]> jfr.im git - yt-dlp.git/blame - README.md
[curiositystream] Fix login
[yt-dlp.git] / README.md
CommitLineData
b31fdeed 1<div align="center">
2
e980017a 3[![YT-DLP](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master/.github/banner.svg)](#readme)
d9d045e2 4
28dff70b 5[![Release version](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?color=blue&label=&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest)
1aebc0f7 6[![CI Status](https://img.shields.io/github/workflow/status/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/Core%20Tests/master?label=&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions)
7[![License: Unlicense](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Unlicense-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge)](LICENSE)
418964fa 8[![Donate](https://img.shields.io/badge/_-Donate-red.svg?logo=githubsponsors&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](Collaborators.md#collaborators)
1aebc0f7 9[![Supported Sites](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Supported_Sites-brightgreen.svg?style=for-the-badge)](supportedsites.md)
28dff70b 10[![Discord](https://img.shields.io/discord/807245652072857610?color=blue&label=​&logo=discord&style=for-the-badge)](https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r)
b31fdeed 11[![Doc Status](https://readthedocs.org/projects/yt-dlp/badge/?version=latest&style=for-the-badge)](https://yt-dlp.readthedocs.io)
b31fdeed 12[![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)
28dff70b 13[![Last Commit](https://img.shields.io/github/last-commit/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master?label=&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits)
a7191c6f 14[![Downloads](https://img.shields.io/github/downloads/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/total?style=for-the-badge&color=blue)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest)
b31fdeed 15[![PyPi Downloads](https://img.shields.io/pypi/dm/yt-dlp?label=PyPi&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
c76eb41b 16
b31fdeed 17</div>
c76eb41b 18
b31fdeed 19yt-dlp is a [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) fork based on the now inactive [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc). The main focus of this project is adding new features and patches while also keeping up to date with the original project
5c0e5bc4 20
034b6215 21* [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
53ed7066 22 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
c76eb41b 23* [INSTALLATION](#installation)
17fa3ee2 24 * [Update](#update)
0e5927ee 25 * [Release Files](#release-files)
cf59cd4d 26 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
17fa3ee2 27 * [Compile](#compile)
b31fdeed 28* [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
29 * [General Options](#general-options)
50865ca8 30 * [Network Options](#network-options)
b31fdeed 31 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
50865ca8 32 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
33 * [Download Options](#download-options)
34 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
b31fdeed 35 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
50865ca8 36 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
0744a815 37 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
50865ca8 38 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
39 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
40 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
41 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
50865ca8 42 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
7a340e0d 43 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
50865ca8 44 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
c76eb41b 45* [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
50865ca8 46 * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
c76eb41b 47* [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
50865ca8 48 * [Output template and Windows batch files](#output-template-and-windows-batch-files)
49 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
c76eb41b 50* [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
50865ca8 51 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
52 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
53 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
73cd218f 54* [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
55 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
5d3a0e79 56* [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
f74980cb 57* [PLUGINS](#plugins)
8c6f4daa 58* [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
e167860c 59* [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
8c6f4daa 60* [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
61 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
62 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
c76eb41b 63* [MORE](#more)
50865ca8 64
65
034b6215 66# NEW FEATURES
f20f5fe5 67The major new features from the latest release of [blackjack4494/yt-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) are:
034b6215 68
7a340e0d 69* **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
034b6215 70
7581d246 71* **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using `-S`. This allows for much easier format selection than what is possible by simply using `--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
034b6215 72
6aecd871 73* **Merged with youtube-dl [commit/379f52a](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/379f52a4954013767219d25099cce9e0f9401961)**: (v2021.06.06) You get all the latest features and patches of [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) in addition to all the features of [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc)
034b6215 74
0fdf490d 75* **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from [animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including `--write-comments`, `BiliBiliSearch`, `BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that the NicoNico improvements are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
29b6000e 76
f5546c0b 77* **Youtube improvements**:
6ccf351a 78 * All Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`) and private playlists supports downloading multiple pages of content
0fdf490d 79 * Search (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`), search URLs and in-channel search works
80 * Mixes supports downloading multiple pages of content
86c1a8aa 81 * Some (but not all) age-gated content can be downloaded without cookies
a4211baf 82 * Fix for [n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326)
f20f5fe5 83 * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to `/video` to preserve the old behaviour
e6f21b3d 84 * `255kbps` audio is extracted (if available) from youtube music when premium cookies are given
9ee4f0bb 85 * Youtube music Albums, channels etc can be downloaded ([except self-uploaded music](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/723))
f20f5fe5 86
245524e6 87* **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[:PROFILE]`
88
597c1866 89* **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
90
b31fdeed 91* **Multi-threaded fragment downloads**: Download multiple fragments of m3u8/mpd videos in parallel. Use `--concurrent-fragments` (`-N`) option to set the number of threads used
