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ec2e44fc 1<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b31fdeed 2<div align="center">
3
e980017a 4[![YT-DLP](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master/.github/banner.svg)](#readme)
d9d045e2 5
2fa669f7 6[![Release version](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?color=brightgreen&label=Download&style=for-the-badge)](#installation "Installation")
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fc5fa964 11[![Supported Sites](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Supported_Sites-brightgreen.svg?style=for-the-badge)](supportedsites.md "Supported Sites")
ae6a1b95 12[![License: Unlicense](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Unlicense-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge)](LICENSE "License")
08e29b9f 13[![CI Status](https://img.shields.io/github/actions/workflow/status/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/core.yml?branch=master&label=Tests&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions "CI Status")
fc5fa964 14[![Commits](https://img.shields.io/github/commit-activity/m/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?label=commits&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
b532a348 15[![Last Commit](https://img.shields.io/github/last-commit/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master?label=&style=for-the-badge&display_timestamp=committer)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pulse/monthly "Last activity")
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b31fdeed 17</div>
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c76eb41b 19
b31fdeed 20yt-dlp is a [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) fork based on the now inactive [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc). The main focus of this project is adding new features and patches while also keeping up to date with the original project
5c0e5bc4 21
ec2e44fc 22<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "USAGE AND OPTIONS" SECTION HERE -->
23
24<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
034b6215 25* [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
53ed7066 26 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
c76eb41b 27* [INSTALLATION](#installation)
deae7c17 28 * [Detailed instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation)
17fa3ee2 29 * [Update](#update)
0e5927ee 30 * [Release Files](#release-files)
cf59cd4d 31 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
17fa3ee2 32 * [Compile](#compile)
b31fdeed 33* [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
34 * [General Options](#general-options)
50865ca8 35 * [Network Options](#network-options)
b31fdeed 36 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
50865ca8 37 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
38 * [Download Options](#download-options)
39 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
b31fdeed 40 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
50865ca8 41 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
0744a815 42 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
50865ca8 43 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
44 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
45 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
46 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
50865ca8 47 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
7a340e0d 48 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
50865ca8 49 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
c76eb41b 50* [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
304ad45a 51 * [Configuration file encoding](#configuration-file-encoding)
db3ad8a6 52 * [Authentication with netrc](#authentication-with-netrc)
878eac3e 53 * [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
c76eb41b 54* [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
50865ca8 55 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
c76eb41b 56* [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
50865ca8 57 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
58 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
59 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
73cd218f 60* [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
61 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
5d3a0e79 62* [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
f74980cb 63* [PLUGINS](#plugins)
8e40b9d1
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64 * [Installing Plugins](#installing-plugins)
65 * [Developing Plugins](#developing-plugins)
8c6f4daa 66* [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
43cc91ad 67 * [Embedding examples](#embedding-examples)
e167860c 68* [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
8c6f4daa 69* [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
70 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
71 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
17ffed18 72* [WIKI](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki)
deae7c17 73 * [FAQ](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/FAQ)
ec2e44fc 74<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
50865ca8 75
76
034b6215 77# NEW FEATURES
91f071af 78
f10589e3 79* Forked from [**yt-dlc@f9401f2**](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/f9401f2a91987068139c5f757b12fc711d4c0cee) and merged with [**youtube-dl@be008e6**](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/be008e657d79832642e2158557c899249c9e31cd) ([exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21))
034b6215 80
304ad45a 81* **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in YouTube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
034b6215 82
7581d246 83* **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using `-S`. This allows for much easier format selection than what is possible by simply using `--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
034b6215 84
8e174ba7 85* **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from [animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including `--write-comments`, `BiliBiliSearch`, `BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that NicoNico livestreams are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
29b6000e 86
ae61d108 87* **YouTube improvements**:
c8bc203f 88 * Supports Clips, Stories (`ytstories:<channel UCID>`), Search (including filters)**\***, YouTube Music Search, Channel-specific search, Search prefixes (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`)**\***, Mixes, and Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`, `:ytnotif`)
ae61d108 89 * Fix for [n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326) **\***
90 * Supports some (but not all) age-gated content without cookies
91 * Download livestreams from the start using `--live-from-start` (*experimental*)
86973308 92 * Channel URLs download all uploads of the channel, including shorts and live
f20f5fe5 93
304ad45a 94* **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]`
245524e6 95
5ec1b6b7 96* **Download time range**: Videos can be downloaded partially based on either timestamps or chapters using `--download-sections`
97
597c1866 98* **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
99
b31fdeed 100* **Multi-threaded fragment downloads**: Download multiple fragments of m3u8/mpd videos in parallel. Use `--concurrent-fragments` (`-N`) option to set the number of threads used
8d801631 101
b31fdeed 102* **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
f20f5fe5 103
e75bb0d6 104* **New and fixed extractors**: Many new extractors have been added and a lot of existing ones have been fixed. See the [changelog](Changelog.md) or the [list of supported sites](supportedsites.md)
86c1a8aa 105
56ba69e4 106* **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN etc.
fac98805 107
3de7c2ce 108* **Subtitle extraction from manifests**: Subtitles can be extracted from streaming media manifests. See [commit/be6202f](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/be6202f12b97858b9d716e608394b51065d0419f) for details
034b6215 109
597c1866 110* **Multiple paths and output templates**: You can give different [output templates](#output-template) and download paths for different types of files. You can also set a temporary path where intermediary files are downloaded to using `--paths` (`-P`)
0bc0a322 111
d4ada357 112* **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for details
0bc0a322 113
418964fa 114* **Output template improvements**: Output templates can now have date-time formatting, numeric offsets, object traversal etc. See [output template](#output-template) for details. Even more advanced operations can also be done with the help of `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
fac98805 115
fe2ce85a 116* **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as `--alias`, `--print`, `--concat-playlist`, `--wait-for-video`, `--retry-sleep`, `--sleep-requests`, `--convert-thumbnails`, `--force-download-archive`, `--force-overwrites`, `--break-match-filter` etc
0bc0a322 117
08d30158 118* **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in `--format`/`--match-filter`, multiple `--postprocessor-args` and `--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection), merge multi-video/audio, multiple `--config-locations`, `--exec` at different stages, etc
c69911e4 119
86c1a8aa 120* **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
b31fdeed 121
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122* **Self updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`, and downgraded using `--update-to` if required
123
a00af298 124* **Automated builds**: [Nightly/master builds](#update-channels) can be used with `--update-to nightly` and `--update-to master`
aa837ddf 125
7a5c1cfe 126See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
a26c99ac 127
ae61d108 128Features marked with a **\*** have been back-ported to youtube-dl
129
53ed7066 130### Differences in default behavior
131
0930b11f 132Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
53ed7066 133
f4b95aca 134* yt-dlp supports only [Python 3.8+](## "Windows 7"), and *may* remove support for more versions as they [become EOL](https://devguide.python.org/versions/#python-release-cycle); while [youtube-dl still supports Python 2.6+ and 3.2+](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/30568#issue-1118238743)
96565c7e 135* The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
b69fd25c 136* `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
d4ada357 137* yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
96565c7e 138* The default [output template](#output-template) is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`. There is no real reason for this change. This was changed before yt-dlp was ever made public and now there are no plans to change it back to `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`. Instead, you may use `--compat-options filename`
e4f02757 139* The default [format sorting](#sorting-formats) is different from youtube-dl and prefers higher resolution and better codecs rather than higher bitrates. You can use the `--format-sort` option to change this to any order you prefer, or use `--compat-options format-sort` to use youtube-dl's sorting order
e75bb0d6 140* The default format selector is `bv*+ba/b`. This means that if a combined video + audio format that is better than the best video-only format is found, the former will be preferred. Use `-f bv+ba/b` or `--compat-options format-spec` to revert this
28b0eb0f 141* Unlike youtube-dlc, yt-dlp does not allow merging multiple audio/video streams into one file by default (since this conflicts with the use of `-f bv*+ba`). If needed, this feature must be enabled using `--audio-multistreams` and `--video-multistreams`. You can also use `--compat-options multistreams` to enable both
08d30158 142* `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
28b0eb0f 143* When writing metadata files such as thumbnails, description or infojson, the same information (if available) is also written for playlists. Use `--no-write-playlist-metafiles` or `--compat-options no-playlist-metafiles` to not write these files
9222c381 144* `--add-metadata` attaches the `infojson` to `mkv` files in addition to writing the metadata when used with `--write-info-json`. Use `--no-embed-info-json` or `--compat-options no-attach-info-json` to revert this
9e907ebd 145* Some metadata are embedded into different fields when using `--add-metadata` as compared to youtube-dl. Most notably, `comment` field contains the `webpage_url` and `synopsis` contains the `description`. You can [use `--parse-metadata`](#modifying-metadata) to modify this to your liking or use `--compat-options embed-metadata` to revert this
28b0eb0f 146* `playlist_index` behaves differently when used with options like `--playlist-reverse` and `--playlist-items`. See [#302](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/302) for details. You can use `--compat-options playlist-index` if you want to keep the earlier behavior
147* The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
b79f9e30 148* Live chats (if available) are considered as subtitles. Use `--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use `--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent any live chat/danmaku from downloading
86973308 149* YouTube channel URLs download all uploads of the channel. To download only the videos in a specific tab, pass the tab's URL. If the channel does not show the requested tab, an error will be raised. Also, `/live` URLs raise an error if there are no live videos instead of silently downloading the entire channel. You may use `--compat-options no-youtube-channel-redirect` to revert all these redirections
304ad45a 150* Unavailable videos are also listed for YouTube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
1ff88b7a 151* The upload dates extracted from YouTube are in UTC [when available](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/89e4d86171c7b7c997c77d4714542e0383bf0db0/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L3898-L3900). Use `--compat-options no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date` to prefer the non-UTC upload date.
