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b31fdeed 1<div align="center">
2
d9d045e2 3# YT-DLP
b31fdeed 4A command-line program to download videos from YouTube and many other [video platforms](supportedsites.md)
d9d045e2 5
e58c22a0 6<!-- GHA doesn't have for-the-badge style
7a5c1cfe 7[![CI Status](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/workflows/Core%20Tests/badge.svg?branch=master)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions)
b31fdeed 8-->
9[![Release version](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?color=brightgreen&label=Release&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest)
10[![License: Unlicense](https://img.shields.io/badge/License-Unlicense-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge)](LICENSE)
11[![Doc Status](https://readthedocs.org/projects/yt-dlp/badge/?version=latest&style=for-the-badge)](https://yt-dlp.readthedocs.io)
a7191c6f 12[![Discord](https://img.shields.io/discord/807245652072857610?color=blue&label=discord&logo=discord&style=for-the-badge)](https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r)
b31fdeed 13[![Commits](https://img.shields.io/github/commit-activity/m/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?label=commits&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits)
14[![Last Commit](https://img.shields.io/github/last-commit/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits)
a7191c6f 15[![Downloads](https://img.shields.io/github/downloads/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/total?style=for-the-badge&color=blue)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest)
b31fdeed 16[![PyPi Downloads](https://img.shields.io/pypi/dm/yt-dlp?label=PyPi&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
c76eb41b 17
b31fdeed 18</div>
c76eb41b 19
b31fdeed 20yt-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 21
034b6215 22* [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
53ed7066 23 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
c76eb41b 24* [INSTALLATION](#installation)
e58c22a0 25 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
17fa3ee2 26 * [Update](#update)
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)
8a51f564 43 * [SponSkrub (SponsorBlock) Options](#sponskrub-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)
f74980cb 56* [PLUGINS](#plugins)
e167860c 57* [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
c76eb41b 58* [MORE](#more)
b31fdeed 59</div>
50865ca8 60
61
034b6215 62# NEW FEATURES
f20f5fe5 63The major new features from the latest release of [blackjack4494/yt-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) are:
034b6215 64
7a5c1cfe 65* **[SponSkrub Integration](#sponskrub-sponsorblock-options)**: You can use [SponSkrub](https://github.com/yt-dlp/SponSkrub) to mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
034b6215 66
90505ff1 67* **[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 that what is possible by simply using `--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
034b6215 68
fac98805 69* **Merged with youtube-dl [commit/a726009](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/a7260099873acc6dc7d76cafad2f6b139087afd0)**: (v2021.04.26) 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 70
fac98805 71* **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from [animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including `--get-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 72
f5546c0b 73* **Youtube improvements**:
0cf05715 74 * All Youtube Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`) works and supports downloading multiple pages of content
75 * Youtube search (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`) along with Search URLs work
76 * Youtube mixes supports downloading multiple pages of content
f20f5fe5 77 * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to `/video` to preserve the old behaviour
78
597c1866 79* **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
80
b31fdeed 81* **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 82
b31fdeed 83* **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
f20f5fe5 84
fac98805 85* **New extractors**: AnimeLab, Philo MSO, Rcs, Gedi, bitwave.tv, mildom, audius, zee5, mtv.it, wimtv, pluto.tv, niconico users, discoveryplus.in, mediathek, NFHSNetwork, nebula, ukcolumn, whowatch, MxplayerShow
f20f5fe5 86
fac98805 87* **Fixed 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
88
89* **Subtitle extraction from manifests**: Subtitles can be extracted from streaming media manifests. See [be6202f12b97858b9d716e608394b51065d0419f](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/be6202f12b97858b9d716e608394b51065d0419f) for details
034b6215 90
597c1866 91* **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 92
93* **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
94
fac98805 95* **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`
96
97* **Other new options**: `--sleep-requests`, `--convert-thumbnails`, `--write-link`, `--force-download-archive`, `--force-overwrites`, `--break-on-reject` etc
0bc0a322 98
fac98805 99* **Improvements**: Multiple `--postprocessor-args` and `--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection) etc
c69911e4 100
b31fdeed 101* **Plugin extractors**: Extractors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
102
7a5c1cfe 103* **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`
aa837ddf 104
29b6000e 105
7a5c1cfe 106See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
a26c99ac 107
108
90505ff1 109**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 110
b9650873 111If 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 112
53ed7066 113### Differences in default behavior
114
115Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc.
