]> jfr.im git - yt-dlp.git/blame - README.md
[extractor/triller] Add extractor (#4712)
[yt-dlp.git] / README.md
CommitLineData
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
ae6a1b95 6[![Release version](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?color=brightgreen&label=Download&style=for-the-badge)](#release-files "Release")
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")
fc5fa964 8[![Donate](https://img.shields.io/badge/_-Donate-red.svg?logo=githubsponsors&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](Collaborators.md#collaborators "Donate")
ae6a1b95 9[![Matrix](https://img.shields.io/matrix/yt-dlp:matrix.org?color=brightgreen&labelColor=555555&label=&logo=element&style=for-the-badge)](https://matrix.to/#/#yt-dlp:matrix.org "Matrix")
10[![Discord](https://img.shields.io/discord/807245652072857610?color=blue&labelColor=555555&label=&logo=discord&style=for-the-badge)](https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r "Discord")
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")
fc5fa964 13[![CI Status](https://img.shields.io/github/workflow/status/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/Core%20Tests/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")
15[![Last Commit](https://img.shields.io/github/last-commit/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master?label=&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
c76eb41b 16
b31fdeed 17</div>
ec2e44fc 18<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
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)
17fa3ee2 28 * [Update](#update)
0e5927ee 29 * [Release Files](#release-files)
cf59cd4d 30 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
17fa3ee2 31 * [Compile](#compile)
b31fdeed 32* [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
33 * [General Options](#general-options)
50865ca8 34 * [Network Options](#network-options)
b31fdeed 35 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
50865ca8 36 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
37 * [Download Options](#download-options)
38 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
b31fdeed 39 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
50865ca8 40 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
0744a815 41 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
50865ca8 42 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
43 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
44 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
45 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
50865ca8 46 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
7a340e0d 47 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
50865ca8 48 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
c76eb41b 49* [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
50865ca8 50 * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
c76eb41b 51* [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
50865ca8 52 * [Output template and Windows batch files](#output-template-and-windows-batch-files)
53 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
c76eb41b 54* [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
50865ca8 55 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
56 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
57 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
73cd218f 58* [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
59 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
5d3a0e79 60* [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
f74980cb 61* [PLUGINS](#plugins)
8c6f4daa 62* [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
43cc91ad 63 * [Embedding examples](#embedding-examples)
e167860c 64* [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
8c6f4daa 65* [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
66 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
67 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
c76eb41b 68* [MORE](#more)
ec2e44fc 69<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
50865ca8 70
71
034b6215 72# NEW FEATURES
91f071af 73
48c88e08 74* Merged with **youtube-dl v2021.12.17+ [commit/b0a60ce](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/b0a60ce2032172aeaaf27fe3866ab72768f10cb2)**<!--([exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21))--> and **youtube-dlc v2020.11.11-3+ [commit/f9401f2](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/f9401f2a91987068139c5f757b12fc711d4c0cee)**: You get all the features and patches of [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) in addition to the latest [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl)
034b6215 75
7a340e0d 76* **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
034b6215 77
7581d246 78* **[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 79
ae6a1b95 80* **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from [animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including `--write-comments`, `BiliBiliSearch`, `BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that the NicoNico livestreams are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
29b6000e 81
ae61d108 82* **YouTube improvements**:
83 * Supports Clips, Stories (`ytstories:<channel UCID>`), Search (including filters)**\***, YouTube Music Search, Channel-specific search, Search prefixes (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`)**\***, Mixes, YouTube Music Albums/Channels ([except self-uploaded music](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/723)), and Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`, `:ytnotif`)
84 * Fix for [n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326) **\***
85 * Supports some (but not all) age-gated content without cookies
86 * Download livestreams from the start using `--live-from-start` (*experimental*)
87 * `255kbps` audio is extracted (if available) from YouTube Music when premium cookies are given
f20f5fe5 88 * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to `/video` to preserve the old behaviour
89
f59f5ef8 90* **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE]`
245524e6 91
5ec1b6b7 92* **Download time range**: Videos can be downloaded partially based on either timestamps or chapters using `--download-sections`
93
597c1866 94* **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
95
b31fdeed 96* **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 97
b31fdeed 98* **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
f20f5fe5 99
e75bb0d6 100* **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 101
56ba69e4 102* **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN etc.
fac98805 103
3de7c2ce 104* **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 105
597c1866 106* **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 107
d4ada357 108* **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for details
0bc0a322 109
418964fa 110* **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 111
8a82af35 112* **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-on-reject` etc
0bc0a322 113
08d30158 114* **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 115
86c1a8aa 116* **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
b31fdeed 117
7a5c1cfe 118* **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`
aa837ddf 119
7a5c1cfe 120See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
a26c99ac 121
ae61d108 122Features marked with a **\*** have been back-ported to youtube-dl
123
53ed7066 124### Differences in default behavior
125
0930b11f 126Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
53ed7066 127
96565c7e 128* The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
b69fd25c 129* `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
d4ada357 130* yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
96565c7e 131* 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 132* 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 133* 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 134* 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 135* `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
28b0eb0f 136* 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 137* `--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 138* 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 139* `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
140* The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
b79f9e30 141* 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
64f36541 142* Youtube channel URLs are automatically redirected to `/video`. Append a `/featured` to the URL to download only the videos in the home page. If the channel does not have a videos tab, we try to download the equivalent `UU` playlist instead. For all other tabs, 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
28b0eb0f 143* Unavailable videos are also listed for youtube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
18e674b4 144* 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 145* Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
e4f02757 146* Some private fields such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use `--no-clean-infojson` or `--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
e75bb0d6 147* 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 148* `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 149* 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
53ed7066 150
151For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
3d3bb168 152
8a82af35 153* `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
28b0eb0f 154* `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams`
155* `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
53ed7066 156
f20f5fe5 157
d19bb9c0 158# INSTALLATION
50865ca8 159
7bc877a2 160You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
a61f4b28 161
a4211baf 162### Using the release binary
0930b11f 163
fc5fa964 164You can simply download the [correct binary file](#release-files) for your OS
5f326cf5 165
fc5fa964 166<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
167[![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)
24146491 168[![Linux](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)
169[![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)
fc5fa964 170[![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)
171[![Other variants](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Other-grey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](#release-files)
3d3bb168 172[![All versions](https://img.shields.io/badge/-All_Versions-lightgrey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
fc5fa964 173<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
174
175Note: The manpages, shell completion files etc. are available in the [source tarball](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
176
177<!-- TODO: Move to Wiki -->
0930b11f 178In UNIX-like OSes (MacOS, Linux, BSD), you can also install the same in one of the following ways:
5ba4a0b6
A
179
180```
181sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
182sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
183```
184
185```
186sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
187sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
188```
189
190```
b69fd25c 191sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp --dir /usr/local/bin -o yt-dlp
5ba4a0b6
A
192sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
193```
194
0930b11f 195
a4211baf 196### With [PIP](https://pypi.org/project/pip)
0930b11f 197
