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ec2e44fc 1<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b31fdeed 2<div align="center">
3
e980017a 4[![YT-DLP](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master/.github/banner.svg)](#readme)
d9d045e2 5
2fa669f7 6[![Release version](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?color=brightgreen&label=Download&style=for-the-badge)](#installation "Installation")
ae6a1b95 7[![PyPi](https://img.shields.io/badge/-PyPi-blue.svg?logo=pypi&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp "PyPi")
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fc5fa964 11[![Supported Sites](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Supported_Sites-brightgreen.svg?style=for-the-badge)](supportedsites.md "Supported Sites")
ae6a1b95 12[![License: Unlicense](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Unlicense-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge)](LICENSE "License")
08e29b9f 13[![CI Status](https://img.shields.io/github/actions/workflow/status/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/core.yml?branch=master&label=Tests&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions "CI Status")
fc5fa964 14[![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 "Commit History")
b532a348 15[![Last Commit](https://img.shields.io/github/last-commit/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master?label=&style=for-the-badge&display_timestamp=committer)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pulse/monthly "Last activity")
c76eb41b 16
b31fdeed 17</div>
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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
ec2e44fc 22<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "USAGE AND OPTIONS" SECTION HERE -->
23
24<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
034b6215 25* [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
53ed7066 26 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
c76eb41b 27* [INSTALLATION](#installation)
deae7c17 28 * [Detailed instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation)
17fa3ee2 29 * [Update](#update)
0e5927ee 30 * [Release Files](#release-files)
cf59cd4d 31 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
17fa3ee2 32 * [Compile](#compile)
b31fdeed 33* [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
34 * [General Options](#general-options)
50865ca8 35 * [Network Options](#network-options)
b31fdeed 36 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
50865ca8 37 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
38 * [Download Options](#download-options)
39 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
b31fdeed 40 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
50865ca8 41 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
0744a815 42 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
50865ca8 43 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
44 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
45 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
46 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
50865ca8 47 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
7a340e0d 48 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
50865ca8 49 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
c76eb41b 50* [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
304ad45a 51 * [Configuration file encoding](#configuration-file-encoding)
db3ad8a6 52 * [Authentication with netrc](#authentication-with-netrc)
878eac3e 53 * [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
c76eb41b 54* [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
50865ca8 55 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
c76eb41b 56* [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
50865ca8 57 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
58 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
59 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
73cd218f 60* [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
61 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
5d3a0e79 62* [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
f74980cb 63* [PLUGINS](#plugins)
8e40b9d1
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64 * [Installing Plugins](#installing-plugins)
65 * [Developing Plugins](#developing-plugins)
8c6f4daa 66* [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
43cc91ad 67 * [Embedding examples](#embedding-examples)
e167860c 68* [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
8c6f4daa 69* [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
70 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
71 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
17ffed18 72* [WIKI](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki)
deae7c17 73 * [FAQ](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/FAQ)
ec2e44fc 74<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
50865ca8 75
76
034b6215 77# NEW FEATURES
91f071af 78
f10589e3 79* Forked from [**yt-dlc@f9401f2**](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/f9401f2a91987068139c5f757b12fc711d4c0cee) and merged with [**youtube-dl@be008e6**](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/be008e657d79832642e2158557c899249c9e31cd) ([exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21))
034b6215 80
304ad45a 81* **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in YouTube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
034b6215 82
7581d246 83* **[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 84
8e174ba7 85* **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 NicoNico livestreams are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
29b6000e 86
ae61d108 87* **YouTube improvements**:
c8bc203f 88 * Supports Clips, Stories (`ytstories:<channel UCID>`), Search (including filters)**\***, YouTube Music Search, Channel-specific search, Search prefixes (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`)**\***, Mixes, and Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`, `:ytnotif`)
ae61d108 89 * Fix for [n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326) **\***
90 * Supports some (but not all) age-gated content without cookies
91 * Download livestreams from the start using `--live-from-start` (*experimental*)
86973308 92 * Channel URLs download all uploads of the channel, including shorts and live
f20f5fe5 93
304ad45a 94* **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]`
245524e6 95
5ec1b6b7 96* **Download time range**: Videos can be downloaded partially based on either timestamps or chapters using `--download-sections`
97
597c1866 98* **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
99
b31fdeed 100* **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 101
b31fdeed 102* **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
f20f5fe5 103
e75bb0d6 104* **New and fixed extractors**: Many new extractors have been added and a lot of existing ones have been fixed. See the [changelog](Changelog.md) or the [list of supported sites](supportedsites.md)
86c1a8aa 105
56ba69e4 106* **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN etc.
fac98805 107
3de7c2ce 108* **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 109
597c1866 110* **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 111
d4ada357 112* **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for details
0bc0a322 113
418964fa 114* **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 115
fe2ce85a 116* **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as `--alias`, `--print`, `--concat-playlist`, `--wait-for-video`, `--retry-sleep`, `--sleep-requests`, `--convert-thumbnails`, `--force-download-archive`, `--force-overwrites`, `--break-match-filter` etc
0bc0a322 117
08d30158 118* **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in `--format`/`--match-filter`, multiple `--postprocessor-args` and `--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection), merge multi-video/audio, multiple `--config-locations`, `--exec` at different stages, etc
c69911e4 119
86c1a8aa 120* **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
b31fdeed 121
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122* **Self updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`, and downgraded using `--update-to` if required
123
a00af298 124* **Automated builds**: [Nightly/master builds](#update-channels) can be used with `--update-to nightly` and `--update-to master`
aa837ddf 125
7a5c1cfe 126See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
a26c99ac 127
ae61d108 128Features marked with a **\*** have been back-ported to youtube-dl
129
53ed7066 130### Differences in default behavior
131
0930b11f 132Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
53ed7066 133
f4b95aca 134* yt-dlp supports only [Python 3.8+](## "Windows 7"), and *may* remove support for more versions as they [become EOL](https://devguide.python.org/versions/#python-release-cycle); while [youtube-dl still supports Python 2.6+ and 3.2+](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/30568#issue-1118238743)
96565c7e 135* The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
b69fd25c 136* `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
d4ada357 137* yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
96565c7e 138* 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 139* 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
e75bb0d6 140* 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 preferred. Use `-f bv+ba/b` or `--compat-options format-spec` to revert this
28b0eb0f 141* 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
08d30158 142* `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
28b0eb0f 143* 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
9222c381 144* `--add-metadata` attaches the `infojson` to `mkv` files in addition to writing the metadata when used with `--write-info-json`. Use `--no-embed-info-json` or `--compat-options no-attach-info-json` to revert this
9e907ebd 145* Some metadata are embedded into different fields when using `--add-metadata` as compared to youtube-dl. Most notably, `comment` field contains the `webpage_url` and `synopsis` contains the `description`. You can [use `--parse-metadata`](#modifying-metadata) to modify this to your liking or use `--compat-options embed-metadata` to revert this
28b0eb0f 146* `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
147* The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
b79f9e30 148* Live chats (if available) are considered as subtitles. Use `--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use `--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent any live chat/danmaku from downloading
86973308 149* YouTube channel URLs download all uploads of the channel. To download only the videos in a specific tab, pass the tab's URL. If the channel does not show the requested tab, an error will be raised. 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
304ad45a 150* Unavailable videos are also listed for YouTube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
1ff88b7a 151* The upload dates extracted from YouTube are in UTC [when available](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/89e4d86171c7b7c997c77d4714542e0383bf0db0/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L3898-L3900). Use `--compat-options no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date` to prefer the non-UTC upload date.
18e674b4 152* 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 153* Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
ad54c913 154* Some internal metadata such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use `--no-clean-infojson` or `--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
e75bb0d6 155* 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 separate 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
168bbc4f 156* `certifi` will be used for SSL root certificates, if installed. If you want to use system certificates (e.g. self-signed), use `--compat-options no-certifi`
1e4fca9a 157* yt-dlp's sanitization of invalid characters in filenames is different/smarter than in youtube-dl. You can use `--compat-options filename-sanitization` to revert to youtube-dl's behavior
ad68b16a 158* yt-dlp tries to parse the external downloader outputs into the standard progress output if possible (Currently implemented: [~~aria2c~~](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/5931)). You can use `--compat-options no-external-downloader-progress` to get the downloader output as-is
93b39cdb 159* yt-dlp versions between 2021.09.01 and 2023.01.02 applies `--match-filter` to nested playlists. This was an unintentional side-effect of [8f18ac](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/8f18aca8717bb0dd49054555af8d386e5eda3a88) and is fixed in [d7b460](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/d7b460d0e5fc710950582baed2e3fc616ed98a80). Use `--compat-options playlist-match-filter` to revert this
10025b71 160* yt-dlp versions between 2021.11.10 and 2023.06.21 estimated `filesize_approx` values for fragmented/manifest formats. This was added for convenience in [f2fe69](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/f2fe69c7b0d208bdb1f6292b4ae92bc1e1a7444a), but was reverted in [0dff8e](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/0dff8e4d1e6e9fb938f4256ea9af7d81f42fd54f) due to the potentially extreme inaccuracy of the estimated values. Use `--compat-options manifest-filesize-approx` to keep extracting the estimated values
8a8b5452 161* yt-dlp uses modern http client backends such as `requests`. Use `--compat-options prefer-legacy-http-handler` to prefer the legacy http handler (`urllib`) to be used for standard http requests.
f9fb3ce8 162* The sub-module `swfinterp` is removed.
53ed7066 163
164For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
3d3bb168 165
8a82af35 166* `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
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167* `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams,-playlist-match-filter,-manifest-filesize-approx`
168* `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect,-playlist-match-filter,-manifest-filesize-approx`
2a06bb4e 169* `--compat-options 2021`: Same as `--compat-options 2022,no-certifi,filename-sanitization,no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date`
b012271d 170* `--compat-options 2022`: Same as `--compat-options playlist-match-filter,no-external-downloader-progress,prefer-legacy-http-handler,manifest-filesize-approx`. Use this to enable all future compat options
53ed7066 171
f20f5fe5 172
d19bb9c0 173# INSTALLATION
50865ca8 174
fc5fa964 175<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
176[![Windows](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Windows_x64-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=windows)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)
17ffed18 177[![Unix](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Linux/BSD-red.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=linux)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
24146491 178[![MacOS](https://img.shields.io/badge/-MacOS-lightblue.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=apple)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)
17ffed18 179[![PyPi](https://img.shields.io/badge/-PyPi-blue.svg?logo=pypi&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
fc5fa964 180[![Source Tarball](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Source_tar-green.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
181[![Other variants](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Other-grey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](#release-files)
3d3bb168 182[![All versions](https://img.shields.io/badge/-All_Versions-lightgrey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
fc5fa964 183<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
184
c8bc203f 185You can install yt-dlp using [the binaries](#release-files), [pip](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) or one using a third-party package manager. See [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation) for detailed instructions
0930b11f 186
b8773e63 187
a4211baf 188## UPDATE
4815bbfc 189You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are using the [release binaries](#release-files)
17ffed18 190
c8bc203f 191If you [installed with pip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
0930b11f 192
8e174ba7 193For other third-party package managers, see [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#third-party-package-managers) or refer their documentation
0930b11f 194
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195<a id="update-channels"/>
196
a00af298 197There are currently three release channels for binaries: `stable`, `nightly` and `master`.