116
1171. The options `--id`, `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
1181. `avconv` is not supported as as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
1191. 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`
1201. 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
1211. 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
1221. 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
1231. `--ignore-errors` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
1241. 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
41712218 1251. `--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
53ed7066 1261. `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
1271. The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
1281. 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
1291. Youtube channel URLs are automatically redirected to `/video`. Either append a `/featured` to the URL or use `--compat-options no-youtube-channel-redirect` to download only the videos in the home page
1301. Unavailable videos are also listed for youtube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
131
132For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
1331. `--compat-options all` = Use all compat options
1341. `--compat-options youtube-dl` = `--compat-options all,-multistreams`
1351. `--compat-options youtube-dlc` = `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
136
f20f5fe5 137
d19bb9c0 138# INSTALLATION
b31fdeed 139yt-dlp is not platform specific. So it should work on your Unix box, on Windows or on macOS
50865ca8 140
7bc877a2 141You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
7a5c1cfe 142* Download the binary from the [latest release](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest) (recommended method)
a61f4b28 143* Use [PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp): `python3 -m pip install --upgrade yt-dlp`
144* Use pip+git: `python3 -m pip install --upgrade git+https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp.git@release`
145* Install master branch: `python3 -m pip install --upgrade git+https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp`
146
147Note that on some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`
5f326cf5 148
5ba4a0b6
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149UNIX users (Linux, macOS, BSD) can also install the [latest release](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest) one of the following ways:
150
151```
152sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
153sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
154```
155
156```
157sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
158sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
159```
160
161```
162sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
163sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
164```
165
e58c22a0 166### DEPENDENCIES
a61f4b28 167Python versions 3.6+ (CPython and PyPy) are officially supported. Other versions and implementations may or maynot work correctly.
b31fdeed 168
fac98805 169On windows, [Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x86)](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999) 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.
170
07cce701 171Although there are no other required dependencies, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended. Other optional dependencies are `sponskrub`, `AtomicParsley`, `mutagen`, `pycryptodome`, `phantomjs` and any of the supported external downloaders. Note that the windows releases are already built with the python interpreter, mutagen and pycryptodome included.
b31fdeed 172
c76eb41b 173### UPDATE
b31fdeed 174You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are using the provided release.
aa837ddf 175If you are using `pip`, simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program.
5f326cf5 176
c76eb41b 177### COMPILE
5f326cf5 178
c76eb41b 179**For Windows**:
5d25607a 180To build the Windows executable, you must have pyinstaller (and optionally mutagen and pycryptodome)
d19bb9c0 181
a61f4b28 182 python3 -m pip install --upgrade pyinstaller mutagen pycryptodome
e38df8f9 183
a61f4b28 184Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, just run `py pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (32/64 bit) as the python used to build it.
5f326cf5 185
e38df8f9 186You can also build the executable without any version info or metadata by using:
187
7a5c1cfe 188 pyinstaller.exe yt_dlp\__main__.py --onefile --name yt-dlp
fac98805 189
190Note 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 191
c76eb41b 192**For Unix**:
c74d1aa3 193You will need the required build tools: `python`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`, `zip`, `nosetests`
127d0759 194Then simply run `make`. You can also run `make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files
5f326cf5 195
e38df8f9 196**Note**: In either platform, `devscripts\update-version.py` can be used to automatically update the version number
d19bb9c0 197
b31fdeed 198# USAGE AND OPTIONS
6bcd846b 199
7a5c1cfe 200 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
b50e3bc6 201
c2b5f311 202`Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
e58c22a0 203<!-- Auto generated -->
c2b5f311 204
c76eb41b 205## General Options:
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206 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
207 --version Print program version and exit
8d801631 208 -U, --update Update this program to latest version. Make
209 sure that you have sufficient permissions
210 (run with sudo if needed)
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211 -i, --ignore-errors Continue on download errors, for example to
212 skip unavailable videos in a playlist
8a51f564 213 (default) (Alias: --no-abort-on-error)
214 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
215 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
1dc2726f 216 --dump-user-agent Display the current browser identification
4b9f9010 217 --list-extractors List all supported extractors
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218 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
219 extractors
220 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
221 extractor
222 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
223 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
6623ac34 224 from google videos for youtube-dl "large
c4af7684 225 apple". Use the value "auto" to let
6623ac34 226 youtube-dl guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
c4af7684
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227 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
228 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
229 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
8a51f564 230 this is not possible instead of searching
298f597b 231 --ignore-config, --no-config Disable loading any configuration files
8a51f564 232 except the one provided by --config-location.
233 When given inside a configuration
298f597b 234 file, no further configuration files are
235 loaded. Additionally, (for backward
236 compatibility) if this option is found
237 inside the system configuration file, the
8a51f564 238 user configuration is not loaded
0202b52a 239 --config-location PATH Location of the main configuration file;
240 either the path to the config or its
241 containing directory
c4af7684 242 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
8a51f564 243 only list them
6623ac34 244 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
bdf7f139 245 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (YouTube only)
597c1866 246 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
8a51f564 247 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output
53ed7066 248 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
249 with youtube-dl and youtube-dlc
250 configurations by reverting some of the
251 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
252 default behavior" for details
08c1d0d3 253
149f05c7 254## Network Options:
28b4f736 255 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy.
0934c9d4
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256 To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper
257 scheme. For example
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258 socks5://127.0.0.1:1080/. Pass in an empty
259 string (--proxy "") for direct connection
149f05c7 260 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
c4af7684 261 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
c4af7684 262 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
c4af7684 263 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
8c6c88c7 264
b31fdeed 265## Geo-restriction:
c25f1a9b
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266 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
267 some geo-restricted sites. The default
268 proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the
7550ea50 269 option is not present) is used for the
8a51f564 270 actual downloading
8c6c88c7 271 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
0934c9d4 272 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
8c6c88c7
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273 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
274 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
8c6c88c7
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275 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
276 explicitly provided two-letter ISO 3166-2
0934c9d4 277 country code
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278 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
279 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR
0934c9d4 280 notation
149f05c7 281
cfcec693 282## Video Selection:
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283 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is 1)
284 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
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285 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
286 indices of the videos in the playlist
287 separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
288 1,2,5,8" if you want to download videos
289 indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in the playlist. You can
290 specify range: "--playlist-items
291 1-3,7,10-13", it will download the videos
8a51f564 292 at index 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13
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293 --match-title REGEX Download only matching titles (regex or
294 caseless sub-string)
295 --reject-title REGEX Skip download for matching titles (regex or
296 caseless sub-string)
780083db 297 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
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298 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
299 SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
300 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
301 (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
6623ac34 302 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded in this date.