198You can install the [PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) with:
199```
200python3 -m pip install -U yt-dlp
201```
202
86c1a8aa 203You can install without any of the optional dependencies using:
0930b11f 204```
205python3 -m pip install --no-deps -U yt-dlp
206```
207
86c1a8aa 208If you want to be on the cutting edge, you can also install the master branch with:
0930b11f 209```
ae6a1b95 210python3 -m pip install --force-reinstall https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/archive/master.tar.gz
0930b11f 211```
212
8aa0e7cd 213On some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`
0930b11f 214
fc5fa964 215<!-- TODO: Add to Wiki, Remove Taps -->
a4211baf 216### With [Homebrew](https://brew.sh)
0930b11f 217
218macOS or Linux users that are using Homebrew can also install it by:
b8773e63
THD
219
220```
221brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp
222```
223
a4211baf 224## UPDATE
0930b11f 225You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are [using the provided release](#using-the-release-binary)
226
227If you [installed with pip](#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
228
229If you [installed using Homebrew](#with-homebrew), run `brew upgrade yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp`
cf59cd4d 230
ec2e44fc 231<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
a4211baf 232## RELEASE FILES
0e5927ee 233
733d8e8f 234#### Recommended
235
236File|Description
237:---|:---
962ffcf8 238[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 239[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 240[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 241
242#### Alternatives
243
0e5927ee
R
244File|Description
245:---|:---
0930b11f 246[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 247[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 248[yt-dlp_linux](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux)|Linux standalone x64 binary
249[yt-dlp_linux.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux.zip)|Unpackaged Linux executable (no auto-update)
0930b11f 250[yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
251[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 252[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 253
254#### Misc
255
256File|Description
257:---|:---
0e5927ee
R
258[yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball. Also contains manpages, completions, etc
259[SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
260[SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
ec2e44fc 261<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
0e5927ee 262
a4211baf 263## DEPENDENCIES
eff42759 264Python versions 3.7+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
b31fdeed 265
c9652aa4 266<!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
267<!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
cf59cd4d 268On 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 269-->
fac98805 270
e75bb0d6 271While all the other dependencies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
ec2e44fc 272
8aa0e7cd 273### Strongly recommended
274
b69fd25c 275* [**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 276
277 <!-- TODO: ffmpeg has merged this patch. Remove this note once there is new release -->
278 **Note**: There are some regressions in newer ffmpeg versions 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 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
279
280### Networking
d5820461 281* [**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 282* [**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>
283* [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
284
285### Metadata
286
287* [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For `--embed-thumbnail` in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
288* [**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)
289* [**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 **Linux**. 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
290
291### Misc
292
293* [**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 294* [**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)
8aa0e7cd 295* [**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 296* Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
b31fdeed 297
8aa0e7cd 298#### Deprecated
299
300* [**avconv** and **avprobe**](https://www.libav.org) - Now **deprecated** alternative to ffmpeg. License [depends on the build](https://libav.org/legal)
301* [**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 302* [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
303* [**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 304
cf59cd4d 305To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
306
f2df4071 307The standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with **\*** included.
d710cc6d 308
8aa0e7cd 309If 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 310
5f326cf5 311
a4211baf 312## COMPILE
5f326cf5 313
8aa0e7cd 314### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
115add43 315To 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 316
8aa0e7cd 317 python3 -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
318 python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
319 python3 pyinst.py
320
321On some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`.
322
323Note that pyinstaller [does not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment.
324
325**Important**: Running `pyinstaller` directly **without** using `pyinst.py` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
7581d246 326
8aa0e7cd 327### Platform-independent Binary (UNIX)
328You will need the build tools `python` (3.6+), `zip`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`\* and `pytest`\*.
b96a939b 329
8aa0e7cd 330After installing these, simply run `make`.
5f326cf5 331
a831c2ea 332You 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 333
8aa0e7cd 334### Standalone Py2Exe Builds (Windows)
335
336While 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.
337
338If you wish to build it anyway, install Python and py2exe, and then simply run `setup.py py2exe`
339
340 py -m pip install -U py2exe -r requirements.txt
341 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
342 py setup.py py2exe
343
344### Related scripts
345
70b23409 346* **`devscripts/update-version.py [revision]`** - Update the version number based on current date
347* **`devscripts/set-variant.py variant [-M update_message]`** - Set the build variant of the executable
8aa0e7cd 348* **`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.
349
350You can also fork the project on github and run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build a full release
59a7a13e 351
b31fdeed 352# USAGE AND OPTIONS
6bcd846b 353
ec2e44fc 354<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
7a5c1cfe 355 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
b50e3bc6 356
c2b5f311 357`Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
ec2e44fc 358<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
c2b5f311 359
ec2e44fc 360<!-- Auto generated -->
c76eb41b 361## General Options:
2dd5a2e3 362 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
363 --version Print program version and exit
70b23409 364 -U, --update Update this program to the latest version
365 --no-update Do not check for updates (default)
2dd5a2e3 366 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
367 The download will be considered successful
368 even if the postprocessing fails
369 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
370 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
371 playlist (default)
372 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
373 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
374 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
375 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
376 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
377 extractors and exit
2516cafb 378 --use-extractors NAMES Extractor names to use separated by commas.
fe7866d0 379 You can also use regexes, "all", "default"
380 and "end" (end URL matching); e.g. --ies
381 "holodex.*,end,youtube". Prefix the name
382 with a "-" to exclude it, e.g. --ies
383 default,-generic. Use --list-extractors for
2516cafb 384 a list of extractor names. (Alias: --ies)
62b58c09 385 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 386 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
387 google videos for the search term "python".
388 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
389 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
390 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
391 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
392 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
393 possible instead of searching
394 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
395 except those given by --config-locations.
396 For backward compatibility, if this option
397 is found inside the system configuration
398 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
399 (Alias: --no-config)
400 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
401 (default). When given inside a configuration
402 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
403 defined in the current file
404 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
405 either the path to the config or its
6b9e832d 406 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
407 used multiple times and inside other
408 configuration files
2dd5a2e3 409 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
410 only list them
411 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
412 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
413 Currently only supported for YouTube
414 (Experimental)
415 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
416 (default)
417 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
418 available. Pass the minimum number of
419 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
420 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
421 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
422 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
f2df4071 423 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output (Alias:
424 --no-colours)
2dd5a2e3 425 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
426 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
427 configurations by reverting some of the
428 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
429 default behavior" for details
430 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
431 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
432 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
433 according to the Python string formatting
62b58c09 434 mini-language. E.g. --alias get-audio,-X
2dd5a2e3 435 "-S=aext:{0},abr -x --audio-format {0}"
436 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
437 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
438 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
439 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
440 output. Alias options can trigger more
962ffcf8 441 aliases; so be careful to avoid defining
2dd5a2e3 442 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
443 alias may be triggered a maximum of 100
64fa820c 444 times. This option can be used multiple times
08c1d0d3 445
149f05c7 446## Network Options:
2dd5a2e3 447 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
62b58c09
L
448 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme,
449 e.g. socks5://user:pass@127.0.0.1:1080/.
