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b31fdeed 1<div align="center">
2
e980017a 3[![YT-DLP](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master/.github/banner.svg)](#readme)
d9d045e2 4
28dff70b 5[![Release version](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?color=blue&label=&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest)
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7[![License: Unlicense](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Unlicense-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge)](LICENSE)
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1aebc0f7 9[![Supported Sites](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Supported_Sites-brightgreen.svg?style=for-the-badge)](supportedsites.md)
28dff70b 10[![Discord](https://img.shields.io/discord/807245652072857610?color=blue&label=​&logo=discord&style=for-the-badge)](https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r)
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b31fdeed 15[![PyPi Downloads](https://img.shields.io/pypi/dm/yt-dlp?label=PyPi&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
c76eb41b 16
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)
50865ca8 64
65
034b6215 66# NEW FEATURES
f20f5fe5 67The major new features from the latest release of [blackjack4494/yt-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) are:
034b6215 68
7a340e0d 69* **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
034b6215 70
7581d246 71* **[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 72
6aecd871 73* **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 74
0fdf490d 75* **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 76
f5546c0b 77* **Youtube improvements**:
6ccf351a 78 * All Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`) and private playlists supports downloading multiple pages of content
0fdf490d 79 * Search (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`), search URLs and in-channel search works
80 * Mixes supports downloading multiple pages of content
6ccf351a 81 * Most (but not all) age-gated content can be downloaded without cookies
a4211baf 82 * Fix for [n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326)
f20f5fe5 83 * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to `/video` to preserve the old behaviour
e6f21b3d 84 * `255kbps` audio is extracted (if available) from youtube music when premium cookies are given
9ee4f0bb 85 * Youtube music Albums, channels etc can be downloaded ([except self-uploaded music](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/723))
f20f5fe5 86
245524e6 87* **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[:PROFILE]`
88
597c1866 89* **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
90
b31fdeed 91* **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 92
b31fdeed 93* **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
f20f5fe5 94
0676afb1 95* **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, SkyNewsAU, EUScreen, Gronkh, microsoftstream, on24, trovo channels
f20f5fe5 96
0676afb1 97* **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, 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, 7plus, tagesschau
fac98805 98
3de7c2ce 99* **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 100
597c1866 101* **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 102
103* **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
104
418964fa 105* **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 106
418964fa 107* **Other new options**: `--print`, `--sleep-requests`, `--convert-thumbnails`, `--write-link`, `--force-download-archive`, `--force-overwrites`, `--break-on-reject` etc
0bc0a322 108
418964fa 109* **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 110
b31fdeed 111* **Plugin extractors**: Extractors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
112
7a5c1cfe 113* **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`
aa837ddf 114
29b6000e 115
7a5c1cfe 116See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
a26c99ac 117
118
90505ff1 119**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 120
b9650873 121If 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 122
53ed7066 123### Differences in default behavior
124
0930b11f 125Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
53ed7066 126
96565c7e 127* The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
28b0eb0f 128* `avconv` is not supported as as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
96565c7e 129* 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 130* 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 131* 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
132* 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
133* `--ignore-errors` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
134* 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
135* `--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
136* `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
137* The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
3acf6d38 138* 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 139* 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 140* 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 141* Unavailable videos are also listed for youtube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
18e674b4 142* 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 143* Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
e4f02757 144* 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
0930b11f 145* 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 146
147For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
28b0eb0f 148* `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options
149* `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams`
150* `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
53ed7066 151
f20f5fe5 152
d19bb9c0 153# INSTALLATION
50865ca8 154
7bc877a2 155You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
a61f4b28 156
a4211baf 157### Using the release binary
0930b11f 158
159You can simply download the [correct binary file](#release-files) for your OS: **[[Windows](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)] [[UNIX-like](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)]**
5f326cf5 160
0930b11f 161In UNIX-like OSes (MacOS, Linux, BSD), you can also install the same in one of the following ways:
5ba4a0b6
A		 162
163```
164sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
165sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
166```
167
168```
169sudo wget 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 aria2c 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
0930b11f 178PS: The manpages, shell completion files etc. are available in [yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
179
a4211baf 180### With [PIP](https://pypi.org/project/pip)
0930b11f 181
182You can install the [PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) with:
183```
184python3 -m pip install -U yt-dlp
185```
186
59a7a13e 187You can also install without any dependencies using:
0930b11f 188```
189python3 -m pip install --no-deps -U yt-dlp
190```
191
192You can also install the master branch with:
193```
59a7a13e 194python3 -m pip3 install --force-reinstall https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/archive/master.zip
0930b11f 195```
196
197Note that on some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`
198
a4211baf 199### With [Homebrew](https://brew.sh)
0930b11f 200
201macOS or Linux users that are using Homebrew can also install it by:
b8773e63
THD		 202
203```
204brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp
205```
206
a4211baf 207## UPDATE
0930b11f 208You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are [using the provided release](#using-the-release-binary)
209
210If you [installed with pip](#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
211
212If you [installed using Homebrew](#with-homebrew), run `brew upgrade yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp`
cf59cd4d 213
a4211baf 214## RELEASE FILES
0e5927ee 215
733d8e8f 216#### Recommended
217
218File|Description
219:---|:---
0930b11f 220[yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independant binary. Needs Python (recommended for **UNIX-like systems**)
221[yt-dlp.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary (recommended for **Windows**)
733d8e8f 222
223#### Alternatives
224
0e5927ee
R		 225File|Description
226:---|:---
96565c7e 227[yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|MacOS (10.15+) standalone executable
0930b11f 228[yt-dlp_x86.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_x86.exe)|Windows (Vista SP2+) standalone x86 (32-bit) binary
96565c7e 229[yt-dlp_min.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_min.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary built with `py2exe`.<br/> Does not contain `pycryptodomex`, needs VC++14
0930b11f 230[yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
231[yt-dlp_macos.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos.zip)|Unpackaged MacOS (10.15+) executable (no auto-update)
733d8e8f 232
233#### Misc
234
235File|Description
236:---|:---
0e5927ee
R		 237[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
238[SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
239[SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
240
a4211baf 241## DEPENDENCIES
cf59cd4d 242Python versions 3.6+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
b31fdeed 243
c9652aa4 244<!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
245<!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
cf59cd4d 246On 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 247-->
fac98805 248
cf59cd4d 249While all the other dependancies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
250* [**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)
0930b11f 251* [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen) - For embedding thumbnail in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
252* [**pycryptodomex**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome) - For decrypting AES-128 HLS streams and various other data. Licensed under [BSD2](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
253* [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets) - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD3](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
254* [**keyring**](https://github.com/jaraco/keyring) - For decrypting cookies of chromium-based browsers on Linux. Licensed under [MIT](https://github.com/jaraco/keyring/blob/main/LICENSE)
255* [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For embedding thumbnail in mp4/m4a if mutagen is not present. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
256* [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
257* [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or [**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading `rstp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
258* [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licensed under [BSD3](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
259* [**sponskrub**](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) - For using the now **deprecated** [sponskrub options](#sponskrub-options). Licensed under [GPLv3+](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub/blob/master/LICENCE.md)
cf59cd4d 260* Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
b31fdeed 261
cf59cd4d 262To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
263
0930b11f 264The Windows and MacOS standalone release binaries are already built with the python interpreter, mutagen, pycryptodomex and websockets included.