303 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
304 "(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?"
c4af7684 305 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
c76eb41b 306 this date. The date formats accepted is the
307 same as --date
c4af7684 308 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
c76eb41b 309 this date. The date formats accepted is the
310 same as --date
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311 --min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than
312 COUNT views
313 --max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than
314 COUNT views
4d2fdb07 315 --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Specify any key (see
8a51f564 316 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a list of available
317 keys) to match if the key is present, !key
318 to check if the key is not present,
277d6ff5 319 key>NUMBER (like "view_count > 12", also
8a51f564 320 works with >=, <, <=, !=, =) to compare
321 against a number, key = 'LITERAL' (like
322 "uploader = 'Mike Smith'", also works with
323 !=) to match against a string literal and &
324 to require multiple matches. Values which
325 are not known are excluded unless you put a
326 question mark (?) after the operator. For
327 example, to only match videos that have
8c6c88c7
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328 been liked more than 100 times and disliked
329 less than 50 times (or the dislike
330 functionality is not available at the given
331 service), but who also have a description,
332 use --match-filter "like_count > 100 &
8a51f564 333 dislike_count <? 50 & description"
c76eb41b 334 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
c4af7684 335 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
8a51f564 336 to a video and a playlist
c4af7684 337 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
8a51f564 338 a video and a playlist
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339 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
340 age
341 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
342 archive file. Record the IDs of all
8a51f564 343 downloaded videos in it
8b0d7497 344 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
8a51f564 345 a file that is in the archive
8b0d7497 346 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
8a51f564 347 a file that has been filtered out
26e2805c 348 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest
349 of the playlist is skipped
c76eb41b 350 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
6bcd846b 351
d5a62e4f 352## Download Options:
b31fdeed 353 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
354 video that should be download concurrently
355 (default is 1)
5e3856a2 356 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
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357 (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
358 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
8a51f564 359 "infinite"
0be8314d 360 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
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361 is 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and
362 ISM)
6623ac34 363 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
364 hlsnative and ISM (default)
8a51f564 365 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
6623ac34 366 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading if a fragment is unavailable
8a51f564 367 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
a82f4184 368 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
6623ac34 369 downloading is finished
c76eb41b 370 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
371 downloading is finished (default)
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372 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
373 (default is 1024)
c76eb41b 374 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
375 from an initial value of --buffer-size
376 (default)
377 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
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378 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
379 downloading (e.g. 10485760 or 10M) (default
380 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
381 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
382 (experimental)
2101f5d4 383 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
6623ac34 384 --no-playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in default order
c76eb41b 385 (default)
31487eb9 386 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
c4af7684 387 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
0934c9d4 388 expected file size
9bd20204 389 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
390 allowing some players to play the video
391 while downloading, and reducing the chance
392 of file corruption if download is
393 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
394 live streams
395 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
396 videos. This is default when not
397 downloading live streams
52a8a1e1 398 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
399 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
400 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
401 use it for. Currently supports native,
402 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
403 wget (Recommended: aria2c). You can use
404 this option multiple times to set different
405 downloaders for different protocols. For
406 example, --downloader aria2c --downloader
407 "dash,m3u8:native" will use aria2c for
408 http/ftp downloads, and the native
409 downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
410 (Alias: --external-downloader)
46ee996e 411 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
412 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
413 the arguments separated by a colon ":". You
29b6000e 414 can use this option multiple times
415 (Alias: --external-downloader-args)
d5a62e4f 416
cfcec693 417## Filesystem Options:
c4af7684 418 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-' for
e8dfecb3
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419 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
420 with '#', ';' or ']' are considered as
8a51f564 421 comments and ignored
d818eb74 422 -P, --paths TYPES:PATH The paths where the files should be
0202b52a 423 downloaded. Specify the type of file and
de6000d9 424 the path separated by a colon ":". All the
425 same types as --output are supported.
426 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
427 and "temp" paths. All intermediary files
428 are first downloaded to the temp path and
429 then the final files are moved over to the
430 home path after download is finished. This
431 option is ignored if --output is an
432 absolute path
d818eb74 433 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
c76eb41b 434 TEMPLATE" for details
0bc0a322 435 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder value for unavailable meta
436 fields in output filename template
437 (default: "NA")
c4af7684
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438 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
439 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
440 filenames
c76eb41b 441 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
442 filenames (default)
c2934512 443 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be windows compatible
444 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames windows compatible only if
445 using windows (default)
446 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
447 extension) to the specified number of
448 characters
9b45b9f5 449 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
450 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files.