198
199* `stable` is the default channel, and many of its changes have been tested by users of the `nightly` and `master` channels.
200* The `nightly` channel has releases scheduled to build every day around midnight UTC, for a snapshot of the project's new patches and changes. This is the **recommended channel for regular users** of yt-dlp. The `nightly` releases are available from [yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds/releases) or as development releases of the `yt-dlp` PyPI package (which can be installed with pip's `--pre` flag).
201* The `master` channel features releases that are built after each push to the master branch, and these will have the very latest fixes and additions, but may also be more prone to regressions. They are available from [yt-dlp/yt-dlp-master-builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-master-builds/releases).
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202
203When using `--update`/`-U`, a release binary will only update to its current channel.
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204`--update-to CHANNEL` can be used to switch to a different channel when a newer version is available. `--update-to [CHANNEL@]TAG` can also be used to upgrade or downgrade to specific tags from a channel.
205
206You may also use `--update-to <repository>` (`<owner>/<repository>`) to update to a channel on a completely different repository. Be careful with what repository you are updating to though, there is no verification done for binaries from different repositories.
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207
208Example usage:
a00af298 209* `yt-dlp --update-to master` switch to the `master` channel and update to its latest release
210* `yt-dlp --update-to stable@2023.07.06` upgrade/downgrade to release to `stable` channel tag `2023.07.06`
211* `yt-dlp --update-to 2023.10.07` upgrade/downgrade to tag `2023.10.07` if it exists on the current channel
212* `yt-dlp --update-to example/yt-dlp@2023.09.24` upgrade/downgrade to the release from the `example/yt-dlp` repository, tag `2023.09.24`
213
214**Important**: Any user experiencing an issue with the `stable` release should install or update to the `nightly` release before submitting a bug report:
215```
216# To update to nightly from stable executable/binary:
217yt-dlp --update-to nightly
218
219# To install nightly with pip:
220python -m pip install -U --pre yt-dlp
221```
cf59cd4d 222
ec2e44fc 223<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
a4211baf 224## RELEASE FILES
0e5927ee 225
733d8e8f 226#### Recommended
227
228File|Description
229:---|:---
962ffcf8 230[yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independent [zipimport](https://docs.python.org/3/library/zipimport.html) binary. Needs Python (recommended for **Linux/BSD**)
0930b11f 231[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**)
f2df4071 232[yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|Universal MacOS (10.15+) standalone executable (recommended for **MacOS**)
733d8e8f 233
234#### Alternatives
235
0e5927ee
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236File|Description
237:---|:---
0930b11f 238[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
8aa0e7cd 239[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/> ([Not recommended](#standalone-py2exe-builds-windows))
f2df4071 240[yt-dlp_linux](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux)|Linux standalone x64 binary
241[yt-dlp_linux.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux.zip)|Unpackaged Linux executable (no auto-update)
17fc3dc4
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242[yt-dlp_linux_armv7l](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_armv7l)|Linux standalone armv7l (32-bit) binary
243[yt-dlp_linux_aarch64](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_aarch64)|Linux standalone aarch64 (64-bit) binary
0930b11f 244[yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
245[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)
6d916fe7 246[yt-dlp_macos_legacy](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos_legacy)|MacOS (10.9+) standalone x64 executable
733d8e8f 247
248#### Misc
249
250File|Description
251:---|:---
17ffed18 252[yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball
0e5927ee 253[SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
12647e03 254[SHA2-512SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA512 sums
0e5927ee 255[SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
12647e03 256[SHA2-256SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA256 sums
0e5927ee 257
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258The public key that can be used to verify the GPG signatures is [available here](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/public.key)
259Example usage:
260```
261curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/raw/master/public.key | gpg --import
262gpg --verify SHA2-256SUMS.sig SHA2-256SUMS
263gpg --verify SHA2-512SUMS.sig SHA2-512SUMS
264```
265<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
17ffed18 266
ad54c913 267**Note**: The manpages, shell completion (autocomplete) files etc. are available inside the [source tarball](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
17ffed18 268
a4211baf 269## DEPENDENCIES
f4b95aca 270Python versions 3.8+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
b31fdeed 271
c9652aa4 272<!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
273<!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
cf59cd4d 274On 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 275-->
fac98805 276
e75bb0d6 277While all the other dependencies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
ec2e44fc 278
8aa0e7cd 279### Strongly recommended
280
b69fd25c 281* [**ffmpeg** and **ffprobe**](https://www.ffmpeg.org) - Required for [merging separate video and audio files](#format-selection) as well as for various [post-processing](#post-processing-options) tasks. License [depends on the build](https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html)
8aa0e7cd 282
8e174ba7 283 There are bugs in ffmpeg that causes various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependency, we provide [custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#ffmpeg-static-auto-builds) with patches for some of 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 specific issues solved by these builds
284
285 **Important**: What you need is ffmpeg *binary*, **NOT** [the python package of the same name](https://pypi.org/project/ffmpeg)
8aa0e7cd 286
287### Networking
d5820461 288* [**certifi**](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi)\* - Provides Mozilla's root certificate bundle. Licensed under [MPLv2](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi/blob/master/LICENSE)
8aa0e7cd 289* [**brotli**](https://github.com/google/brotli)\* or [**brotlicffi**](https://github.com/python-hyper/brotlicffi) - [Brotli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brotli) content encoding support. Both licensed under MIT <sup>[1](https://github.com/google/brotli/blob/master/LICENSE) [2](https://github.com/python-hyper/brotlicffi/blob/master/LICENSE) </sup>
290* [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
8a8b5452 291* [**requests**](https://github.com/psf/requests)\* - HTTP library. For HTTPS proxy and persistent connections support. Licensed under [Apache-2.0](https://github.com/psf/requests/blob/main/LICENSE)
8aa0e7cd 292
293### Metadata
294
295* [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For `--embed-thumbnail` in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
296* [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For `--embed-thumbnail` in `mp4`/`m4a` files when `mutagen`/`ffmpeg` cannot. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
84e26038 297* [**xattr**](https://github.com/xattr/xattr), [**pyxattr**](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr) or [**setfattr**](http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/attr) - For writing xattr metadata (`--xattr`) on **Mac** and **BSD**. Licensed under [MIT](https://github.com/xattr/xattr/blob/master/LICENSE.txt), [LGPL2.1](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr/blob/master/COPYING) and [GPLv2+](http://git.savannah.nongnu.org/cgit/attr.git/tree/doc/COPYING) respectively
8aa0e7cd 298
299### Misc
300
301* [**pycryptodomex**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome)\* - For decrypting AES-128 HLS streams and various other data. Licensed under [BSD-2-Clause](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
5d0aeac0 302* [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
f9fb3ce8 303* [**secretstorage**](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage)\* - For `--cookies-from-browser` to access the **Gnome** keyring while decrypting cookies of **Chromium**-based browsers on **Linux**. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage/blob/master/LICENSE)
cf59cd4d 304* Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
b31fdeed 305
deae7c17 306### Deprecated
8aa0e7cd 307
308* [**avconv** and **avprobe**](https://www.libav.org) - Now **deprecated** alternative to ffmpeg. License [depends on the build](https://libav.org/legal)
309* [**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)
998a3cae 310* [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
311* [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or [**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading `rstp`/`mms` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
8aa0e7cd 312
cf59cd4d 313To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
314
f2df4071 315The standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with **\*** included.
d710cc6d 316
8aa0e7cd 317If you do not have the necessary dependencies for a task you are attempting, yt-dlp will warn you. All the currently available dependencies are visible at the top of the `--verbose` output
d710cc6d 318
5f326cf5 319
a4211baf 320## COMPILE
5f326cf5 321
8aa0e7cd 322### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
115add43 323To build the standalone executable, you must have Python and `pyinstaller` (plus any of yt-dlp's [optional dependencies](#dependencies) if needed). Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, simply run `pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (x86/ARM, 32/64 bit) as the Python used.
e38df8f9 324
8aa0e7cd 325 python3 -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
326 python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
327 python3 pyinst.py
328
329On some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`.
330
73ac0e6b 331`pyinst.py` accepts any arguments that can be passed to `pyinstaller`, such as `--onefile/-F` or `--onedir/-D`, which is further [documented here](https://pyinstaller.org/en/stable/usage.html#what-to-generate).
332
8e174ba7 333**Note**: Pyinstaller versions below 4.4 [do not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment.
8aa0e7cd 334
335**Important**: Running `pyinstaller` directly **without** using `pyinst.py` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
7581d246 336
8aa0e7cd 337### Platform-independent Binary (UNIX)
f4b95aca 338You will need the build tools `python` (3.8+), `zip`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`\* and `pytest`\*.
b96a939b 339
8aa0e7cd 340After installing these, simply run `make`.
5f326cf5 341
a831c2ea 342You can also run `make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files. (The build tools marked with **\*** are not needed for this)
d19bb9c0 343
8aa0e7cd 344### Standalone Py2Exe Builds (Windows)
345
346While we provide the option to build with [py2exe](https://www.py2exe.org), it is recommended to build [using PyInstaller](#standalone-pyinstaller-builds) instead since the py2exe builds **cannot contain `pycryptodomex`/`certifi` and needs VC++14** on the target computer to run.
347
348If you wish to build it anyway, install Python and py2exe, and then simply run `setup.py py2exe`
349
350 py -m pip install -U py2exe -r requirements.txt
351 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
352 py setup.py py2exe
353
354### Related scripts
355
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356* **`devscripts/update-version.py`** - Update the version number based on current date.