8d801631 92
b31fdeed 93* **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
f20f5fe5 94
86c1a8aa 95* **New extractors**: 17live, 3speak, amazonstore, animelab, audius, bandcampmusic, bannedvideo, biliintl, bitwave.tv, blackboardcollaborate, cam4, cgtn, chingari, ciscowebex, damtomo, discoveryplus.in, douyin, epicon, euscreen, fancode, filmmodu, gab, gedi, gettr, gopro, gotostage, gronkh, koo, manototv, mediaite, mediaklikk, mediasetshow, mediathek, microsoftstream, mildom, mirrativ, mlsscoccer, mtv.it, musescore, mxplayershow, n1, nebula, nfhsnetwork, novaplay, nzherald, olympics replay, on24, openrec, parlview-AU, peloton, planetmarathi, pluto.tv, polsatgo, polskieradio, pornflip, projectveritas, radiko, radiokapital, radlive, raiplayradio, rcs, rctiplus, saitosan, sciencechannel, shemaroome, skynews-AU, skynews-story, sovietscloset, startv, streamanity, telemundo, theta, theta, tokentube, tv2huseries, ukcolumn, utreon, veo, vidiolive, vidiopremier, voicy, vupload, whowatch, wim.tv, wppilot, youtube webarchive, zee5, zen.yandex
f20f5fe5 96
86c1a8aa 97* **New playlist extractors**: bilibili categories, eroprofile albums, hotstar series, hungama albums, newgrounds user, niconico search/users, paramountplus series, patreon user, peertube playlist/channels, roosterteeth series, sonyliv series, tiktok user, trovo channels, voot series
98
99* **Fixed/improved extractors**: 7plus, 9now, afreecatv, akamai, aljazeera, amcnetworks, animalplanet, archive.org, arte, atv, bbc, bilibili, bitchute, bravotv, camtube, cbc, cda, ceskatelevize, chingari, comedycentral, coub, crackle, crunchyroll, curiositystream, diynetwork, dw, eroprofile, facebook, francetv, funimation, globo, hearthisatie, hidive, hotstar, hungama, imdb, ina, instagram, iprima, itv, iwara, kakao, la7, linkedinlearning, linuxacadamy, mediaset, mediasite, motherless, mxplayer, nbcolympics, ndr, newgrounds, niconico, nitter, nova, nrk, nuvid, oreilly, paramountplus, parliamentlive, patreon, pbs, peertube, plutotv, polskieradio, pornhub, reddit, reddit, redtube, rmcdecouverte, roosterteeth, rtp, rumble, saml verizon login, skyit, sonyliv, soundcloud, southparkde, spankbang, spreaker, streamable, tagesschau, tbs, tennistv, tenplay, tiktok, tubi, tv2, tv2hu, tv5mondeplus, tvp, twitcasting, vh1, viafree, videa, vidio, vidme, viewlift, viki, vimeo, viu, vk, vlive, vrt, wakanim, xhamster, yahoo
100
101* **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN
fac98805 102
3de7c2ce 103* **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 104
597c1866 105* **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 106
107* **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
108
418964fa 109* **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 110
418964fa 111* **Other new options**: `--print`, `--sleep-requests`, `--convert-thumbnails`, `--write-link`, `--force-download-archive`, `--force-overwrites`, `--break-on-reject` etc
0bc0a322 112
418964fa 113* **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in `--match-filter`, multiple `--postprocessor-args` and `--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection) etc
c69911e4 114
86c1a8aa 115* **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
b31fdeed 116
7a5c1cfe 117* **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`
aa837ddf 118
29b6000e 119
7a5c1cfe 120See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
a26c99ac 121
122
90505ff1 123**PS**: Some of these changes are already in youtube-dlc, but are still unreleased. See [this](Changelog.md#unreleased-changes-in-blackjack4494yt-dlc) for details
f20f5fe5 124
b9650873 125If you are coming from [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl), the amount of changes are very large. Compare [options](#options) and [supported sites](supportedsites.md) with youtube-dl's to get an idea of the massive number of features/patches [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) has accumulated.
f20f5fe5 126
53ed7066 127### Differences in default behavior
128
0930b11f 129Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
53ed7066 130
96565c7e 131* The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
28b0eb0f 132* `avconv` is not supported as as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
96565c7e 133* 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 134* The default [format sorting](#sorting-formats) is different from youtube-dl and prefers higher resolution and better codecs rather than higher bitrates. You can use the `--format-sort` option to change this to any order you prefer, or use `--compat-options format-sort` to use youtube-dl's sorting order
28b0eb0f 135* The default format selector is `bv*+ba/b`. This means that if a combined video + audio format that is better than the best video-only format is found, the former will be prefered. Use `-f bv+ba/b` or `--compat-options format-spec` to revert this
136* 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
137* `--ignore-errors` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
138* 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
139* `--add-metadata` attaches the `infojson` to `mkv` files in addition to writing the metadata when used with `--write-infojson`. Use `--compat-options no-attach-info-json` to revert this
140* `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
141* The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
3acf6d38 142* All *experiences* of a funimation episode are considered as a single video. This behavior breaks existing archives. Use `--compat-options seperate-video-versions` to extract information from only the default player
28b0eb0f 143* Youtube live chat (if available) is considered as a subtitle. Use `--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use `--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent live chat from downloading
09f1580e 144* Youtube channel URLs are automatically redirected to `/video`. Append a `/featured` to the URL to download only the videos in the home page. If the channel does not have a videos tab, we try to download the equivalent `UU` playlist instead. Also, `/live` URLs raise an error if there are no live videos instead of silently downloading the entire channel. You may use `--compat-options no-youtube-channel-redirect` to revert all these redirections
28b0eb0f 145* Unavailable videos are also listed for youtube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
18e674b4 146* 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 147* Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
e4f02757 148* Some private fields such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use `--no-clean-infojson` or `--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
0930b11f 149* When `--embed-subs` and `--write-subs` are used together, the subtitles are written to disk and also embedded in the media file. You can use just `--embed-subs` to embed the subs and automatically delete the seperate file. See [#630 (comment)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/630#issuecomment-893659460) for more info. `--compat-options no-keep-subs` can be used to revert this
53ed7066 150
151For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
28b0eb0f 152* `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options
153* `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams`