451 This option includes --no-continue
452 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
453 related files (default)
c25228e5 454 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
455 (default)
456 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
e58c22a0 457 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
c25228e5 458 restart download of the entire file
c76eb41b 459 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
6623ac34 460 into output file (default)
c4af7684
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461 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
462 into output file
c76eb41b 463 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the
464 file modification time (default)
c4af7684
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465 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
466 the file modification time
467 --write-description Write video description to a .description
468 file
6623ac34 469 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
1dc2726f 470 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
c25228e5 471 (this may contain personal information)
6623ac34 472 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
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473 --write-annotations Write video annotations to a
474 .annotations.xml file
6623ac34 475 --no-write-annotations Do not write video annotations (default)
cac96421 476 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
477 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
478 --write-description etc. (default)
479 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
480 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
75d43ca0 481 --clean-infojson Remove some private fields such as
482 filenames from the infojson. Note that it
483 could still contain some personal
484 information (default)
485 --no-clean-infojson Write all fields to the infojson
06167fbb 486 --get-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
277d6ff5 487 .info.json file. The comments are fetched
488 even without this option if the extraction
489 is known to be quick
d845622b 490 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
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491 (created with the "--write-info-json"
492 option)
493 --cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump cookie
494 jar in
6623ac34 495 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies (default)
496 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
497 can store some downloaded information
82674236 498 permanently. By default
6623ac34 499 $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or
500 ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the moment, only
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501 YouTube player files (for videos with
502 obfuscated signatures) are cached, but that
8a51f564 503 may change
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504 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
505 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
6bcd846b 506
b31fdeed 507## Thumbnail Options:
1dc2726f 508 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
6623ac34 509 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk
c76eb41b 510 (default)
1dc2726f 511 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
c4af7684
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512 --list-thumbnails Simulate and list all available thumbnail
513 formats
2b1bd292 514
732044af 515## Internet Shortcut Options:
8a51f564 516 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
517 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
518 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
519 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
520 OS caches the URL based on the file path
521 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
522 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
732044af 523
0744a815 524## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
1dc2726f 525 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode
6c072e7d 526 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
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527 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
528 anything to disk
0cf05715 529 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Usefull
530 for extracting metadata even if the video
531 is not actually available for download
532 (experimental)
533 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
534 formats are found (default)
e167860c 535 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
536 related files (Alias: --no-download)
53c18592 537 -O, --print TEMPLATE Simulate, quiet but print the given fields.
538 Either a field name or similar formatting
539 as the output template can be used
c4af7684 540 -j, --dump-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information.
8a51f564 541 See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a description of
542 available keys
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543 -J, --dump-single-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information
544 for each command-line argument. If the URL
545 refers to a playlist, dump the whole
8a51f564 546 playlist information in a single line
c4af7684 547 --print-json Be quiet and print the video information as
8a51f564 548 JSON (video is still being downloaded)
549 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be
e58c22a0 550 written as far as no errors occur, even if
551 -s or another simulation option is used
8a51f564 552 (Alias: --force-download-archive)
1dc2726f
PH
553 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
554 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
555 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
556 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
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557 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
558 to debug problems (very verbose)
559 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
560 files in the current directory to debug
561 problems
780083db 562 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
6bcd846b 563
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564## Workarounds:
565 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
1dc2726f 566 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
c4af7684 567 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
e167860c 568 information about the video (Currently
05a7ffb1 569 supported only for YouTube)
1dc2726f 570 --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
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571 --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video
572 access is restricted to one domain
573 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
45016689 574 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
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575 option multiple times
576 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
577 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
578 or fribidi executable in PATH
1cf376f5 579 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
580 during data extraction
c4af7684 581 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
e167860c 582 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
583 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
584 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
585 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can
586 only be used along with --min-sleep-interval
1cf376f5 587 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
588 subtitle download
36f35428 589
cfcec693 590## Video Format Options:
eb8a4433 591 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
592 for more details
593 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
594 "Sorting Formats" for more details
8a51f564 595 --S-force, --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
596 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
eb8a4433 597 Formats" for more details
598 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
c76eb41b 599 specified sort order (default), see
600 "Sorting Formats" for more details
601 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
602 into a single file
603 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for
604 each output file (default)
605 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
606 into a single file
607 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for
608 each output file (default)
da9be05e 609 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
610 over non-free ones of same quality. Use
611 with "-S ext" to strictly prefer free
612 containers irrespective of quality
613 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
614 containers (default)
e8e73840 615 --check-formats Check that the formats selected are
616 actually downloadable (Experimental)
535d7b68 617 -F, --list-formats List all available formats of requested
bb6ac836 618 videos
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619 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
620 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
621 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
622 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
63ad4d43 623 --allow-unplayable-formats Allow unplayable formats to be listed and
e58c22a0 624 downloaded. All video post-processing will
63ad4d43 625 also be turned off
626 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Do not allow unplayable formats to be
627 listed or downloaded (default)
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628
629## Subtitle Options:
c76eb41b 630 --write-subs Write subtitle file
631 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
632 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
e167860c 633 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
634 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
635 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
1dc2726f 636 --list-subs List all available subtitles for the video
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637 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
638 preference, for example: "srt" or
639 "ass/srt/best"
c32b0aab 640 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
641 be regex) or "all" separated by commas.