357* **`devscripts/set-variant.py`** - Set the build variant of the executable.
358* **`devscripts/make_changelog.py`** - Create a markdown changelog using short commit messages and update `CONTRIBUTORS` file.
8aa0e7cd 359* **`devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py`** - Create lazy extractors. Running this before building the binaries (any variant) will improve their startup performance. Set the environment variable `YTDLP_NO_LAZY_EXTRACTORS=1` if you wish to forcefully disable lazy extractor loading.
360
d400e261
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361Note: See their `--help` for more info.
362
29cb20bd
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363### Forking the project
364If you fork the project on GitHub, you can run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build the selected version(s) as artifacts. Alternatively, you can run the [release workflow](.github/workflows/release.yml) or enable the [nightly workflow](.github/workflows/release-nightly.yml) to create full (pre-)releases.
59a7a13e 365
b31fdeed 366# USAGE AND OPTIONS
6bcd846b 367
ec2e44fc 368<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
7a5c1cfe 369 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
b50e3bc6 370
c2b5f311 371`Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
ec2e44fc 372<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
c2b5f311 373
ec2e44fc 374<!-- Auto generated -->
c76eb41b 375## General Options:
2dd5a2e3 376 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
377 --version Print program version and exit
70b23409 378 -U, --update Update this program to the latest version
379 --no-update Do not check for updates (default)
77df20f1 380 --update-to [CHANNEL]@[TAG] Upgrade/downgrade to a specific version.
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381 CHANNEL can be a repository as well. CHANNEL
382 and TAG default to "stable" and "latest"
383 respectively if omitted; See "UPDATE" for
5d3a3cd4 384 details. Supported channels: stable,
385 nightly, master
2dd5a2e3 386 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
387 The download will be considered successful
388 even if the postprocessing fails
389 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
390 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
391 playlist (default)
392 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
393 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
394 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
395 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
396 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
397 extractors and exit
2516cafb 398 --use-extractors NAMES Extractor names to use separated by commas.
fe7866d0 399 You can also use regexes, "all", "default"
400 and "end" (end URL matching); e.g. --ies
401 "holodex.*,end,youtube". Prefix the name
402 with a "-" to exclude it, e.g. --ies
403 default,-generic. Use --list-extractors for
2516cafb 404 a list of extractor names. (Alias: --ies)
62b58c09 405 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 406 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
407 google videos for the search term "python".
408 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
409 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
410 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
411 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
412 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
413 possible instead of searching
414 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
415 except those given by --config-locations.
416 For backward compatibility, if this option
417 is found inside the system configuration
418 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
419 (Alias: --no-config)
420 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
421 (default). When given inside a configuration
422 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
423 defined in the current file
424 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
425 either the path to the config or its
6b9e832d 426 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
427 used multiple times and inside other
428 configuration files
2dd5a2e3 429 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
430 only list them
c8bc203f 431 --no-flat-playlist Fully extract the videos of a playlist
432 (default)
2dd5a2e3 433 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
434 Currently only supported for YouTube
435 (Experimental)
436 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
437 (default)
438 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
439 available. Pass the minimum number of
440 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
441 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
442 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
443 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
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444 --color [STREAM:]POLICY Whether to emit color codes in output,
445 optionally prefixed by the STREAM (stdout or
446 stderr) to apply the setting to. Can be one
447 of "always", "auto" (default), "never", or
448 "no_color" (use non color terminal
449 sequences). Can be used multiple times
2dd5a2e3 450 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
451 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
452 configurations by reverting some of the
453 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
454 default behavior" for details
455 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
456 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
457 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
458 according to the Python string formatting
62b58c09 459 mini-language. E.g. --alias get-audio,-X
2dd5a2e3 460 "-S=aext:{0},abr -x --audio-format {0}"
461 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
462 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
463 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
464 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
465 output. Alias options can trigger more
962ffcf8 466 aliases; so be careful to avoid defining
2dd5a2e3 467 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
468 alias may be triggered a maximum of 100
64fa820c 469 times. This option can be used multiple times
08c1d0d3 470
149f05c7 471## Network Options:
2dd5a2e3 472 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
62b58c09
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473 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme,
474 e.g. socks5://user:pass@127.0.0.1:1080/.
475 Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for
476 direct connection
2dd5a2e3 477 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
478 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
479 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
480 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
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481 --enable-file-urls Enable file:// URLs. This is disabled by
482 default for security reasons.
8c6c88c7 483
b31fdeed 484## Geo-restriction:
2dd5a2e3 485 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
486 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
487 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
488 is not present) is used for the actual
489 downloading
c1664464 490 --xff VALUE How to fake X-Forwarded-For HTTP header to
491 try bypassing geographic restriction. One of
c8bc203f 492 "default" (only when known to be useful),
493 "never", an IP block in CIDR notation, or a
494 two-letter ISO 3166-2 country code
149f05c7 495
cfcec693 496## Video Selection:
71df9b7f 497 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma separated playlist_index of the items
7e88d7d7 498 to download. You can specify a range using
499 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
500 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
501 Use negative indices to count from the right
502 and negative STEP to download in reverse
62b58c09 503 order. E.g. "-I 1:3,7,-5::2" used on a
71df9b7f 504 playlist of size 15 will download the items
7e88d7d7 505 at index 1,2,3,7,11,13,15
71df9b7f 506 --min-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is smaller than
507 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
508 --max-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is larger than
62b58c09 509 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
2dd5a2e3 510 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
511 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
512 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
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513 E.g. "--date today-2weeks" downloads only
514 videos uploaded on the same day two weeks ago
2dd5a2e3 515 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
516 this date. The date formats accepted is the
517 same as --date
518 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
519 this date. The date formats accepted is the
520 same as --date
521 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
522 field can be compared with a number or a
523 string using the operators defined in
d4ada357 524 "Filtering Formats". You can also simply
2dd5a2e3 525 specify a field to match if the field is
526 present, use "!field" to check if the field
527 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
528 conditions. Use a "\" to escape "&" or
529 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
530 the filter matches if atleast one of the
62b58c09 531 conditions are met. E.g. --match-filter
2dd5a2e3 532 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?100 &
533 description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'" matches
534 only videos that are not live OR those that
535 have a like count more than 100 (or the like
536 field is not available) and also has a
537 description that contains the phrase "cats &
538 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
539 interactively ask whether to download each
540 video
c8bc203f 541 --no-match-filters Do not use any --match-filter (default)
fe2ce85a 542 --break-match-filters FILTER Same as "--match-filters" but stops the
543 download process when a video is rejected
544 --no-break-match-filters Do not use any --break-match-filters (default)
2dd5a2e3 545 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
546 to a video and a playlist
547 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
548 a video and a playlist
549 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
550 age
551 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
552 archive file. Record the IDs of all
553 downloaded videos in it
554 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
555 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
556 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
557 a file that is in the archive
71df9b7f 558 --break-per-input Alters --max-downloads, --break-on-existing,
354d5fca 559 --break-match-filter, and autonumber to
560 reset per input URL
2dd5a2e3 561 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
562 terminates the entire download queue
563 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
564 the playlist is skipped
6bcd846b 565
d5a62e4f 566## Download Options:
2dd5a2e3 567 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
568 video that should be downloaded concurrently
569 (default is 1)
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570 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second,
571 e.g. 50K or 4.2M
2dd5a2e3 572 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
573 below which throttling is assumed and the
62b58c09 574 video data is re-extracted, e.g. 100K
2dd5a2e3 575 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
576 "infinite"
577 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
578 error (default is 3), or "infinite"
579 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
580 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
be5c1ae8 581 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR Time to sleep between retries in seconds
582 (optionally) prefixed by the type of retry
583 (http (default), fragment, file_access,
584 extractor) to apply the sleep to. EXPR can
585 be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=1]] or
586 exp=START[:END[:BASE=2]]. This option can be
587 used multiple times to set the sleep for the
62b58c09 588 different retry types, e.g. --retry-sleep
2dd5a2e3 589 linear=1::2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=1:20
590 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
591 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
8e174ba7 592 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragments)
593 --abort-on-unavailable-fragments
2dd5a2e3 594 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
595 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
596 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
597 downloading is finished
598 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
599 downloading is finished (default)
62b58c09 600 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer, e.g. 1024 or 16K
2dd5a2e3 601 (default is 1024)
602 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
603 from an initial value of --buffer-size
604 (default)
605 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
606 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
62b58c09 607 downloading, e.g. 10485760 or 10M (default
2dd5a2e3 608 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
609 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
610 (experimental)
2dd5a2e3 611 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
7e9a6125 612 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
613 received. This disables n_entries,
614 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
615 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
616 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
2dd5a2e3 617 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
618 expected file size
619 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
620 allowing some players to play the video
621 while downloading, and reducing the chance
622 of file corruption if download is
623 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
624 live streams
625 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
626 videos. This is default when not downloading
627 live streams
b4e0d758 628 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters that match the
629 regular expression. A "*" prefix denotes
630 time-range instead of chapter. Negative
631 timestamps are calculated from the end.
632 "*from-url" can be used to download between
633 the "start_time" and "end_time" extracted
634 from the URL. Needs ffmpeg. This option can
635 be used multiple times to download multiple
62b58c09 636 sections, e.g. --download-sections
2fa669f7 637 "*10:15-inf" --download-sections "intro"
2dd5a2e3 638 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
639 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
640 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
641 use it for. Currently supports native,
642 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
643 wget. You can use this option multiple times
644 to set different downloaders for different
62b58c09 645 protocols. E.g. --downloader aria2c
2dd5a2e3 646 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
647 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
648 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
649 (Alias: --external-downloader)
650 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
651 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
652 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
653 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
654 positions using the same syntax as
655 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
656 option multiple times to give different
657 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
658 --external-downloader-args)
d5a62e4f 659
cfcec693 660## Filesystem Options:
2dd5a2e3 661 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
662 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
663 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
664 comments and ignored
665 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
666 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
667 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
668 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
669 TYPES as --output are supported.
670 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
671 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
672 files are first downloaded to the temp path
673 and then the final files are moved over to
674 the home path after download is finished.