450 Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for
451 direct connection
2dd5a2e3 452 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
453 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
454 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
455 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
8c6c88c7 456
b31fdeed 457## Geo-restriction:
2dd5a2e3 458 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
459 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
460 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
461 is not present) is used for the actual
462 downloading
463 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
464 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header (default)
465 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
466 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
467 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
468 explicitly provided two-letter ISO 3166-2
469 country code
470 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
64fa820c 471 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR notation
149f05c7 472
cfcec693 473## Video Selection:
962ffcf8 474 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma separated playlist_index of the videos
7e88d7d7 475 to download. You can specify a range using
476 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
477 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
478 Use negative indices to count from the right
479 and negative STEP to download in reverse
62b58c09 480 order. E.g. "-I 1:3,7,-5::2" used on a
7e88d7d7 481 playlist of size 15 will download the videos
482 at index 1,2,3,7,11,13,15
62b58c09
L
483 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
484 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
485 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE,
486 e.g. 50k or 44.6M
2dd5a2e3 487 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
488 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
489 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
62b58c09 490 E.g. --date today-2weeks
2dd5a2e3 491 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
492 this date. The date formats accepted is the
493 same as --date
494 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
495 this date. The date formats accepted is the
496 same as --date
497 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
498 field can be compared with a number or a
499 string using the operators defined in
d4ada357 500 "Filtering Formats". You can also simply
2dd5a2e3 501 specify a field to match if the field is
502 present, use "!field" to check if the field
503 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
504 conditions. Use a "\" to escape "&" or
505 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
506 the filter matches if atleast one of the
62b58c09 507 conditions are met. E.g. --match-filter
2dd5a2e3 508 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?100 &
509 description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'" matches
510 only videos that are not live OR those that
511 have a like count more than 100 (or the like
512 field is not available) and also has a
513 description that contains the phrase "cats &
514 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
515 interactively ask whether to download each
516 video
517 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
518 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
519 to a video and a playlist
520 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
521 a video and a playlist
522 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
523 age
524 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
525 archive file. Record the IDs of all
526 downloaded videos in it
527 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
528 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
529 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
530 a file that is in the archive
531 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
532 a file that has been filtered out
fd404bec 533 --break-per-input Make --break-on-existing, --break-on-reject,
534 --max-downloads and autonumber reset per
2dd5a2e3 535 input URL
536 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
537 terminates the entire download queue
538 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
539 the playlist is skipped
6bcd846b 540
d5a62e4f 541## Download Options:
2dd5a2e3 542 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
543 video that should be downloaded concurrently
544 (default is 1)
62b58c09
L
545 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second,
546 e.g. 50K or 4.2M
2dd5a2e3 547 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
548 below which throttling is assumed and the
62b58c09 549 video data is re-extracted, e.g. 100K
2dd5a2e3 550 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
551 "infinite"
552 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
553 error (default is 3), or "infinite"
554 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
555 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
be5c1ae8 556 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR Time to sleep between retries in seconds
557 (optionally) prefixed by the type of retry
558 (http (default), fragment, file_access,
559 extractor) to apply the sleep to. EXPR can
560 be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=1]] or
561 exp=START[:END[:BASE=2]]. This option can be
562 used multiple times to set the sleep for the
62b58c09 563 different retry types, e.g. --retry-sleep
2dd5a2e3 564 linear=1::2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=1:20
565 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
566 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
567 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
568 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment
569 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
570 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
571 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
572 downloading is finished
573 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
574 downloading is finished (default)
62b58c09 575 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer, e.g. 1024 or 16K
2dd5a2e3 576 (default is 1024)
577 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
578 from an initial value of --buffer-size
579 (default)
580 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
581 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
62b58c09 582 downloading, e.g. 10485760 or 10M (default
2dd5a2e3 583 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
584 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
585 (experimental)
2dd5a2e3 586 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
7e9a6125 587 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
588 received. This disables n_entries,
589 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
590 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
591 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
2dd5a2e3 592 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
593 expected file size
594 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
595 allowing some players to play the video
596 while downloading, and reducing the chance
597 of file corruption if download is
598 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
599 live streams
600 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
601 videos. This is default when not downloading
602 live streams
5ec1b6b7 603 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters whose title matches
604 the given regular expression. Time ranges
605 prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place
606 of chapters to download the specified range.
62b58c09
L
607 Needs ffmpeg. This option can be used
608 multiple times to download multiple
609 sections, e.g. --download-sections
610 "*10:15-15:00" --download-sections "intro"
2dd5a2e3 611 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
612 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
613 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
614 use it for. Currently supports native,
615 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
616 wget. You can use this option multiple times
617 to set different downloaders for different
62b58c09 618 protocols. E.g. --downloader aria2c
2dd5a2e3 619 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
620 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
621 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
622 (Alias: --external-downloader)
623 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
624 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
625 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
626 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
627 positions using the same syntax as
628 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
629 option multiple times to give different
630 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
631 --external-downloader-args)
d5a62e4f 632
cfcec693 633## Filesystem Options:
2dd5a2e3 634 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
635 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
636 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
637 comments and ignored
638 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
639 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
640 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
641 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
642 TYPES as --output are supported.
643 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
644 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
645 files are first downloaded to the temp path
646 and then the final files are moved over to
647 the home path after download is finished.
648 This option is ignored if --output is an
649 absolute path
650 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
651 TEMPLATE" for details
652 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
653 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" (default: "NA")
654 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
655 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
656 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
657 filenames (default)
658 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
659 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
660 using Windows (default)
661 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
662 extension) to the specified number of
663 characters
664 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
665 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
666 option includes --no-continue
667 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
668 related files (default)
669 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
670 (default)
671 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
672 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
673 restart download of the entire file
674 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
675 into output file (default)
676 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
677 output file
678 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
679 modification time (default)
680 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
681 the file modification time
64fa820c 682 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
2dd5a2e3 683 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
684 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
685 (this may contain personal information)
686 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
687 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
688 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
689 --write-description etc. (default)
690 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
691 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
692 --clean-info-json Remove some private fields such as filenames
693 from the infojson. Note that it could still
694 contain some personal information (default)
695 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
696 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
697 infojson. The comments are fetched even
698 without this option if the extraction is
699 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
700 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
701 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
702 --no-get-comments)
703 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
64fa820c 704 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
2dd5a2e3 705 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
706 and dump cookie jar in
707 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
708 (default)
9bd13fe5 709 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE[:CONTAINER]]
2dd5a2e3 710 The name of the browser and (optionally) the
711 name/path of the profile to load cookies
9bd13fe5 712 from (and container name if Firefox)
713 separated by a ":". Currently supported
714 browsers are: brave, chrome, chromium, edge,
715 firefox, opera, safari, vivaldi. By default,
716 the default container of the most recently
2dd5a2e3 717 accessed profile is used. The keyring used
718 for decrypting Chromium cookies on Linux can
719 be (optionally) specified after the browser
720 name separated by a "+". Currently supported
64fa820c 721 keyrings are: basictext, gnomekeyring, kwallet
2dd5a2e3 722 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
723 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
724 can store some downloaded information (such
725 as client ids and signatures) permanently.