154* `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
53ed7066 155
f20f5fe5 156
d19bb9c0 157# INSTALLATION
50865ca8 158
7bc877a2 159You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
a61f4b28 160
a4211baf 161### Using the release binary
0930b11f 162
163You can simply download the [correct binary file](#release-files) for your OS: **[[Windows](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)] [[UNIX-like](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)]**
5f326cf5 164
0930b11f 165In UNIX-like OSes (MacOS, Linux, BSD), you can also install the same in one of the following ways:
5ba4a0b6
A
166
167```
168sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
169sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
170```
171
172```
173sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
174sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
175```
176
177```
178sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
179sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
180```
181
0930b11f 182PS: The manpages, shell completion files etc. are available in [yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
183
a4211baf 184### With [PIP](https://pypi.org/project/pip)
0930b11f 185
186You can install the [PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) with:
187```
188python3 -m pip install -U yt-dlp
189```
190
86c1a8aa 191You can install without any of the optional dependencies using:
0930b11f 192```
193python3 -m pip install --no-deps -U yt-dlp
194```
195
86c1a8aa 196If you want to be on the cutting edge, you can also install the master branch with:
0930b11f 197```
59a7a13e 198python3 -m pip3 install --force-reinstall https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/archive/master.zip
0930b11f 199```
200
201Note that on some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`
202
a4211baf 203### With [Homebrew](https://brew.sh)
0930b11f 204
205macOS or Linux users that are using Homebrew can also install it by:
b8773e63
THD
206
207```
208brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp
209```
210
a4211baf 211## UPDATE
0930b11f 212You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are [using the provided release](#using-the-release-binary)
213
214If you [installed with pip](#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
215
216If you [installed using Homebrew](#with-homebrew), run `brew upgrade yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp`
cf59cd4d 217
a4211baf 218## RELEASE FILES
0e5927ee 219
733d8e8f 220#### Recommended
221
222File|Description
223:---|:---
0930b11f 224[yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independant binary. Needs Python (recommended for **UNIX-like systems**)
225[yt-dlp.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary (recommended for **Windows**)
733d8e8f 226
227#### Alternatives
228
0e5927ee
R
229File|Description
230:---|:---
96565c7e 231[yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|MacOS (10.15+) standalone executable
0930b11f 232[yt-dlp_x86.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_x86.exe)|Windows (Vista SP2+) standalone x86 (32-bit) binary
96565c7e 233[yt-dlp_min.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_min.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary built with `py2exe`.<br/> Does not contain `pycryptodomex`, needs VC++14
0930b11f 234[yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
235[yt-dlp_macos.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos.zip)|Unpackaged MacOS (10.15+) executable (no auto-update)
733d8e8f 236
237#### Misc
238
239File|Description
240:---|:---
0e5927ee
R
241[yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball. Also contains manpages, completions, etc
242[SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
243[SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
244
a4211baf 245## DEPENDENCIES
cf59cd4d 246Python versions 3.6+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
b31fdeed 247
c9652aa4 248<!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
249<!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
cf59cd4d 250On 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 251-->
fac98805 252
cf59cd4d 253While all the other dependancies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
254* [**ffmpeg** and **ffprobe**](https://www.ffmpeg.org) - Required for [merging seperate video and audio files](#format-selection) as well as for various [post-processing](#post-processing-options) tasks. Licence [depends on the build](https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html)
0930b11f 255* [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen) - For embedding thumbnail in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
256* [**pycryptodomex**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome) - For decrypting AES-128 HLS streams and various other data. Licensed under [BSD2](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
257* [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets) - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD3](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
258* [**keyring**](https://github.com/jaraco/keyring) - For decrypting cookies of chromium-based browsers on Linux. Licensed under [MIT](https://github.com/jaraco/keyring/blob/main/LICENSE)
259* [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For embedding thumbnail in mp4/m4a if mutagen is not present. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
260* [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
261* [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or [**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading `rstp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
262* [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licensed under [BSD3](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
263* [**sponskrub**](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) - For using the now **deprecated** [sponskrub options](#sponskrub-options). Licensed under [GPLv3+](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub/blob/master/LICENCE.md)
cf59cd4d 264* Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
b31fdeed 265
cf59cd4d 266To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
267
0930b11f 268The Windows and MacOS standalone release binaries are already built with the python interpreter, mutagen, pycryptodomex and websockets included.
d710cc6d 269
270**Note**: There are some regressions in newer ffmpeg versions that causes various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependancy, we provide [custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds/wiki/Latest#latest-autobuilds) with patches for these issues at [yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds). See [the readme](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#patches-applied) for details on the specifc issues solved by these builds
271
5f326cf5 272
a4211baf 273## COMPILE
5f326cf5 274
c76eb41b 275**For Windows**:
49a57e70 276To build the Windows executable, you must have pyinstaller (and optionally mutagen, pycryptodomex, websockets). Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, (optionally) build lazy extractors using `devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py`, and then just run `pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (32/64 bit) as the python used to build it.