d710cc6d 265
266**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
267
5f326cf5 268
a4211baf 269## COMPILE
5f326cf5 270
c76eb41b 271**For Windows**:
49a57e70 272To build the Windows executable, you must have pyinstaller (and optionally mutagen, pycryptodomex, websockets). Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, (optionally) build lazy extractors using `devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py`, and then just run `pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (32/64 bit) as the python used to build it.
e38df8f9 273
733d8e8f 274 py -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
49a57e70 275 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
733d8e8f 276 py pyinst.py
7581d246 277
fac98805 278Note 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 279
c76eb41b 280**For Unix**:
060ac762 281You will need the required build tools: `python`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`, `zip`, `pytest`
127d0759 282Then simply run `make`. You can also run `make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files
5f326cf5 283
49a57e70 284**Note**: In either platform, `devscripts/update-version.py` can be used to automatically update the version number
d19bb9c0 285
59a7a13e 286You can also fork the project on github and push it to a release branch in your fork for the [build workflow](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically make a release for you
287
b31fdeed 288# USAGE AND OPTIONS
6bcd846b 289
7a5c1cfe 290 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
b50e3bc6 291
c2b5f311 292`Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
e58c22a0 293<!-- Auto generated -->
c2b5f311 294
c76eb41b 295## General Options:
1dc2726f
PH		 296 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
297 --version Print program version and exit
8d801631 298 -U, --update Update this program to latest version. Make
299 sure that you have sufficient permissions
300 (run with sudo if needed)
b1940459 301 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
0930b11f 302 The download will be considered successful
b1940459 303 even if the postprocessing fails
304 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download
305 errors; e.g. to skip unavailable videos in
306 a playlist (default)
8a51f564 307 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
308 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
34488702 309 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
310 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
c4af7684 311 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
34488702 312 extractors and exit
c4af7684
PH		 313 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
314 extractor
315 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
316 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
9ee4f0bb 317 from google videos for the search term
318 "large apple". Use the value "auto" to let
319 yt-dlp guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
c4af7684
PH		 320 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
321 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
322 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
8a51f564 323 this is not possible instead of searching
298f597b 324 --ignore-config, --no-config Disable loading any configuration files
8a51f564 325 except the one provided by --config-location.
326 When given inside a configuration
298f597b 327 file, no further configuration files are
328 loaded. Additionally, (for backward
329 compatibility) if this option is found
330 inside the system configuration file, the
8a51f564 331 user configuration is not loaded
0202b52a 332 --config-location PATH Location of the main configuration file;
333 either the path to the config or its
334 containing directory
c4af7684 335 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
8a51f564 336 only list them
6623ac34 337 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
b5ae35ee 338 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate).
339 Currently only supported for YouTube
597c1866 340 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
8a51f564 341 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output
53ed7066 342 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
31654882 343 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
53ed7066 344 configurations by reverting some of the
345 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
346 default behavior" for details
08c1d0d3 347
149f05c7 348## Network Options:
28b4f736 349 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy.
0934c9d4
S		 350 To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper
351 scheme. For example
28b4f736
PH		 352 socks5://127.0.0.1:1080/. Pass in an empty
353 string (--proxy "") for direct connection
149f05c7 354 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
c4af7684 355 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
c4af7684 356 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
c4af7684 357 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
8c6c88c7 358
b31fdeed 359## Geo-restriction:
c25f1a9b
S		 360 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
361 some geo-restricted sites. The default
362 proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the
7550ea50 363 option is not present) is used for the
8a51f564 364 actual downloading
8c6c88c7 365 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
0934c9d4 366 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
8c6c88c7
S		 367 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
368 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
8c6c88c7
S		 369 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
370 explicitly provided two-letter ISO 3166-2
0934c9d4 371 country code
9e18bb4c
S		 372 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
373 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR
0934c9d4 374 notation
149f05c7 375
cfcec693 376## Video Selection:
1dc2726f
PH		 377 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is 1)
378 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
c4af7684
PH		 379 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
380 indices of the videos in the playlist
381 separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
382 1,2,5,8" if you want to download videos
383 indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in the playlist. You can
384 specify range: "--playlist-items
385 1-3,7,10-13", it will download the videos
8a51f564 386 at index 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13
780083db 387 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
c4af7684
PH		 388 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
389 SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
390 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
391 (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
0930b11f 392 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
6623ac34 393 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
394 "(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?"