642 (Eg: --sub-langs en.*,ja) You can prefix
643 the language code with a "-" to exempt it
644 from the requested languages. (Eg: --sub-
645 langs all,-live_chat) Use --list-subs for a
646 list of available language tags
6bcd846b 647
cfcec693 648## Authentication Options:
1dc2726f 649 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
c4af7684 650 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
7a5c1cfe 651 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
dc48a354 652 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
1dc2726f 653 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
29f7c58a 654 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
f5e008d1 655 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
909d24dd 656 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
657 a list of available MSOs
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658 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
659 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
c74d1aa3 660 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
661 interactively
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662 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
663 operators
664
c76eb41b 665## Post-Processing Options:
c4af7684 666 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
e4172ac9 667 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
c4af7684 668 --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format: "best", "aac",
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669 "flac", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", "vorbis", or
670 "wav"; "best" by default; No effect without
671 -x
e4172ac9 672 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality, insert a
673 value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for
674 VBR or a specific bitrate like 128K
c4af7684 675 (default 5)
c76eb41b 676 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
29b6000e 677 necessary (currently supported: mp4|mkv|flv
678 |webm|mov|avi|mp3|mka|m4a|ogg|opus). If
679 target container does not support the
06167fbb 680 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
681 can specify multiple rules; eg.
682 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to
683 m4a, mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv.
c76eb41b 684 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
29b6000e 685 re-encoding is necessary. The supported
686 formats are the same as --remux-video
1b77b347 687 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
43820c03 688 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
45016689 689 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
690 to give the argument to the specified
8fa43c73 691 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
692 Merger, ExtractAudio, SplitChapters,
693 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
694 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
695 VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor, SponSkrub,
696 FixupStretched, FixupM4a and FixupM3u8. The
697 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
698 FFmpeg, FFprobe, and SponSkrub. You can
699 also specify "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the
700 arguments to the specified executable only
701 when being used by the specified
702 postprocessor. Additionally, for
703 ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be appended
704 to the prefix optionally followed by a
705 number to pass the argument before the
706 specified input/output file. Eg: --ppa
707 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
708 this option multiple times to give
e4172ac9 709 different arguments to different
5b1ecbb3 710 postprocessors. (Alias: --ppa)
c76eb41b 711 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
6623ac34 712 after post-processing
c76eb41b 713 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
6623ac34 714 post-processing (default)
715 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
716 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
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717 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
718 webm and mkv videos)
c76eb41b 719 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
1dc2726f 720 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
6623ac34 721 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
1dc2726f 722 --add-metadata Write metadata to the video file
6623ac34 723 --no-add-metadata Do not write metadata (default)
73cd218f 724 --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
725 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
726 for details
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727 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
728 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
729 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
730 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
731 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
732 default; fix file if we can, warn
733 otherwise)
e4172ac9 734 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
735 path to the binary or its containing
736 directory
c4af7684 737 --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
9de3ea31 738 downloading and post-processing. Similar
739 syntax to the output template can be used
740 to pass any field as arguments to the
741 command. An additional field "filepath"
742 that contains the final path of the
743 downloaded file is also available. If no
744 fields are passed, "%(filepath)s" is
745 appended to the end of the command
e167860c 746 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
9fc41bcb 747 (currently supported: srt|ass|vtt|lrc)
e167860c 748 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
8fa43c73 749 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
750 (currently supported: jpg)
72755351 751 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
752 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix
753 can be used with "--paths" and "--output"
754 to set the output filename for the split
755 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
756 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters
757 (default)
6bcd846b 758
8a51f564 759## SponSkrub (SponsorBlock) Options:
7a5c1cfe 760[SponSkrub](https://github.com/yt-dlp/SponSkrub) is a utility to
8a51f564 761 mark/remove sponsor segments from downloaded YouTube videos using
762 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
763
764 --sponskrub Use sponskrub to mark sponsored sections.
765 This is enabled by default if the sponskrub
766 binary exists (Youtube only)
c76eb41b 767 --no-sponskrub Do not use sponskrub
a9e7f546 768 --sponskrub-cut Cut out the sponsor sections instead of
769 simply marking them
6623ac34 770 --no-sponskrub-cut Simply mark the sponsor sections, not cut
771 them out (default)
c76eb41b 772 --sponskrub-force Run sponskrub even if the video was already
773 downloaded
6623ac34 774 --no-sponskrub-force Do not cut out the sponsor sections if the
775 video was already downloaded (default)
c76eb41b 776 --sponskrub-location PATH Location of the sponskrub binary; either
777 the path to the binary or its containing
8a51f564 778 directory
a9e7f546 779
78895bd3 780## Extractor Options:
5ef7d9bd 781 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor
d6e51845 782 errors (default is 3), or "infinite"
6623ac34 783 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
8a51f564 784 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
785 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
786 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
e409895f 787 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
788 discontinuities such as ad breaks
789 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
790 formats at discontinuities such as ad
791 breaks (default)
792 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Download the DASH manifests and related
793 data on YouTube videos (default)
794 (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
795 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest Do not download the DASH manifests and
796 related data on YouTube videos
797 (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
798 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Download the HLS manifests and related data
799 on YouTube videos (default)
800 (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
801 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest Do not download the HLS manifests and
802 related data on YouTube videos
803 (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
17cb02d0 804
b7770046
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805# CONFIGURATION
806
7a5c1cfe 807You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
e2e43aea 808
0202b52a 8091. **Main Configuration**: The file given by `--config-location`
7a5c1cfe
P
8101. **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.