18e674b4 152* If `ffmpeg` is used as the downloader, the downloading and merging of formats happen in a single step when possible. Use `--compat-options no-direct-merge` to revert this
e858a9d6 153* Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
ad54c913 154* Some internal metadata such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use `--no-clean-infojson` or `--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
e75bb0d6 155* When `--embed-subs` and `--write-subs` are used together, the subtitles are written to disk and also embedded in the media file. You can use just `--embed-subs` to embed the subs and automatically delete the separate file. See [#630 (comment)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/630#issuecomment-893659460) for more info. `--compat-options no-keep-subs` can be used to revert this
168bbc4f 156* `certifi` will be used for SSL root certificates, if installed. If you want to use system certificates (e.g. self-signed), use `--compat-options no-certifi`
1e4fca9a 157* yt-dlp's sanitization of invalid characters in filenames is different/smarter than in youtube-dl. You can use `--compat-options filename-sanitization` to revert to youtube-dl's behavior
ad68b16a 158* yt-dlp tries to parse the external downloader outputs into the standard progress output if possible (Currently implemented: [~~aria2c~~](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/5931)). You can use `--compat-options no-external-downloader-progress` to get the downloader output as-is
93b39cdb 159* yt-dlp versions between 2021.09.01 and 2023.01.02 applies `--match-filter` to nested playlists. This was an unintentional side-effect of [8f18ac](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/8f18aca8717bb0dd49054555af8d386e5eda3a88) and is fixed in [d7b460](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/d7b460d0e5fc710950582baed2e3fc616ed98a80). Use `--compat-options playlist-match-filter` to revert this
10025b71 160* yt-dlp versions between 2021.11.10 and 2023.06.21 estimated `filesize_approx` values for fragmented/manifest formats. This was added for convenience in [f2fe69](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/f2fe69c7b0d208bdb1f6292b4ae92bc1e1a7444a), but was reverted in [0dff8e](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/0dff8e4d1e6e9fb938f4256ea9af7d81f42fd54f) due to the potentially extreme inaccuracy of the estimated values. Use `--compat-options manifest-filesize-approx` to keep extracting the estimated values
8a8b5452 161* yt-dlp uses modern http client backends such as `requests`. Use `--compat-options prefer-legacy-http-handler` to prefer the legacy http handler (`urllib`) to be used for standard http requests.
f9fb3ce8 162* The sub-module `swfinterp` is removed.
53ed7066 163
164For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
3d3bb168 165
8a82af35 166* `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
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167* `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams,-playlist-match-filter,-manifest-filesize-approx`
168* `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect,-playlist-match-filter,-manifest-filesize-approx`
2a06bb4e 169* `--compat-options 2021`: Same as `--compat-options 2022,no-certifi,filename-sanitization,no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date`
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170* `--compat-options 2022`: Same as `--compat-options 2023,playlist-match-filter,no-external-downloader-progress`
171* `--compat-options 2023`: Same as `--compat-options prefer-legacy-http-handler,manifest-filesize-approx`. Use this to enable all future compat options
53ed7066 172
f20f5fe5 173
d19bb9c0 174# INSTALLATION
50865ca8 175
fc5fa964 176<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
177[![Windows](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Windows_x64-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=windows)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)
17ffed18 178[![Unix](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Linux/BSD-red.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=linux)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
24146491 179[![MacOS](https://img.shields.io/badge/-MacOS-lightblue.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=apple)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)
17ffed18 180[![PyPi](https://img.shields.io/badge/-PyPi-blue.svg?logo=pypi&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
fc5fa964 181[![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)
182[![Other variants](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Other-grey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](#release-files)
3d3bb168 183[![All versions](https://img.shields.io/badge/-All_Versions-lightgrey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
fc5fa964 184<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
185
c8bc203f 186You can install yt-dlp using [the binaries](#release-files), [pip](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) or one using a third-party package manager. See [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation) for detailed instructions
0930b11f 187
b8773e63 188
a4211baf 189## UPDATE
4815bbfc 190You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are using the [release binaries](#release-files)
17ffed18 191
c8bc203f 192If you [installed with pip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
0930b11f 193
8e174ba7 194For other third-party package managers, see [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#third-party-package-managers) or refer their documentation
0930b11f 195
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196<a id="update-channels"/>
197
a00af298 198There are currently three release channels for binaries: `stable`, `nightly` and `master`.
199
200* `stable` is the default channel, and many of its changes have been tested by users of the `nightly` and `master` channels.
201* The `nightly` channel has releases scheduled to build every day around midnight UTC, for a snapshot of the project's new patches and changes. This is the **recommended channel for regular users** of yt-dlp. The `nightly` releases are available from [yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds/releases) or as development releases of the `yt-dlp` PyPI package (which can be installed with pip's `--pre` flag).
202* The `master` channel features releases that are built after each push to the master branch, and these will have the very latest fixes and additions, but may also be more prone to regressions. They are available from [yt-dlp/yt-dlp-master-builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-master-builds/releases).
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203
204When using `--update`/`-U`, a release binary will only update to its current channel.
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205`--update-to CHANNEL` can be used to switch to a different channel when a newer version is available. `--update-to [CHANNEL@]TAG` can also be used to upgrade or downgrade to specific tags from a channel.
206
207You may also use `--update-to <repository>` (`<owner>/<repository>`) to update to a channel on a completely different repository. Be careful with what repository you are updating to though, there is no verification done for binaries from different repositories.
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208
209Example usage:
a00af298 210* `yt-dlp --update-to master` switch to the `master` channel and update to its latest release
211* `yt-dlp --update-to stable@2023.07.06` upgrade/downgrade to release to `stable` channel tag `2023.07.06`
212* `yt-dlp --update-to 2023.10.07` upgrade/downgrade to tag `2023.10.07` if it exists on the current channel
213* `yt-dlp --update-to example/yt-dlp@2023.09.24` upgrade/downgrade to the release from the `example/yt-dlp` repository, tag `2023.09.24`
214
215**Important**: Any user experiencing an issue with the `stable` release should install or update to the `nightly` release before submitting a bug report:
216```
217# To update to nightly from stable executable/binary:
218yt-dlp --update-to nightly
219
220# To install nightly with pip:
221python -m pip install -U --pre yt-dlp
222```
cf59cd4d 223
ec2e44fc 224<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
a4211baf 225## RELEASE FILES
0e5927ee 226
733d8e8f 227#### Recommended
228
229File|Description
230:---|:---
962ffcf8 231[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 232[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 233[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 234
235#### Alternatives
236
0e5927ee
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237File|Description
238:---|:---
0930b11f 239[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 240[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 241[yt-dlp_linux](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux)|Linux standalone x64 binary
242[yt-dlp_linux.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux.zip)|Unpackaged Linux executable (no auto-update)
17fc3dc4
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243[yt-dlp_linux_armv7l](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_armv7l)|Linux standalone armv7l (32-bit) binary
244[yt-dlp_linux_aarch64](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_aarch64)|Linux standalone aarch64 (64-bit) binary
0930b11f 245[yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
246[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 247[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 248
249#### Misc
250
251File|Description
252:---|:---
17ffed18 253[yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball
0e5927ee 254[SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
12647e03 255[SHA2-512SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA512 sums
0e5927ee 256[SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
12647e03 257[SHA2-256SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA256 sums
0e5927ee 258
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259The public key that can be used to verify the GPG signatures is [available here](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/public.key)
260Example usage:
261```
262curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/raw/master/public.key | gpg --import
263gpg --verify SHA2-256SUMS.sig SHA2-256SUMS
264gpg --verify SHA2-512SUMS.sig SHA2-512SUMS
265```
266<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
17ffed18 267
ad54c913 268**Note**: The manpages, shell completion (autocomplete) files etc. are available inside the [source tarball](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
17ffed18 269
a4211baf 270## DEPENDENCIES
f4b95aca 271Python versions 3.8+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
b31fdeed 272
c9652aa4 273<!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
274<!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
cf59cd4d 275On 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 276-->
fac98805 277
e75bb0d6 278While all the other dependencies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
ec2e44fc 279
8aa0e7cd 280### Strongly recommended
281
b69fd25c 282* [**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 283
292d60b1 284 There are bugs in ffmpeg that cause various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependency, we provide [custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#ffmpeg-static-auto-builds) with patches for some of these issues at [yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds). See [the readme](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#patches-applied) for details on the specific issues solved by these builds
8e174ba7 285
286 **Important**: What you need is ffmpeg *binary*, **NOT** [the python package of the same name](https://pypi.org/project/ffmpeg)
8aa0e7cd 287
288### Networking
d5820461 289* [**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 290* [**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>
291* [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
8a8b5452 292* [**requests**](https://github.com/psf/requests)\* - HTTP library. For HTTPS proxy and persistent connections support. Licensed under [Apache-2.0](https://github.com/psf/requests/blob/main/LICENSE)
8aa0e7cd 293
294### Metadata
295
296* [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For `--embed-thumbnail` in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
297* [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For `--embed-thumbnail` in `mp4`/`m4a` files when `mutagen`/`ffmpeg` cannot. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
84e26038 298* [**xattr**](https://github.com/xattr/xattr), [**pyxattr**](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr) or [**setfattr**](http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/attr) - For writing xattr metadata (`--xattr`) on **Mac** and **BSD**. Licensed under [MIT](https://github.com/xattr/xattr/blob/master/LICENSE.txt), [LGPL2.1](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr/blob/master/COPYING) and [GPLv2+](http://git.savannah.nongnu.org/cgit/attr.git/tree/doc/COPYING) respectively
8aa0e7cd 299
300### Misc
301
302* [**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 303* [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
f9fb3ce8 304* [**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 305* Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
b31fdeed 306
deae7c17 307### Deprecated
8aa0e7cd 308
309* [**avconv** and **avprobe**](https://www.libav.org) - Now **deprecated** alternative to ffmpeg. License [depends on the build](https://libav.org/legal)
310* [**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 311* [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
312* [**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 313
cf59cd4d 314To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
315
f2df4071 316The standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with **\*** included.
d710cc6d 317
8aa0e7cd 318If 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 319
5f326cf5 320
a4211baf 321## COMPILE
5f326cf5 322
8aa0e7cd 323### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
a1b77842 324To build the standalone executable, you must have Python and `pyinstaller` (plus any of yt-dlp's [optional dependencies](#dependencies) if needed). The executable will be built for the same architecture (x86/ARM, 32/64 bit) as the Python used. You can run the following commands:
e38df8f9 325
a1b77842 326```
b8a433aa 327python3 devscripts/install_deps.py --include pyinstaller
a1b77842 328python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
329python3 -m bundle.pyinstaller
330```
8aa0e7cd 331
332On some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`.
333
a1b77842 334`bundle/pyinstaller.py` accepts any arguments that can be passed to `pyinstaller`, such as `--onefile/-F` or `--onedir/-D`, which is further [documented here](https://pyinstaller.org/en/stable/usage.html#what-to-generate).
73ac0e6b 335
8e174ba7 336**Note**: Pyinstaller versions below 4.4 [do not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment.
8aa0e7cd 337
a1b77842 338**Important**: Running `pyinstaller` directly **without** using `bundle/pyinstaller.py` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
7581d246 339
8aa0e7cd 340### Platform-independent Binary (UNIX)
f4b95aca 341You will need the build tools `python` (3.8+), `zip`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`\* and `pytest`\*.
b96a939b 342
8aa0e7cd 343After installing these, simply run `make`.