c4af7684 395 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
c76eb41b 396 this date. The date formats accepted is the
397 same as --date
c4af7684 398 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
c76eb41b 399 this date. The date formats accepted is the
400 same as --date
77b87f05
MT		 401 --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Any field (see
402 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE") can be compared with a
a047eeb6 403 number or a string using the operators
404 defined in "Filtering formats". You can
405 also simply specify a field to match if the
406 field is present and "!field" to check if
407 the field is not present. In addition,
408 Python style regular expression matching
409 can be done using "~=", and multiple
410 filters can be checked with "&". Use a "\"
411 to escape "&" or quotes if needed. Eg:
412 --match-filter "!is_live & like_count>?100
2e7781a9 413 & description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'"
a047eeb6 414 matches only videos that are not live, has
415 a like count more than 100 (or the like
77b87f05 416 field is not available), and also has a
a047eeb6 417 description that contains the phrase "cats
418 & dogs" (ignoring case)
c76eb41b 419 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
c4af7684 420 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
8a51f564 421 to a video and a playlist
c4af7684 422 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
8a51f564 423 a video and a playlist
c4af7684
PH		 424 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
425 age
426 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
427 archive file. Record the IDs of all
8a51f564 428 downloaded videos in it
8b0d7497 429 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
8a51f564 430 a file that is in the archive
8b0d7497 431 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
8a51f564 432 a file that has been filtered out
26e2805c 433 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest
434 of the playlist is skipped
c76eb41b 435 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
6bcd846b 436
d5a62e4f 437## Download Options:
b31fdeed 438 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
439 video that should be download concurrently
440 (default is 1)
5e3856a2 441 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
c4af7684 442 (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
6aecd871 443 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
444 below which throttling is assumed and the
445 video data is re-extracted (e.g. 100K)
c4af7684 446 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
8a51f564 447 "infinite"
0be8314d 448 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
b56e41a7
S		 449 is 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and
450 ISM)
6623ac34 451 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
452 hlsnative and ISM (default)
8a51f564 453 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
6623ac34 454 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading if a fragment is unavailable
8a51f564 455 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
a82f4184 456 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
6623ac34 457 downloading is finished
c76eb41b 458 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
459 downloading is finished (default)
c4af7684
PH		 460 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
461 (default is 1024)
c76eb41b 462 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
463 from an initial value of --buffer-size
464 (default)
465 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
db157d2a
S		 466 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
467 downloading (e.g. 10485760 or 10M) (default
468 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
469 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
470 (experimental)
2101f5d4 471 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
6623ac34 472 --no-playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in default order
c76eb41b 473 (default)
31487eb9 474 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
c4af7684 475 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
0934c9d4 476 expected file size
9bd20204 477 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
478 allowing some players to play the video
479 while downloading, and reducing the chance
480 of file corruption if download is
481 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
482 live streams
483 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
484 videos. This is default when not
485 downloading live streams
52a8a1e1 486 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
487 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
488 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
489 use it for. Currently supports native,
490 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
491 wget (Recommended: aria2c). You can use
492 this option multiple times to set different
493 downloaders for different protocols. For
494 example, --downloader aria2c --downloader
495 "dash,m3u8:native" will use aria2c for
496 http/ftp downloads, and the native
497 downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
498 (Alias: --external-downloader)
46ee996e 499 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
500 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
330690a2 501 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
502 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to
503 different positions using the same syntax
504 as --postprocessor-args. You can use this
505 option multiple times to give different
506 arguments to different downloaders
29b6000e 507 (Alias: --external-downloader-args)
d5a62e4f 508
cfcec693 509## Filesystem Options:
c4af7684 510 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-' for
e8dfecb3
S		 511 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
512 with '#', ';' or ']' are considered as
8a51f564 513 comments and ignored
1e520b55 514 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
6ccf351a 515 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
0202b52a 516 downloaded. Specify the type of file and
de6000d9 517 the path separated by a colon ":". All the
518 same types as --output are supported.
519 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
6ccf351a 520 (default) and "temp" paths. All
521 intermediary files are first downloaded to
522 the temp path and then the final files are
523 moved over to the home path after download
524 is finished. This option is ignored if
525 --output is an absolute path
d818eb74 526 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
c76eb41b 527 TEMPLATE" for details
0bc0a322 528 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder value for unavailable meta
529 fields in output filename template
530 (default: "NA")
c4af7684
PH		 531 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
532 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
533 filenames
c76eb41b 534 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
535 filenames (default)
0930b11f 536 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
537 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
538 using Windows (default)
c2934512 539 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
540 extension) to the specified number of
541 characters
9b45b9f5 542 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
543 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files.
544 This option includes --no-continue
545 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
546 related files (default)
c25228e5 547 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
548 (default)
549 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
e58c22a0 550 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
c25228e5 551 restart download of the entire file
c76eb41b 552 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
6623ac34 553 into output file (default)
c4af7684
PH		 554 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
555 into output file
c76eb41b 556 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the
557 file modification time (default)
c4af7684
PH		 558 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
559 the file modification time
560 --write-description Write video description to a .description
561 file
6623ac34 562 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
1dc2726f 563 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
c25228e5 564 (this may contain personal information)
6623ac34 565 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
cac96421 566 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
567 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
568 --write-description etc. (default)
569 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
570 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
75d43ca0 571 --clean-infojson Remove some private fields such as
572 filenames from the infojson. Note that it
573 could still contain some personal
574 information (default)
575 --no-clean-infojson Write all fields to the infojson
2305e2e5 576 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
577 infojson. The comments are fetched even
578 without this option if the extraction is
579 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
580 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
581 extraction is known to be quick
582 (Alias: --no-get-comments)
d845622b 583 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
c4af7684
PH		 584 (created with the "--write-info-json"
585 option)
586 --cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump cookie
587 jar in
982ee69a
MB		 588 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
589 (default)
590 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[:PROFILE]
591 Load cookies from a user profile of the
592 given web browser. Currently supported
0ef787d7 593 browsers are: brave, chrome, chromium,
594 edge, firefox, opera, safari, vivaldi. You
595 can specify the user profile name or
596 directory using "BROWSER:PROFILE_NAME" or
982ee69a
MB		 597 "BROWSER:PROFILE_PATH". If no profile is
598 given, the most recently accessed one is
599 used
600 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
6623ac34 601 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
3b1fe47d 602 can store some downloaded information (such
603 as client ids and signatures) permanently.