675 This option is ignored if --output is an
676 absolute path
677 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
678 TEMPLATE" for details
679 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
680 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" (default: "NA")
681 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
682 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
683 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
684 filenames (default)
685 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
686 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
687 using Windows (default)
688 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
689 extension) to the specified number of
690 characters
691 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
692 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
693 option includes --no-continue
694 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
695 related files (default)
696 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
697 (default)
698 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
699 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
700 restart download of the entire file
701 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
702 into output file (default)
703 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
704 output file
705 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
706 modification time (default)
707 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
708 the file modification time
64fa820c 709 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
2dd5a2e3 710 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
711 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
712 (this may contain personal information)
713 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
714 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
715 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
716 --write-description etc. (default)
717 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
718 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
ad54c913 719 --clean-info-json Remove some internal metadata such as
720 filenames from the infojson (default)
2dd5a2e3 721 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
722 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
723 infojson. The comments are fetched even
724 without this option if the extraction is
725 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
726 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
727 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
728 --no-get-comments)
729 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
64fa820c 730 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
2dd5a2e3 731 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
732 and dump cookie jar in
733 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
734 (default)
825d3ce3 735 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]
736 The name of the browser to load cookies
737 from. Currently supported browsers are:
738 brave, chrome, chromium, edge, firefox,
739 opera, safari, vivaldi. Optionally, the
740 KEYRING used for decrypting Chromium cookies
741 on Linux, the name/path of the PROFILE to
742 load cookies from, and the CONTAINER name
743 (if Firefox) ("none" for no container) can
744 be given with their respective seperators.
745 By default, all containers of the most
746 recently accessed profile are used.
747 Currently supported keyrings are: basictext,
2e023649 748 gnomekeyring, kwallet, kwallet5, kwallet6
2dd5a2e3 749 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
17ffed18 750 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where yt-dlp can
751 store some downloaded information (such as
752 client ids and signatures) permanently. By
878eac3e 753 default ${XDG_CACHE_HOME}/yt-dlp
2dd5a2e3 754 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
755 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
6bcd846b 756
b31fdeed 757## Thumbnail Options:
2dd5a2e3 758 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
64fa820c 759 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
2dd5a2e3 760 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
761 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
762 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
2b1bd292 763
732044af 764## Internet Shortcut Options:
2dd5a2e3 765 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
766 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
767 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
768 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
769 OS caches the URL based on the file path
770 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
771 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
732044af 772
0744a815 773## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
2dd5a2e3 774 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
775 print the log to stderr
d669772c 776 --no-quiet Deactivate quiet mode. (Default)
2dd5a2e3 777 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
778 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
779 anything to disk
780 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
781 options are used
782 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
783 extracting metadata even if the videos are
784 not actually available for download
785 (experimental)
786 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
787 formats are found (default)
788 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
789 related files (Alias: --no-download)
790 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
791 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
792 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
793 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
119e40ef 794 --use-postprocessor (default: video).
2dd5a2e3 795 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
796 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
797 used. This option can be used multiple times
bb66c247 798 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
2dd5a2e3 799 Append given template to the file. The
800 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
801 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
802 output template. This option can be used
803 multiple times
804 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
805 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
806 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
807 description of available keys
808 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
809 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
810 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
811 a playlist, the whole playlist information
812 is dumped in a single line
813 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
814 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
815 another simulation option is used (Alias:
816 --force-download-archive)
817 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
818 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
819 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
820 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
819e0531 821 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 822 Template for progress outputs, optionally
823 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
824 "download-title:" (the console title),
825 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
826 The video's fields are accessible under the
827 "info" key and the progress attributes are
62b58c09 828 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 829 --console-title --progress-template
830 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
831 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
832 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
833 to debug problems (very verbose)
834 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
835 in the current directory to debug problems
836 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
6bcd846b 837
36f35428 838## Workarounds:
2dd5a2e3 839 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
840 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
841 that do not support RFC 5746 secure
842 renegotiation
843 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
844 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
845 information about the video (Currently
846 supported only for YouTube)
a5387729 847 --add-headers FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
2dd5a2e3 848 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
849 option multiple times
850 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
851 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
852 or fribidi executable in PATH
853 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
854 during data extraction
855 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
856 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
857 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
858 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
859 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
860 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
861 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
862 subtitle download
36f35428 863
cfcec693 864## Video Format Options:
2dd5a2e3 865 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
866 for more details
867 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
868 "Sorting Formats" for more details
869 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
870 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
871 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
872 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
873 specified sort order (default)
874 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
875 into a single file
876 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
877 output file (default)
878 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
879 into a single file
880 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
881 output file (default)
882 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
883 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
884 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
885 irrespective of quality
886 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
887 containers (default)
888 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
889 those that are actually downloadable
890 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
891 actually downloadable
892 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
893 downloadable
894 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
895 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
fc61aff4 896 --merge-output-format FORMAT Containers that may be used when merging
62b58c09 897 formats, separated by "/", e.g. "mp4/mkv".
fc61aff4
LL
898 Ignored if no merge is required. (currently
899 supported: avi, flv, mkv, mov, mp4, webm)
8ae7be3e
PH
900
901## Subtitle Options:
2dd5a2e3 902 --write-subs Write subtitle file
903 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
904 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
905 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
906 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
907 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
908 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
909 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
910 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
62b58c09 911 e.g. "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
2dd5a2e3 912 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
62b58c09
L
913 be regex) or "all" separated by commas, e.g.
914 --sub-langs "en.*,ja". You can prefix the
2dd5a2e3 915 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
62b58c09
L
916 the requested languages, e.g. --sub-langs
917 all,-live_chat. Use --list-subs for a list
2dd5a2e3 918 of available language tags
6bcd846b 919
cfcec693 920## Authentication Options:
2dd5a2e3 921 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
922 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
923 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
924 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
925 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
926 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
927 either the path or its containing directory.
928 Defaults to ~/.netrc
db3ad8a6 929 --netrc-cmd NETRC_CMD Command to execute to get the credentials
d1b21561 930 for an extractor.
b634ba74 931 --video-password PASSWORD Video-specific password
2dd5a2e3 932 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
933 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
934 a list of available MSOs
935 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
936 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
937 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
938 interactively
939 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
940 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
941 format. May include the private key
942 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
943 Path to private key file for client
944 certificate
bb58c9ed 945 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
2dd5a2e3 946 Password for client certificate private key,
947 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
948 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
f5e008d1 949
c76eb41b 950## Post-Processing Options:
2dd5a2e3 951 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
952 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
35faefee 953 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
954 used. (currently supported: best (default),
8dc59305 955 aac, alac, flac, m4a, mp3, opus, vorbis,
e0ab9854 956 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
957 similar syntax as --remux-video
2dd5a2e3 958 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
959 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
960 between 0 (best) and 10 (worst) for VBR or a
961 specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
962 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
8dc59305 963 necessary (currently supported: avi, flv,
69f5fe45 964 gif, mkv, mov, mp4, webm, aac, aiff, alac,
965 flac, m4a, mka, mp3, ogg, opus, vorbis,
966 wav). If target container does not support
967 the video/audio codec, remuxing will fail.
968 You can specify multiple rules; e.g.
2dd5a2e3 969 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
35faefee 970 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
2dd5a2e3 971 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
972 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
973 are the same as --remux-video
974 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
975 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
976 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
977 to give the argument to the specified
978 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
979 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
980 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
981 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
982 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
983 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
984 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
985 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
986 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
987 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
988 specified executable only when being used by
989 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
990 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
991 appended to the prefix optionally followed
992 by a number to pass the argument before the
62b58c09 993 specified input/output file, e.g. --ppa
2dd5a2e3 994 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
995 this option multiple times to give different
996 arguments to different postprocessors.
997 (Alias: --ppa)
998 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
999 after post-processing
1000 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
1001 post-processing (default)
1002 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
1003 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
1004 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
1005 webm and mkv videos)
1006 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
1007 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
1008 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
1009 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
1010 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
1011 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
1012 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
1013 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
1014 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
1015 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
1016 (Alias: --add-chapters)
1017 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
1018 --no-add-chapters)
1019 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
1020 mkv/mka video files
1021 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
1022 to the video file
fe74d5b5 1023 --parse-metadata [WHEN:]FROM:TO
1024 Parse additional metadata like title/artist
2dd5a2e3 1025 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
fe74d5b5 1026 for details. Supported values of "WHEN" are
1027 the same as that of --use-postprocessor
1028 (default: pre_process)
1029 --replace-in-metadata [WHEN:]FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
2dd5a2e3 1030 Replace text in a metadata field using the
1031 given regex. This option can be used
fe74d5b5 1032 multiple times. Supported values of "WHEN"
1033 are the same as that of --use-postprocessor
1034 (default: pre_process)
2dd5a2e3 1035 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
1036 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
1037 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
1038 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
1039 (default; only when the videos form a single
1040 show). All the video files must have same
1041 codecs and number of streams to be
1042 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
1043 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1044 the output filename for the concatenated
1045 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1046 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
1047 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
1048 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
1049 default; fix file if we can, warn
1050 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
1051 already exists)
1052 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
64fa820c 1053 path to the binary or its containing directory
2dd5a2e3 1054 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
119e40ef 1055 when to execute it, separated by a ":".
1056 Supported values of "WHEN" are the same as
1057 that of --use-postprocessor (default:
1058 after_move). Same syntax as the output
1059 template can be used to pass any field as
ad54c913 1060 arguments to the command. If no fields are
1061 passed, %(filepath,_filename|)q is appended
1062 to the end of the command. This option can
1063 be used multiple times
2dd5a2e3 1064 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
1065 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
8dc59305 1066 (currently supported: ass, lrc, srt, vtt)
2dd5a2e3 1067 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
1068 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
00bbc5f1 1069 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
1070 can specify multiple rules using similar
1071 syntax as --remux-video
2dd5a2e3 1072 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
1073 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
1074 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1075 the output filename for the split files. See
1076 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
64fa820c 1077 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
2dd5a2e3 1078 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
5ec1b6b7 1079 given regular expression. The syntax is the
1080 same as --download-sections. This option can
2dd5a2e3 1081 be used multiple times
1082 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1083 (default)
5ec1b6b7 1084 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
1085 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
1086 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1087 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1088 around the cuts
2dd5a2e3 1089 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1090 when cutting/splitting (default)
1091 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1092 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1093 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1094 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1095 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1096 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1097 The "when" argument determines when the
1098 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1099 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1100 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
119e40ef 1101 "video" (after --format; before
1102 --print/--output), "before_dl" (before each
1103 video download), "post_process" (after each
1104 video download; default), "after_move"
1105 (after moving video file to it's final
1106 locations), "after_video" (after downloading
1107 and processing all formats of a video), or
1108 "playlist" (at end of playlist). This option
1109 can be used multiple times to add different
1110 postprocessors
7a340e0d
NA
1111
1112## SponsorBlock Options:
1113Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1114 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
8a51f564 1115 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1116
2dd5a2e3 1117 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1118 for, separated by commas. Available
1119 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1120 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
71df9b7f 1121 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, chapter, all
1122 and default (=all). You can prefix the
1123 category with a "-" to exclude it. See [1]
1124 for description of the categories. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 1125 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1126 [1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1127 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1128 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1129 category is present in both mark and remove,
1130 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1131 available categories are the same as for
1132 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
71df9b7f 1133 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight,
63c547d7 1134 chapter are not available
7a340e0d 1135 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 1136 An output template for the title of the
1137 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1138 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1139 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1140 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1141 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1142 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1143 --sponsorblock-remove
1144 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1145 https://sponsor.ajay.app
a9e7f546 1146
78895bd3 1147## Extractor Options:
2dd5a2e3 1148 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1149 (default is 3), or "infinite"
1150 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1151 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1152 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1153 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1154 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1155 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1156 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1157 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1158 (default)
2fa669f7 1159 --extractor-args IE_KEY:ARGS Pass ARGS arguments to the IE_KEY extractor.