5f326cf5 344
a831c2ea 345You 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 346
8aa0e7cd 347### Standalone Py2Exe Builds (Windows)
348
349While 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.
350
a1b77842 351If you wish to build it anyway, install Python (if it is not already installed) and you can run the following commands:
8aa0e7cd 352
a1b77842 353```
b8a433aa 354py devscripts/install_deps.py --include py2exe
a1b77842 355py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
356py -m bundle.py2exe
357```
8aa0e7cd 358
359### Related scripts
360
b8a433aa 361* **`devscripts/install_deps.py`** - Install dependencies for yt-dlp.
d400e261
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362* **`devscripts/update-version.py`** - Update the version number based on current date.
363* **`devscripts/set-variant.py`** - Set the build variant of the executable.
364* **`devscripts/make_changelog.py`** - Create a markdown changelog using short commit messages and update `CONTRIBUTORS` file.
8aa0e7cd 365* **`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.
366
d400e261
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367Note: See their `--help` for more info.
368
29cb20bd
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369### Forking the project
370If you fork the project on GitHub, you can run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build the selected version(s) as artifacts. Alternatively, you can run the [release workflow](.github/workflows/release.yml) or enable the [nightly workflow](.github/workflows/release-nightly.yml) to create full (pre-)releases.
59a7a13e 371
b31fdeed 372# USAGE AND OPTIONS
6bcd846b 373
ec2e44fc 374<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
7a5c1cfe 375 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
b50e3bc6 376
c2b5f311 377`Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
ec2e44fc 378<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
c2b5f311 379
ec2e44fc 380<!-- Auto generated -->
c76eb41b 381## General Options:
2dd5a2e3 382 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
383 --version Print program version and exit
70b23409 384 -U, --update Update this program to the latest version
385 --no-update Do not check for updates (default)
77df20f1 386 --update-to [CHANNEL]@[TAG] Upgrade/downgrade to a specific version.
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387 CHANNEL can be a repository as well. CHANNEL
388 and TAG default to "stable" and "latest"
389 respectively if omitted; See "UPDATE" for
5d3a3cd4 390 details. Supported channels: stable,
391 nightly, master
2dd5a2e3 392 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
393 The download will be considered successful
394 even if the postprocessing fails
395 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
396 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
397 playlist (default)
398 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
399 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
400 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
401 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
402 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
403 extractors and exit
2516cafb 404 --use-extractors NAMES Extractor names to use separated by commas.
fe7866d0 405 You can also use regexes, "all", "default"
406 and "end" (end URL matching); e.g. --ies
407 "holodex.*,end,youtube". Prefix the name
408 with a "-" to exclude it, e.g. --ies
409 default,-generic. Use --list-extractors for
2516cafb 410 a list of extractor names. (Alias: --ies)
62b58c09 411 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 412 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
413 google videos for the search term "python".
414 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
415 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
416 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
417 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
418 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
419 possible instead of searching
420 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
421 except those given by --config-locations.
422 For backward compatibility, if this option
423 is found inside the system configuration
424 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
425 (Alias: --no-config)
426 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
427 (default). When given inside a configuration
428 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
429 defined in the current file
430 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
431 either the path to the config or its
6b9e832d 432 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
433 used multiple times and inside other
434 configuration files
2dd5a2e3 435 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
436 only list them
c8bc203f 437 --no-flat-playlist Fully extract the videos of a playlist
438 (default)
2dd5a2e3 439 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
440 Currently only supported for YouTube
441 (Experimental)
442 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
443 (default)
444 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
445 available. Pass the minimum number of
446 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
447 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
448 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
449 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
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450 --color [STREAM:]POLICY Whether to emit color codes in output,
451 optionally prefixed by the STREAM (stdout or
452 stderr) to apply the setting to. Can be one
453 of "always", "auto" (default), "never", or
454 "no_color" (use non color terminal
455 sequences). Can be used multiple times
2dd5a2e3 456 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
457 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
458 configurations by reverting some of the
459 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
460 default behavior" for details
461 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
462 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
463 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
464 according to the Python string formatting
62b58c09 465 mini-language. E.g. --alias get-audio,-X
2dd5a2e3 466 "-S=aext:{0},abr -x --audio-format {0}"
467 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
468 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
469 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
470 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
471 output. Alias options can trigger more
962ffcf8 472 aliases; so be careful to avoid defining
2dd5a2e3 473 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
474 alias may be triggered a maximum of 100
64fa820c 475 times. This option can be used multiple times
08c1d0d3 476
149f05c7 477## Network Options:
2dd5a2e3 478 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
62b58c09
L
479 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme,
480 e.g. socks5://user:pass@127.0.0.1:1080/.
481 Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for
482 direct connection
2dd5a2e3 483 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
484 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
485 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
486 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
8300774c
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487 --enable-file-urls Enable file:// URLs. This is disabled by
488 default for security reasons.
8c6c88c7 489
b31fdeed 490## Geo-restriction:
2dd5a2e3 491 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
492 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
493 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
494 is not present) is used for the actual
495 downloading
c1664464 496 --xff VALUE How to fake X-Forwarded-For HTTP header to
497 try bypassing geographic restriction. One of
c8bc203f 498 "default" (only when known to be useful),
499 "never", an IP block in CIDR notation, or a
500 two-letter ISO 3166-2 country code
149f05c7 501
cfcec693 502## Video Selection:
71df9b7f 503 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma separated playlist_index of the items
7e88d7d7 504 to download. You can specify a range using
505 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
506 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
507 Use negative indices to count from the right
508 and negative STEP to download in reverse
62b58c09 509 order. E.g. "-I 1:3,7,-5::2" used on a
71df9b7f 510 playlist of size 15 will download the items
7e88d7d7 511 at index 1,2,3,7,11,13,15
71df9b7f 512 --min-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is smaller than
513 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
514 --max-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is larger than
62b58c09 515 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
2dd5a2e3 516 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
517 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
518 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
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519 E.g. "--date today-2weeks" downloads only
520 videos uploaded on the same day two weeks ago
2dd5a2e3 521 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
522 this date. The date formats accepted is the
523 same as --date
524 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
525 this date. The date formats accepted is the
526 same as --date
527 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
528 field can be compared with a number or a
529 string using the operators defined in
d4ada357 530 "Filtering Formats". You can also simply
2dd5a2e3 531 specify a field to match if the field is
532 present, use "!field" to check if the field
533 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
534 conditions. Use a "\" to escape "&" or
535 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
536 the filter matches if atleast one of the
62b58c09 537 conditions are met. E.g. --match-filter
2dd5a2e3 538 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?100 &
539 description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'" matches
540 only videos that are not live OR those that
541 have a like count more than 100 (or the like
542 field is not available) and also has a
543 description that contains the phrase "cats &
544 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
545 interactively ask whether to download each
546 video
c8bc203f 547 --no-match-filters Do not use any --match-filter (default)
fe2ce85a 548 --break-match-filters FILTER Same as "--match-filters" but stops the
549 download process when a video is rejected
550 --no-break-match-filters Do not use any --break-match-filters (default)
2dd5a2e3 551 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
552 to a video and a playlist
553 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
554 a video and a playlist
555 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
556 age
557 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
558 archive file. Record the IDs of all
559 downloaded videos in it
560 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
561 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
562 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
563 a file that is in the archive
71df9b7f 564 --break-per-input Alters --max-downloads, --break-on-existing,
354d5fca 565 --break-match-filter, and autonumber to
566 reset per input URL
2dd5a2e3 567 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
568 terminates the entire download queue
569 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
570 the playlist is skipped
6bcd846b 571
d5a62e4f 572## Download Options:
2dd5a2e3 573 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
574 video that should be downloaded concurrently
575 (default is 1)
62b58c09
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576 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second,
577 e.g. 50K or 4.2M
2dd5a2e3 578 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
579 below which throttling is assumed and the
62b58c09 580 video data is re-extracted, e.g. 100K
2dd5a2e3 581 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
582 "infinite"
583 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
584 error (default is 3), or "infinite"
585 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
586 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
be5c1ae8 587 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR Time to sleep between retries in seconds
588 (optionally) prefixed by the type of retry
589 (http (default), fragment, file_access,
590 extractor) to apply the sleep to. EXPR can
591 be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=1]] or
592 exp=START[:END[:BASE=2]]. This option can be
593 used multiple times to set the sleep for the
62b58c09 594 different retry types, e.g. --retry-sleep
2dd5a2e3 595 linear=1::2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=1:20
596 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
597 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
8e174ba7 598 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragments)
599 --abort-on-unavailable-fragments
2dd5a2e3 600 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
601 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
602 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
603 downloading is finished
604 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
605 downloading is finished (default)
62b58c09 606 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer, e.g. 1024 or 16K
2dd5a2e3 607 (default is 1024)
608 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
609 from an initial value of --buffer-size
610 (default)
611 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
612 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
62b58c09 613 downloading, e.g. 10485760 or 10M (default
2dd5a2e3 614 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
615 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
616 (experimental)
2dd5a2e3 617 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
7e9a6125 618 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
619 received. This disables n_entries,
620 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
621 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
622 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
2dd5a2e3 623 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
624 expected file size
625 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
626 allowing some players to play the video
627 while downloading, and reducing the chance
628 of file corruption if download is
629 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
630 live streams
631 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
632 videos. This is default when not downloading
633 live streams
b4e0d758 634 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters that match the
635 regular expression. A "*" prefix denotes
636 time-range instead of chapter. Negative
637 timestamps are calculated from the end.
638 "*from-url" can be used to download between
639 the "start_time" and "end_time" extracted
640 from the URL. Needs ffmpeg. This option can
641 be used multiple times to download multiple
62b58c09 642 sections, e.g. --download-sections
2fa669f7 643 "*10:15-inf" --download-sections "intro"
2dd5a2e3 644 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
645 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
646 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
647 use it for. Currently supports native,
648 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
649 wget. You can use this option multiple times
650 to set different downloaders for different
62b58c09 651 protocols. E.g. --downloader aria2c
2dd5a2e3 652 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
653 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
654 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
655 (Alias: --external-downloader)
656 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
657 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
658 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
659 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
660 positions using the same syntax as
661 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
662 option multiple times to give different
663 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
664 --external-downloader-args)
d5a62e4f 665
cfcec693 666## Filesystem Options:
2dd5a2e3 667 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
668 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
669 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
670 comments and ignored
671 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
672 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
673 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
674 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
675 TYPES as --output are supported.
676 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
677 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
678 files are first downloaded to the temp path
679 and then the final files are moved over to
680 the home path after download is finished.