9ee4f0bb 604 By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/yt-dlp or
605 ~/.cache/yt-dlp
36f35428
PH		 606 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
607 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
6bcd846b 608
b31fdeed 609## Thumbnail Options:
1dc2726f 610 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
6623ac34 611 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk
c76eb41b 612 (default)
1dc2726f 613 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
34488702 614 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
615 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
2b1bd292 616
732044af 617## Internet Shortcut Options:
8a51f564 618 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
619 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
620 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
621 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
622 OS caches the URL based on the file path
623 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
624 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
732044af 625
0744a815 626## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
34488702 627 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with
628 --verbose, print the log to stderr
6c072e7d 629 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
c4af7684
PH		 630 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
631 anything to disk
34488702 632 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
633 options are used
0930b11f 634 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
635 extracting metadata even if the videos are
636 not actually available for download
0cf05715 637 (experimental)
638 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
639 formats are found (default)
e167860c 640 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
641 related files (Alias: --no-download)
34488702 642 -O, --print TEMPLATE Quiet, but print the given fields for each
643 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
644 used. Either a field name or same syntax as
645 the output template can be used
646 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
647 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
648 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
649 description of available keys
650 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
651 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
652 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
653 a playlist, the whole playlist information
654 is dumped in a single line
8a51f564 655 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be
e58c22a0 656 written as far as no errors occur, even if
657 -s or another simulation option is used
8a51f564 658 (Alias: --force-download-archive)
1dc2726f
PH		 659 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
660 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
819e0531 661 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
1dc2726f 662 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
819e0531 663 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
664 Template for progress outputs, optionally
665 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
666 "download-title:" (the console title),
667 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
668 The video's fields are accessible under the
669 "info" key and the progress attributes are
0930b11f 670 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.:
819e0531 671 --console-title --progress-template
672 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
1dc2726f 673 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
c4af7684
PH		 674 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
675 to debug problems (very verbose)
676 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
677 files in the current directory to debug
678 problems
780083db 679 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
6bcd846b 680
36f35428
PH		 681## Workarounds:
682 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
0930b11f 683 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
c4af7684 684 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
e167860c 685 information about the video (Currently
05a7ffb1 686 supported only for YouTube)
1dc2726f 687 --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
c4af7684
PH		 688 --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video
689 access is restricted to one domain
690 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
45016689 691 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
c4af7684
PH		 692 option multiple times
693 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
694 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
695 or fribidi executable in PATH
1cf376f5 696 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
697 during data extraction
c4af7684 698 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
e167860c 699 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
700 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
701 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
702 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can
703 only be used along with --min-sleep-interval
1cf376f5 704 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
705 subtitle download
36f35428 706
cfcec693 707## Video Format Options:
eb8a4433 708 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
709 for more details
710 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
711 "Sorting Formats" for more details
8a51f564 712 --S-force, --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
713 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
eb8a4433 714 Formats" for more details
715 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
c76eb41b 716 specified sort order (default), see
717 "Sorting Formats" for more details
718 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
719 into a single file
720 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for
721 each output file (default)
722 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
723 into a single file
724 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for
725 each output file (default)
da9be05e 726 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
727 over non-free ones of same quality. Use
728 with "-S ext" to strictly prefer free
729 containers irrespective of quality
730 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
731 containers (default)
0930b11f 732 --check-formats Check that the selected formats are
0ba692ac 733 actually downloadable
0930b11f 734 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
0ba692ac 735 actually downloadable
0930b11f 736 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
737 downloadable
34488702 738 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
739 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
c4af7684
PH		 740 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
741 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
742 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
743 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
8ae7be3e
PH		 744
745## Subtitle Options:
c76eb41b 746 --write-subs Write subtitle file
747 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
748 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
e167860c 749 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
750 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
751 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
34488702 752 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
753 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
c4af7684
PH		 754 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
755 preference, for example: "srt" or
756 "ass/srt/best"
c32b0aab 757 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
758 be regex) or "all" separated by commas.
a4211baf 759 (Eg: --sub-langs "en.*,ja") You can prefix
c32b0aab 760 the language code with a "-" to exempt it
761 from the requested languages. (Eg: --sub-
762 langs all,-live_chat) Use --list-subs for a
763 list of available language tags
6bcd846b 764
cfcec693 765## Authentication Options:
1dc2726f 766 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
c4af7684 767 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
7a5c1cfe 768 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
dc48a354 769 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
1dc2726f 770 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
0001fcb5 771 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
772 either the path or its containing
773 directory. Defaults to ~/.netrc
29f7c58a 774 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
f5e008d1 775 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
909d24dd 776 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
777 a list of available MSOs
f5e008d1
S		 778 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
779 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
c74d1aa3 780 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
781 interactively
f5e008d1
S		 782 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
783 operators
784
c76eb41b 785## Post-Processing Options:
c4af7684 786 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
e4172ac9 787 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
3de7c2ce 788 --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format to convert the audio
789 to when -x is used. Currently supported
790 formats are: best (default) or one of
34488702 791 best|aac|flac|mp3|m4a|opus|vorbis|wav
e4172ac9 792 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality, insert a
793 value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for
794 VBR or a specific bitrate like 128K
c4af7684 795 (default 5)
c76eb41b 796 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
29b6000e 797 necessary (currently supported: mp4|mkv|flv
798 |webm|mov|avi|mp3|mka|m4a|ogg|opus). If
799 target container does not support the
06167fbb 800 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
3de7c2ce 801 can specify multiple rules; Eg.
06167fbb 802 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to
803 m4a, mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv.
c76eb41b 804 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
3de7c2ce 805 re-encoding is necessary. The syntax and
806 supported formats are the same as --remux-video
1b77b347 807 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
43820c03 808 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
45016689 809 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
810 to give the argument to the specified
8fa43c73 811 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
7a340e0d
NA		 812 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
813 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
8fa43c73 814 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
815 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
6aecd871 816 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
817 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
8fa43c73 818 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
9ee4f0bb 819 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
7a340e0d
NA		 820 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
821 specified executable only when being used
822 by the specified postprocessor.