e38df8f9 277
733d8e8f 278 py -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
49a57e70 279 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
733d8e8f 280 py pyinst.py
7581d246 281
fac98805 282Note that pyinstaller [does not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment
b96a939b 283
c76eb41b 284**For Unix**:
060ac762 285You will need the required build tools: `python`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`, `zip`, `pytest`
127d0759 286Then simply run `make`. You can also run `make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files
5f326cf5 287
49a57e70 288**Note**: In either platform, `devscripts/update-version.py` can be used to automatically update the version number
d19bb9c0 289
59a7a13e 290You can also fork the project on github and push it to a release branch in your fork for the [build workflow](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically make a release for you
291
b31fdeed 292# USAGE AND OPTIONS
6bcd846b 293
7a5c1cfe 294 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
b50e3bc6 295
c2b5f311 296`Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
e58c22a0 297<!-- Auto generated -->
c2b5f311 298
c76eb41b 299## General Options:
1dc2726f
PH
300 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
301 --version Print program version and exit
8d801631 302 -U, --update Update this program to latest version. Make
303 sure that you have sufficient permissions
304 (run with sudo if needed)
b1940459 305 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
0930b11f 306 The download will be considered successful
b1940459 307 even if the postprocessing fails
308 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download
309 errors; e.g. to skip unavailable videos in
310 a playlist (default)
8a51f564 311 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
312 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
34488702 313 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
314 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
c4af7684 315 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
34488702 316 extractors and exit
c4af7684
PH
317 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
318 extractor
319 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
320 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
9ee4f0bb 321 from google videos for the search term
322 "large apple". Use the value "auto" to let
323 yt-dlp guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
c4af7684
PH
324 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
325 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
326 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
8a51f564 327 this is not possible instead of searching
298f597b 328 --ignore-config, --no-config Disable loading any configuration files
8a51f564 329 except the one provided by --config-location.
330 When given inside a configuration
298f597b 331 file, no further configuration files are
332 loaded. Additionally, (for backward
333 compatibility) if this option is found
334 inside the system configuration file, the
8a51f564 335 user configuration is not loaded
0202b52a 336 --config-location PATH Location of the main configuration file;
337 either the path to the config or its
338 containing directory
c4af7684 339 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
8a51f564 340 only list them
6623ac34 341 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
b5ae35ee 342 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate).
343 Currently only supported for YouTube
597c1866 344 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
8a51f564 345 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output
53ed7066 346 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
31654882 347 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
53ed7066 348 configurations by reverting some of the
349 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
350 default behavior" for details
08c1d0d3 351
149f05c7 352## Network Options:
28b4f736 353 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy.
0934c9d4
S
354 To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper
355 scheme. For example
28b4f736
PH
356 socks5://127.0.0.1:1080/. Pass in an empty
357 string (--proxy "") for direct connection
149f05c7 358 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
c4af7684 359 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
c4af7684 360 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
c4af7684 361 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
8c6c88c7 362
b31fdeed 363## Geo-restriction:
c25f1a9b
S
364 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
365 some geo-restricted sites. The default
366 proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the
7550ea50 367 option is not present) is used for the
8a51f564 368 actual downloading
8c6c88c7 369 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
0934c9d4 370 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
8c6c88c7
S
371 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
372 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
8c6c88c7
S
373 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
374 explicitly provided two-letter ISO 3166-2
0934c9d4 375 country code
9e18bb4c
S
376 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
377 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR
0934c9d4 378 notation
149f05c7 379
cfcec693 380## Video Selection:
1dc2726f
PH
381 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is 1)
382 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
c4af7684
PH
383 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
384 indices of the videos in the playlist
385 separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
386 1,2,5,8" if you want to download videos
387 indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in the playlist. You can
388 specify range: "--playlist-items
389 1-3,7,10-13", it will download the videos
8a51f564 390 at index 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13
780083db 391 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
c4af7684
PH
392 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
393 SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
394 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
395 (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
0930b11f 396 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
6623ac34 397 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
398 "(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?"
c4af7684 399 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
c76eb41b 400 this date. The date formats accepted is the
401 same as --date
c4af7684 402 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
c76eb41b 403 this date. The date formats accepted is the
404 same as --date
77b87f05
MT
405 --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Any field (see
406 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE") can be compared with a
a047eeb6 407 number or a string using the operators
408 defined in "Filtering formats". You can
409 also simply specify a field to match if the
410 field is present and "!field" to check if
411 the field is not present. In addition,
412 Python style regular expression matching
413 can be done using "~=", and multiple
414 filters can be checked with "&". Use a "\"
415 to escape "&" or quotes if needed. Eg:
416 --match-filter "!is_live & like_count>?100
2e7781a9 417 & description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'"
a047eeb6 418 matches only videos that are not live, has
419 a like count more than 100 (or the like
77b87f05 420 field is not available), and also has a
a047eeb6 421 description that contains the phrase "cats
422 & dogs" (ignoring case)
c76eb41b 423 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
c4af7684 424 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
8a51f564 425 to a video and a playlist
c4af7684 426 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
8a51f564 427 a video and a playlist
c4af7684
PH
428 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
429 age
430 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
431 archive file. Record the IDs of all
8a51f564 432 downloaded videos in it
8b0d7497 433 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
8a51f564 434 a file that is in the archive
8b0d7497 435 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
8a51f564 436 a file that has been filtered out
26e2805c 437 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest
438 of the playlist is skipped
c76eb41b 439 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
6bcd846b 440
d5a62e4f 441## Download Options:
b31fdeed 442 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
443 video that should be download concurrently
444 (default is 1)
5e3856a2 445 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
c4af7684 446 (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
6aecd871 447 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
448 below which throttling is assumed and the
449 video data is re-extracted (e.g. 100K)
c4af7684 450 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
8a51f564 451 "infinite"
0be8314d 452 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
b56e41a7
S
453 is 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and
454 ISM)
6623ac34 455 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
456 hlsnative and ISM (default)
8a51f564 457 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
6623ac34 458 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading if a fragment is unavailable
8a51f564 459 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
a82f4184 460 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
6623ac34 461 downloading is finished
c76eb41b 462 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
463 downloading is finished (default)
c4af7684
PH
464 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
465 (default is 1024)
c76eb41b 466 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
467 from an initial value of --buffer-size
468 (default)
469 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
db157d2a
S
470 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
471 downloading (e.g. 10485760 or 10M) (default
472 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
473 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
474 (experimental)
2101f5d4 475 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
6623ac34 476 --no-playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in default order
c76eb41b 477 (default)
31487eb9 478 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
c4af7684 479 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
0934c9d4 480 expected file size
9bd20204 481 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
482 allowing some players to play the video
483 while downloading, and reducing the chance
484 of file corruption if download is
485 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
486 live streams
487 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
488 videos. This is default when not
489 downloading live streams
52a8a1e1 490 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
491 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
492 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
493 use it for. Currently supports native,
494 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
495 wget (Recommended: aria2c). You can use
496 this option multiple times to set different
497 downloaders for different protocols. For
498 example, --downloader aria2c --downloader
499 "dash,m3u8:native" will use aria2c for
500 http/ftp downloads, and the native
501 downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
502 (Alias: --external-downloader)
46ee996e 503 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
504 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
330690a2 505 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
506 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to
507 different positions using the same syntax
508 as --postprocessor-args. You can use this
509 option multiple times to give different
510 arguments to different downloaders
29b6000e 511 (Alias: --external-downloader-args)
d5a62e4f 512
cfcec693 513## Filesystem Options:
c4af7684 514 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-' for
e8dfecb3
S
515 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
516 with '#', ';' or ']' are considered as
8a51f564 517 comments and ignored
1e520b55 518 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
6ccf351a 519 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
0202b52a 520 downloaded. Specify the type of file and
de6000d9 521 the path separated by a colon ":". All the
522 same types as --output are supported.
