated by a colon `:`. Either a [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax) with named capture groups or a similar syntax to the [output template](#output-template) (only `%(field)s` formatting is supported) can be used for `TO`. The option can be used multiple times to parse and modify various fields.
73cd218f 1454
1455Note that any field created by this can be used in the [output template](#output-template) and will also affect the media file's metadata added when using `--add-metadata`.
1456
9c2b75b5 1457This option also has a few special uses:
28b0eb0f 1458* You can download an additional URL based on the metadata of the currently downloaded video. To do this, set the field `additional_urls` to the URL that you want to download. Eg: `--parse-metadata "description:(?P<additional_urls>https?://www\.vimeo\.com/\d+)` will download the first vimeo video found in the description
b11d2101 1459* You can use this to change the metadata that is embedded in the media file. To do this, set the value of the corresponding field with a `meta_` prefix. For example, any value you set to `meta_description` field will be added to the `description` field in the file. For example, you can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis". Any value set to the `meta_` field will overwrite all default values.
c31be5b0 1460
1461For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1462
1463Metadata fields|From
1464:---|:---
1465`title`|`track` or `title`
1466`date`|`upload_date`
1467`description`, `synopsis`|`description`
1468`purl`, `comment`|`webpage_url`
1469`track`|`track_number`
1470`artist`|`artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1471`genre`|`genre`
1472`album`|`album`
1473`album_artist`|`album_artist`
1474`disc`|`disc_number`
1475`show`|`series`
1476`season_number`|`season_number`
1477`episode_id`|`episode` or `episode_id`
1478`episode_sort`|`episode_number`
1479`language` of each stream|From the format's `language`
1480**Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1481
73cd218f 1482
1483## Modifying metadata examples
1484
1485Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
1486
1487```bash
1488# Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
02aabd45 1489$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'title:%(artist)s - %(title)s'
73cd218f 1490
1491# Regex example
02aabd45 1492$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)'
73cd218f 1493
1494# Set title as "Series name S01E05"
02aabd45 1495$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata '%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s'
73cd218f 1496
1497# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url
02aabd45 1498$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)' --add-metadata
73cd218f 1499
e9f4ccd1 1500# Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
1501$ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata 'title,uploader' '[ _]' '-'
1502
73cd218f 1503```
1504
5d3a0e79 1505# EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1506
34488702 1507Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS`. `ARGS` is a `;` (semicolon) seperated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2`. Eg: `--extractor-args "youtube:player_client=android_agegate,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
5d3a0e79 1508
1509The following extractors use this feature:
1510* **youtube**
1511 * `skip`: `hls` or `dash` (or both) to skip download of the respective manifests
e7e94f2a 1512 * `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web`, `android`, `ios`, `mweb`. These also have `_music`, `_embedded`, `_agegate`, and `_creator` variants (Eg: `web_embedded`) (`mweb` has only `_agegate`). By default, `android,web` is used, but the agegate and creator variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com` urls. You can also use `all` to use all the clients
b6de707d 1513 * `player_skip`: Skip some network requests that are generally needed for robust extraction. One or more of `configs` (skip client configs), `webpage` (skip initial webpage), `js` (skip js player). While these options can help reduce the number of requests needed or avoid some rate-limiting, they could cause some issues. See [#860](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/860) for more details
57015a4a 1514 * `include_live_dash`: Include live dash formats (These formats don't download properly)
2d6659b9 1515 * `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side).
34488702 1516 * `max_comments`: Maximum amount of comments to download (default all).
7581d246 1517 * `max_comment_depth`: Maximum depth for nested comments. YouTube supports depths 1 or 2 (default).
ac56cf38 1518* **youtubetab**
1519 (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1520 * `skip`: One or more of `webpage` (skip initial webpage download), `authcheck` (allow the download of playlists requiring authentication when no initial webpage is downloaded. This may cause unwanted behavior, see [#1122](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/1122) for more details)
11f9be09 1521
3acf6d38 1522* **funimation**
1523 * `language`: Languages to extract. Eg: `funimation:language=english,japanese`
1524 * `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1525
73d829c1 1526* **vikiChannel**
1527 * `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
1528
bc97cdae 1529NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
5d3a0e79 1530
3acf6d38 1531
f74980cb 1532# PLUGINS
b7770046 1533
3ae5e797 1534Plugins are loaded from `<root-dir>/ytdlp_plugins/<type>/__init__.py`; where `<root-dir>` is the directory of the binary (`<root-dir>/yt-dlp`), or the root directory of the module if you are running directly from source-code (`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`). Plugins are currently not supported for the `pip` version
1535
1536Plugins can be of `<type>`s `extractor` or `postprocessor`. Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it. Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME`.
1537
1538See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example plugins.