823 Additionally, for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o"
824 can be appended to the prefix optionally
825 followed by a number to pass the argument
826 before the specified input/output file. Eg:
827 --ppa "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can
828 use this option multiple times to give
e4172ac9 829 different arguments to different
5b1ecbb3 830 postprocessors. (Alias: --ppa)
c76eb41b 831 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
6623ac34 832 after post-processing
c76eb41b 833 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
6623ac34 834 post-processing (default)
835 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
836 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
0be8314d
PH		 837 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
838 webm and mkv videos)
c76eb41b 839 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
6aecd871 840 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
6623ac34 841 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
7a340e0d
NA		 842 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also adds
843 chapters to file unless --no-add-chapters
844 is used (Alias: --add-metadata)
845 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
6aecd871 846 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
7a340e0d
NA		 847 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
848 (Alias: --add-chapters)
849 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default)
850 (Alias: --no-add-chapters)
73cd218f 851 --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
852 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
853 for details
e9f4ccd1 854 --replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
855 Replace text in a metadata field using the
856 given regex. This option can be used
857 multiple times
c4af7684
PH		 858 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
859 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
860 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
861 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
862 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
863 default; fix file if we can, warn
6aecd871 864 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
865 already exists
e4172ac9 866 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
867 path to the binary or its containing
868 directory
c4af7684 869 --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
34488702 870 downloading and post-processing. Same
871 syntax as the output template can be used
9de3ea31 872 to pass any field as arguments to the
873 command. An additional field "filepath"
874 that contains the final path of the
875 downloaded file is also available. If no
7d1eb38a 876 fields are passed, %(filepath)q is appended
34488702 877 to the end of the command. This option can
878 be used multiple times
879 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
5520aa2d 880 --exec-before-download CMD Execute a command before the actual
881 download. The syntax is the same as --exec
34488702 882 but "filepath" is not available. This
883 option can be used multiple times
884 --no-exec-before-download Remove any previously defined
885 --exec-before-download
e167860c 886 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
3de7c2ce 887 (currently supported: srt|vtt|ass|lrc)
e167860c 888 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
8fa43c73 889 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
3de7c2ce 890 (currently supported: jpg|png)
72755351 891 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
892 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix
893 can be used with "--paths" and "--output"
894 to set the output filename for the split
895 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
896 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters
897 (default)
7a340e0d 898 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
2d9ec704 899 given regular expression. Time ranges
900 prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place
901 of chapters to remove the specified range.
902 Eg: --remove-chapters "*10:15-15:00"
903 --remove-chapters "intro". This option can
7a340e0d 904 be used multiple times
9ee4f0bb 905 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
906 (default)
7a340e0d
NA		 907 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes around the chapters before
908 removing/splitting them. Requires a
909 reencode and thus is very slow, but the
910 resulting video may have fewer artifacts
911 around the cuts
912 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
913 when cutting/splitting (default)
3ae5e797 914 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS] The (case sensitive) name of plugin
915 postprocessors to be enabled, and
916 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
917 seperated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
918 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
919 The "when" argument determines when the
920 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
921 "pre_process" (after extraction),
922 "before_dl" (before video download),
923 "post_process" (after video download;
924 default) or "after_move" (after moving file
925 to their final locations). This option can
926 be used multiple times to add different
927 postprocessors
7a340e0d
NA		 928
929## SponsorBlock Options:
930Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
931 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
8a51f564 932 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
933
7a340e0d
NA		 934 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
935 for, separated by commas. Available
936 categories are all, sponsor, intro, outro,
937 selfpromo, interaction, preview,
938 music_offtopic. You can prefix the category
939 with a "-" to exempt it. See
940 https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/index.php/Segment_Categories
941 for description of the categories. Eg:
942 --sponsorblock-query all,-preview
943 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
944 the video file, separated by commas. If a
945 category is present in both mark and
946 remove, remove takes precedence. The syntax
947 and available categories are the same as
948 for --sponsorblock-mark
949 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
950 The title template for SponsorBlock
951 chapters created by --sponsorblock-mark.
952 The same syntax as the output template is
953 used, but the only available fields are
954 start_time, end_time, category, categories,
955 name, category_names. Defaults to
956 "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
957 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
958 --sponsorblock-remove
959 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
960 https://sponsor.ajay.app
a9e7f546 961
78895bd3 962## Extractor Options:
5ef7d9bd 963 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor
d6e51845 964 errors (default is 3), or "infinite"
6623ac34 965 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
8a51f564 966 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
967 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
968 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
e409895f 969 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
970 discontinuities such as ad breaks
971 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
972 formats at discontinuities such as ad
973 breaks (default)
5d3a0e79 974 --extractor-args KEY:ARGS Pass these arguments to the extractor. See
975 "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You can
976 use this option multiple times to give
245524e6 977 arguments for different extractors
17cb02d0 978
b7770046
U		 979# CONFIGURATION
980
7a5c1cfe 981You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
e2e43aea 982
0202b52a 9831. **Main Configuration**: The file given by `--config-location`
7a5c1cfe
P		 9841. **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.
9851. **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 9861. **User Configuration**:
987 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
988 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
989 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
990 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
991 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
992 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
993
a4211baf 994 `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%` defaults to `~/.config` if undefined. On windows, `%APPDATA%` generally points to (`C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming`) and `~` points to `%HOME%` if present, `%USERPROFILE%` (generally `C:\Users\<user name>`), or `%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
07cce701 9951. **System Configuration**: `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
b7770046 996
7a5c1cfe 997For 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:
b7770046
U		 998```
999# Lines starting with # are comments
1000
1001# Always extract audio
1002-x
1003
1004# Do not copy the mtime
1005--no-mtime
1006
1007# Use this proxy
1008--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1009
298f597b 1010# Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1011-o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
b7770046
U		 1012```
1013
e2e43aea 1014Note 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 1015
a4211baf 1016You 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 home, user, and system configurations. Additionally, (for backward compatibility) if `--ignore-config` is found inside the system configuration file, the user configuration is not loaded.
b7770046
U		 1017
1018### Authentication with `.netrc` file
1019
0001fcb5 1020You 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:
b7770046
U		 1021```
1022touch $HOME/.netrc
1023chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
1024```
1025After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1026```
0001fcb5 1027machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
b7770046
U		 1028```
1029For example:
1030```
1031machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1032machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1033```
7a5c1cfe 1034To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
b7770046 1035
0001fcb5 1036The default location of the .netrc file is `$HOME` (`~`) in UNIX. On Windows, it is `%HOME%` if present, `%USERPROFILE%` (generally `C:\Users\<user name>`) or `%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
b7770046
U		 1037
1038# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1039
0202b52a 1040The `-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.