681 This option is ignored if --output is an
682 absolute path
683 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
684 TEMPLATE" for details
685 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
686 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" (default: "NA")
687 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
688 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
689 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
690 filenames (default)
691 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
692 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
693 using Windows (default)
694 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
695 extension) to the specified number of
696 characters
697 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
698 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
699 option includes --no-continue
700 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
701 related files (default)
702 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
703 (default)
704 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
705 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
706 restart download of the entire file
707 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
708 into output file (default)
709 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
710 output file
711 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
712 modification time (default)
713 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
714 the file modification time
64fa820c 715 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
2dd5a2e3 716 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
717 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
718 (this may contain personal information)
719 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
720 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
721 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
722 --write-description etc. (default)
723 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
724 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
ad54c913 725 --clean-info-json Remove some internal metadata such as
726 filenames from the infojson (default)
2dd5a2e3 727 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
728 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
729 infojson. The comments are fetched even
730 without this option if the extraction is
731 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
732 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
733 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
734 --no-get-comments)
735 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
64fa820c 736 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
2dd5a2e3 737 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
738 and dump cookie jar in
739 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
740 (default)
825d3ce3 741 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]
742 The name of the browser to load cookies
743 from. Currently supported browsers are:
744 brave, chrome, chromium, edge, firefox,
745 opera, safari, vivaldi. Optionally, the
746 KEYRING used for decrypting Chromium cookies
747 on Linux, the name/path of the PROFILE to
748 load cookies from, and the CONTAINER name
749 (if Firefox) ("none" for no container) can
750 be given with their respective seperators.
751 By default, all containers of the most
752 recently accessed profile are used.
753 Currently supported keyrings are: basictext,
2e023649 754 gnomekeyring, kwallet, kwallet5, kwallet6
2dd5a2e3 755 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
17ffed18 756 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where yt-dlp can
757 store some downloaded information (such as
758 client ids and signatures) permanently. By
878eac3e 759 default ${XDG_CACHE_HOME}/yt-dlp
2dd5a2e3 760 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
761 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
6bcd846b 762
b31fdeed 763## Thumbnail Options:
2dd5a2e3 764 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
64fa820c 765 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
2dd5a2e3 766 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
767 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
768 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
2b1bd292 769
732044af 770## Internet Shortcut Options:
2dd5a2e3 771 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
772 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
773 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
774 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
775 OS caches the URL based on the file path
776 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
777 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
732044af 778
0744a815 779## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
2dd5a2e3 780 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
781 print the log to stderr
d669772c 782 --no-quiet Deactivate quiet mode. (Default)
2dd5a2e3 783 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
784 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
785 anything to disk
786 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
787 options are used
788 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
789 extracting metadata even if the videos are
790 not actually available for download
791 (experimental)
792 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
793 formats are found (default)
794 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
795 related files (Alias: --no-download)
796 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
797 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
798 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
799 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
119e40ef 800 --use-postprocessor (default: video).
2dd5a2e3 801 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
802 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
803 used. This option can be used multiple times
bb66c247 804 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
2dd5a2e3 805 Append given template to the file. The
806 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
807 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
808 output template. This option can be used
809 multiple times
810 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
811 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
812 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
813 description of available keys
814 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
815 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
816 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
817 a playlist, the whole playlist information
818 is dumped in a single line
819 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
820 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
821 another simulation option is used (Alias:
822 --force-download-archive)
823 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
824 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
825 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
826 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
819e0531 827 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 828 Template for progress outputs, optionally
829 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
830 "download-title:" (the console title),
831 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
832 The video's fields are accessible under the
833 "info" key and the progress attributes are
62b58c09 834 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 835 --console-title --progress-template
836 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
837 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
838 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
839 to debug problems (very verbose)
840 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
841 in the current directory to debug problems
842 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
6bcd846b 843
36f35428 844## Workarounds:
2dd5a2e3 845 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
846 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
847 that do not support RFC 5746 secure
848 renegotiation
849 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
850 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
851 information about the video (Currently
852 supported only for YouTube)
a5387729 853 --add-headers FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
2dd5a2e3 854 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
855 option multiple times
856 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
857 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
858 or fribidi executable in PATH
859 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
860 during data extraction
861 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
862 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
863 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
864 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
865 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
866 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
867 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
868 subtitle download
36f35428 869
cfcec693 870## Video Format Options:
2dd5a2e3 871 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
872 for more details
873 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
874 "Sorting Formats" for more details
875 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
876 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
877 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
878 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
879 specified sort order (default)
880 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
881 into a single file
882 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
883 output file (default)
884 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
885 into a single file
886 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
887 output file (default)
888 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
889 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
890 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
891 irrespective of quality
892 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
893 containers (default)
894 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
895 those that are actually downloadable
896 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
897 actually downloadable
898 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
899 downloadable
900 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
901 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
fc61aff4 902 --merge-output-format FORMAT Containers that may be used when merging
62b58c09 903 formats, separated by "/", e.g. "mp4/mkv".
fc61aff4
LL
904 Ignored if no merge is required. (currently
905 supported: avi, flv, mkv, mov, mp4, webm)
8ae7be3e
PH
906
907## Subtitle Options:
2dd5a2e3 908 --write-subs Write subtitle file
909 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
910 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
911 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
912 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
913 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
914 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
915 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
916 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
62b58c09 917 e.g. "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
2dd5a2e3 918 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
62b58c09
L
919 be regex) or "all" separated by commas, e.g.
920 --sub-langs "en.*,ja". You can prefix the
2dd5a2e3 921 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
62b58c09
L
922 the requested languages, e.g. --sub-langs
923 all,-live_chat. Use --list-subs for a list
2dd5a2e3 924 of available language tags
6bcd846b 925
cfcec693 926## Authentication Options:
2dd5a2e3 927 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
928 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
929 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
930 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
931 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
932 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
933 either the path or its containing directory.
934 Defaults to ~/.netrc
db3ad8a6 935 --netrc-cmd NETRC_CMD Command to execute to get the credentials
d1b21561 936 for an extractor.
b634ba74 937 --video-password PASSWORD Video-specific password
2dd5a2e3 938 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
939 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
940 a list of available MSOs
941 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
942 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
943 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
944 interactively
945 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
946 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
947 format. May include the private key
948 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
949 Path to private key file for client
950 certificate
bb58c9ed 951 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
2dd5a2e3 952 Password for client certificate private key,
953 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
954 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
f5e008d1 955
c76eb41b 956## Post-Processing Options:
2dd5a2e3 957 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
958 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
35faefee 959 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
960 used. (currently supported: best (default),
8dc59305 961 aac, alac, flac, m4a, mp3, opus, vorbis,
e0ab9854 962 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
963 similar syntax as --remux-video
2dd5a2e3 964 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
965 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
966 between 0 (best) and 10 (worst) for VBR or a
967 specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
968 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
8dc59305 969 necessary (currently supported: avi, flv,
69f5fe45 970 gif, mkv, mov, mp4, webm, aac, aiff, alac,
971 flac, m4a, mka, mp3, ogg, opus, vorbis,
972 wav). If target container does not support
973 the video/audio codec, remuxing will fail.
974 You can specify multiple rules; e.g.
2dd5a2e3 975 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
35faefee 976 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
2dd5a2e3 977 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
978 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
979 are the same as --remux-video
980 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
981 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
982 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
983 to give the argument to the specified
984 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
985 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
986 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
987 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
988 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
989 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
990 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
991 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
992 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
993 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
994 specified executable only when being used by
995 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
996 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
997 appended to the prefix optionally followed
998 by a number to pass the argument before the
62b58c09 999 specified input/output file, e.g. --ppa
2dd5a2e3 1000 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
1001 this option multiple times to give different
1002 arguments to different postprocessors.
1003 (Alias: --ppa)
1004 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
1005 after post-processing
1006 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
1007 post-processing (default)
1008 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
1009 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
1010 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
1011 webm and mkv videos)
1012 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
1013 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
1014 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
1015 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
1016 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
1017 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
1018 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
1019 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
1020 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
1021 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
1022 (Alias: --add-chapters)
1023 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
1024 --no-add-chapters)
1025 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
1026 mkv/mka video files
1027 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
1028 to the video file
fe74d5b5 1029 --parse-metadata [WHEN:]FROM:TO
1030 Parse additional metadata like title/artist
2dd5a2e3 1031 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
fe74d5b5 1032 for details. Supported values of "WHEN" are
1033 the same as that of --use-postprocessor
1034 (default: pre_process)
1035 --replace-in-metadata [WHEN:]FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
2dd5a2e3 1036 Replace text in a metadata field using the
1037 given regex. This option can be used
fe74d5b5 1038 multiple times. Supported values of "WHEN"
1039 are the same as that of --use-postprocessor
1040 (default: pre_process)
2dd5a2e3 1041 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
1042 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
1043 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
1044 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
1045 (default; only when the videos form a single
1046 show). All the video files must have same
1047 codecs and number of streams to be
1048 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
1049 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1050 the output filename for the concatenated
1051 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1052 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
1053 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
1054 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
1055 default; fix file if we can, warn
1056 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
1057 already exists)
1058 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
64fa820c 1059 path to the binary or its containing directory
2dd5a2e3 1060 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
119e40ef 1061 when to execute it, separated by a ":".