523 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
6ccf351a 524 (default) and "temp" paths. All
525 intermediary files are first downloaded to
526 the temp path and then the final files are
527 moved over to the home path after download
528 is finished. This option is ignored if
529 --output is an absolute path
d818eb74 530 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
c76eb41b 531 TEMPLATE" for details
0bc0a322 532 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder value for unavailable meta
533 fields in output filename template
534 (default: "NA")
c4af7684
PH
535 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
536 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
537 filenames
c76eb41b 538 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
539 filenames (default)
0930b11f 540 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
541 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
542 using Windows (default)
c2934512 543 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
544 extension) to the specified number of
545 characters
9b45b9f5 546 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
547 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files.
548 This option includes --no-continue
549 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
550 related files (default)
c25228e5 551 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
552 (default)
553 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
e58c22a0 554 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
c25228e5 555 restart download of the entire file
c76eb41b 556 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
6623ac34 557 into output file (default)
c4af7684
PH
558 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
559 into output file
c76eb41b 560 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the
561 file modification time (default)
c4af7684
PH
562 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
563 the file modification time
564 --write-description Write video description to a .description
565 file
6623ac34 566 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
1dc2726f 567 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
c25228e5 568 (this may contain personal information)
6623ac34 569 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
cac96421 570 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
571 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
572 --write-description etc. (default)
573 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
574 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
75d43ca0 575 --clean-infojson Remove some private fields such as
576 filenames from the infojson. Note that it
577 could still contain some personal
578 information (default)
579 --no-clean-infojson Write all fields to the infojson
2305e2e5 580 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
581 infojson. The comments are fetched even
582 without this option if the extraction is
583 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
584 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
585 extraction is known to be quick
586 (Alias: --no-get-comments)
d845622b 587 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
c4af7684
PH
588 (created with the "--write-info-json"
589 option)
590 --cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump cookie
591 jar in
982ee69a
MB
592 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
593 (default)
594 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[:PROFILE]
595 Load cookies from a user profile of the
596 given web browser. Currently supported
0ef787d7 597 browsers are: brave, chrome, chromium,
598 edge, firefox, opera, safari, vivaldi. You
599 can specify the user profile name or
600 directory using "BROWSER:PROFILE_NAME" or
982ee69a
MB
601 "BROWSER:PROFILE_PATH". If no profile is
602 given, the most recently accessed one is
603 used
604 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
6623ac34 605 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
3b1fe47d 606 can store some downloaded information (such
607 as client ids and signatures) permanently.