b7770046
U		 1041
1042**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
1043
e58c22a0 1044The 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 1045
0930b11f 1046It 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 1047
1048The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
2b8a2973 10491. **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 10501. **Addition**: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using `+` and `-` respectively. Eg: `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
10511. **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 10521. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified seperated with a `,`. Eg: `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
10531. **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`
4476d2c7 10541. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types `diouxXeEfFgGcrs`, `B`, `j`, `l`, `q` can be used for converting to **B**ytes, **j**son (flag `#` for pretty-printing), a comma seperated **l**ist (flag `#` for `\n` newline-seperated) and a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag `#` to split a list into different arguments), respectively
524e2e4f 10551. **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 1056
1057To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1058```
7c37ff97 1059%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
a439a3a4 1060```
de6000d9 1061
08438d2c 1062Additionally, 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`, `link`, `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 1063
1064The available fields are:
b7770046
U		 1065
1066 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1067 - `title` (string): Video title
1068 - `url` (string): Video URL
1069 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1070 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
597c1866 1071 - `description` (string): The description of the video
b7770046
U		 1072 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1073 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1074 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1075 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
b7770046
U		 1076 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
1077 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
e6f21b3d 1078 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
1079 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
b7770046
U		 1080 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1081 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1082 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
1083 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1084 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
53c18592 1085 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
b7770046
U		 1086 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1087 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1088 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1089 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1090 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
277d6ff5 1091 - `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 1092 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
3dbb2a9d 1093 - `live_status` (string): One of 'is_live', 'was_live', 'is_upcoming', 'not_live'
b7770046 1094 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
f76ede8e 1095 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
6cfda058 1096 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
c224251a 1097 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is 'private', 'premium_only', 'subscriber_only', 'needs_auth', 'unlisted' or 'public'
b7770046
U		 1098 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1099 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
29b6000e 1100 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
b7770046
U		 1101 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by `--format`
1102 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
1103 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
1104 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
1105 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
1106 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1107 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1108 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
1109 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1110 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1111 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
176f1866 1112 - `dynamic_range` (string): The dynamic range of the video
b7770046
U		 1113 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
1114 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
1115 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
1116 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
1117 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
1118 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1119 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
1120 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch when creating the file
1121 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`
e6f21b3d 1122 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
b7770046 1123 - `playlist` (string): Name or id of the playlist that contains the video
e6f21b3d 1124 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1125 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
b7770046
U		 1126 - `playlist_id` (string): Playlist identifier
1127 - `playlist_title` (string): Playlist title
1128 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1129 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
bd99f6e6 1130 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
1131 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
b7770046
U		 1132
1133Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1134
1135 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1136 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1137 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1138
1139Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1140
1141 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1142 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1143 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1144 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1145 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1146 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1147 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1148
1149Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1150
1151 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1152 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1153 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1154 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1155 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1156 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1157 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1158 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1159 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1160 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1161
b050d210 1162Available for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
72755351 1163
1164 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1165 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1166 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1167 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1168
53c18592 1169Available only when used in `--print`:
1170
1171 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1172 - `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		 1173
1174Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1175
1176 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1177 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1178 - `categories` (list): The SponsorBlock categories the chapter belongs to
1179 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1180 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1181 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
53c18592 1182
49a57e70 1183Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. For 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.
1184
1185Note 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 1186
0930b11f 1187**Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
b7770046 1188
49a57e70 1189For numeric sequences you can use [numeric related formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting), for example, `%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in `00042`.
b7770046
U		 1190
1191Output 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.
1192
1193To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1194
91ebc640 1195The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
b7770046
U		 1196
1197In 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:
1198
1199#### Output template and Windows batch files
1200
1201If 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"`.
1202
1203#### Output template examples
1204
de6000d9 1205Note that on Windows you need to use double quotes instead of single.
b7770046
U		 1206
1207```bash
7a5c1cfe
P		 1208$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
1209youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
b7770046 1210
7a5c1cfe
P		 1211$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
1212youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
b7770046
U		 1213
1214# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
7a5c1cfe 1215$ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
b7770046 1216
b050d210 1217# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
7a5c1cfe 1218$ yt-dlp -o '%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
e29663c6 1219
b7770046 1220# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
7a5c1cfe 1221$ yt-dlp -o '%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists
b7770046
U		 1222
1223# Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
7a5c1cfe 1224$ 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
U		 1225
1226# Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
7a5c1cfe 1227$ 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
U		 1228
1229# Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
7a5c1cfe 1230$ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
b7770046
U		 1231```
1232
1233# FORMAT SELECTION
1234
7a5c1cfe
P		 1235By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1236This 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 1237
c111cefa 1238**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.
1239
eff63539 1240The 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
U		 1241
1242**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1243
a439a3a4 1244The 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.
b7770046
U		 1245
1246You 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.
1247
1248You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1249
59a7a13e 1250 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1251 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
1252 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio
1253 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1254 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1255 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1256 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
1257 - `ba*`, `bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that **contains audio**. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `best*[acodec!=none]`
1258 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
909d24dd 1259 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1260 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
909d24dd 1261 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1262 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
909d24dd 1263 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
b7770046 1264
e58c22a0 1265For 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 1266
1267You 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 1268
eb8a4433 1269If 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.
b7770046
U		 1270
1271If 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`.
1272
d806c9fd 1273You 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.
1274
1275**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
1276
1277Unless `--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 1278
1279## Filtering Formats
1280
b7770046
U		 1281You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
1282
1283The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1284
1285 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1286 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1287 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
1288 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1289 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1290 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1291 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1292 - `fps`: Frame rate
1293
1294Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains) and following string meta fields:
1295
1296 - `ext`: File extension
1297 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1298 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1299 - `container`: Name of the container format
1300 - `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`)
1301 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
29f7c58a 1302 - `language`: Language code
b7770046
U		 1303
1304Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation `!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. `!*=` (does not contain).
1305
e58c22a0 1306Note 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 1307
e094cec1 1308Formats 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 1309
b7770046
U		 1310Format 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]'`.
1311
eb8a4433 1312## Sorting Formats
1313
2e7781a9 1314You can change the criteria for being considered the `best` by using `-S` (`--format-sort`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...`.