8111. **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 8121. **User Configuration**:
813 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
814 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
815 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
816 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
817 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
818 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
819
7a5c1cfe 820 Note that `~` points to `C:\Users\<user name>` on windows. Also, `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%` defaults to `~/.config` if undefined
07cce701 8211. **System Configuration**: `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
b7770046 822
7a5c1cfe 823For example, with the following configuration file yt-dlp will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under `YouTube` directory in your home directory:
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824```
825# Lines starting with # are comments
826
827# Always extract audio
828-x
829
830# Do not copy the mtime
831--no-mtime
832
833# Use this proxy
834--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
835
298f597b 836# Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
837-o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
b7770046
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838```
839
e2e43aea 840Note 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 841
7a5c1cfe 842You can use `--ignore-config` if you want to disable all configuration files for a particular yt-dlp run. If `--ignore-config` is found inside any configuration file, no further configuration will be loaded. For example, having the option in the portable configuration file prevents loading of user and system configurations. Additionally, (for backward compatibility) if `--ignore-config` is found inside the system configuration file, the user configuration is not loaded.
b7770046
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843
844### Authentication with `.netrc` file
845
7a5c1cfe 846You 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 your `$HOME` and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
b7770046
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847```
848touch $HOME/.netrc
849chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
850```
851After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
852```
853machine <extractor> login <login> password <password>
854```
855For example:
856```
857machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
858machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
859```
7a5c1cfe 860To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
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861
862On Windows you may also need to setup the `%HOME%` environment variable manually. For example:
863```
864set HOME=%USERPROFILE%
865```
866
867# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
868
0202b52a 869The `-o` option is used to indicate a template for the output file names while `-P` option is used to specify the path each type of file should be saved to.
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870
871**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
872
e58c22a0 873The 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 874
875It 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/2/library/stdtypes.html#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.
876
877The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
e625be0d 8781. **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)`, `%(id.3:7:-1)s`. Note that the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use `-j` to see such fields
8791. **Addition**: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using `+` and `-` respectively. Eg: `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
8801. **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`
8811. **Default**: A default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a `|` seperator. This overrides `--output-na-template`. Eg: `%(uploader|Unknown)s`
a439a3a4 882
883To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
884```
e625be0d 885%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
a439a3a4 886```
de6000d9 887
5112f26a 888Additionally, 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`, `infojson`, `pl_thumbnail`, `pl_description`, `pl_infojson`, `chapter`. For example, `-o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' -o 'thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s'` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video.
e29663c6 889
890The available fields are:
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891
892 - `id` (string): Video identifier
893 - `title` (string): Video title
894 - `url` (string): Video URL
895 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
896 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
597c1866 897 - `description` (string): The description of the video
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898 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
899 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
900 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
901 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
902 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
903 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
904 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
905 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
906 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
907 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
908 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
909 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
53c18592 910 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
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911 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
912 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
913 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
914 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
915 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
277d6ff5 916 - `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)
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917 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
918 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
f76ede8e 919 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
6cfda058 920 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
c224251a 921 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is 'private', 'premium_only', 'subscriber_only', 'needs_auth', 'unlisted' or 'public'
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922 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
923 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
29b6000e 924 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
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925 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by `--format`
926 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
927 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
928 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
929 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
930 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
931 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
932 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
933 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
934 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
935 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
936 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
937 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
938 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
939 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
940 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
941 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
942 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
943 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch when creating the file
944 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`
945 - `playlist` (string): Name or id of the playlist that contains the video
946 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
947 - `playlist_id` (string): Playlist identifier
948 - `playlist_title` (string): Playlist title
949 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
950 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
951
952Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
953
954 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
955 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
956 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
957
958Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
959
960 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
961 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
962 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
963 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
964 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
965 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
966 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
967
968Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
969
970 - `track` (string): Title of the track
971 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
972 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
973 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
974 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
975 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
976 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
977 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
978 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
979 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
980
b050d210 981Available for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
72755351 982
983 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
984 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
985 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
986 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
987
53c18592 988Available only when used in `--print`:
989
990 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
991 - `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
992
a820dc72 993Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. Note that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with placeholder value provided with `--output-na-placeholder` (`NA` by default).
b7770046 994
7a5c1cfe 995For example for `-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title `yt-dlp test video` and id `BaW_jenozKcj`, this will result in a `yt-dlp test video-BaW_jenozKcj.mp4` file created in the current directory.
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996
997For numeric sequences you can use numeric related formatting, for example, `%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in `00042`.
998
999Output 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.
1000
1001To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1002
91ebc640 1003The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
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1004
1005In 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:
1006
1007#### Output template and Windows batch files
1008
1009If 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"`.
1010
1011#### Output template examples
1012
de6000d9 1013Note that on Windows you need to use double quotes instead of single.