1160 See "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You
1161 can use this option multiple times to give
2dd5a2e3 1162 arguments for different extractors
17cb02d0 1163
b7770046
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1164# CONFIGURATION
1165
7a5c1cfe 1166You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
e2e43aea 1167
878eac3e 11681. **Main Configuration**:
1169 * The file given by `--config-location`
11701. **Portable Configuration**: (Recommended for portable installations)
1171 * If using a binary, `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the binary
1172 * If running from source-code, `yt-dlp.conf` in the parent directory of `yt_dlp`
11731. **Home Configuration**:
1174 * `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by `-P`
1175 * If `-P` is not given, the current directory is searched
e2e43aea 11761. **User Configuration**:
773c272d 1177 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp.conf`
878eac3e 1178 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
8e40b9d1 1179 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
773c272d 1180 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp.conf`
878eac3e 1181 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1182 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
e2e43aea 1183 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
1184 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
8e40b9d1
M
1185 * `~/.yt-dlp/config`
1186 * `~/.yt-dlp/config.txt`
3d3bb168 1187
878eac3e 1188 See also: [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
11891. **System Configuration**:
1190 * `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
8e40b9d1
M
1191 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config`
1192 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config.txt`
b7770046 1193
62b58c09 1194E.g. 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
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1195```
1196# Lines starting with # are comments
1197
1198# Always extract audio
1199-x
1200
1201# Do not copy the mtime
1202--no-mtime
1203
1204# Use this proxy
1205--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1206
298f597b 1207# Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1208-o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
b7770046
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1209```
1210
8e174ba7 1211**Note**: 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`. They must also be quoted when necessary as-if it were a UNIX shell.
b7770046 1212
a4211baf 1213You 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 1214
304ad45a 1215### Configuration file encoding
a904a7f8 1216
304ad45a 1217The configuration files are decoded according to the UTF BOM if present, and in the encoding from system locale otherwise.
a904a7f8 1218
88f60feb 1219If you want your file to be decoded differently, add `# coding: ENCODING` to the beginning of the file (e.g. `# coding: shift-jis`). There must be no characters before that, even spaces or BOM.
a904a7f8 1220
db3ad8a6 1221### Authentication with netrc
b7770046 1222
304ad45a 1223You 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 1224```
878eac3e 1225touch ${HOME}/.netrc
1226chmod a-rwx,u+rw ${HOME}/.netrc
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1227```
1228After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1229```
0001fcb5 1230machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
b7770046 1231```
62b58c09 1232E.g.
b7770046
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1233```
1234machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1235machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1236```
7a5c1cfe 1237To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
b7770046 1238
878eac3e 1239The default location of the .netrc file is `~` (see below).
1240
d7cd97e8 1241As an alternative to using the `.netrc` file, which has the disadvantage of keeping your passwords in a plain text file, you can configure a custom shell command to provide the credentials for an extractor. This is done by providing the `--netrc-cmd` parameter, it shall output the credentials in the netrc format and return `0` on success, other values will be treated as an error. `{}` in the command will be replaced by the name of the extractor to make it possible to select the credentials for the right extractor.
db3ad8a6
ND
1242
1243E.g. To use an encrypted `.netrc` file stored as `.authinfo.gpg`
1244```
1245yt-dlp --netrc-cmd 'gpg --decrypt ~/.authinfo.gpg' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc
1246```
1247
1248
878eac3e 1249### Notes about environment variables
1250* Environment variables are normally specified as `${VARIABLE}`/`$VARIABLE` on UNIX and `%VARIABLE%` on Windows; but is always shown as `${VARIABLE}` in this documentation
1251* yt-dlp also allow using UNIX-style variables on Windows for path-like options; e.g. `--output`, `--config-location`
1252* If unset, `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}` defaults to `~/.config` and `${XDG_CACHE_HOME}` to `~/.cache`
1253* On Windows, `~` points to `${HOME}` if present; or, `${USERPROFILE}` or `${HOMEDRIVE}${HOMEPATH}` otherwise
1254* On Windows, `${USERPROFILE}` generally points to `C:\Users\<user name>` and `${APPDATA}` to `${USERPROFILE}\AppData\Roaming`
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1255
1256# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1257
0202b52a 1258The `-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 1259
ec2e44fc 1260<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1261**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
ec2e44fc 1262<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1263
e58c22a0 1264The 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 1265
62b58c09 1266It 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), e.g. `%(NAME)s` or `%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.
a439a3a4 1267
1268The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
3d3bb168 1269
07a1250e 12701. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a dot `.` separator; e.g. `%(tags.0)s`, `%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s`. You can do Python slicing with colon `:`; E.g. `%(id.3:7:-1)s`, `%(formats.:.format_id)s`. Curly braces `{}` can be used to build dictionaries with only specific keys; e.g. `%(formats.:.{format_id,height})#j`. An empty field name `%()s` refers to the entire infodict; e.g. `%(.{id,title})s`. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use `-j` to see such fields
ec2e44fc 1271
993edd3f 12721. **Arithmetic**: Simple arithmetic can be done on numeric fields using `+`, `-` and `*`. E.g. `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
ec2e44fc 1273
62b58c09 12741. **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 `>`. E.g. `%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`, `%(upload_date>%Y-%m-%d)s`, `%(epoch-3600>%H-%M-%S)s`
ec2e44fc 1275
62b58c09 12761. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a `,`. E.g. `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1277
ec9311c4 12781. **Replacement**: A replacement value can be specified using a `&` separator according to the [`str.format` mini-language](https://docs.python.org/3/library/string.html#format-specification-mini-language). If the field is *not* empty, this replacement value will be used instead of the actual field content. This is done after alternate fields are considered; thus the replacement is used if *any* of the alternative fields is *not* empty. E.g. `%(chapters&has chapters|no chapters)s`, `%(title&TITLE={:>20}|NO TITLE)s`
e978789f 1279
17ffed18 12801. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a `|` separator. This overrides `--output-na-placeholder`. E.g. `%(uploader|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1281
9b9dad11 12821. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types `diouxXeEfFgGcrs`, yt-dlp additionally supports converting to `B` = **B**ytes, `j` = **j**son (flag `#` for pretty-printing, `+` for Unicode), `h` = HTML escaping, `l` = a comma separated **l**ist (flag `#` for `\n` newline-separated), `q` = a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag `#` to split a list into different arguments), `D` = add **D**ecimal suffixes (e.g. 10M) (flag `#` to use 1024 as factor), and `S` = **S**anitize as filename (flag `#` for restricted)
ec2e44fc 1283
d5d1df8a 12841. **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. E.g. `%(title)+.100U` is NFKC
a439a3a4 1285
1286To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1287```
e978789f 1288%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
a439a3a4 1289```
de6000d9 1290
62b58c09 1291Additionally, 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`, `pl_video`. E.g. `-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 is empty, that type of file will not be written. E.g. `--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for video.
e29663c6 1292
4815bbfc 1293<a id="outtmpl-postprocess-note"/>
7aaf4cd2 1294
8e174ba7 1295**Note**: Due to post-processing (i.e. merging etc.), the actual output filename might differ. Use `--print after_move:filepath` to get the name after all post-processing is complete.
7aaf4cd2 1296
e29663c6 1297The available fields are:
b7770046
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1298
1299 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1300 - `title` (string): Video title
455a15e2 1301 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
b7770046
U
1302 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1303 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
597c1866 1304 - `description` (string): The description of the video
b7770046
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1305 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1306 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1307 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1308 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
b7770046 1309 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
ae6a1b95 1310 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
e6f21b3d 1311 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
ae6a1b95 1312 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
1732eccc 1313 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the video or album was released
f0d785d3 1314 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
ae6a1b95 1315 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
b7770046
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1316 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1317 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1318 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
6c73052c 1319 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
8213ce28 1320 - `channel_is_verified` (boolean): Whether the channel is verified on the platform
b7770046
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1321 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1322 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
53c18592 1323 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
b7770046 1324 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
867c66ff 1325 - `concurrent_view_count` (numeric): How many users are currently watching the video on the platform.
b7770046
U
1326 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1327 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1328 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1329 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
277d6ff5 1330 - `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 1331 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
e325a21a 1332 - `live_status` (string): One of "not_live", "is_live", "is_upcoming", "was_live", "post_live" (was live, but VOD is not yet processed)
b7770046 1333 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
f76ede8e 1334 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
6cfda058 1335 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
940a67a3 1336 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
e370f9ec 1337 - `media_type` (string): The type of media as classified by the site, e.g. "episode", "clip", "trailer"
b7770046
U
1338 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1339 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
b7770046
U
1340 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1341 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
455a15e2 1342 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
b532a348 1343 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`, padded with leading zeros to 5 digits
9c906919 1344 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
e6f21b3d 1345 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
455a15e2 1346 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1347 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1348 - `playlist` (string): `playlist_id` or `playlist_title`
f0d785d3 1349 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
e6f21b3d 1350 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1351 - `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
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1352 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1353 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
bd99f6e6 1354 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
0bb322b9 1355 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1356 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
bd99f6e6 1357 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
d2c8aadf 1358
1359All the fields in [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats) can also be used
b7770046
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1360
1361Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1362
1363 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1364 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1365 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1366
1367Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1368
1369 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1370 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1371 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1372 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1373 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1374 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1375 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1376
1377Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1378
1379 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1380 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1381 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1382 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1383 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1384 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1385 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1386 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1387 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
b7770046 1388
5ec1b6b7 1389Available only when using `--download-sections` and for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
72755351 1390
1391 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1392 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1393 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1394 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1395
53c18592 1396Available only when used in `--print`:
1397
1398 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
7aaf4cd2 1399 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the [actual filename may differ](#outtmpl-postprocess-note)
ed5835b4 1400 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by `--list-formats`
1401 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by `--list-thumbnails`
1402 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1403 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1404
ad54c913 1405 Available only after the video is downloaded (`post_process`/`after_move`):
7a340e0d 1406
ad54c913 1407 - `filepath`: Actual path of downloaded video file
1408
7a340e0d
NA
1409Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1410
1411 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1412 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1338ae3b 1413 - `categories` (list): The [SponsorBlock categories](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Category) the chapter belongs to
7a340e0d
NA
1414 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1415 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1416 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1338ae3b 1417 - `type` (string): The [SponsorBlock action type](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Action_Type) of the chapter
53c18592 1418
62b58c09 1419Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. E.g. 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.