726 By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/yt-dlp or
727 ~/.cache/yt-dlp
728 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
729 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
6bcd846b 730
b31fdeed 731## Thumbnail Options:
2dd5a2e3 732 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
64fa820c 733 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
2dd5a2e3 734 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
735 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
736 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
2b1bd292 737
732044af 738## Internet Shortcut Options:
2dd5a2e3 739 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
740 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
741 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
742 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
743 OS caches the URL based on the file path
744 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
745 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
732044af 746
0744a815 747## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
2dd5a2e3 748 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
749 print the log to stderr
750 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
751 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
752 anything to disk
753 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
754 options are used
755 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
756 extracting metadata even if the videos are
757 not actually available for download
758 (experimental)
759 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
760 formats are found (default)
761 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
762 related files (Alias: --no-download)
763 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
764 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
765 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
766 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
767 --use-postprocessor, and "video" (default).
768 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
769 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
770 used. This option can be used multiple times
bb66c247 771 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
2dd5a2e3 772 Append given template to the file. The
773 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
774 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
775 output template. This option can be used
776 multiple times
777 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
778 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
779 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
780 description of available keys
781 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
782 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
783 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
784 a playlist, the whole playlist information
785 is dumped in a single line
786 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
787 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
788 another simulation option is used (Alias:
789 --force-download-archive)
790 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
791 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
792 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
793 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
819e0531 794 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 795 Template for progress outputs, optionally
796 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
797 "download-title:" (the console title),
798 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
799 The video's fields are accessible under the
800 "info" key and the progress attributes are
62b58c09 801 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 802 --console-title --progress-template
803 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
804 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
805 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
806 to debug problems (very verbose)
807 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
808 in the current directory to debug problems
809 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
6bcd846b 810
36f35428 811## Workarounds:
2dd5a2e3 812 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
813 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
814 that do not support RFC 5746 secure
815 renegotiation
816 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
817 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
818 information about the video (Currently
819 supported only for YouTube)
820 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
821 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
822 option multiple times
823 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
824 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
825 or fribidi executable in PATH
826 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
827 during data extraction
828 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
829 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
830 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
831 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
832 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
833 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
834 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
835 subtitle download
36f35428 836
cfcec693 837## Video Format Options:
2dd5a2e3 838 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
839 for more details
840 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
841 "Sorting Formats" for more details
842 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
843 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
844 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
845 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
846 specified sort order (default)
847 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
848 into a single file
849 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
850 output file (default)
851 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
852 into a single file
853 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
854 output file (default)
855 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
856 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
857 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
858 irrespective of quality
859 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
860 containers (default)
861 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
862 those that are actually downloadable
863 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
864 actually downloadable
865 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
866 downloadable
867 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
868 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
fc61aff4 869 --merge-output-format FORMAT Containers that may be used when merging
62b58c09 870 formats, separated by "/", e.g. "mp4/mkv".
fc61aff4
LL
871 Ignored if no merge is required. (currently
872 supported: avi, flv, mkv, mov, mp4, webm)
8ae7be3e
PH
873
874## Subtitle Options:
2dd5a2e3 875 --write-subs Write subtitle file
876 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
877 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
878 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
879 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
880 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
881 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
882 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
883 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
62b58c09 884 e.g. "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
2dd5a2e3 885 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
62b58c09
L
886 be regex) or "all" separated by commas, e.g.
887 --sub-langs "en.*,ja". You can prefix the
2dd5a2e3 888 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
62b58c09
L
889 the requested languages, e.g. --sub-langs
890 all,-live_chat. Use --list-subs for a list
2dd5a2e3 891 of available language tags
6bcd846b 892
cfcec693 893## Authentication Options:
2dd5a2e3 894 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
895 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
896 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
897 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
898 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
899 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
900 either the path or its containing directory.
901 Defaults to ~/.netrc
902 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
903 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
904 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
905 a list of available MSOs
906 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
907 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
908 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
909 interactively
910 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
911 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
912 format. May include the private key
913 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
914 Path to private key file for client
915 certificate
bb58c9ed 916 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
2dd5a2e3 917 Password for client certificate private key,
918 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
919 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
f5e008d1 920
c76eb41b 921## Post-Processing Options:
2dd5a2e3 922 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
923 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
35faefee 924 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
925 used. (currently supported: best (default),
8dc59305 926 aac, alac, flac, m4a, mp3, opus, vorbis,
e0ab9854 927 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
928 similar syntax as --remux-video
2dd5a2e3 929 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
930 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
931 between 0 (best) and 10 (worst) for VBR or a
932 specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
933 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
8dc59305 934 necessary (currently supported: avi, flv,
935 mkv, mov, mp4, webm, aac, aiff, alac, flac,
936 m4a, mka, mp3, ogg, opus, vorbis, wav). If
2dd5a2e3 937 target container does not support the
938 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
62b58c09 939 can specify multiple rules; e.g.
2dd5a2e3 940 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
35faefee 941 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
2dd5a2e3 942 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
943 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
944 are the same as --remux-video
945 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
946 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
947 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
948 to give the argument to the specified
949 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
950 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
951 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
952 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
953 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
954 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
955 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
956 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
957 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
958 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
959 specified executable only when being used by
960 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
961 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
962 appended to the prefix optionally followed
963 by a number to pass the argument before the
62b58c09 964 specified input/output file, e.g. --ppa
2dd5a2e3 965 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
966 this option multiple times to give different
967 arguments to different postprocessors.
968 (Alias: --ppa)
969 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
970 after post-processing
971 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
972 post-processing (default)
973 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
974 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
975 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
976 webm and mkv videos)
977 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
978 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
979 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
980 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
981 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
982 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
983 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
984 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
985 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
986 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
987 (Alias: --add-chapters)
988 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
989 --no-add-chapters)
990 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
991 mkv/mka video files
992 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
993 to the video file
994 --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
995 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
996 for details
e9f4ccd1 997 --replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
2dd5a2e3 998 Replace text in a metadata field using the
999 given regex. This option can be used
1000 multiple times
1001 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
1002 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
1003 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
1004 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
1005 (default; only when the videos form a single
1006 show). All the video files must have same
1007 codecs and number of streams to be
1008 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
1009 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1010 the output filename for the concatenated
1011 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1012 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
1013 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
1014 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
1015 default; fix file if we can, warn
1016 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
1017 already exists)
1018 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
64fa820c 1019 path to the binary or its containing directory
2dd5a2e3 1020 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
1021 when to execute it (after_move if
1022 unspecified), separated by a ":". Supported
1023 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
1024 --use-postprocessor. Same syntax as the
1025 output template can be used to pass any
1026 field as arguments to the command. After
1027 download, an additional field "filepath"
1028 that contains the final path of the
1029 downloaded file is also available, and if no
1030 fields are passed, %(filepath)q is appended
1031 to the end of the command. This option can
1032 be used multiple times
1033 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
1034 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
8dc59305 1035 (currently supported: ass, lrc, srt, vtt)
2dd5a2e3 1036 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
1037 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
00bbc5f1 1038 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
1039 can specify multiple rules using similar
1040 syntax as --remux-video
2dd5a2e3 1041 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
1042 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
1043 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1044 the output filename for the split files. See
1045 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
64fa820c 1046 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
2dd5a2e3 1047 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
5ec1b6b7 1048 given regular expression. The syntax is the
1049 same as --download-sections. This option can
2dd5a2e3 1050 be used multiple times
1051 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1052 (default)
5ec1b6b7 1053 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
1054 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
1055 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1056 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1057 around the cuts
2dd5a2e3 1058 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1059 when cutting/splitting (default)
1060 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1061 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1062 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1063 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1064 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1065 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1066 The "when" argument determines when the
1067 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1068 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1069 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
1070 "before_dl" (before each video download),
1071 "post_process" (after each video download;
1072 default), "after_move" (after moving video
1073 file to it's final locations), "after_video"
1074 (after downloading and processing all
1075 formats of a video), or "playlist" (at end
1076 of playlist). This option can be used
64fa820c 1077 multiple times to add different postprocessors
7a340e0d
NA
1078
1079## SponsorBlock Options:
1080Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1081 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
8a51f564 1082 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1083
2dd5a2e3 1084 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1085 for, separated by commas. Available
1086 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1087 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
1088 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, all and
1089 default (=all). You can prefix the category
1090 with a "-" to exclude it. See [1] for
62b58c09 1091 description of the categories. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 1092 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1093 [1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1094 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1095 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1096 category is present in both mark and remove,
1097 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1098 available categories are the same as for
1099 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
1100 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight is
1101 not available
7a340e0d 1102 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 1103 An output template for the title of the
1104 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1105 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1106 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1107 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1108 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1109 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1110 --sponsorblock-remove
1111 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1112 https://sponsor.ajay.app
a9e7f546 1113
78895bd3 1114## Extractor Options:
2dd5a2e3 1115 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1116 (default is 3), or "infinite"
1117 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1118 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1119 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1120 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1121 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1122 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1123 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1124 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1125 (default)
1126 --extractor-args KEY:ARGS Pass these arguments to the extractor. See
1127 "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You can
1128 use this option multiple times to give
1129 arguments for different extractors
17cb02d0 1130
b7770046
U
1131# CONFIGURATION
1132
7a5c1cfe 1133You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
e2e43aea 1134
0202b52a 11351. **Main Configuration**: The file given by `--config-location`
7a5c1cfe 11361. **Portable Configuration**: `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the bundled binary. If you are running from source-code (`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`), the root directory is used instead.