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1014
1015```bash
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P
1016$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
1017youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
b7770046 1018
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P
1019$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
1020youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
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1021
1022# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
7a5c1cfe 1023$ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
b7770046 1024
b050d210 1025# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
7a5c1cfe 1026$ yt-dlp -o '%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
e29663c6 1027
b7770046 1028# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
7a5c1cfe 1029$ yt-dlp -o '%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists
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1030
1031# Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
7a5c1cfe 1032$ 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/
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1033
1034# Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
7a5c1cfe 1035$ 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
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1036
1037# Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
7a5c1cfe 1038$ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
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1039```
1040
1041# FORMAT SELECTION
1042
7a5c1cfe
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1043By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1044This 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 1045
eff63539 1046The 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.
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1047
1048**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1049
a439a3a4 1050The simplest case is requesting a specific format, for example with `-f 22` you can download the format with format code equal to 22. You can get the list of available format codes for particular video using `--list-formats` or `-F`. Note that these format codes are extractor specific.
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1051
1052You 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.
1053
1054You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1055
e094cec1 1056 - `all`: Select all formats
f8d4ad9a 1057 - `mergeall`: Select and merge all formats (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
1058 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio
1059 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio
909d24dd 1060 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1061 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1062 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality video-only format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1063 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
909d24dd 1064 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1065 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1066 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
1067 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
909d24dd 1068 - `ba*`, `bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `best*[acodec!=none]`
1069 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
b7770046 1070
e58c22a0 1071For 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 1072
1073You 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 1074
eb8a4433 1075If you want to download multiple videos and they don't have the same formats available, you can specify the order of preference using slashes. Note that formats on the left hand side are preferred, for example `-f 22/17/18` will download format 22 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 17 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 18 if it's available, otherwise it will complain that no suitable formats are available for download.
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1076
1077If 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`.
1078
e4172ac9 1079You 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. If `--no-video-multistreams` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, if `--no-audio-multistreams` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. For example, `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio` 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 1080
1081## Filtering Formats
1082
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1083You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
1084
1085The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1086
1087 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1088 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1089 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
1090 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1091 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1092 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1093 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1094 - `fps`: Frame rate
1095
1096Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains) and following string meta fields:
1097
1098 - `ext`: File extension
1099 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1100 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1101 - `container`: Name of the container format
1102 - `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`)
1103 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
29f7c58a 1104 - `language`: Language code
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1105
1106Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation `!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. `!*=` (does not contain).
1107
e58c22a0 1108Note 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 1109
e094cec1 1110Formats 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 1111
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1112Format 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]'`.
1113
eb8a4433 1114## Sorting Formats
1115
1116You can change the criteria for being considered the `best` by using `-S` (`--format-sort`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...`. The available fields are:
1117
63be1aab 1118 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1119 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
1120 - `ie_pref`: The format preference as given by the extractor
1121 - `lang`: Language preference as given by the extractor
dca3ff4a 1122 - `quality`: The quality of the format as given by the extractor
63be1aab 1123 - `source`: Preference of the source as given by the extractor
a7191c6f 1124 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native` > `m3u8` > `http_dash_segments` > other > `mms`/`rtsp` > unknown > `f4f`/`f4m`)
155d2b48 1125 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other > unknown)
63be1aab 1126 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other > unknown)
eb8a4433 1127 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
63be1aab 1128 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `webm` > `flv` > other > unknown). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is prefered.
1129 - `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`.
1130 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
eb8a4433 1131 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if know in advance. This will be unavailable for mu38 and DASH formats.
63be1aab 1132 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1133 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
eb8a4433 1134 - `height`: Height of video
1135 - `width`: Width of video
63be1aab 1136 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1137 - `fps`: Framerate of video
1138 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1139 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1140 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1141 - `br`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr`
1142 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
eb8a4433 1143
e58c22a0 1144Note that any other **numerical** field made available by the extractor can also be used. All 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.
eb8a4433 1145
dca3ff4a 1146The fields `hasvid`, `ie_pref`, `lang` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using `--force-format-sort`. Apart from these, the default order used is: `quality,res,fps,codec:vp9.2,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. Note that the extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
eb8a4433 1147
e58c22a0 1148If 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 1149
1150**Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1151
eb8a4433 1152## Format Selection examples
b7770046
U
1153
1154Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
1155
1156```bash
e58c22a0 1157# Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
909d24dd 1158# or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
7a5c1cfe 1159$ yt-dlp -f 'bv+ba/b'
909d24dd 1160
1161# Download best format that contains video,
1162# and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
7a5c1cfe 1163$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba/b'
2af884ff 1164