9ee4f0bb 608 By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/yt-dlp or
609 ~/.cache/yt-dlp
36f35428
PH
610 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
611 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
6bcd846b 612
b31fdeed 613## Thumbnail Options:
1dc2726f 614 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
6623ac34 615 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk
c76eb41b 616 (default)
1dc2726f 617 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
34488702 618 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
619 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
2b1bd292 620
732044af 621## Internet Shortcut Options:
8a51f564 622 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
623 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
624 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
625 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
626 OS caches the URL based on the file path
627 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
628 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
732044af 629
0744a815 630## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
34488702 631 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with
632 --verbose, print the log to stderr
6c072e7d 633 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
c4af7684
PH
634 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
635 anything to disk
34488702 636 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
637 options are used
0930b11f 638 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
639 extracting metadata even if the videos are
640 not actually available for download
0cf05715 641 (experimental)
642 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
643 formats are found (default)
e167860c 644 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
645 related files (Alias: --no-download)
34488702 646 -O, --print TEMPLATE Quiet, but print the given fields for each
647 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
648 used. Either a field name or same syntax as
649 the output template can be used
650 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
651 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
652 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
653 description of available keys
654 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
655 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
656 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
657 a playlist, the whole playlist information
658 is dumped in a single line
8a51f564 659 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be
e58c22a0 660 written as far as no errors occur, even if
661 -s or another simulation option is used
8a51f564 662 (Alias: --force-download-archive)
1dc2726f
PH
663 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
664 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
819e0531 665 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
1dc2726f 666 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
819e0531 667 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
668 Template for progress outputs, optionally
669 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
670 "download-title:" (the console title),
671 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
672 The video's fields are accessible under the
673 "info" key and the progress attributes are
0930b11f 674 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.:
819e0531 675 --console-title --progress-template
676 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
1dc2726f 677 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
c4af7684
PH
678 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
679 to debug problems (very verbose)
680 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
681 files in the current directory to debug
682 problems
780083db 683 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
6bcd846b 684
36f35428
PH
685## Workarounds:
686 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
0930b11f 687 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
c4af7684 688 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
e167860c 689 information about the video (Currently
05a7ffb1 690 supported only for YouTube)
1dc2726f 691 --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
c4af7684
PH
692 --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video
693 access is restricted to one domain
694 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
45016689 695 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
c4af7684
PH
696 option multiple times
697 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
698 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
699 or fribidi executable in PATH
1cf376f5 700 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
701 during data extraction
c4af7684 702 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
e167860c 703 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
704 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
705 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
706 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can
707 only be used along with --min-sleep-interval
1cf376f5 708 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
709 subtitle download
36f35428 710
cfcec693 711## Video Format Options:
eb8a4433 712 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
713 for more details
714 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
715 "Sorting Formats" for more details
8a51f564 716 --S-force, --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
717 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
eb8a4433 718 Formats" for more details
719 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
c76eb41b 720 specified sort order (default), see
721 "Sorting Formats" for more details
722 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
723 into a single file
724 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for
725 each output file (default)
726 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
727 into a single file
728 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for
729 each output file (default)
da9be05e 730 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
731 over non-free ones of same quality. Use
732 with "-S ext" to strictly prefer free
733 containers irrespective of quality
734 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
735 containers (default)
0930b11f 736 --check-formats Check that the selected formats are
0ba692ac 737 actually downloadable
0930b11f 738 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
0ba692ac 739 actually downloadable
0930b11f 740 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
741 downloadable
34488702 742 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
743 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
c4af7684
PH
744 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
745 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
746 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
747 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
8ae7be3e
PH
748
749## Subtitle Options:
c76eb41b 750 --write-subs Write subtitle file
751 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
752 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
e167860c 753 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
754 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
755 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
34488702 756 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
757 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
c4af7684
PH
758 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
759 preference, for example: "srt" or
760 "ass/srt/best"
c32b0aab 761 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
762 be regex) or "all" separated by commas.
a4211baf 763 (Eg: --sub-langs "en.*,ja") You can prefix
c32b0aab 764 the language code with a "-" to exempt it
765 from the requested languages. (Eg: --sub-
766 langs all,-live_chat) Use --list-subs for a
767 list of available language tags
6bcd846b 768
cfcec693 769## Authentication Options:
1dc2726f 770 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
c4af7684 771 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
7a5c1cfe 772 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
dc48a354 773 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
1dc2726f 774 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
0001fcb5 775 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
776 either the path or its containing
777 directory. Defaults to ~/.netrc
29f7c58a 778 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
f5e008d1 779 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
909d24dd 780 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
781 a list of available MSOs
f5e008d1
S
782 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
783 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
c74d1aa3 784 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
785 interactively
f5e008d1
S
786 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
787 operators
788
c76eb41b 789## Post-Processing Options:
c4af7684 790 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
e4172ac9 791 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
3de7c2ce 792 --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format to convert the audio
793 to when -x is used. Currently supported
794 formats are: best (default) or one of
34488702 795 best|aac|flac|mp3|m4a|opus|vorbis|wav
e4172ac9 796 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality, insert a
86c1a8aa 797 value between 0 (best) and 10 (worst) for
e4172ac9 798 VBR or a specific bitrate like 128K
c4af7684 799 (default 5)
c76eb41b 800 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
29b6000e 801 necessary (currently supported: mp4|mkv|flv
802 |webm|mov|avi|mp3|mka|m4a|ogg|opus). If
803 target container does not support the
06167fbb 804 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
3de7c2ce 805 can specify multiple rules; Eg.
06167fbb 806 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to
807 m4a, mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv.
c76eb41b 808 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
3de7c2ce 809 re-encoding is necessary. The syntax and
810 supported formats are the same as --remux-video
1b77b347 811 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
43820c03 812 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
45016689 813 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
814 to give the argument to the specified
8fa43c73 815 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
7a340e0d
NA
816 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
817 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
8fa43c73 818 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
819 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
6aecd871 820 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
821 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
8fa43c73 822 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
9ee4f0bb 823 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
7a340e0d
NA
824 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
825 specified executable only when being used
826 by the specified postprocessor.