1315
1316The available fields are:
eb8a4433 1317
63be1aab 1318 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1319 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
1320 - `ie_pref`: The format preference as given by the extractor
1321 - `lang`: Language preference as given by the extractor
dca3ff4a 1322 - `quality`: The quality of the format as given by the extractor
63be1aab 1323 - `source`: Preference of the source as given by the extractor
e36d50c5 1324 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > other > `mms`/`rtsp` > unknown > `f4f`/`f4m`)
155d2b48 1325 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other > unknown)
aeb2a9ad 1326 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other > unknown)
eb8a4433 1327 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
63be1aab 1328 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `webm` > `flv` > other > unknown). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is prefered.
1329 - `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`.
1330 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
0930b11f 1331 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
63be1aab 1332 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1333 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
eb8a4433 1334 - `height`: Height of video
1335 - `width`: Width of video
63be1aab 1336 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1337 - `fps`: Framerate of video
49a57e70 1338 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
63be1aab 1339 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1340 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1341 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1342 - `br`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr`
1343 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
d806c9fd 1344
1345**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 1346
9ee4f0bb 1347All 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.
1348
176f1866 1349The 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 1350
176f1866 1351Note 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 1352
e58c22a0 1353If 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 1354
1355**Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1356
eb8a4433 1357## Format Selection examples
b7770046
U		 1358
1359Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
1360
1361```bash
e58c22a0 1362# Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
909d24dd 1363# or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
7a5c1cfe 1364$ yt-dlp -f 'bv+ba/b'
909d24dd 1365
1366# Download best format that contains video,
1367# and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
7a5c1cfe 1368$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba/b'
2af884ff 1369
1370# Same as above
7a5c1cfe 1371$ yt-dlp
909d24dd 1372
6fd35a11 1373# Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1374# For this case, an output template should be used since
1375# by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
7a5c1cfe 1376$ yt-dlp -f 'bv,ba' -o '%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s'
909d24dd 1377
f8d4ad9a 1378# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1379# and all audio-only formats into one file
1380$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]' --audio-multistreams
1381
1382# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1383# and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1384$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba+ba.2' --audio-multistreams
909d24dd 1385
6fd35a11 1386
1387# The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
f8d4ad9a 1388# and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
6fd35a11 1389
1390# Download the worst video available (old method)
7a5c1cfe 1391$ yt-dlp -f 'wv*+wa/w'
eb8a4433 1392
1393# Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
7a5c1cfe 1394$ yt-dlp -S '+res'
eb8a4433 1395
1396# Download the smallest video available
7a5c1cfe 1397$ yt-dlp -S '+size,+br'
eb8a4433 1398
1399
909d24dd 1400
eb8a4433 1401# Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
7a5c1cfe 1402$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b'
eb8a4433 1403
1404# Download the best video with the best extension
1405# (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
7a5c1cfe 1406$ yt-dlp -S 'ext'
eb8a4433 1407
1408
909d24dd 1409
eb8a4433 1410# Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1411# or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
7a5c1cfe 1412$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w'
b7770046 1413
eb8a4433 1414# Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1415# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
7a5c1cfe 1416$ yt-dlp -S 'height:480'
b7770046 1417
eb8a4433 1418# Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1419# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1420# Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1421# So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
7a5c1cfe 1422$ yt-dlp -S 'res:480'
b7770046 1423
b7770046 1424
909d24dd 1425
eb8a4433 1426# Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1427# or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
7a5c1cfe 1428$ yt-dlp -f 'b[filesize<50M] / w'
eb8a4433 1429
1430# Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1431# or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
7a5c1cfe 1432$ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize:50M'
eb8a4433 1433
1434# Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
7a5c1cfe 1435$ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize~50M'
eb8a4433 1436
1437
909d24dd 1438
eb8a4433 1439# Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1440# or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1441$ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)'
eb8a4433 1442
1443# Download best video available via the best protocol
1444# (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
7a5c1cfe 1445$ yt-dlp -S 'proto'
eb8a4433 1446
1447
909d24dd 1448
eb8a4433 1449# Download the best video with h264 codec, or the best video if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1450$ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[vcodec^=avc1] / (bv*+ba/b)'
eb8a4433 1451
1452# Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1453# or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1454$ yt-dlp -S 'codec:h264'
eb8a4433 1455
1456# Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1457# or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1458$ yt-dlp -S '+codec:h264'
eb8a4433 1459
1460
1461
1462# More complex examples
1463
e58c22a0 1464# Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1465# or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1466$ 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 1467
1468# Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
f8d4ad9a 1469# or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1470# preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
7a5c1cfe 1471$ yt-dlp -S 'res:720,fps'
eb8a4433 1472
1473
909d24dd 1474
eb8a4433 1475# Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1476# or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1477# preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
7a5c1cfe 1478$ yt-dlp -S '+res:480,codec,br'
b7770046 1479```
eb8a4433 1480
73cd218f 1481# MODIFYING METADATA
1482
a4211baf 1483The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
e9f4ccd1 1484
418964fa 1485`--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 1486
2e7781a9 1487The 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 1488
1489Note 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`.