88f23a18 11371. **Home Configuration**: `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by `-P`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
e2e43aea 11381. **User Configuration**:
1139 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1140 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
1141 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1142 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1143 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
1144 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
3d3bb168 1145
ec2e44fc 1146 `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%` defaults to `~/.config` if undefined. On windows, `%APPDATA%` generally points to `C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming` and `~` points to `%HOME%` if present, `%USERPROFILE%` (generally `C:\Users\<user name>`), or `%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
3d3bb168 1147
07cce701 11481. **System Configuration**: `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
b7770046 1149
62b58c09 1150E.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
U
1151```
1152# Lines starting with # are comments
1153
1154# Always extract audio
1155-x
1156
1157# Do not copy the mtime
1158--no-mtime
1159
1160# Use this proxy
1161--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1162
298f597b 1163# Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1164-o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
b7770046
U
1165```
1166
e2e43aea 1167Note that options in configuration file are just the same options aka switches used in regular command line calls; thus there **must be no whitespace** after `-` or `--`, e.g. `-o` or `--proxy` but not `- o` or `-- proxy`.
b7770046 1168
a4211baf 1169You 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 1170
88f60feb 1171### Config file encoding
a904a7f8 1172
88f60feb 1173The config files are decoded according to the UTF BOM if present, and in the encoding from system locale otherwise.
a904a7f8 1174
88f60feb 1175If 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 1176
b7770046
U
1177### Authentication with `.netrc` file
1178
0001fcb5 1179You may also want to configure automatic credentials storage for extractors that support authentication (by providing login and password with `--username` and `--password`) in order not to pass credentials as command line arguments on every yt-dlp execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command history. You can achieve this using a [`.netrc` file](https://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on a per extractor basis. For that you will need to create a `.netrc` file in `--netrc-location` and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
b7770046
U
1180```
1181touch $HOME/.netrc
1182chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
1183```
1184After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1185```
0001fcb5 1186machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
b7770046 1187```
62b58c09 1188E.g.
b7770046
U
1189```
1190machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1191machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1192```
7a5c1cfe 1193To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
b7770046 1194
0001fcb5 1195The default location of the .netrc file is `$HOME` (`~`) in UNIX. On Windows, it is `%HOME%` if present, `%USERPROFILE%` (generally `C:\Users\<user name>`) or `%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
b7770046
U
1196
1197# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1198
0202b52a 1199The `-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 1200
ec2e44fc 1201<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1202**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
ec2e44fc 1203<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1204
e58c22a0 1205The 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 1206
62b58c09 1207It 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 1208
1209The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
3d3bb168 1210
62b58c09 12111. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a `.` (dot) separator. You can also do python slicing using `:`. E.g. `%(tags.0)s`, `%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s`, `%(id.3:7:-1)s`, `%(formats.:.format_id)s`. `%()s` refers to the entire infodict. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use `-j` to see such fields
ec2e44fc 1212
62b58c09 12131. **Addition**: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using `+` and `-` respectively. E.g. `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
ec2e44fc 1214
62b58c09 12151. **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 1216
62b58c09 12171. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a `,`. E.g. `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1218
e978789f
P
12191. **Replacement**: A replacement value can specified using a `&` separator. 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.
1220
62b58c09 12211. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a `|` separator. This overrides `--output-na-template`. E.g. `%(uploader|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1222
62b58c09 12231. **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), `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 1224
62b58c09 12251. **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 1226
1227To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1228```
e978789f 1229%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
a439a3a4 1230```
de6000d9 1231
62b58c09 1232Additionally, 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 1233
1234The available fields are:
b7770046
U
1235
1236 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1237 - `title` (string): Video title
455a15e2 1238 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
b7770046
U
1239 - `url` (string): Video URL
1240 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1241 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
597c1866 1242 - `description` (string): The description of the video
b7770046
U
1243 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1244 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1245 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1246 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
b7770046 1247 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
ae6a1b95 1248 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
e6f21b3d 1249 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
ae6a1b95 1250 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
f0d785d3 1251 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
ae6a1b95 1252 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
b7770046
U
1253 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1254 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1255 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
6c73052c 1256 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
b7770046
U
1257 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1258 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
53c18592 1259 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
b7770046
U
1260 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1261 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1262 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1263 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1264 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
277d6ff5 1265 - `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 1266 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
e325a21a 1267 - `live_status` (string): One of "not_live", "is_live", "is_upcoming", "was_live", "post_live" (was live, but VOD is not yet processed)
b7770046 1268 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
f76ede8e 1269 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
6cfda058 1270 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
940a67a3 1271 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
b7770046
U
1272 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1273 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
29b6000e 1274 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
b7770046
U
1275 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by `--format`
1276 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
1277 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
1278 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
1279 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
1280 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1281 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1282 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
1283 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1284 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1285 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
176f1866 1286 - `dynamic_range` (string): The dynamic range of the video
b8ed0f15 1287 - `audio_channels` (numeric): The number of audio channels
8aa0e7cd 1288 - `stretched_ratio` (float): `width:height` of the video's pixels, if not square
b7770046
U
1289 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
1290 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
1291 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
1292 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
1293 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
1294 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1295 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
455a15e2 1296 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
b7770046 1297 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`
9c906919 1298 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
e6f21b3d 1299 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
455a15e2 1300 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1301 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1302 - `playlist` (string): `playlist_id` or `playlist_title`
f0d785d3 1303 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
e6f21b3d 1304 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1305 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
b7770046
U
1306 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1307 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
bd99f6e6 1308 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
0bb322b9 1309 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1310 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
bd99f6e6 1311 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
b7770046
U
1312
1313Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1314
1315 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1316 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1317 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1318
1319Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1320
1321 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1322 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1323 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1324 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1325 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1326 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1327 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1328
1329Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1330
1331 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1332 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1333 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1334 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1335 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1336 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1337 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1338 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1339 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1340 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1341
5ec1b6b7 1342Available only when using `--download-sections` and for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
72755351 1343
1344 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1345 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1346 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1347 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1348
53c18592 1349Available only when used in `--print`:
1350
1351 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1352 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the actual filename may be different due to post-processing. Use `--exec echo` to get the name after all postprocessing is complete
ed5835b4 1353 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by `--list-formats`
1354 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by `--list-thumbnails`
1355 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1356 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1357
7a340e0d
NA
1358
1359Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1360
1361 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1362 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1363 - `categories` (list): The SponsorBlock categories the chapter belongs to
1364 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1365 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1366 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
53c18592 1367
62b58c09 1368Each 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 1369
1370Note that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with placeholder value provided with `--output-na-placeholder` (`NA` by default).