827 Additionally, for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o"
828 can be appended to the prefix optionally
829 followed by a number to pass the argument
830 before the specified input/output file. Eg:
831 --ppa "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can
832 use this option multiple times to give
e4172ac9 833 different arguments to different
5b1ecbb3 834 postprocessors. (Alias: --ppa)
c76eb41b 835 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
6623ac34 836 after post-processing
c76eb41b 837 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
6623ac34 838 post-processing (default)
839 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
840 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
0be8314d
PH
841 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
842 webm and mkv videos)
c76eb41b 843 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
6aecd871 844 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
6623ac34 845 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
7a340e0d
NA
846 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also adds
847 chapters to file unless --no-add-chapters
848 is used (Alias: --add-metadata)
849 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
6aecd871 850 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
7a340e0d
NA
851 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
852 (Alias: --add-chapters)
853 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default)
854 (Alias: --no-add-chapters)
73cd218f 855 --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
856 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
857 for details
e9f4ccd1 858 --replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
859 Replace text in a metadata field using the
860 given regex. This option can be used
861 multiple times
c4af7684
PH
862 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
863 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
864 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
865 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
866 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
867 default; fix file if we can, warn
6aecd871 868 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
869 already exists
e4172ac9 870 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
871 path to the binary or its containing
872 directory
c4af7684 873 --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
34488702 874 downloading and post-processing. Same
875 syntax as the output template can be used
9de3ea31 876 to pass any field as arguments to the
877 command. An additional field "filepath"
878 that contains the final path of the
879 downloaded file is also available. If no
7d1eb38a 880 fields are passed, %(filepath)q is appended
34488702 881 to the end of the command. This option can
882 be used multiple times
883 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
5520aa2d 884 --exec-before-download CMD Execute a command before the actual
885 download. The syntax is the same as --exec
34488702 886 but "filepath" is not available. This
887 option can be used multiple times
888 --no-exec-before-download Remove any previously defined
889 --exec-before-download
e167860c 890 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
3de7c2ce 891 (currently supported: srt|vtt|ass|lrc)
e167860c 892 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
8fa43c73 893 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
3de7c2ce 894 (currently supported: jpg|png)
72755351 895 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
896 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix
897 can be used with "--paths" and "--output"
898 to set the output filename for the split
899 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
900 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters
901 (default)
7a340e0d 902 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
2d9ec704 903 given regular expression. Time ranges
904 prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place
905 of chapters to remove the specified range.
906 Eg: --remove-chapters "*10:15-15:00"
907 --remove-chapters "intro". This option can
7a340e0d 908 be used multiple times
9ee4f0bb 909 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
910 (default)
7a340e0d
NA
911 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes around the chapters before
912 removing/splitting them. Requires a
913 reencode and thus is very slow, but the
914 resulting video may have fewer artifacts
915 around the cuts
916 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
917 when cutting/splitting (default)
3ae5e797 918 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS] The (case sensitive) name of plugin
919 postprocessors to be enabled, and
920 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
921 seperated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
922 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
923 The "when" argument determines when the
924 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
925 "pre_process" (after extraction),
926 "before_dl" (before video download),
927 "post_process" (after video download;
928 default) or "after_move" (after moving file
929 to their final locations). This option can
930 be used multiple times to add different
931 postprocessors
7a340e0d
NA
932
933## SponsorBlock Options:
934Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
935 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
8a51f564 936 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
937
7a340e0d
NA
938 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
939 for, separated by commas. Available
940 categories are all, sponsor, intro, outro,
941 selfpromo, interaction, preview,
942 music_offtopic. You can prefix the category
943 with a "-" to exempt it. See
944 https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/index.php/Segment_Categories
945 for description of the categories. Eg:
946 --sponsorblock-query all,-preview
947 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
948 the video file, separated by commas. If a
949 category is present in both mark and
950 remove, remove takes precedence. The syntax
951 and available categories are the same as
952 for --sponsorblock-mark
953 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
954 The title template for SponsorBlock
955 chapters created by --sponsorblock-mark.
956 The same syntax as the output template is
957 used, but the only available fields are
958 start_time, end_time, category, categories,
959 name, category_names. Defaults to
960 "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
961 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
962 --sponsorblock-remove
963 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
964 https://sponsor.ajay.app
a9e7f546 965
78895bd3 966## Extractor Options:
5ef7d9bd 967 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor
d6e51845 968 errors (default is 3), or "infinite"
6623ac34 969 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
8a51f564 970 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
971 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
972 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
e409895f 973 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
974 discontinuities such as ad breaks
975 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
976 formats at discontinuities such as ad
977 breaks (default)
5d3a0e79 978 --extractor-args KEY:ARGS Pass these arguments to the extractor. See
979 "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You can
980 use this option multiple times to give
245524e6 981 arguments for different extractors
17cb02d0 982
b7770046
U
983# CONFIGURATION
984
7a5c1cfe 985You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
e2e43aea 986
0202b52a 9871. **Main Configuration**: The file given by `--config-location`
7a5c1cfe
P
9881. **Portable Configuration**: `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the bundled binary. If you are running from source-code (`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`), the root directory is used instead.
9891. **Home Configuration**: `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by `-P "home:<path>"`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
e2e43aea 9901. **User Configuration**:
991 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
992 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
993 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
994 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
995 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
996 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
997
a4211baf 998 `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%` defaults to `~/.config` if undefined. On windows, `%APPDATA%` generally points to (`C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming`) and `~` points to `%HOME%` if present, `%USERPROFILE%` (generally `C:\Users\<user name>`), or `%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
07cce701 9991. **System Configuration**: `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
b7770046 1000
7a5c1cfe 1001For example, with the following configuration file yt-dlp will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under `YouTube` directory in your home directory:
b7770046
U
1002```
1003# Lines starting with # are comments
1004
1005# Always extract audio
1006-x
1007
1008# Do not copy the mtime
1009--no-mtime
1010
1011# Use this proxy
1012--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1013
298f597b 1014# Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1015-o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
b7770046
U
1016```
1017
e2e43aea 1018Note that options in configuration file are just the same options aka switches used in regular command line calls; thus there **must be no whitespace** after `-` or `--`, e.g. `-o` or `--proxy` but not `- o` or `-- proxy`.
b7770046 1019
a4211baf 1020You can use `--ignore-config` if you want to disable all configuration files for a particular yt-dlp run. If `--ignore-config` is found inside any configuration file, no further configuration will be loaded. For example, having the option in the portable configuration file prevents loading of home, user, and system configurations. Additionally, (for backward compatibility) if `--ignore-config` is found inside the system configuration file, the user configuration is not loaded.