49a57e70 1420
8e174ba7 1421**Note**: 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 1422
0930b11f 1423**Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
b7770046 1424
62b58c09 1425For numeric sequences you can use [numeric related formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting); e.g. `%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in `00042`.
b7770046 1426
940a67a3 1427Output 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.
b7770046
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1428
1429To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1430
91ebc640 1431The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
b7770046 1432
f304da8a 1433In 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.
b7770046 1434
b7770046
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1435#### Output template examples
1436
b7770046 1437```bash
d2c8aadf 1438$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1439test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1440
d2c8aadf 1441$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1442youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
b7770046 1443
d2c8aadf 1444$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
9222c381 1445youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
b7770046
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1446
1447# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
940a67a3 1448$ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
b7770046 1449
b050d210 1450# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
940a67a3 1451$ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
e29663c6 1452
e978789f 1453# Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
ad54c913 1454$ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist_index&{} - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
e978789f 1455
b7770046 1456# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
940a67a3 1457$ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
b7770046
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1458
1459# Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
940a67a3 1460$ yt-dlp -u user -p password -P "~/MyVideos" -o "%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s - %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial"
b7770046
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1461
1462# Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
940a67a3 1463$ 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 1464
6a34813a 1465# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1466# and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1467$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1468
1469# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1470$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "subtitle:%(uploader)s/subs/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --write-subs
1471
b7770046 1472# Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
7a5c1cfe 1473$ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
b7770046
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1474```
1475
1476# FORMAT SELECTION
1477
7a5c1cfe
P
1478By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1479This 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 1480
c111cefa 1481**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.
1482
eff63539 1483The 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 1484
ec2e44fc 1485<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1486**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
ec2e44fc 1487<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1488
62b58c09 1489The simplest case is requesting a specific format; e.g. 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
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1490
1491You 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.
1492
fa9f30b8 1493You can use `-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1494
b7770046
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1495You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1496
59a7a13e 1497 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1498 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
30389593 1499 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio or both (ie; `vcodec!=none or acodec!=none`)
59a7a13e 1500 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1501 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1502 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1503 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
ae6a1b95 1504 - `ba*`, `bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that **contains audio**. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `best*[acodec!=none]` ([Do not use!](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/979#issuecomment-919629354))
59a7a13e 1505 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
909d24dd 1506 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1507 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
909d24dd 1508 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1509 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
909d24dd 1510 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
b7770046 1511
d4ada357 1512For 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 `-S +size` or more rigorously, `-S +size,+br,+res,+fps` instead of `-f worst`. See [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
eff63539 1513
1514You 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 1515
304ad45a 1516If 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; e.g. `-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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1517
1518If 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`.
1519
62b58c09 1520You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using `-f <format1>+<format2>+...` (requires ffmpeg installed); e.g. `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg.
d806c9fd 1521
1522**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
1523
304ad45a 1524Unless `--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. E.g. `-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 only `best` while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore `best` and download only `bestaudio`.
eb8a4433 1525
1526## Filtering Formats
1527
b532a348 1528You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"` since filters without a selector are interpreted as `best`).
b7770046
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1529
1530The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1531
1532 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
d2c8aadf 1533 - `filesize_approx`: An estimate for the number of bytes
b7770046
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1534 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1535 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
105bfd90 1536 - `aspect_ratio`: Aspect ratio of the video, if known
b7770046
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1537 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1538 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1539 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1540 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1541 - `fps`: Frame rate
d2c8aadf 1542 - `audio_channels`: The number of audio channels
1543 - `stretched_ratio`: `width:height` of the video's pixels, if not square
b7770046 1544
1ce9a3cb 1545Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains), `~=` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
b7770046 1546
d2c8aadf 1547 - `url`: Video URL
b7770046
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1548 - `ext`: File extension
1549 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1550 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1551 - `container`: Name of the container format
1552 - `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`)
29f7c58a 1553 - `language`: Language code
d2c8aadf 1554 - `dynamic_range`: The dynamic range of the video
1555 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
1556 - `format`: A human-readable description of the format
1557 - `format_note`: Additional info about the format
1558 - `resolution`: Textual description of width and height
b7770046 1559
1ce9a3cb 1560Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation `!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. `!*=` (does not contain). The comparand of a string comparison needs to be quoted with either double or single quotes if it contains spaces or special characters other than `._-`.
b7770046 1561
8e174ba7 1562**Note**: 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 1563
b532a348 1564Formats 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 "bv[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, e.g. `-f "all[vcodec=none]"` selects all audio-only formats.
b7770046 1565
62b58c09 1566Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses; e.g. `-f "(mp4,webm)[height<480]"` will download the best pre-merged mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480.
b7770046 1567
eb8a4433 1568## Sorting Formats
1569
2e7781a9 1570You can change the criteria for being considered the `best` by using `-S` (`--format-sort`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...`.
1571
1572The available fields are:
eb8a4433 1573
304ad45a 1574 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that have a video stream
1575 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that have an audio stream
ed8d87f9 1576 - `ie_pref`: The format preference
1577 - `lang`: The language preference
1578 - `quality`: The quality of the format
1579 - `source`: The preference of the source
d80d98e7 1580 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > `mms`/`rtsp` > `f4f`/`f4m`)
1581 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other)
a5387729 1582 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`flac`/`alac` > `wav`/`aiff` > `opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `ac4` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other)
eb8a4433 1583 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
29ca4082 1584 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `mov` > `webm` > `flv` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is preferred.
f2e9fa3e 1585 - `aext`: Audio Extension (`m4a` > `aac` > `mp3` > `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > `mp3` > `m4a` > `aac`
63be1aab 1586 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
0930b11f 1587 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
62b5c94c 1588 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize
63be1aab 1589 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
eb8a4433 1590 - `height`: Height of video
1591 - `width`: Width of video
63be1aab 1592 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1593 - `fps`: Framerate of video
49a57e70 1594 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
b8ed0f15 1595 - `channels`: The number of audio channels
63be1aab 1596 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1597 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1598 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
62b5c94c 1599 - `br`: Average bitrate in KBit/s, `tbr`/`vbr`/`abr`
63be1aab 1600 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
d806c9fd 1601
1602**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 1603
62b58c09 1604All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in descending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+`. E.g. `+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a preferred value for the fields, separated by a `:`. E.g. `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. E.g. `+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. E.g. `filesize~1G` prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.
9ee4f0bb 1605
7e798d72 1606The 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,vcodec:vp9.2,channels,acodec,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. The extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
eb8a4433 1607
7e798d72 1608Note that the default has `vcodec:vp9.2`; i.e. `av1` is not preferred. Similarly, the default for hdr is `hdr:12`; i.e. dolby vision is not preferred. 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 1609
e58c22a0 1610If 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 1611
1612**Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1613
eb8a4433 1614## Format Selection examples
b7770046 1615
b7770046 1616```bash
e58c22a0 1617# Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
909d24dd 1618# or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
940a67a3 1619$ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
909d24dd 1620
1621# Download best format that contains video,
1622# and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
940a67a3 1623$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
2af884ff 1624
1625# Same as above
7a5c1cfe 1626$ yt-dlp
909d24dd 1627
6fd35a11 1628# Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1629# For this case, an output template should be used since
1630# by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
940a67a3 1631$ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
909d24dd 1632
f8d4ad9a 1633# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1634# and all audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1635$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
f8d4ad9a 1636
1637# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1638# and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1639$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
909d24dd 1640
6fd35a11 1641
1642# The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
f8d4ad9a 1643# and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
6fd35a11 1644
1645# Download the worst video available (old method)
940a67a3 1646$ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
eb8a4433 1647
1648# Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
940a67a3 1649$ yt-dlp -S "+res"
eb8a4433 1650
1651# Download the smallest video available
940a67a3 1652$ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
eb8a4433 1653
1654
909d24dd 1655
eb8a4433 1656# Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
940a67a3 1657$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
eb8a4433 1658
1659# Download the best video with the best extension
29ca4082 1660# (For video, mp4 > mov > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
940a67a3 1661$ yt-dlp -S "ext"
eb8a4433 1662
1663
909d24dd 1664
eb8a4433 1665# Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1666# or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1667$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
b7770046 1668
eb8a4433 1669# Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1670# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1671$ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
b7770046 1672
eb8a4433 1673# Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1674# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1675# Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1676# So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
940a67a3 1677$ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
b7770046 1678
b7770046 1679
909d24dd 1680
eb8a4433 1681# Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1682# or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1683$ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
eb8a4433 1684
1685# Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1686# or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1687$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
eb8a4433 1688
1689# Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
940a67a3 1690$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
eb8a4433 1691
1692
909d24dd 1693
eb8a4433 1694# Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1695# or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
940a67a3 1696$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1697
1698# Download best video available via the best protocol
1699# (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
940a67a3 1700$ yt-dlp -S "proto"
eb8a4433 1701
1702
909d24dd 1703
1ce9a3cb
LF
1704# Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1705# or the best video if there is no such video
1706$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1707
1708# Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1709# or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1710$ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1711
1712# Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1713# or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1714$ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1715
1716
1717
1718# More complex examples
1719
e58c22a0 1720# Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1721# or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
940a67a3 1722$ 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 1723
1724# Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
f8d4ad9a 1725# or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1726# preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
940a67a3 1727$ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
eb8a4433 1728
1729
909d24dd 1730
eb8a4433 1731# Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1732# or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1733# preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
940a67a3 1734$ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
b7770046 1735```
eb8a4433 1736
73cd218f 1737# MODIFYING METADATA
1738
a4211baf 1739The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
e9f4ccd1 1740
418964fa 1741`--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 1742
46d09f87 1743The 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, a single field name, 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 1744
46d09f87 1745Note that these options preserve their relative order, allowing replacements to be made in parsed fields and viceversa. Also, any field thus created can be used in the [output template](#output-template) and will also affect the media file's metadata added when using `--embed-metadata`.