1062 Supported values of "WHEN" are the same as
1063 that of --use-postprocessor (default:
1064 after_move). Same syntax as the output
1065 template can be used to pass any field as
ad54c913 1066 arguments to the command. If no fields are
1067 passed, %(filepath,_filename|)q is appended
1068 to the end of the command. This option can
1069 be used multiple times
2dd5a2e3 1070 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
1071 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
8dc59305 1072 (currently supported: ass, lrc, srt, vtt)
2dd5a2e3 1073 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
1074 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
00bbc5f1 1075 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
1076 can specify multiple rules using similar
1077 syntax as --remux-video
2dd5a2e3 1078 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
1079 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
1080 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1081 the output filename for the split files. See
1082 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
64fa820c 1083 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
2dd5a2e3 1084 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
5ec1b6b7 1085 given regular expression. The syntax is the
1086 same as --download-sections. This option can
2dd5a2e3 1087 be used multiple times
1088 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1089 (default)
5ec1b6b7 1090 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
1091 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
1092 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1093 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1094 around the cuts
2dd5a2e3 1095 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1096 when cutting/splitting (default)
1097 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1098 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1099 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1100 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1101 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1102 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1103 The "when" argument determines when the
1104 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1105 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1106 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
119e40ef 1107 "video" (after --format; before
1108 --print/--output), "before_dl" (before each
1109 video download), "post_process" (after each
1110 video download; default), "after_move"
1111 (after moving video file to it's final
1112 locations), "after_video" (after downloading
1113 and processing all formats of a video), or
1114 "playlist" (at end of playlist). This option
1115 can be used multiple times to add different
1116 postprocessors
7a340e0d
NA
1117
1118## SponsorBlock Options:
1119Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1120 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
8a51f564 1121 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1122
2dd5a2e3 1123 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1124 for, separated by commas. Available
1125 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1126 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
71df9b7f 1127 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, chapter, all
1128 and default (=all). You can prefix the
1129 category with a "-" to exclude it. See [1]
1130 for description of the categories. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 1131 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1132 [1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1133 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1134 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1135 category is present in both mark and remove,
1136 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1137 available categories are the same as for
1138 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
71df9b7f 1139 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight,
63c547d7 1140 chapter are not available
7a340e0d 1141 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 1142 An output template for the title of the
1143 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1144 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1145 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1146 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1147 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1148 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1149 --sponsorblock-remove
1150 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1151 https://sponsor.ajay.app
a9e7f546 1152
78895bd3 1153## Extractor Options:
2dd5a2e3 1154 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1155 (default is 3), or "infinite"
1156 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1157 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1158 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1159 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1160 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1161 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1162 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1163 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1164 (default)
2fa669f7 1165 --extractor-args IE_KEY:ARGS Pass ARGS arguments to the IE_KEY extractor.
1166 See "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You
1167 can use this option multiple times to give
2dd5a2e3 1168 arguments for different extractors
17cb02d0 1169
b7770046
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1170# CONFIGURATION
1171
7a5c1cfe 1172You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
e2e43aea 1173
878eac3e 11741. **Main Configuration**:
1175 * The file given by `--config-location`
11761. **Portable Configuration**: (Recommended for portable installations)
1177 * If using a binary, `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the binary
1178 * If running from source-code, `yt-dlp.conf` in the parent directory of `yt_dlp`
11791. **Home Configuration**:
1180 * `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by `-P`
1181 * If `-P` is not given, the current directory is searched
e2e43aea 11821. **User Configuration**:
773c272d 1183 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp.conf`
878eac3e 1184 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
8e40b9d1 1185 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
773c272d 1186 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp.conf`
878eac3e 1187 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1188 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
e2e43aea 1189 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
1190 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
8e40b9d1
M
1191 * `~/.yt-dlp/config`
1192 * `~/.yt-dlp/config.txt`
3d3bb168 1193
878eac3e 1194 See also: [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
11951. **System Configuration**:
1196 * `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
8e40b9d1
M
1197 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config`
1198 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config.txt`
b7770046 1199
62b58c09 1200E.g. with the following configuration file yt-dlp will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under `YouTube` directory in your home directory:
b7770046
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1201```
1202# Lines starting with # are comments
1203
1204# Always extract audio
1205-x
1206
1207# Do not copy the mtime
1208--no-mtime
1209
1210# Use this proxy
1211--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1212
298f597b 1213# Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1214-o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
b7770046
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1215```
1216
8e174ba7 1217**Note**: Options in configuration file are just the same options aka switches used in regular command line calls; thus there **must be no whitespace** after `-` or `--`, e.g. `-o` or `--proxy` but not `- o` or `-- proxy`. They must also be quoted when necessary as-if it were a UNIX shell.
b7770046 1218
a4211baf 1219You 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 1220
304ad45a 1221### Configuration file encoding
a904a7f8 1222
304ad45a 1223The configuration files are decoded according to the UTF BOM if present, and in the encoding from system locale otherwise.
a904a7f8 1224
88f60feb 1225If 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 1226
db3ad8a6 1227### Authentication with netrc
b7770046 1228
304ad45a 1229You 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 1230```
878eac3e 1231touch ${HOME}/.netrc
1232chmod a-rwx,u+rw ${HOME}/.netrc
b7770046
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1233```
1234After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1235```
0001fcb5 1236machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
b7770046 1237```
62b58c09 1238E.g.
b7770046
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1239```
1240machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1241machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1242```
7a5c1cfe 1243To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
b7770046 1244
878eac3e 1245The default location of the .netrc file is `~` (see below).
1246
d7cd97e8 1247As an alternative to using the `.netrc` file, which has the disadvantage of keeping your passwords in a plain text file, you can configure a custom shell command to provide the credentials for an extractor. This is done by providing the `--netrc-cmd` parameter, it shall output the credentials in the netrc format and return `0` on success, other values will be treated as an error. `{}` in the command will be replaced by the name of the extractor to make it possible to select the credentials for the right extractor.
db3ad8a6
ND
1248
1249E.g. To use an encrypted `.netrc` file stored as `.authinfo.gpg`
1250```
1251yt-dlp --netrc-cmd 'gpg --decrypt ~/.authinfo.gpg' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc
1252```
1253
1254
878eac3e 1255### Notes about environment variables
1256* Environment variables are normally specified as `${VARIABLE}`/`$VARIABLE` on UNIX and `%VARIABLE%` on Windows; but is always shown as `${VARIABLE}` in this documentation
1257* yt-dlp also allow using UNIX-style variables on Windows for path-like options; e.g. `--output`, `--config-location`
1258* If unset, `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}` defaults to `~/.config` and `${XDG_CACHE_HOME}` to `~/.cache`
1259* On Windows, `~` points to `${HOME}` if present; or, `${USERPROFILE}` or `${HOMEDRIVE}${HOMEPATH}` otherwise
1260* On Windows, `${USERPROFILE}` generally points to `C:\Users\<user name>` and `${APPDATA}` to `${USERPROFILE}\AppData\Roaming`
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1261
1262# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1263
0202b52a 1264The `-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 1265
ec2e44fc 1266<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1267**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
ec2e44fc 1268<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1269
e58c22a0 1270The 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 1271
62b58c09 1272It 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 1273
1274The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
3d3bb168 1275
07a1250e 12761. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a dot `.` separator; e.g. `%(tags.0)s`, `%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s`. You can do Python slicing with colon `:`; E.g. `%(id.3:7:-1)s`, `%(formats.:.format_id)s`. Curly braces `{}` can be used to build dictionaries with only specific keys; e.g. `%(formats.:.{format_id,height})#j`. An empty field name `%()s` refers to the entire infodict; e.g. `%(.{id,title})s`. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use `-j` to see such fields
ec2e44fc 1277
993edd3f 12781. **Arithmetic**: Simple arithmetic can be done on numeric fields using `+`, `-` and `*`. E.g. `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
ec2e44fc 1279
62b58c09 12801. **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 1281
62b58c09 12821. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a `,`. E.g. `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1283
ec9311c4 12841. **Replacement**: A replacement value can be specified using a `&` separator according to the [`str.format` mini-language](https://docs.python.org/3/library/string.html#format-specification-mini-language). If the field is *not* empty, this replacement value will be used instead of the actual field content. This is done after alternate fields are considered; thus the replacement is used if *any* of the alternative fields is *not* empty. E.g. `%(chapters&has chapters|no chapters)s`, `%(title&TITLE={:>20}|NO TITLE)s`
e978789f 1285
17ffed18 12861. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a `|` separator. This overrides `--output-na-placeholder`. E.g. `%(uploader|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1287
9b9dad11 12881. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types `diouxXeEfFgGcrs`, yt-dlp additionally supports converting to `B` = **B**ytes, `j` = **j**son (flag `#` for pretty-printing, `+` for Unicode), `h` = HTML escaping, `l` = a comma separated **l**ist (flag `#` for `\n` newline-separated), `q` = a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag `#` to split a list into different arguments), `D` = add **D**ecimal suffixes (e.g. 10M) (flag `#` to use 1024 as factor), and `S` = **S**anitize as filename (flag `#` for restricted)
ec2e44fc 1289
d5d1df8a 12901. **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 1291
1292To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1293```
e978789f 1294%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
a439a3a4 1295```
de6000d9 1296
62b58c09 1297Additionally, 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 1298
4815bbfc 1299<a id="outtmpl-postprocess-note"/>
7aaf4cd2 1300
8e174ba7 1301**Note**: Due to post-processing (i.e. merging etc.), the actual output filename might differ. Use `--print after_move:filepath` to get the name after all post-processing is complete.
7aaf4cd2 1302
e29663c6 1303The available fields are:
b7770046
U
1304
1305 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1306 - `title` (string): Video title
455a15e2 1307 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
b7770046
U
1308 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1309 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
597c1866 1310 - `description` (string): The description of the video
b7770046
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1311 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1312 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1313 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1314 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
b7770046 1315 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
ae6a1b95 1316 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
e6f21b3d 1317 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
ae6a1b95 1318 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
1732eccc 1319 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the video or album was released
f0d785d3 1320 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
ae6a1b95 1321 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
b7770046
U
1322 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1323 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1324 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
6c73052c 1325 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
8213ce28 1326 - `channel_is_verified` (boolean): Whether the channel is verified on the platform
b7770046
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1327 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1328 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
53c18592 1329 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
b7770046 1330 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
867c66ff 1331 - `concurrent_view_count` (numeric): How many users are currently watching the video on the platform.