1165# Same as above
7a5c1cfe 1166$ yt-dlp
909d24dd 1167
6fd35a11 1168# Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1169# For this case, an output template should be used since
1170# by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
7a5c1cfe 1171$ yt-dlp -f 'bv,ba' -o '%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s'
909d24dd 1172
f8d4ad9a 1173# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1174# and all audio-only formats into one file
1175$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]' --audio-multistreams
1176
1177# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1178# and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1179$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba+ba.2' --audio-multistreams
909d24dd 1180
6fd35a11 1181
1182# The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
f8d4ad9a 1183# and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
6fd35a11 1184
1185# Download the worst video available (old method)
7a5c1cfe 1186$ yt-dlp -f 'wv*+wa/w'
eb8a4433 1187
1188# Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
7a5c1cfe 1189$ yt-dlp -S '+res'
eb8a4433 1190
1191# Download the smallest video available
7a5c1cfe 1192$ yt-dlp -S '+size,+br'
eb8a4433 1193
1194
909d24dd 1195
eb8a4433 1196# Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
7a5c1cfe 1197$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b'
eb8a4433 1198
1199# Download the best video with the best extension
1200# (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
7a5c1cfe 1201$ yt-dlp -S 'ext'
eb8a4433 1202
1203
909d24dd 1204
eb8a4433 1205# Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1206# or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
7a5c1cfe 1207$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w'
b7770046 1208
eb8a4433 1209# Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1210# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
7a5c1cfe 1211$ yt-dlp -S 'height:480'
b7770046 1212
eb8a4433 1213# Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1214# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1215# Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1216# So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
7a5c1cfe 1217$ yt-dlp -S 'res:480'
b7770046 1218
b7770046 1219
909d24dd 1220
eb8a4433 1221# Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1222# or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
7a5c1cfe 1223$ yt-dlp -f 'b[filesize<50M] / w'
eb8a4433 1224
1225# Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1226# or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
7a5c1cfe 1227$ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize:50M'
eb8a4433 1228
1229# Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
7a5c1cfe 1230$ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize~50M'
eb8a4433 1231
1232
909d24dd 1233
eb8a4433 1234# Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1235# or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1236$ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)'
eb8a4433 1237
1238# Download best video available via the best protocol
1239# (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
7a5c1cfe 1240$ yt-dlp -S 'proto'
eb8a4433 1241
1242
909d24dd 1243
eb8a4433 1244# Download the best video with h264 codec, or the best video if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1245$ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[vcodec^=avc1] / (bv*+ba/b)'
eb8a4433 1246
1247# Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1248# or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1249$ yt-dlp -S 'codec:h264'
eb8a4433 1250
1251# Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1252# or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1253$ yt-dlp -S '+codec:h264'
eb8a4433 1254
1255
1256
1257# More complex examples
1258
e58c22a0 1259# Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1260# or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1261$ 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 1262
1263# Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
f8d4ad9a 1264# or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1265# preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
7a5c1cfe 1266$ yt-dlp -S 'res:720,fps'
eb8a4433 1267
1268
909d24dd 1269
eb8a4433 1270# Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1271# or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1272# preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
7a5c1cfe 1273$ yt-dlp -S '+res:480,codec,br'
b7770046 1274```
eb8a4433 1275
73cd218f 1276# MODIFYING METADATA
1277
b31fdeed 1278The metadata obtained the the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata FROM:TO`. The general syntax is to give the name of a field or a template (with similar syntax to [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 1279
1280Note 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`.
1281
1282You can also use this to change only 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. You can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis", for example.
1283
1284## Modifying metadata examples
1285
1286Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
1287
1288```bash
1289# Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
02aabd45 1290$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'title:%(artist)s - %(title)s'
73cd218f 1291
1292# Regex example
02aabd45 1293$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)'
73cd218f 1294
1295# Set title as "Series name S01E05"
02aabd45 1296$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata '%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s'
73cd218f 1297
1298# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url
02aabd45 1299$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)' --add-metadata
73cd218f 1300
1301```
1302
f74980cb 1303# PLUGINS
b7770046 1304
f74980cb 1305Plugins are loaded from `<root-dir>/ytdlp_plugins/<type>/__init__.py`. Currently only `extractor` plugins are supported. Support for `downloader` and `postprocessor` plugins may be added in the future. See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example.
b7770046 1306
7a5c1cfe 1307**Note**: `<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`)
b7770046 1308
e167860c 1309# DEPRECATED OPTIONS
1310
1311These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
1312
f4536226 1313#### Not recommended
e58c22a0 1314While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
f4536226 1315
53c18592 1316 --get-description --print description
1317 --get-duration --print duration_string
1318 --get-filename --print filename
1319 --get-format --print format
1320 --get-id --print id
1321 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
1322 -e, --get-title --print title
1323 -g, --get-url --print urls
d9aa2332 1324 --all-formats -f all
c32b0aab 1325 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
e167860c 1326 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)03d
a439a3a4 1327 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
73cd218f 1328 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
52a8a1e1 1329 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
1330 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
53ed7066 1331 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
1332 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
f4536226 1333 --sponskrub-args ARGS --ppa "sponskrub:ARGS"
1334 --test Used by developers for testing extractors. Not intended for the end user
a06916d9 1335 --youtube-print-sig-code Used for testing youtube signatures
f4536226 1336
1337
1338#### Old aliases
1339These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
1340
1341 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
1342 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
1343 --dump-headers --print-traffic
1344 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
1345 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
1346 --load-info --load-info-json
1347 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
e167860c 1348 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
e167860c 1349 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
1350 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
f4536226 1351 --split-tracks --split-chapters
1352 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
e167860c 1353 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
f4536226 1354 --write-srt --write-subs
e167860c 1355 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
f4536226 1356
1357#### No longer supported
1358These options may no longer work as intended
1359
1360 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
1361 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
1362 -C, --call-home Not implemented
1363 --no-call-home Default
1364 --include-ads No longer supported
1365 --no-include-ads Default
486fb179 1366
1367#### Removed
1368These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
1369
f4536226 1370 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1371 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1372 -t, --title -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1373 -l, --literal -o accepts literal names
1374
e167860c 1375
c2b5f311 1376# MORE
5bfa4862 1377For FAQ, Developer Instructions etc., see the [original README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)