73cd218f 1746
9c2b75b5 1747This option also has a few special uses:
3d3bb168 1748
c8bc203f 1749* 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. E.g. `--parse-metadata "description:(?P<additional_urls>https?://www\.vimeo\.com/\d+)"` will download the first vimeo video found in the description
3d3bb168 1750
62b58c09 1751* 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 - you can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis". To modify the metadata of individual streams, use the `meta<n>_` prefix (e.g. `meta1_language`). Any value set to the `meta_` field will overwrite all default values.
c31be5b0 1752
08d30158 1753**Note**: Metadata modification happens before format selection, post-extraction and other post-processing operations. Some fields may be added or changed during these steps, overriding your changes.
1754
c31be5b0 1755For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1756
08d30158 1757Metadata fields | From
1758:--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1759`title` | `track` or `title`
1760`date` | `upload_date`
1761`description`, `synopsis` | `description`
1762`purl`, `comment` | `webpage_url`
1763`track` | `track_number`
1764`artist` | `artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1765`genre` | `genre`
1766`album` | `album`
1767`album_artist` | `album_artist`
1768`disc` | `disc_number`
1769`show` | `series`
1770`season_number` | `season_number`
1771`episode_id` | `episode` or `episode_id`
1772`episode_sort` | `episode_number`
1773`language` of each stream | the format's `language`
1774
c31be5b0 1775**Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1776
73cd218f 1777
1778## Modifying metadata examples
1779
73cd218f 1780```bash
1781# Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
940a67a3 1782$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
73cd218f 1783
1784# Regex example
940a67a3 1785$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
73cd218f 1786
1787# Set title as "Series name S01E05"
940a67a3 1788$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
73cd218f 1789
a44ca5a4 1790# Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
2fa669f7 1791$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --embed-metadata
a44ca5a4 1792
1793# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1794# handling multiple lines correctly
2fa669f7 1795$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --embed-metadata
73cd218f 1796
8aa0e7cd 1797# Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
1798$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
1799
0930b11f 1800# Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
7f9c6a63 1801$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "video::(?P<formats>)" --write-info-json
0930b11f 1802
e9f4ccd1 1803# Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
940a67a3 1804$ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
e9f4ccd1 1805
73cd218f 1806```
1807
5d3a0e79 1808# EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1809
62b58c09 1810Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS`. `ARGS` is a `;` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2`. E.g. `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_embedded,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
5d3a0e79 1811
a5387729 1812Note: In CLI, `ARG` can use `-` instead of `_`; e.g. `youtube:player-client"` becomes `youtube:player_client"`
1813
5d3a0e79 1814The following extractors use this feature:
96565c7e 1815
1816#### youtube
8e174ba7 1817* `lang`: Prefer translated metadata (`title`, `description` etc) of this language code (case-sensitive). By default, the video primary language metadata is preferred, with a fallback to `en` translated. See [youtube.py](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/c26f9b991a0681fd3ea548d535919cec1fbbd430/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L381-L390) for list of supported content language codes
8aa0e7cd 1818* `skip`: One or more of `hls`, `dash` or `translated_subs` to skip extraction of the m3u8 manifests, dash manifests and [auto-translated subtitles](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/4090#issuecomment-1158102032) respectively
fd8fcf8f 1819* `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web`, `android` and `ios` with variants `_music`, `_embedded`, `_embedscreen`, `_creator` (e.g. `web_embedded`); and `mweb`, `mweb_embedscreen` and `tv_embedded` (agegate bypass) with no variants. By default, `ios,android,web` is used, but `tv_embedded` and `creator` variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly, the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com` urls. You can use `all` to use all the clients, and `default` for the default clients.
96565c7e 1820* `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
ba06d77a 1821* `player_params`: YouTube player parameters to use for player requests. Will overwrite any default ones set by yt-dlp.
96565c7e 1822* `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
a44ca5a4 1823* `max_comments`: Limit the amount of comments to gather. Comma-separated list of integers representing `max-comments,max-parents,max-replies,max-replies-per-thread`. Default is `all,all,all,all`
1824 * E.g. `all,all,1000,10` will get a maximum of 1000 replies total, with up to 10 replies per thread. `1000,all,100` will get a maximum of 1000 comments, with a maximum of 100 replies total
b532a348 1825* `formats`: Change the types of formats to return. `dashy` (convert HTTP to DASH), `duplicate` (identical content but different URLs or protocol; includes `dashy`), `incomplete` (cannot be downloaded completely - live dash and post-live m3u8)
1e4fca9a 1826* `innertube_host`: Innertube API host to use for all API requests; e.g. `studio.youtube.com`, `youtubei.googleapis.com`. Note that cookies exported from one subdomain will not work on others
2ae778b8 1827* `innertube_key`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
eb5bdbfa 1828* `raise_incomplete_data`: `Incomplete Data Received` raises an error instead of reporting a warning
96565c7e 1829
1830#### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1831* `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)
5225df50 1832* `approximate_date`: Extract approximate `upload_date` and `timestamp` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
96565c7e 1833
3b021eac 1834#### generic
5cc0a8fd 1835* `fragment_query`: Passthrough any query in mpd/m3u8 manifest URLs to their fragments if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `fragment_query=VALUE`. Does not apply to ffmpeg
1836* `variant_query`: Passthrough the master m3u8 URL query to its variant playlist URLs if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `variant_query=VALUE`
c2e0fc40 1837* `hls_key`: An HLS AES-128 key URI *or* key (as hex), and optionally the IV (as hex), in the form of `(URI|KEY)[,IV]`; e.g. `generic:hls_key=ABCDEF1234567980,0xFEDCBA0987654321`. Passing any of these values will force usage of the native HLS downloader and override the corresponding values found in the m3u8 playlist
93e7c699 1838* `is_live`: Bypass live HLS detection and manually set `live_status` - a value of `false` will set `not_live`, any other value (or no value) will set `is_live`
3b021eac 1839
96565c7e 1840#### funimation
304ad45a 1841* `language`: Audio languages to extract, e.g. `funimation:language=english,japanese`
96565c7e 1842* `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1843
cb1553e9 1844#### crunchyrollbeta (Crunchyroll)
62b58c09 1845* `format`: Which stream type(s) to extract (default: `adaptive_hls`). Potentially useful values include `adaptive_hls`, `adaptive_dash`, `vo_adaptive_hls`, `vo_adaptive_dash`, `download_hls`, `download_dash`, `multitrack_adaptive_hls_v2`
dfea94f8 1846* `hardsub`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract, or `all` (default: `None` = no hardsubs), e.g. `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None`
706dfe44 1847
96565c7e 1848#### vikichannel
1849* `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
73d829c1 1850
7bdcb4a4
LNO
1851#### niconico
1852* `segment_duration`: Segment duration in milliseconds for HLS-DMC formats. Use it at your own risk since this feature **may result in your account termination.**
1853
aa4b0545 1854#### youtubewebarchive
1855* `check_all`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails`, `captures`
1856
d43de682
M
1857#### gamejolt
1858* `comment_sort`: `hot` (default), `you` (cookies needed), `top`, `new` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1859
26f2aa3d
AG
1860#### hotstar
1861* `res`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd`, `hd`, `fhd`
1862* `vcodec`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264`, `h265`, `dvh265`
1863* `dr`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr`, `hdr10`, `dv`
1864
698beb9a
M
1865#### niconicochannelplus
1866* `max_comments`: Maximum number of comments to extract - default is `120`
1867
046cab39 1868#### tiktok
c4cbd3be 1869* `api_hostname`: Hostname to use for mobile API requests, e.g. `api-h2.tiktokv.com`
62b58c09
L
1870* `app_version`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version`, e.g. `20.2.1`
1871* `manifest_app_version`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with, e.g. `221`
046cab39 1872
7eaf7f9a 1873#### rokfinchannel
62b58c09 1874* `tab`: Which tab to download - one of `new`, `top`, `videos`, `podcasts`, `streams`, `stacks`
7eaf7f9a 1875
b03fa783 1876#### twitter
a006ce2b 1877* `api`: Select one of `graphql` (default), `legacy` or `syndication` as the API for tweet extraction. Has no effect if logged in
b03fa783 1878
af1fd12f 1879#### stacommu, wrestleuniverse
ef8fb7f0 1880* `device_id`: UUID value assigned by the website and used to enforce device limits for paid livestream content. Can be found in browser local storage
1881
7f9c6a63 1882#### twitch
1883* `client_id`: Client ID value to be sent with GraphQL requests, e.g. `twitch:client_id=kimne78kx3ncx6brgo4mv6wki5h1ko`
01231feb 1884
81c8b9bd 1885#### nhkradirulive (NHK らじる★らじる LIVE)
1886* `area`: Which regional variation to extract. Valid areas are: `sapporo`, `sendai`, `tokyo`, `nagoya`, `osaka`, `hiroshima`, `matsuyama`, `fukuoka`. Defaults to `tokyo`
1887
1eaca74b 1888#### nflplusreplay
1889* `type`: Type(s) of game replays to extract. Valid types are: `full_game`, `full_game_spanish`, `condensed_game` and `all_22`. You can use `all` to extract all available replay types, which is the default
1890
8e174ba7 1891**Note**: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
5d3a0e79 1892
ec2e44fc 1893<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1894
3acf6d38 1895
f74980cb 1896# PLUGINS
b7770046 1897
8e40b9d1 1898Note 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!**
3ae5e797 1899
8e40b9d1
M
1900Plugins can be of `<type>`s `extractor` or `postprocessor`.
1901- Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it.
1902- Extractor plugins take priority over builtin extractors.
1903- Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME`.
3ae5e797 1904
3ae5e797 1905
8e40b9d1 1906Plugins are loaded from the namespace packages `yt_dlp_plugins.extractor` and `yt_dlp_plugins.postprocessor`.