b7770046
U
1332 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1333 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1334 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1335 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
277d6ff5 1336 - `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 1337 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
e325a21a 1338 - `live_status` (string): One of "not_live", "is_live", "is_upcoming", "was_live", "post_live" (was live, but VOD is not yet processed)
b7770046 1339 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
f76ede8e 1340 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
6cfda058 1341 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
940a67a3 1342 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
e370f9ec 1343 - `media_type` (string): The type of media as classified by the site, e.g. "episode", "clip", "trailer"
b7770046
U
1344 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1345 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
b7770046
U
1346 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1347 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
455a15e2 1348 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
b532a348 1349 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`, padded with leading zeros to 5 digits
9c906919 1350 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
e6f21b3d 1351 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
455a15e2 1352 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1353 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1354 - `playlist` (string): `playlist_id` or `playlist_title`
f0d785d3 1355 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
e6f21b3d 1356 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1357 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
b7770046
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1358 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1359 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
bd99f6e6 1360 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
0bb322b9 1361 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1362 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
bd99f6e6 1363 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
d2c8aadf 1364
1365All the fields in [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats) can also be used
b7770046
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1366
1367Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1368
1369 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1370 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1371 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1372
1373Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1374
1375 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1376 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1377 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1378 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1379 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1380 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1381 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1382
1383Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1384
1385 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1386 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1387 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1388 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1389 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1390 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1391 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1392 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1393 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
b7770046 1394
5ec1b6b7 1395Available only when using `--download-sections` and for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
72755351 1396
1397 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1398 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1399 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1400 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1401
53c18592 1402Available only when used in `--print`:
1403
1404 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
7aaf4cd2 1405 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the [actual filename may differ](#outtmpl-postprocess-note)
ed5835b4 1406 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by `--list-formats`
1407 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by `--list-thumbnails`
1408 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1409 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1410
ad54c913 1411 Available only after the video is downloaded (`post_process`/`after_move`):
7a340e0d 1412
ad54c913 1413 - `filepath`: Actual path of downloaded video file
1414
7a340e0d
NA
1415Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1416
1417 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1418 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1338ae3b 1419 - `categories` (list): The [SponsorBlock categories](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Category) the chapter belongs to
7a340e0d
NA
1420 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1421 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1422 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1338ae3b 1423 - `type` (string): The [SponsorBlock action type](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Action_Type) of the chapter
53c18592 1424
62b58c09 1425Each 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 1426
8e174ba7 1427**Note**: Some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with placeholder value provided with `--output-na-placeholder` (`NA` by default).
b7770046 1428
0930b11f 1429**Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
b7770046 1430
62b58c09 1431For 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 1432
940a67a3 1433Output templates can also contain arbitrary hierarchical path, e.g. `-o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s"` which will result in downloading each video in a directory corresponding to this path template. Any missing directory will be automatically created for you.
b7770046
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1434
1435To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1436
91ebc640 1437The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
b7770046 1438
f304da8a 1439In 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 1440
b7770046
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1441#### Output template examples
1442
b7770046 1443```bash
d2c8aadf 1444$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1445test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1446
d2c8aadf 1447$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1448youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
b7770046 1449
d2c8aadf 1450$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
9222c381 1451youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
b7770046
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1452
1453# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
940a67a3 1454$ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
b7770046 1455
b050d210 1456# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
940a67a3 1457$ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
e29663c6 1458
e978789f 1459# Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
ad54c913 1460$ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist_index&{} - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
e978789f 1461
b7770046 1462# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
940a67a3 1463$ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
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1464
1465# Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
940a67a3 1466$ yt-dlp -u user -p password -P "~/MyVideos" -o "%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s - %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial"
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1467
1468# Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
940a67a3 1469$ 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 1470
6a34813a 1471# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1472# and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1473$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1474
1475# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1476$ 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
1477
b7770046 1478# Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
7a5c1cfe 1479$ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
b7770046
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1480```
1481
1482# FORMAT SELECTION
1483
7a5c1cfe
P
1484By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1485This 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 1486
c111cefa 1487**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.
1488
eff63539 1489The 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 1490
ec2e44fc 1491<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1492**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
ec2e44fc 1493<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1494
62b58c09 1495The simplest case is requesting a specific format; e.g. with `-f 22` you can download the format with format code equal to 22. You can get the list of available format codes for particular video using `--list-formats` or `-F`. Note that these format codes are extractor specific.
b7770046
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1496
1497You 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.
1498
fa9f30b8 1499You can use `-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1500
b7770046
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1501You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1502
59a7a13e 1503 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1504 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
30389593 1505 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio or both (ie; `vcodec!=none or acodec!=none`)
59a7a13e 1506 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1507 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1508 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1509 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
ae6a1b95 1510 - `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 1511 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
909d24dd 1512 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1513 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
909d24dd 1514 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1515 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
909d24dd 1516 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
b7770046 1517
d4ada357 1518For 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 1519
1520You 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 1521
304ad45a 1522If you want to download multiple videos, and they don't have the same formats available, you can specify the order of preference using slashes. Note that formats on the left hand side are preferred; e.g. `-f 22/17/18` will download format 22 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 17 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 18 if it's available, otherwise it will complain that no suitable formats are available for download.
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1523
1524If 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`.
1525
62b58c09 1526You 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 1527
1528**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
1529
304ad45a 1530Unless `--video-multistreams` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, unless `--audio-multistreams` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. E.g. `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --video-multistreams --audio-multistreams` will download and merge all 3 given formats. The resulting file will have 2 video streams and 2 audio streams. But `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --no-video-multistreams` will download and merge only `bestvideo` and `bestaudio`. `best` is ignored since another format containing a video stream (`bestvideo`) has already been selected. The order of the formats is therefore important. `-f best+bestaudio --no-audio-multistreams` will download only `best` while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore `best` and download only `bestaudio`.
eb8a4433 1531
1532## Filtering Formats
1533
b532a348 1534You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"` since filters without a selector are interpreted as `best`).
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1535
1536The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1537
1538 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
d2c8aadf 1539 - `filesize_approx`: An estimate for the number of bytes
b7770046
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1540 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1541 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
105bfd90 1542 - `aspect_ratio`: Aspect ratio of the video, if known
b7770046
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1543 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1544 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1545 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1546 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1547 - `fps`: Frame rate
d2c8aadf 1548 - `audio_channels`: The number of audio channels
1549 - `stretched_ratio`: `width:height` of the video's pixels, if not square
b7770046 1550
1ce9a3cb 1551Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains), `~=` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
b7770046 1552
d2c8aadf 1553 - `url`: Video URL
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1554 - `ext`: File extension
1555 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1556 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1557 - `container`: Name of the container format
1558 - `protocol`: The protocol that will be used for the actual download, lower-case (`http`, `https`, `rtsp`, `rtmp`, `rtmpe`, `mms`, `f4m`, `ism`, `http_dash_segments`, `m3u8`, or `m3u8_native`)
29f7c58a 1559 - `language`: Language code
d2c8aadf 1560 - `dynamic_range`: The dynamic range of the video
1561 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
1562 - `format`: A human-readable description of the format
1563 - `format_note`: Additional info about the format
1564 - `resolution`: Textual description of width and height
b7770046 1565
1ce9a3cb 1566Any 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 1567
8e174ba7 1568**Note**: None of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by the website. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
b7770046 1569
b532a348 1570Formats for which the value is not known are excluded unless you put a question mark (`?`) after the operator. You can combine format filters, so `-f "bv[height<=?720][tbr>500]"` selects up to 720p videos (or videos where the height is not known) with a bitrate of at least 500 KBit/s. You can also use the filters with `all` to download all formats that satisfy the filter, e.g. `-f "all[vcodec=none]"` selects all audio-only formats.
b7770046 1571
62b58c09 1572Format 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 1573
eb8a4433 1574## Sorting Formats
1575
2e7781a9 1576You can change the criteria for being considered the `best` by using `-S` (`--format-sort`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...`.
1577
1578The available fields are:
eb8a4433 1579
304ad45a 1580 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that have a video stream
1581 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that have an audio stream
ed8d87f9 1582 - `ie_pref`: The format preference
1583 - `lang`: The language preference
1584 - `quality`: The quality of the format
1585 - `source`: The preference of the source
d80d98e7 1586 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > `mms`/`rtsp` > `f4f`/`f4m`)
1587 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other)
a5387729 1588 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`flac`/`alac` > `wav`/`aiff` > `opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `ac4` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other)
eb8a4433 1589 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
29ca4082 1590 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `mov` > `webm` > `flv` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is preferred.
f2e9fa3e 1591 - `aext`: Audio Extension (`m4a` > `aac` > `mp3` > `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > `mp3` > `m4a` > `aac`
63be1aab 1592 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
0930b11f 1593 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
62b5c94c 1594 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize
63be1aab 1595 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
eb8a4433 1596 - `height`: Height of video
1597 - `width`: Width of video
63be1aab 1598 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1599 - `fps`: Framerate of video
49a57e70 1600 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
b8ed0f15 1601 - `channels`: The number of audio channels
63be1aab 1602 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1603 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1604 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
62b5c94c 1605 - `br`: Average bitrate in KBit/s, `tbr`/`vbr`/`abr`
63be1aab 1606 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
d806c9fd 1607
1608**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 1609
62b58c09 1610All 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 1611
7e798d72 1612The 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 1613
7e798d72 1614Note 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 1615
e58c22a0 1616If 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 1617
1618**Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1619
eb8a4433 1620## Format Selection examples
b7770046 1621
b7770046 1622```bash
e58c22a0 1623# Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
909d24dd 1624# or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
940a67a3 1625$ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
909d24dd 1626
1627# Download best format that contains video,
1628# and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
940a67a3 1629$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
2af884ff 1630
1631# Same as above
7a5c1cfe 1632$ yt-dlp
909d24dd 1633
6fd35a11 1634# Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1635# For this case, an output template should be used since
1636# by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
940a67a3 1637$ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
909d24dd 1638
f8d4ad9a 1639# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1640# and all audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1641$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
f8d4ad9a 1642
1643# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1644# and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1645$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
909d24dd 1646
6fd35a11 1647
1648# The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
f8d4ad9a 1649# and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
6fd35a11 1650
1651# Download the worst video available (old method)
940a67a3 1652$ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
eb8a4433 1653
1654# Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
940a67a3 1655$ yt-dlp -S "+res"
eb8a4433 1656
1657# Download the smallest video available
940a67a3 1658$ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
eb8a4433 1659
1660
909d24dd 1661
eb8a4433 1662# Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
940a67a3 1663$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
eb8a4433 1664
1665# Download the best video with the best extension
29ca4082 1666# (For video, mp4 > mov > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
940a67a3 1667$ yt-dlp -S "ext"
eb8a4433 1668
1669
909d24dd 1670
eb8a4433 1671# Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1672# or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1673$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
b7770046 1674
eb8a4433 1675# Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1676# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1677$ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
b7770046 1678
eb8a4433 1679# Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1680# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1681# Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1682# So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
940a67a3 1683$ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
b7770046 1684
b7770046 1685
909d24dd 1686
eb8a4433 1687# Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1688# or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1689$ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
eb8a4433 1690
1691# Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1692# or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1693$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
eb8a4433 1694
1695# Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
940a67a3 1696$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
eb8a4433 1697
1698
909d24dd 1699
eb8a4433 1700# Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1701# or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
940a67a3 1702$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1703
1704# Download best video available via the best protocol
1705# (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
940a67a3 1706$ yt-dlp -S "proto"
eb8a4433 1707
1708
909d24dd 1709
1ce9a3cb
LF
1710# Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1711# or the best video if there is no such video
1712$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1713
1714# Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1715# or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1716$ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1717
1718# Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1719# or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1720$ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1721
1722
1723
1724# More complex examples
1725
e58c22a0 1726# Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1727# or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
940a67a3 1728$ 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 1729
1730# Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
f8d4ad9a 1731# or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1732# preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
940a67a3 1733$ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
eb8a4433 1734
1735
909d24dd 1736
eb8a4433 1737# Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1738# or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1739# preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
940a67a3 1740$ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
b7770046 1741```
eb8a4433 1742
73cd218f 1743# MODIFYING METADATA
1744
a4211baf 1745The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
e9f4ccd1 1746
418964fa 1747`--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 1748
46d09f87 1749The general syntax of `--parse-metadata FROM:TO` is to give the name of a field or an [output template](#output-template) to extract data from, and the format to interpret it as, separated by a colon `:`. Either a [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax) with named capture groups, a single field name, or a similar syntax to the [output template](#output-template) (only `%(field)s` formatting is supported) can be used for `TO`. The option can be used multiple times to parse and modify various fields.