b7770046 1371
0930b11f 1372**Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
b7770046 1373
62b58c09 1374For 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 1375
940a67a3 1376Output 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
U
1377
1378To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1379
91ebc640 1380The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
b7770046 1381
f304da8a 1382In 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 1383
ec2e44fc 1384<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046
U
1385#### Output template and Windows batch files
1386
1387If you are using an output template inside a Windows batch file then you must escape plain percent characters (`%`) by doubling, so that `-o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"` should become `-o "%%(title)s-%%(id)s.%%(ext)s"`. However you should not touch `%`'s that are not plain characters, e.g. environment variables for expansion should stay intact: `-o "C:\%HOMEPATH%\Desktop\%%(title)s.%%(ext)s"`.
ec2e44fc 1388<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046
U
1389
1390#### Output template examples
1391
b7770046 1392```bash
940a67a3 1393$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1394test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1395
940a67a3 1396$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1397youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
b7770046 1398
940a67a3 1399$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
9222c381 1400youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
b7770046
U
1401
1402# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
940a67a3 1403$ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
b7770046 1404
b050d210 1405# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
940a67a3 1406$ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
e29663c6 1407
e978789f 1408# Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
6a34813a 1409$ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist_index|)s%(playlist_index& - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
e978789f 1410
b7770046 1411# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
940a67a3 1412$ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
b7770046
U
1413
1414# Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
940a67a3 1415$ yt-dlp -u user -p password -P "~/MyVideos" -o "%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s - %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial"
b7770046
U
1416
1417# Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
940a67a3 1418$ 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 1419
6a34813a 1420# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1421# and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1422$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1423
1424# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1425$ 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
1426
b7770046 1427# Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
7a5c1cfe 1428$ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
b7770046
U
1429```
1430
1431# FORMAT SELECTION
1432
7a5c1cfe
P
1433By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1434This 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 1435
c111cefa 1436**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.
1437
eff63539 1438The 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 1439
ec2e44fc 1440<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1441**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
ec2e44fc 1442<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1443
62b58c09 1444The 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
U
1445
1446You 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.
1447
fa9f30b8 1448You can use `-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1449
b7770046
U
1450You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1451
59a7a13e 1452 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1453 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
30389593 1454 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio or both (ie; `vcodec!=none or acodec!=none`)
59a7a13e 1455 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1456 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1457 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1458 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
ae6a1b95 1459 - `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 1460 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
909d24dd 1461 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1462 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
909d24dd 1463 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1464 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
909d24dd 1465 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
b7770046 1466
d4ada357 1467For 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 1468
1469You 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 1470
62b58c09 1471If 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.
b7770046
U
1472
1473If 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`.
1474
62b58c09 1475You 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 1476
1477**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
1478
62b58c09 1479Unless `--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 and merge both formats while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore `best` and download only `bestaudio`.
eb8a4433 1480
1481## Filtering Formats
1482
b7770046
U
1483You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
1484
1485The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1486
1487 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1488 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1489 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
1490 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1491 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1492 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1493 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1494 - `fps`: Frame rate
1495
1ce9a3cb 1496Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains), `~=` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
b7770046
U
1497
1498 - `ext`: File extension
1499 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1500 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1501 - `container`: Name of the container format
1502 - `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`)
1503 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
29f7c58a 1504 - `language`: Language code
b7770046 1505
1ce9a3cb 1506Any 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 1507
e58c22a0 1508Note that none of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by the website. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
b7770046 1509
62b58c09 1510Formats for which the value is not known are excluded unless you put a question mark (`?`) after the operator. You can combine format filters, so `-f "[height<=?720][tbr>500]"` selects up to 720p videos (or videos where the height is not known) with a bitrate of at least 500 KBit/s. You can also use the filters with `all` to download all formats that satisfy the filter, e.g. `-f "all[vcodec=none]"` selects all audio-only formats.
b7770046 1511
62b58c09 1512Format 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 1513
eb8a4433 1514## Sorting Formats
1515
2e7781a9 1516You can change the criteria for being considered the `best` by using `-S` (`--format-sort`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...`.
1517
1518The available fields are:
eb8a4433 1519
63be1aab 1520 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1521 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
ed8d87f9 1522 - `ie_pref`: The format preference
1523 - `lang`: The language preference
1524 - `quality`: The quality of the format
1525 - `source`: The preference of the source
d80d98e7 1526 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > `mms`/`rtsp` > `f4f`/`f4m`)
1527 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other)
1528 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`flac`/`alac` > `wav`/`aiff` > `opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other)
eb8a4433 1529 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
d80d98e7 1530 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `webm` > `flv` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is preferred.
1531 - `aext`: Audio Extension (`m4a` > `aac` > `mp3` > `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to `opus` > `ogg` > `webm` > `m4a` > `mp3` > `aac`.