1539
1540Note that **all** plugins are imported even if not invoked, and that **there are no checks** performed on plugin code. Use plugins at your own risk and only if you trust the code
1541
1542If you are a plugin author, add [ytdlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/ytdlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability
b7770046 1543
b7770046 1544
8c6f4daa 1545
1546# EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1547
1548yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1549
1550Your program should avoid parsing the normal stdout since they may change in future versions. Instead they should use options such as `-J`, `--print`, `--progress-template`, `--exec` etc to create console output that you can reliably reproduce and parse.
1551
1552From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1553
1554```python
1555import yt_dlp
1556
1557ydl_opts = {}
1558with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1559 ydl.download(['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
1560```
1561
1562Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of options available, have a look at [`yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py`](yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py#L154-L452).
1563
1564Here's a more complete example of a program that outputs only errors (and a short message after the download is finished), converts the video to an mp3 file, implements a custom postprocessor and prints the final info_dict as json:
1565
1566```python
1567import json
1568
1569import yt_dlp
1570from yt_dlp.postprocessor.common import PostProcessor
1571
1572
1573class MyLogger:
1574 def debug(self, msg):
1575 # For compatability with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
1576 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
1577 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
1578 pass
1579 else:
1580 self.info(msg)
1581
1582 def info(self, msg):
1583 pass
1584
1585 def warning(self, msg):
1586 pass
1587
1588 def error(self, msg):
1589 print(msg)
1590
1591
1592class MyCustomPP(PostProcessor):
1593 def run(self, info):
1594 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
1595 return [], info
1596
1597
1598def my_hook(d):
1599 if d['status'] == 'finished':
1600 print('Done downloading, now converting ...')
1601
1602
1603ydl_opts = {
1604 'format': 'bestaudio/best',
1605 'postprocessors': [{
1606 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
1607 'preferredcodec': 'mp3',
1608 'preferredquality': '192',
1609 }],
1610 'logger': MyLogger(),
1611 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
1612}
1613
1614with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1615 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP())
1616 info = ydl.extract_info('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc')
1617 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1618```
1619
1620See the public functions in [`yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py`](yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py) for other available functions. Eg: `ydl.download`, `ydl.download_with_info_file`
1621
1622
e167860c 1623# DEPRECATED OPTIONS
1624
1625These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
1626
6ccf351a 1627#### Redundant options
1628While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
f4536226 1629
53c18592 1630 --get-description --print description
1631 --get-duration --print duration_string
1632 --get-filename --print filename
1633 --get-format --print format
1634 --get-id --print id
1635 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
1636 -e, --get-title --print title
1637 -g, --get-url --print urls
2b8a2973 1638 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
8f18aca8 1639 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
1640 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
1641 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
1642 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
6ccf351a 1643
1644
1645#### Not recommended
1646While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
1647
d9aa2332 1648 --all-formats -f all
c32b0aab 1649 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
b7b04c78 1650 --print-json -j --no-simulate
e167860c 1651 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)03d
a439a3a4 1652 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
73cd218f 1653 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
52a8a1e1 1654 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
1655 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
53ed7066 1656 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
1657 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
5d3a0e79 1658 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
1659 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
1660 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
1661 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
6ccf351a 1662
1663
1664#### Developer options
1665These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
1666
34488702 1667 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
6ccf351a 1668 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
88acdbc2 1669 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
1670 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
f4536226 1671
1672
1673#### Old aliases
1674These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
1675
1676 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
1677 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
1678 --dump-headers --print-traffic
1679 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
1680 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
1681 --load-info --load-info-json
1682 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
e167860c 1683 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
e167860c 1684 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
1685 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
f4536226 1686 --split-tracks --split-chapters
1687 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
e167860c 1688 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
f4536226 1689 --write-srt --write-subs
e167860c 1690 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
f4536226 1691
7a340e0d
NA
1692#### Sponskrub Options
1693Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of `--sponsorblock`
1694
1695 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
1696 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
1697 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
1698 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
1699 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
1700 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
1701 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
1702 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
1703
f4536226 1704#### No longer supported
1705These options may no longer work as intended
1706
1707 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
1708 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
1709 -C, --call-home Not implemented
1710 --no-call-home Default
1711 --include-ads No longer supported
1712 --no-include-ads Default
0bb1bc1b 1713 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
1714 --no-write-annotations Default
486fb179 1715
1716#### Removed
1717These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
1718
f4536226 1719 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1720 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1721 -t, --title -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1722 -l, --literal -o accepts literal names
1723
8c6f4daa 1724# CONTRIBUTING
1725See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp) for instructions on [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue) and [Contributing code to the project](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
e167860c 1726
c2b5f311 1727# MORE
8c6f4daa 1728For FAQ see the [youtube-dl README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)