73cd218f 1750
46d09f87 1751Note that these options preserve their relative order, allowing replacements to be made in parsed fields and viceversa. Also, any field thus created can be used in the [output template](#output-template) and will also affect the media file's metadata added when using `--embed-metadata`.
73cd218f 1752
9c2b75b5 1753This option also has a few special uses:
3d3bb168 1754
c8bc203f 1755* 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 1756
62b58c09 1757* 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 1758
08d30158 1759**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.
1760
c31be5b0 1761For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1762
08d30158 1763Metadata fields | From
1764:--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1765`title` | `track` or `title`
1766`date` | `upload_date`
1767`description`, `synopsis` | `description`
1768`purl`, `comment` | `webpage_url`
1769`track` | `track_number`
1770`artist` | `artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1771`genre` | `genre`
1772`album` | `album`
1773`album_artist` | `album_artist`
1774`disc` | `disc_number`
1775`show` | `series`
1776`season_number` | `season_number`
1777`episode_id` | `episode` or `episode_id`
1778`episode_sort` | `episode_number`
1779`language` of each stream | the format's `language`
1780
c31be5b0 1781**Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1782
73cd218f 1783
1784## Modifying metadata examples
1785
73cd218f 1786```bash
1787# Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
940a67a3 1788$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
73cd218f 1789
1790# Regex example
940a67a3 1791$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
73cd218f 1792
1793# Set title as "Series name S01E05"
940a67a3 1794$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
73cd218f 1795
a44ca5a4 1796# Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
2fa669f7 1797$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --embed-metadata
a44ca5a4 1798
1799# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1800# handling multiple lines correctly
2fa669f7 1801$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --embed-metadata
73cd218f 1802
8aa0e7cd 1803# Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
1804$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
1805
0930b11f 1806# Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
7f9c6a63 1807$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "video::(?P<formats>)" --write-info-json
0930b11f 1808
e9f4ccd1 1809# Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
940a67a3 1810$ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
e9f4ccd1 1811
73cd218f 1812```
1813
5d3a0e79 1814# EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1815
62b58c09 1816Some 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 1817
a5387729 1818Note: In CLI, `ARG` can use `-` instead of `_`; e.g. `youtube:player-client"` becomes `youtube:player_client"`
1819
5d3a0e79 1820The following extractors use this feature:
96565c7e 1821
1822#### youtube
8e174ba7 1823* `lang`: Prefer translated metadata (`title`, `description` etc) of this language code (case-sensitive). By default, the video primary language metadata is preferred, with a fallback to `en` translated. See [youtube.py](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/c26f9b991a0681fd3ea548d535919cec1fbbd430/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L381-L390) for list of supported content language codes
8aa0e7cd 1824* `skip`: One or more of `hls`, `dash` or `translated_subs` to skip extraction of the m3u8 manifests, dash manifests and [auto-translated subtitles](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/4090#issuecomment-1158102032) respectively
fd8fcf8f 1825* `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web`, `android` and `ios` with variants `_music`, `_embedded`, `_embedscreen`, `_creator` (e.g. `web_embedded`); and `mweb`, `mweb_embedscreen` and `tv_embedded` (agegate bypass) with no variants. By default, `ios,android,web` is used, but `tv_embedded` and `creator` variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly, the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com` urls. You can use `all` to use all the clients, and `default` for the default clients.
96565c7e 1826* `player_skip`: Skip some network requests that are generally needed for robust extraction. One or more of `configs` (skip client configs), `webpage` (skip initial webpage), `js` (skip js player). While these options can help reduce the number of requests needed or avoid some rate-limiting, they could cause some issues. See [#860](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/860) for more details
ba06d77a 1827* `player_params`: YouTube player parameters to use for player requests. Will overwrite any default ones set by yt-dlp.
96565c7e 1828* `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
a44ca5a4 1829* `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`
1830 * E.g. `all,all,1000,10` will get a maximum of 1000 replies total, with up to 10 replies per thread. `1000,all,100` will get a maximum of 1000 comments, with a maximum of 100 replies total
b532a348 1831* `formats`: Change the types of formats to return. `dashy` (convert HTTP to DASH), `duplicate` (identical content but different URLs or protocol; includes `dashy`), `incomplete` (cannot be downloaded completely - live dash and post-live m3u8)
1e4fca9a 1832* `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 1833* `innertube_key`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
eb5bdbfa 1834* `raise_incomplete_data`: `Incomplete Data Received` raises an error instead of reporting a warning
96565c7e 1835
1836#### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1837* `skip`: One or more of `webpage` (skip initial webpage download), `authcheck` (allow the download of playlists requiring authentication when no initial webpage is downloaded. This may cause unwanted behavior, see [#1122](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/1122) for more details)
5225df50 1838* `approximate_date`: Extract approximate `upload_date` and `timestamp` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
96565c7e 1839
3b021eac 1840#### generic
5cc0a8fd 1841* `fragment_query`: Passthrough any query in mpd/m3u8 manifest URLs to their fragments if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `fragment_query=VALUE`. Does not apply to ffmpeg
1842* `variant_query`: Passthrough the master m3u8 URL query to its variant playlist URLs if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `variant_query=VALUE`
c2e0fc40 1843* `hls_key`: An HLS AES-128 key URI *or* key (as hex), and optionally the IV (as hex), in the form of `(URI|KEY)[,IV]`; e.g. `generic:hls_key=ABCDEF1234567980,0xFEDCBA0987654321`. Passing any of these values will force usage of the native HLS downloader and override the corresponding values found in the m3u8 playlist
93e7c699 1844* `is_live`: Bypass live HLS detection and manually set `live_status` - a value of `false` will set `not_live`, any other value (or no value) will set `is_live`
3b021eac 1845
96565c7e 1846#### funimation
304ad45a 1847* `language`: Audio languages to extract, e.g. `funimation:language=english,japanese`
96565c7e 1848* `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1849
cb1553e9 1850#### crunchyrollbeta (Crunchyroll)
62b58c09 1851* `format`: Which stream type(s) to extract (default: `adaptive_hls`). Potentially useful values include `adaptive_hls`, `adaptive_dash`, `vo_adaptive_hls`, `vo_adaptive_dash`, `download_hls`, `download_dash`, `multitrack_adaptive_hls_v2`
dfea94f8 1852* `hardsub`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract, or `all` (default: `None` = no hardsubs), e.g. `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None`
706dfe44 1853
96565c7e 1854#### vikichannel
1855* `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
73d829c1 1856
7bdcb4a4
LNO
1857#### niconico
1858* `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.**
1859
aa4b0545 1860#### youtubewebarchive
1861* `check_all`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails`, `captures`
1862
d43de682
M
1863#### gamejolt
1864* `comment_sort`: `hot` (default), `you` (cookies needed), `top`, `new` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1865
26f2aa3d
AG
1866#### hotstar
1867* `res`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd`, `hd`, `fhd`
1868* `vcodec`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264`, `h265`, `dvh265`
1869* `dr`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr`, `hdr10`, `dv`
1870
698beb9a
M
1871#### niconicochannelplus
1872* `max_comments`: Maximum number of comments to extract - default is `120`
1873
046cab39 1874#### tiktok
c4cbd3be 1875* `api_hostname`: Hostname to use for mobile API requests, e.g. `api-h2.tiktokv.com`
62b58c09
L
1876* `app_version`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version`, e.g. `20.2.1`
1877* `manifest_app_version`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with, e.g. `221`
046cab39 1878
7eaf7f9a 1879#### rokfinchannel
62b58c09 1880* `tab`: Which tab to download - one of `new`, `top`, `videos`, `podcasts`, `streams`, `stacks`
7eaf7f9a 1881
b03fa783 1882#### twitter
a006ce2b 1883* `api`: Select one of `graphql` (default), `legacy` or `syndication` as the API for tweet extraction. Has no effect if logged in
b03fa783 1884
af1fd12f 1885#### stacommu, wrestleuniverse
ef8fb7f0 1886* `device_id`: UUID value assigned by the website and used to enforce device limits for paid livestream content. Can be found in browser local storage
1887
7f9c6a63 1888#### twitch
1889* `client_id`: Client ID value to be sent with GraphQL requests, e.g. `twitch:client_id=kimne78kx3ncx6brgo4mv6wki5h1ko`
01231feb 1890
81c8b9bd 1891#### nhkradirulive (NHK らじる★らじる LIVE)
1892* `area`: Which regional variation to extract. Valid areas are: `sapporo`, `sendai`, `tokyo`, `nagoya`, `osaka`, `hiroshima`, `matsuyama`, `fukuoka`. Defaults to `tokyo`
1893
1eaca74b 1894#### nflplusreplay
1895* `type`: Type(s) of game replays to extract. Valid types are: `full_game`, `full_game_spanish`, `condensed_game` and `all_22`. You can use `all` to extract all available replay types, which is the default
1896
5154dc0a 1897#### jiosaavn
1898* `bitrate`: Audio bitrates to request. One or more of `16`, `32`, `64`, `128`, `320`. Default is `128,320`
1899
8e174ba7 1900**Note**: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
5d3a0e79 1901
ec2e44fc 1902<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1903
3acf6d38 1904
f74980cb 1905# PLUGINS
b7770046 1906
8e40b9d1 1907Note that **all** plugins are imported even if not invoked, and that **there are no checks** performed on plugin code. **Use plugins at your own risk and only if you trust the code!**
3ae5e797 1908
8e40b9d1
M
1909Plugins can be of `<type>`s `extractor` or `postprocessor`.
1910- Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it.
1911- Extractor plugins take priority over builtin extractors.
1912- Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME`.
3ae5e797 1913
3ae5e797 1914
8e40b9d1 1915Plugins are loaded from the namespace packages `yt_dlp_plugins.extractor` and `yt_dlp_plugins.postprocessor`.