63be1aab 1532 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
0930b11f 1533 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
63be1aab 1534 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1535 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
eb8a4433 1536 - `height`: Height of video
1537 - `width`: Width of video
63be1aab 1538 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1539 - `fps`: Framerate of video
49a57e70 1540 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
b8ed0f15 1541 - `channels`: The number of audio channels
63be1aab 1542 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1543 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1544 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1545 - `br`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr`
1546 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
d806c9fd 1547
1548**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 1549
62b58c09 1550All 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 1551
7e798d72 1552The 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 1553
7e798d72 1554Note 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 1555
e58c22a0 1556If 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 1557
1558**Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1559
eb8a4433 1560## Format Selection examples
b7770046 1561
b7770046 1562```bash
e58c22a0 1563# Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
909d24dd 1564# or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
940a67a3 1565$ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
909d24dd 1566
1567# Download best format that contains video,
1568# and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
940a67a3 1569$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
2af884ff 1570
1571# Same as above
7a5c1cfe 1572$ yt-dlp
909d24dd 1573
6fd35a11 1574# Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1575# For this case, an output template should be used since
1576# by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
940a67a3 1577$ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
909d24dd 1578
f8d4ad9a 1579# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1580# and all audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1581$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
f8d4ad9a 1582
1583# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1584# and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1585$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
909d24dd 1586
6fd35a11 1587
1588# The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
f8d4ad9a 1589# and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
6fd35a11 1590
1591# Download the worst video available (old method)
940a67a3 1592$ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
eb8a4433 1593
1594# Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
940a67a3 1595$ yt-dlp -S "+res"
eb8a4433 1596
1597# Download the smallest video available
940a67a3 1598$ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
eb8a4433 1599
1600
909d24dd 1601
eb8a4433 1602# Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
940a67a3 1603$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
eb8a4433 1604
1605# Download the best video with the best extension
1606# (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
940a67a3 1607$ yt-dlp -S "ext"
eb8a4433 1608
1609
909d24dd 1610
eb8a4433 1611# Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1612# or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1613$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
b7770046 1614
eb8a4433 1615# Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1616# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1617$ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
b7770046 1618
eb8a4433 1619# Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1620# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1621# Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1622# So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
940a67a3 1623$ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
b7770046 1624
b7770046 1625
909d24dd 1626
eb8a4433 1627# Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1628# or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1629$ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
eb8a4433 1630
1631# Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1632# or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1633$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
eb8a4433 1634
1635# Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
940a67a3 1636$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
eb8a4433 1637
1638
909d24dd 1639
eb8a4433 1640# Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1641# or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
940a67a3 1642$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1643
1644# Download best video available via the best protocol
1645# (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
940a67a3 1646$ yt-dlp -S "proto"
eb8a4433 1647
1648
909d24dd 1649
1ce9a3cb
LF
1650# Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1651# or the best video if there is no such video
1652$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1653
1654# Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1655# or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1656$ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1657
1658# Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1659# or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1660$ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1661
1662
1663
1664# More complex examples
1665
e58c22a0 1666# Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1667# or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
940a67a3 1668$ 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 1669
1670# Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
f8d4ad9a 1671# or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1672# preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
940a67a3 1673$ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
eb8a4433 1674
1675
909d24dd 1676
eb8a4433 1677# Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1678# or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1679# preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
940a67a3 1680$ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
b7770046 1681```
eb8a4433 1682
73cd218f 1683# MODIFYING METADATA
1684
a4211baf 1685The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
e9f4ccd1 1686
418964fa 1687`--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 1688
2e7781a9 1689The general syntax of `--parse-metadata FROM:TO` is to give the name of a field or an [output template](#output-template) to extract data from, and the format to interpret it as, separated by a colon `:`. Either a [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax) with named capture groups or a similar syntax to the [output template](#output-template) (only `%(field)s` formatting is supported) can be used for `TO`. The option can be used multiple times to parse and modify various fields.
73cd218f 1690
1691Note that any field created by this can be used in the [output template](#output-template) and will also affect the media file's metadata added when using `--add-metadata`.
1692
9c2b75b5 1693This option also has a few special uses:
3d3bb168 1694
62b58c09 1695* 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 1696
62b58c09 1697* 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 1698
08d30158 1699**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.
1700
c31be5b0 1701For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1702
08d30158 1703Metadata fields | From
1704:--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1705`title` | `track` or `title`
1706`date` | `upload_date`
1707`description`, `synopsis` | `description`
1708`purl`, `comment` | `webpage_url`
1709`track` | `track_number`
1710`artist` | `artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1711`genre` | `genre`
1712`album` | `album`
1713`album_artist` | `album_artist`
1714`disc` | `disc_number`
1715`show` | `series`
1716`season_number` | `season_number`
1717`episode_id` | `episode` or `episode_id`
1718`episode_sort` | `episode_number`
1719`language` of each stream | the format's `language`
1720
c31be5b0 1721**Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1722
73cd218f 1723
1724## Modifying metadata examples
1725
73cd218f 1726```bash
1727# Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
940a67a3 1728$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
73cd218f 1729
1730# Regex example
940a67a3 1731$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
73cd218f 1732
1733# Set title as "Series name S01E05"
940a67a3 1734$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
73cd218f 1735
a44ca5a4 1736# Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
1737$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --add-metadata
1738
1739# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1740# handling multiple lines correctly
940a67a3 1741$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --add-metadata
73cd218f 1742
8aa0e7cd 1743# Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
1744$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
1745
0930b11f 1746# Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
940a67a3 1747$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<formats>)" -j
0930b11f 1748
e9f4ccd1 1749# Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
940a67a3 1750$ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
e9f4ccd1 1751
73cd218f 1752```
1753
5d3a0e79 1754# EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1755
62b58c09 1756Some 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 1757
1758The following extractors use this feature:
96565c7e 1759
1760#### youtube
8aa0e7cd 1761* `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
62b58c09 1762* `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` and `tv_embedded` (agegate bypass) with no variants. By default, `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 1763* `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
adbc4ec4 1764* `include_live_dash`: Include live dash formats even without `--live-from-start` (These formats don't download properly)
96565c7e 1765* `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
a44ca5a4 1766* `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`
1767 * 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
1e4fca9a 1768* `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 1769* `innertube_key`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
96565c7e 1770
1771#### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1772* `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)
a30a6ed3 1773* `approximate_date`: Extract approximate `upload_date` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
96565c7e 1774
1775#### funimation
62b58c09 1776* `language`: Languages to extract, e.g. `funimation:language=english,japanese`
96565c7e 1777* `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1778
a9d4da60 1779#### crunchyroll
62b58c09
L
1780* `language`: Languages to extract, e.g. `crunchyroll:language=jaJp`
1781* `hardsub`: Which hard-sub versions to extract, e.g. `crunchyroll:hardsub=None,enUS`
a9d4da60 1782
ae6a1b95 1783#### crunchyrollbeta
62b58c09
L
1784* `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`
1785* `hardsub`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract (default: `None` = no hardsubs), e.g. `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None`
706dfe44 1786
96565c7e 1787#### vikichannel
1788* `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
73d829c1 1789
7bdcb4a4
LNO
1790#### niconico
1791* `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.**
1792
aa4b0545 1793#### youtubewebarchive
1794* `check_all`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails`, `captures`
1795
d43de682
M
1796#### gamejolt
1797* `comment_sort`: `hot` (default), `you` (cookies needed), `top`, `new` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1798
26f2aa3d
AG
1799#### hotstar
1800* `res`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd`, `hd`, `fhd`
1801* `vcodec`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264`, `h265`, `dvh265`
1802* `dr`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr`, `hdr10`, `dv`
1803
046cab39 1804#### tiktok
62b58c09
L
1805* `app_version`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version`, e.g. `20.2.1`
1806* `manifest_app_version`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with, e.g. `221`
046cab39 1807
7eaf7f9a 1808#### rokfinchannel
62b58c09 1809* `tab`: Which tab to download - one of `new`, `top`, `videos`, `podcasts`, `streams`, `stacks`
7eaf7f9a 1810
1811
bc97cdae 1812NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
5d3a0e79 1813
ec2e44fc 1814<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1815
3acf6d38 1816
f74980cb 1817# PLUGINS
b7770046 1818
3ae5e797 1819Plugins are loaded from `<root-dir>/ytdlp_plugins/<type>/__init__.py`; where `<root-dir>` is the directory of the binary (`<root-dir>/yt-dlp`), or the root directory of the module if you are running directly from source-code (`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`). Plugins are currently not supported for the `pip` version
1820
1821Plugins can be of `<type>`s `extractor` or `postprocessor`. Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it. Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME`.