3ae5e797 1907
8e40b9d1
M
1908In other words, the file structure on the disk looks something like:
1909
1910 yt_dlp_plugins/
1911 extractor/
1912 myplugin.py
1913 postprocessor/
1914 myplugin.py
1915
1916yt-dlp looks for these `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folders in many locations (see below) and loads in plugins from **all** of them.
b7770046 1917
deae7c17 1918See the [wiki for some known plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugins)
1919
8e40b9d1
M
1920## Installing Plugins
1921
1922Plugins can be installed using various methods and locations.
1923
19241. **Configuration directories**:
1925 Plugin packages (containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder) can be dropped into the following standard [configuration locations](#configuration):
1926 * **User Plugins**
1927 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1928 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1929 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Windows)
773c272d 1930 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
8e40b9d1
M
1931 * `~/.yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1932 * `~/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1933 * **System Plugins**
1934 * `/etc/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1935 * `/etc/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
c8bc203f 19362. **Executable location**: Plugin packages can similarly be installed in a `yt-dlp-plugins` directory under the executable location (recommended for portable installations):
8e40b9d1
M
1937 * Binary: where `<root-dir>/yt-dlp.exe`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1938 * Source: where `<root-dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1939
19403. **pip and other locations in `PYTHONPATH`**
e756f45b 1941 * Plugin packages can be installed and managed using `pip`. See [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) for an example.
8e174ba7 1942 * Note: plugin files between plugin packages installed with pip must have unique filenames.
8e40b9d1
M
1943 * Any path in `PYTHONPATH` is searched in for the `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder.
1944 * Note: This does not apply for Pyinstaller/py2exe builds.
1945
1946
8e174ba7 1947`.zip`, `.egg` and `.whl` archives containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder in their root are also supported as plugin packages.
1948* e.g. `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/mypluginpkg.zip` where `mypluginpkg.zip` contains `yt_dlp_plugins/<type>/myplugin.py`
8e40b9d1 1949
8e174ba7 1950Run yt-dlp with `--verbose` to check if the plugin has been loaded.
8e40b9d1
M
1951
1952## Developing Plugins
1953
8e174ba7 1954See the [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) repo for a template plugin package and the [Plugin Development](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugin-Development) section of the wiki for a plugin development guide.
8e40b9d1 1955
8e174ba7 1956All public classes with a name ending in `IE`/`PP` are imported from each file for extractors and postprocessors repectively. This respects underscore prefix (e.g. `_MyBasePluginIE` is private) and `__all__`. Modules can similarly be excluded by prefixing the module name with an underscore (e.g. `_myplugin.py`).
e756f45b 1957
773c272d 1958To replace an existing extractor with a subclass of one, set the `plugin_name` class keyword argument (e.g. `class MyPluginIE(ABuiltInIE, plugin_name='myplugin')` will replace `ABuiltInIE` with `MyPluginIE`). Since the extractor replaces the parent, you should exclude the subclass extractor from being imported separately by making it private using one of the methods described above.
8e40b9d1 1959
8e174ba7 1960If you are a plugin author, add [yt-dlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/yt-dlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability.
b7770046 1961
8e40b9d1 1962See the [Developer Instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions) on how to write and test an extractor.
8c6f4daa 1963
1964# EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1965
1966yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1967
1968Your 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.
1969
1970From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1971
1972```python
59a7a13e 1973from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
8c6f4daa 1974
3d3bb168 1975URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1976with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1977 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 1978```
1979
b532a348 1980Most 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#L183) or `help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)` in a Python shell. If you are already familiar with the CLI, you can use [`devscripts/cli_to_api.py`](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/devscripts/cli_to_api.py) to translate any CLI switches to `YoutubeDL` params.
8c6f4daa 1981
43cc91ad 1982**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 below](#extracting-information)
3d3bb168 1983
1984## Embedding examples
1985
43cc91ad 1986#### Extracting information
8c6f4daa 1987
1988```python
1989import json
8c6f4daa 1990import yt_dlp
8c6f4daa 1991
3d3bb168 1992URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1993
1994# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
1995ydl_opts = {}
1996with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1997 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
1998
1999 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
2000 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
2001```
43cc91ad 2002#### Download using an info-json
3d3bb168 2003
2004```python
2005import yt_dlp
2006
2007INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
2008
2009with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
2010 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
2011
2012print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
2013 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
2014```
2015
43cc91ad 2016#### Extract audio
3d3bb168 2017
2018```python
2019import yt_dlp
2020
2021URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2022
2023ydl_opts = {
0a41f331 2024 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
3d3bb168 2025 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
2026 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
2027 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
2028 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
2029 }]
2030}
2031
2032with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2033 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
2034```
0a41f331 2035
2036#### Filter videos
2037
2038```python
2039import yt_dlp
2040
2041URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2042
2043def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
2044 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
2045 duration = info.get('duration')
2046 if duration and duration < 60:
2047 return 'The video is too short'
2048
2049ydl_opts = {
2050 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
2051}
2052
2053with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2054 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
2055```
2056
43cc91ad 2057#### Adding logger and progress hook
3d3bb168 2058
2059```python
2060import yt_dlp
2061
2062URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
8c6f4daa 2063
2064class MyLogger:
2065 def debug(self, msg):
e75bb0d6 2066 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
8c6f4daa 2067 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
2068 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
2069 pass
2070 else:
2071 self.info(msg)
2072
2073 def info(self, msg):
2074 pass
2075
2076 def warning(self, msg):
2077 pass
2078
2079 def error(self, msg):
2080 print(msg)
2081
2082
3d3bb168 2083# ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
2084def my_hook(d):
2085 if d['status'] == 'finished':
2086 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
2087
2088
2089ydl_opts = {
2090 'logger': MyLogger(),
2091 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
2092}
2093
2094with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2095 ydl.download(URLS)
2096```
2097
43cc91ad 2098#### Add a custom PostProcessor
3d3bb168 2099
2100```python
2101import yt_dlp
2102
2103URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2104
2105# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
59a7a13e 2106class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
8c6f4daa 2107 def run(self, info):
2108 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
2109 return [], info
2110
2111
3d3bb168 2112with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
8aa0e7cd 2113 # ℹ️ "when" can take any value in yt_dlp.utils.POSTPROCESS_WHEN
2114 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP(), when='pre_process')
3d3bb168 2115 ydl.download(URLS)
2116```
8c6f4daa 2117
2118
43cc91ad 2119#### Use a custom format selector
3d3bb168 2120
2121```python
2122import yt_dlp
2123
c8bc203f 2124URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
3d3bb168 2125
093a1710 2126def format_selector(ctx):
2127 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
3d3bb168 2128 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
093a1710 2129
2130 # formats are already sorted worst to best
2131 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
2132
2133 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
2134 best_video = next(f for f in formats
2135 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
2136
2137 # find compatible audio extension
2138 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
2139 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
2140 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
2141 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
2142
3d3bb168 2143 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
093a1710 2144 yield {
093a1710 2145 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
2146 'ext': best_video['ext'],
2147 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
e75bb0d6 2148 # Must be + separated list of protocols
093a1710 2149 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
2150 }
2151
2152
8c6f4daa 2153ydl_opts = {
093a1710 2154 'format': format_selector,
8c6f4daa 2155}
2156
2157with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
3d3bb168 2158 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 2159```
2160
ec2e44fc 2161<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
2162
e167860c 2163# DEPRECATED OPTIONS
2164
2165These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
2166
8130779d 2167#### Almost redundant options
2168While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
2169
2170 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
2171 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
0bfc53d0 2172 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
8130779d 2173 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
2174
6ccf351a 2175#### Redundant options
2176While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
f4536226 2177
53c18592 2178 --get-description --print description
2179 --get-duration --print duration_string
2180 --get-filename --print filename
2181 --get-format --print format
2182 --get-id --print id
2183 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
2184 -e, --get-title --print title
2185 -g, --get-url --print urls
8f18aca8 2186 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
2187 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2188 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2189 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
fe2ce85a 2190 --break-on-reject Use --break-match-filter
8b7539d2 2191 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2192 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
7e88d7d7 2193 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2194 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2195 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2196 --no-playlist-reverse Default
8417f26b 2197 --no-colors --color no_color
6ccf351a 2198
2199
2200#### Not recommended
2201While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2202
fe7866d0 2203 --force-generic-extractor --ies generic,default
1e43a6f7 2204 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2205 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
d9aa2332 2206 --all-formats -f all
c32b0aab 2207 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
b7b04c78 2208 --print-json -j --no-simulate
62b58c09 2209 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting, e.g. %(autonumber)03d
a439a3a4 2210 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
19b824f6 2211 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
73cd218f 2212 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
52a8a1e1 2213 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2214 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
53ed7066 2215 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2216 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
5d3a0e79 2217 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2218 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2219 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2220 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
c1664464 2221 --geo-bypass --xff "default"
2222 --no-geo-bypass --xff "never"
2223 --geo-bypass-country CODE --xff CODE
2224 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK --xff IP_BLOCK
6ccf351a 2225
2226
2227#### Developer options
2228These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2229
34488702 2230 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
f95b9dee 2231 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
6ccf351a 2232 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
88acdbc2 2233 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2234 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
f4536226 2235
2236
2237#### Old aliases
2238These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2239
2240 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
3856407a 2241 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
f4536226 2242 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2243 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2244 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2245 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2246 --load-info --load-info-json
3856407a 2247 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
f4536226 2248 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
e167860c 2249 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
e167860c 2250 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2251 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
f4536226 2252 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2253 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
e167860c 2254 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
f4536226 2255 --write-srt --write-subs
e167860c 2256 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
f4536226 2257
7a340e0d 2258#### Sponskrub Options
f304da8a 2259Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock` options
7a340e0d
NA
2260
2261 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2262 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2263 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2264 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2265 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2266 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2267 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2268 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2269
f4536226 2270#### No longer supported
2271These options may no longer work as intended
2272
2273 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2274 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2275 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2276 --no-call-home Default
2277 --include-ads No longer supported
2278 --no-include-ads Default
0bb1bc1b 2279 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2280 --no-write-annotations Default
1e8fe57e 2281 --compat-options seperate-video-versions No longer needed
486fb179 2282
2283#### Removed
2284These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2285
f4536226 2286 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
3d3bb168 2287 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
f4536226 2288
8c6f4daa 2289# CONTRIBUTING
2290See [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 2291
17ffed18 2292# WIKI
2293See the [Wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki) for more information