3ae5e797 1916
8e40b9d1
M
1917In other words, the file structure on the disk looks something like:
1918
1919 yt_dlp_plugins/
1920 extractor/
1921 myplugin.py
1922 postprocessor/
1923 myplugin.py
1924
1925yt-dlp looks for these `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folders in many locations (see below) and loads in plugins from **all** of them.
b7770046 1926
deae7c17 1927See the [wiki for some known plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugins)
1928
8e40b9d1
M
1929## Installing Plugins
1930
1931Plugins can be installed using various methods and locations.
1932
19331. **Configuration directories**:
1934 Plugin packages (containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder) can be dropped into the following standard [configuration locations](#configuration):
1935 * **User Plugins**
1936 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1937 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1938 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Windows)
773c272d 1939 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
8e40b9d1
M
1940 * `~/.yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1941 * `~/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1942 * **System Plugins**
1943 * `/etc/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1944 * `/etc/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
c8bc203f 19452. **Executable location**: Plugin packages can similarly be installed in a `yt-dlp-plugins` directory under the executable location (recommended for portable installations):
8e40b9d1
M
1946 * Binary: where `<root-dir>/yt-dlp.exe`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1947 * Source: where `<root-dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1948
19493. **pip and other locations in `PYTHONPATH`**
e756f45b 1950 * Plugin packages can be installed and managed using `pip`. See [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) for an example.
8e174ba7 1951 * Note: plugin files between plugin packages installed with pip must have unique filenames.
8e40b9d1
M
1952 * Any path in `PYTHONPATH` is searched in for the `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder.
1953 * Note: This does not apply for Pyinstaller/py2exe builds.
1954
1955
8e174ba7 1956`.zip`, `.egg` and `.whl` archives containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder in their root are also supported as plugin packages.
1957* e.g. `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/mypluginpkg.zip` where `mypluginpkg.zip` contains `yt_dlp_plugins/<type>/myplugin.py`
8e40b9d1 1958
8e174ba7 1959Run yt-dlp with `--verbose` to check if the plugin has been loaded.
8e40b9d1
M
1960
1961## Developing Plugins
1962
8e174ba7 1963See the [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) repo for a template plugin package and the [Plugin Development](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugin-Development) section of the wiki for a plugin development guide.
8e40b9d1 1964
8e174ba7 1965All public classes with a name ending in `IE`/`PP` are imported from each file for extractors and postprocessors repectively. This respects underscore prefix (e.g. `_MyBasePluginIE` is private) and `__all__`. Modules can similarly be excluded by prefixing the module name with an underscore (e.g. `_myplugin.py`).
e756f45b 1966
773c272d 1967To replace an existing extractor with a subclass of one, set the `plugin_name` class keyword argument (e.g. `class MyPluginIE(ABuiltInIE, plugin_name='myplugin')` will replace `ABuiltInIE` with `MyPluginIE`). Since the extractor replaces the parent, you should exclude the subclass extractor from being imported separately by making it private using one of the methods described above.
8e40b9d1 1968
8e174ba7 1969If you are a plugin author, add [yt-dlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/yt-dlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability.
b7770046 1970
8e40b9d1 1971See the [Developer Instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions) on how to write and test an extractor.
8c6f4daa 1972
1973# EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1974
1975yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1976
1977Your 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.
1978
1979From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1980
1981```python
59a7a13e 1982from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
8c6f4daa 1983
3d3bb168 1984URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1985with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1986 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 1987```
1988
b532a348 1989Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of options available, have a look at [`yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py`](yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py#L183) or `help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)` in a Python shell. If you are already familiar with the CLI, you can use [`devscripts/cli_to_api.py`](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/devscripts/cli_to_api.py) to translate any CLI switches to `YoutubeDL` params.
8c6f4daa 1990
43cc91ad 1991**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 1992
1993## Embedding examples
1994
43cc91ad 1995#### Extracting information
8c6f4daa 1996
1997```python
1998import json
8c6f4daa 1999import yt_dlp
8c6f4daa 2000
3d3bb168 2001URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
2002
2003# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
2004ydl_opts = {}
2005with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2006 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
2007
2008 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
2009 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
2010```
43cc91ad 2011#### Download using an info-json
3d3bb168 2012
2013```python
2014import yt_dlp
2015
2016INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
2017
2018with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
2019 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
2020
2021print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
2022 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
2023```
2024
43cc91ad 2025#### Extract audio
3d3bb168 2026
2027```python
2028import yt_dlp
2029
2030URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2031
2032ydl_opts = {
0a41f331 2033 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
3d3bb168 2034 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
2035 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
2036 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
2037 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
2038 }]
2039}
2040
2041with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2042 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
2043```
0a41f331 2044
2045#### Filter videos
2046
2047```python
2048import yt_dlp
2049
2050URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2051
2052def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
2053 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
2054 duration = info.get('duration')
2055 if duration and duration < 60:
2056 return 'The video is too short'
2057
2058ydl_opts = {
2059 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
2060}
2061
2062with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2063 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
2064```
2065
43cc91ad 2066#### Adding logger and progress hook
3d3bb168 2067
2068```python
2069import yt_dlp
2070
2071URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
8c6f4daa 2072
2073class MyLogger:
2074 def debug(self, msg):
e75bb0d6 2075 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
8c6f4daa 2076 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
2077 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
2078 pass
2079 else:
2080 self.info(msg)
2081
2082 def info(self, msg):
2083 pass
2084
2085 def warning(self, msg):
2086 pass
2087
2088 def error(self, msg):
2089 print(msg)
2090
2091
3d3bb168 2092# ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
2093def my_hook(d):
2094 if d['status'] == 'finished':
2095 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
2096
2097
2098ydl_opts = {
2099 'logger': MyLogger(),
2100 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
2101}
2102
2103with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2104 ydl.download(URLS)
2105```
2106
43cc91ad 2107#### Add a custom PostProcessor
3d3bb168 2108
2109```python
2110import yt_dlp
2111
2112URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2113
2114# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
59a7a13e 2115class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
8c6f4daa 2116 def run(self, info):
2117 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
2118 return [], info
2119
2120
3d3bb168 2121with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
8aa0e7cd 2122 # ℹ️ "when" can take any value in yt_dlp.utils.POSTPROCESS_WHEN
2123 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP(), when='pre_process')
3d3bb168 2124 ydl.download(URLS)
2125```
8c6f4daa 2126
2127
43cc91ad 2128#### Use a custom format selector
3d3bb168 2129
2130```python
2131import yt_dlp
2132
c8bc203f 2133URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
3d3bb168 2134
093a1710 2135def format_selector(ctx):
2136 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
3d3bb168 2137 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
093a1710 2138
2139 # formats are already sorted worst to best
2140 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
2141
2142 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
2143 best_video = next(f for f in formats
2144 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
2145
2146 # find compatible audio extension
2147 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
2148 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
2149 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
2150 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
2151
3d3bb168 2152 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
093a1710 2153 yield {
093a1710 2154 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
2155 'ext': best_video['ext'],
2156 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
e75bb0d6 2157 # Must be + separated list of protocols
093a1710 2158 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
2159 }
2160
2161
8c6f4daa 2162ydl_opts = {
093a1710 2163 'format': format_selector,
8c6f4daa 2164}
2165
2166with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
3d3bb168 2167 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 2168```
2169
ec2e44fc 2170<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
2171
e167860c 2172# DEPRECATED OPTIONS
2173
2174These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
2175
8130779d 2176#### Almost redundant options
2177While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
2178
2179 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
2180 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
0bfc53d0 2181 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
8130779d 2182 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
2183
6ccf351a 2184#### Redundant options
2185While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
f4536226 2186
53c18592 2187 --get-description --print description
2188 --get-duration --print duration_string
2189 --get-filename --print filename
2190 --get-format --print format
2191 --get-id --print id
2192 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
2193 -e, --get-title --print title
2194 -g, --get-url --print urls
8f18aca8 2195 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
2196 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2197 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2198 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
fe2ce85a 2199 --break-on-reject Use --break-match-filter
8b7539d2 2200 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2201 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
7e88d7d7 2202 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2203 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2204 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2205 --no-playlist-reverse Default
8417f26b 2206 --no-colors --color no_color
6ccf351a 2207
2208
2209#### Not recommended
2210While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2211
fe7866d0 2212 --force-generic-extractor --ies generic,default
1e43a6f7 2213 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2214 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
d9aa2332 2215 --all-formats -f all
c32b0aab 2216 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
b7b04c78 2217 --print-json -j --no-simulate
62b58c09 2218 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting, e.g. %(autonumber)03d
a439a3a4 2219 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
19b824f6 2220 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
73cd218f 2221 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
52a8a1e1 2222 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2223 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
53ed7066 2224 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2225 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
5d3a0e79 2226 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2227 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2228 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2229 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
c1664464 2230 --geo-bypass --xff "default"
2231 --no-geo-bypass --xff "never"
2232 --geo-bypass-country CODE --xff CODE
2233 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK --xff IP_BLOCK
6ccf351a 2234
2235
2236#### Developer options
2237These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2238
34488702 2239 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
f95b9dee 2240 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
6ccf351a 2241 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
88acdbc2 2242 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2243 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
f4536226 2244
2245
2246#### Old aliases
2247These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2248
2249 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
3856407a 2250 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
f4536226 2251 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2252 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2253 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2254 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2255 --load-info --load-info-json
3856407a 2256 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
f4536226 2257 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
e167860c 2258 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
e167860c 2259 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2260 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
f4536226 2261 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2262 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
e167860c 2263 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
f4536226 2264 --write-srt --write-subs
e167860c 2265 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
f4536226 2266
7a340e0d 2267#### Sponskrub Options
f304da8a 2268Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock` options
7a340e0d
NA
2269
2270 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2271 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2272 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2273 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2274 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2275 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2276 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2277 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2278
f4536226 2279#### No longer supported
2280These options may no longer work as intended
2281
2282 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2283 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2284 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2285 --no-call-home Default
2286 --include-ads No longer supported
2287 --no-include-ads Default
0bb1bc1b 2288 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2289 --no-write-annotations Default
1e8fe57e 2290 --compat-options seperate-video-versions No longer needed
486fb179 2291
2292#### Removed
2293These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2294
f4536226 2295 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
3d3bb168 2296 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
f4536226 2297
8c6f4daa 2298# CONTRIBUTING
2299See [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 2300
17ffed18 2301# WIKI
2302See the [Wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki) for more information