1822
1823See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example plugins.
1824
1825Note 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
1826
1827If you are a plugin author, add [ytdlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/ytdlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability
b7770046 1828
b7770046 1829
8c6f4daa 1830
1831# EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1832
1833yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1834
1835Your 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.
1836
1837From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1838
1839```python
59a7a13e 1840from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
8c6f4daa 1841
3d3bb168 1842URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1843with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1844 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 1845```
1846
1890fc63 1847Most 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#L180).
8c6f4daa 1848
43cc91ad 1849**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 1850
1851## Embedding examples
1852
43cc91ad 1853#### Extracting information
8c6f4daa 1854
1855```python
1856import json
8c6f4daa 1857import yt_dlp
8c6f4daa 1858
3d3bb168 1859URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1860
1861# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
1862ydl_opts = {}
1863with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1864 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
1865
1866 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
1867 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1868```
43cc91ad 1869#### Download using an info-json
3d3bb168 1870
1871```python
1872import yt_dlp
1873
1874INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
1875
1876with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1877 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
1878
1879print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
1880 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
1881```
1882
43cc91ad 1883#### Extract audio
3d3bb168 1884
1885```python
1886import yt_dlp
1887
1888URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1889
1890ydl_opts = {
0a41f331 1891 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
3d3bb168 1892 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
1893 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
1894 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
1895 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
1896 }]
1897}
1898
1899with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1900 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1901```
0a41f331 1902
1903#### Filter videos
1904
1905```python
1906import yt_dlp
1907
1908URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1909
1910def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
1911 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
1912 duration = info.get('duration')
1913 if duration and duration < 60:
1914 return 'The video is too short'
1915
1916ydl_opts = {
1917 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
1918}
1919
1920with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1921 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1922```
1923
43cc91ad 1924#### Adding logger and progress hook
3d3bb168 1925
1926```python
1927import yt_dlp
1928
1929URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
8c6f4daa 1930
1931class MyLogger:
1932 def debug(self, msg):
e75bb0d6 1933 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
8c6f4daa 1934 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
1935 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
1936 pass
1937 else:
1938 self.info(msg)
1939
1940 def info(self, msg):
1941 pass
1942
1943 def warning(self, msg):
1944 pass
1945
1946 def error(self, msg):
1947 print(msg)
1948
1949
3d3bb168 1950# ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
1951def my_hook(d):
1952 if d['status'] == 'finished':
1953 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
1954
1955
1956ydl_opts = {
1957 'logger': MyLogger(),
1958 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
1959}
1960
1961with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1962 ydl.download(URLS)
1963```
1964
43cc91ad 1965#### Add a custom PostProcessor
3d3bb168 1966
1967```python
1968import yt_dlp
1969
1970URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1971
1972# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
59a7a13e 1973class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
8c6f4daa 1974 def run(self, info):
1975 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
1976 return [], info
1977
1978
3d3bb168 1979with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
8aa0e7cd 1980 # ℹ️ "when" can take any value in yt_dlp.utils.POSTPROCESS_WHEN
1981 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP(), when='pre_process')
3d3bb168 1982 ydl.download(URLS)
1983```
8c6f4daa 1984
1985
43cc91ad 1986#### Use a custom format selector
3d3bb168 1987
1988```python
1989import yt_dlp
1990
1991URL = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1992
093a1710 1993def format_selector(ctx):
1994 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
3d3bb168 1995 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
093a1710 1996
1997 # formats are already sorted worst to best
1998 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
1999
2000 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
2001 best_video = next(f for f in formats
2002 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
2003
2004 # find compatible audio extension
2005 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
2006 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
2007 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
2008 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
2009
3d3bb168 2010 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
093a1710 2011 yield {
093a1710 2012 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
2013 'ext': best_video['ext'],
2014 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
e75bb0d6 2015 # Must be + separated list of protocols
093a1710 2016 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
2017 }
2018
2019
8c6f4daa 2020ydl_opts = {
093a1710 2021 'format': format_selector,
8c6f4daa 2022}
2023
2024with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
3d3bb168 2025 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 2026```
2027
ec2e44fc 2028<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
2029
e167860c 2030# DEPRECATED OPTIONS
2031
2032These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
2033
8130779d 2034#### Almost redundant options
2035While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
2036
2037 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
2038 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
0bfc53d0 2039 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
8130779d 2040 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
2041
6ccf351a 2042#### Redundant options
2043While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
f4536226 2044
53c18592 2045 --get-description --print description
2046 --get-duration --print duration_string
2047 --get-filename --print filename
2048 --get-format --print format
2049 --get-id --print id
2050 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
2051 -e, --get-title --print title
2052 -g, --get-url --print urls
8f18aca8 2053 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
2054 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2055 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2056 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
8b7539d2 2057 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2058 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
7e88d7d7 2059 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2060 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2061 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2062 --no-playlist-reverse Default
6ccf351a 2063
2064
2065#### Not recommended
2066While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2067
fe7866d0 2068 --force-generic-extractor --ies generic,default
1e43a6f7 2069 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2070 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
d9aa2332 2071 --all-formats -f all
c32b0aab 2072 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
b7b04c78 2073 --print-json -j --no-simulate
62b58c09 2074 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting, e.g. %(autonumber)03d
a439a3a4 2075 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
19b824f6 2076 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
73cd218f 2077 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
52a8a1e1 2078 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2079 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
53ed7066 2080 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2081 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
5d3a0e79 2082 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2083 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2084 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2085 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
6ccf351a 2086
2087
2088#### Developer options
2089These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2090
34488702 2091 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
f95b9dee 2092 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
6ccf351a 2093 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
88acdbc2 2094 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2095 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
f4536226 2096
2097
2098#### Old aliases
2099These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2100
2101 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
3856407a 2102 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
f4536226 2103 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2104 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2105 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2106 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2107 --load-info --load-info-json
3856407a 2108 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
f4536226 2109 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
e167860c 2110 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
e167860c 2111 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2112 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
f4536226 2113 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2114 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
e167860c 2115 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
f4536226 2116 --write-srt --write-subs
e167860c 2117 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
f4536226 2118
7a340e0d 2119#### Sponskrub Options
f304da8a 2120Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock` options
7a340e0d
NA
2121
2122 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2123 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2124 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2125 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2126 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2127 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2128 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2129 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2130
f4536226 2131#### No longer supported
2132These options may no longer work as intended
2133
2134 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2135 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2136 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2137 --no-call-home Default
2138 --include-ads No longer supported
2139 --no-include-ads Default
0bb1bc1b 2140 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2141 --no-write-annotations Default
1e8fe57e 2142 --compat-options seperate-video-versions No longer needed
486fb179 2143
2144#### Removed
2145These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2146
f4536226 2147 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
3d3bb168 2148 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
f4536226 2149
8c6f4daa 2150# CONTRIBUTING
2151See [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 2152
c2b5f311 2153# MORE
8c6f4daa 2154For FAQ see the [youtube-dl README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)