1490
9c2b75b5 1491This option also has a few special uses:
28b0eb0f 1492* 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 1493* 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 1494
1495For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1496
1497Metadata fields|From
1498:---|:---
1499`title`|`track` or `title`
1500`date`|`upload_date`
1501`description`, `synopsis`|`description`
1502`purl`, `comment`|`webpage_url`
1503`track`|`track_number`
1504`artist`|`artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1505`genre`|`genre`
1506`album`|`album`
1507`album_artist`|`album_artist`
1508`disc`|`disc_number`
1509`show`|`series`
1510`season_number`|`season_number`
1511`episode_id`|`episode` or `episode_id`
1512`episode_sort`|`episode_number`
1513`language` of each stream|From the format's `language`
1514**Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1515
73cd218f 1516
1517## Modifying metadata examples
1518
1519Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
1520
1521```bash
1522# Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
02aabd45 1523$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'title:%(artist)s - %(title)s'
73cd218f 1524
1525# Regex example
02aabd45 1526$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)'
73cd218f 1527
1528# Set title as "Series name S01E05"
02aabd45 1529$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata '%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s'
73cd218f 1530
1531# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url
02aabd45 1532$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)' --add-metadata
73cd218f 1533
0930b11f 1534# Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
1535$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ':(?P<formats>)' -j
1536
e9f4ccd1 1537# Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
1538$ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata 'title,uploader' '[ _]' '-'
1539
73cd218f 1540```
1541
5d3a0e79 1542# EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1543
59a7a13e 1544Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS`. `ARGS` is a `;` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2`. Eg: `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_agegate,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
5d3a0e79 1545
1546The following extractors use this feature:
96565c7e 1547
1548#### youtube
1549* `skip`: `hls` or `dash` (or both) to skip download of the respective manifests
1550* `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
1551* `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
1552* `include_live_dash`: Include live dash formats (These formats don't download properly)
1553* `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
1554* `max_comments`: Maximum amount of comments to download (default all)
1555* `max_comment_depth`: Maximum depth for nested comments. YouTube supports depths 1 or 2 (default)
1556
1557#### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1558* `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)
1559
1560#### funimation
1561* `language`: Languages to extract. Eg: `funimation:language=english,japanese`
1562* `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1563
a9d4da60 1564#### crunchyroll
1565* `language`: Languages to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:language=jaJp`
1566* `hardsub`: Which hard-sub versions to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:hardsub=None,enUS`
1567
96565c7e 1568#### vikichannel
1569* `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
73d829c1 1570
bc97cdae 1571NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
5d3a0e79 1572
3acf6d38 1573
f74980cb 1574# PLUGINS
b7770046 1575
3ae5e797 1576Plugins 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
1577
1578Plugins 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`.
1579
1580See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example plugins.
1581
1582Note 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
1583
1584If you are a plugin author, add [ytdlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/ytdlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability
b7770046 1585
b7770046 1586
8c6f4daa 1587
1588# EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1589
1590yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1591
1592Your 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.
1593
1594From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1595
1596```python
59a7a13e 1597from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
8c6f4daa 1598
1599ydl_opts = {}
59a7a13e 1600with YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
8c6f4daa 1601 ydl.download(['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
1602```
1603
1604Most 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).
1605
1606Here'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:
1607
1608```python
1609import json
8c6f4daa 1610import yt_dlp
8c6f4daa 1611
1612
1613class MyLogger:
1614 def debug(self, msg):
1615 # For compatability with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
1616 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
1617 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
1618 pass
1619 else:
1620 self.info(msg)
1621
1622 def info(self, msg):
1623 pass
1624
1625 def warning(self, msg):
1626 pass
1627
1628 def error(self, msg):
1629 print(msg)
1630
1631
59a7a13e 1632class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
8c6f4daa 1633 def run(self, info):
1634 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
1635 return [], info
1636
1637
1638def my_hook(d):
1639 if d['status'] == 'finished':
1640 print('Done downloading, now converting ...')
1641
1642
1643ydl_opts = {
1644 'format': 'bestaudio/best',
1645 'postprocessors': [{
1646 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
1647 'preferredcodec': 'mp3',
1648 'preferredquality': '192',
1649 }],
1650 'logger': MyLogger(),
1651 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
1652}
1653
59a7a13e 1654
1655# Add custom headers
1656yt_dlp.utils.std_headers.update({'Referer': 'https://www.google.com'})
1657
8c6f4daa 1658with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1659 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP())
1660 info = ydl.extract_info('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc')
1661 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1662```
1663
1664See the public functions in [`yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py`](yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py) for other available functions. Eg: `ydl.download`, `ydl.download_with_info_file`
1665
49a57e70 1666**Tip**: If you are porting your code from youtube-dl to yt-dlp, one important point to look out for is that we do not guarantee the return value of `YoutubeDL.extract_info` to be json serializable, or even be a dictionary. It will be dictionary-like, but if you want to ensure it is a serializable dictionary, pass it through `YoutubeDL.sanitize_info` as shown in the example above
1667
8c6f4daa 1668
e167860c 1669# DEPRECATED OPTIONS
1670
1671These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
1672
6ccf351a 1673#### Redundant options
1674While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
f4536226 1675
53c18592 1676 --get-description --print description
1677 --get-duration --print duration_string
1678 --get-filename --print filename
1679 --get-format --print format
1680 --get-id --print id
1681 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
1682 -e, --get-title --print title
1683 -g, --get-url --print urls
2b8a2973 1684 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
8f18aca8 1685 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
1686 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
1687 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
1688 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
6ccf351a 1689
1690
1691#### Not recommended
1692While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
1693
d9aa2332 1694 --all-formats -f all
c32b0aab 1695 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
b7b04c78 1696 --print-json -j --no-simulate
e167860c 1697 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)03d
a439a3a4 1698 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
19b824f6 1699 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
73cd218f 1700 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
52a8a1e1 1701 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
1702 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
53ed7066 1703 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
1704 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
5d3a0e79 1705 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
1706 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
1707 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
1708 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
6ccf351a 1709
1710
1711#### Developer options
1712These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
1713
34488702 1714 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
6ccf351a 1715 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
88acdbc2 1716 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
1717 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
f4536226 1718
1719
1720#### Old aliases
1721These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
1722
1723 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
1724 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
1725 --dump-headers --print-traffic
1726 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
1727 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
1728 --load-info --load-info-json
1729 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
e167860c 1730 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
e167860c 1731 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
1732 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
f4536226 1733 --split-tracks --split-chapters
1734 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
e167860c 1735 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
f4536226 1736 --write-srt --write-subs
e167860c 1737 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
f4536226 1738
7a340e0d
NA		 1739#### Sponskrub Options
1740Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of `--sponsorblock`
1741
1742 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
1743 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
1744 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
1745 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
1746 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
1747 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
1748 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
1749 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
1750
f4536226 1751#### No longer supported
1752These options may no longer work as intended
1753
1754 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
1755 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
1756 -C, --call-home Not implemented
1757 --no-call-home Default
1758 --include-ads No longer supported
1759 --no-include-ads Default
0bb1bc1b 1760 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
1761 --no-write-annotations Default
486fb179 1762
1763#### Removed
1764These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
1765
f4536226 1766 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1767 -t, --title -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1768 -l, --literal -o accepts literal names
1769
8c6f4daa 1770# CONTRIBUTING
1771See [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 1772
c2b5f311 1773# MORE
8c6f4daa 1774For FAQ see the [youtube-dl README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)
fork of https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/