b7770046
U
1021
1022### Authentication with `.netrc` file
1023
0001fcb5 1024You may also want to configure automatic credentials storage for extractors that support authentication (by providing login and password with `--username` and `--password`) in order not to pass credentials as command line arguments on every yt-dlp execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command history. You can achieve this using a [`.netrc` file](https://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on a per extractor basis. For that you will need to create a `.netrc` file in `--netrc-location` and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
b7770046
U
1025```
1026touch $HOME/.netrc
1027chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
1028```
1029After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1030```
0001fcb5 1031machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
b7770046
U
1032```
1033For example:
1034```
1035machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1036machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1037```
7a5c1cfe 1038To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
b7770046 1039
0001fcb5 1040The default location of the .netrc file is `$HOME` (`~`) in UNIX. On Windows, it is `%HOME%` if present, `%USERPROFILE%` (generally `C:\Users\<user name>`) or `%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
b7770046
U
1041
1042# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1043
0202b52a 1044The `-o` option is used to indicate a template for the output file names while `-P` option is used to specify the path each type of file should be saved to.
b7770046
U
1045
1046**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
1047
e58c22a0 1048The 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 1049
0930b11f 1050It may however also contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according to [Python string formatting operations](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting). For example, `%(NAME)s` or `%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.
a439a3a4 1051
1052The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
2b8a2973 10531. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a `.` (dot) separator. You can also do python slicing using `:`. Eg: `%(tags.0)s`, `%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s`, `%(id.3:7:-1)s`, `%(formats.:.format_id)s`. `%()s` refers to the entire infodict. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use `-j` to see such fields
e625be0d 10541. **Addition**: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using `+` and `-` respectively. Eg: `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
10551. **Date/time Formatting**: Date/time fields can be formatted according to [strftime formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes) by specifying it separated from the field name using a `>`. Eg: `%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`, `%(upload_date>%Y-%m-%d)s`, `%(epoch-3600>%H-%M-%S)s`
7c37ff97 10561. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified seperated with a `,`. Eg: `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
10571. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a `|` seperator. This overrides `--output-na-template`. Eg: `%(uploader|Unknown)s`
4476d2c7 10581. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types `diouxXeEfFgGcrs`, `B`, `j`, `l`, `q` can be used for converting to **B**ytes, **j**son (flag `#` for pretty-printing), a comma seperated **l**ist (flag `#` for `\n` newline-seperated) and a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag `#` to split a list into different arguments), respectively
524e2e4f 10591. **Unicode normalization**: The format type `U` can be used for NFC [unicode normalization](https://docs.python.org/3/library/unicodedata.html#unicodedata.normalize). The alternate form flag (`#`) changes the normalization to NFD and the conversion flag `+` can be used for NFKC/NFKD compatibility equivalence normalization. Eg: `%(title)+.100U` is NFKC
a439a3a4 1060
1061To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1062```
7c37ff97 1063%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
a439a3a4 1064```
de6000d9 1065
08438d2c 1066Additionally, you can set different output templates for the various metadata files separately from the general output template by specifying the type of file followed by the template separated by a colon `:`. The different file types supported are `subtitle`, `thumbnail`, `description`, `annotation` (deprecated), `infojson`, `link`, `pl_thumbnail`, `pl_description`, `pl_infojson`, `chapter`. For example, `-o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' -o 'thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s'` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video. If any of the templates (except default) is empty, that type of file will not be written. Eg: `--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for video.
e29663c6 1067
1068The available fields are:
b7770046
U
1069
1070 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1071 - `title` (string): Video title
1072 - `url` (string): Video URL
1073 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1074 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
597c1866 1075 - `description` (string): The description of the video
b7770046
U
1076 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1077 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1078 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1079 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
b7770046
U
1080 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
1081 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
e6f21b3d 1082 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
1083 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
b7770046
U
1084 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1085 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1086 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
1087 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1088 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
53c18592 1089 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
b7770046
U
1090 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1091 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1092 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1093 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1094 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
277d6ff5 1095 - `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 1096 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
3dbb2a9d 1097 - `live_status` (string): One of 'is_live', 'was_live', 'is_upcoming', 'not_live'
b7770046 1098 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
f76ede8e 1099 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
6cfda058 1100 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
c224251a 1101 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is 'private', 'premium_only', 'subscriber_only', 'needs_auth', 'unlisted' or 'public'
b7770046
U
1102 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1103 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
29b6000e 1104 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
b7770046
U
1105 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by `--format`
1106 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
1107 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
1108 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
1109 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
1110 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1111 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1112 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
1113 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1114 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1115 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
176f1866 1116 - `dynamic_range` (string): The dynamic range of the video
b7770046
U
1117 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
1118 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
1119 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
1120 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
1121 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
1122 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1123 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
1124 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch when creating the file
1125 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`
e6f21b3d 1126 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
b7770046 1127 - `playlist` (string): Name or id of the playlist that contains the video
e6f21b3d 1128 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1129 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
b7770046
U
1130 - `playlist_id` (string): Playlist identifier
1131 - `playlist_title` (string): Playlist title
1132 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1133 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
bd99f6e6 1134 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
1135 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
b7770046
U
1136
1137Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1138
1139 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1140 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1141 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1142
1143Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1144
1145 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1146 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1147 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1148 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1149 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1150 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1151 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1152
1153Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1154
1155 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1156 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1157 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1158 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1159 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1160 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1161 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1162 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1163 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1164 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1165
b050d210 1166Available for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
72755351 1167
1168 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1169 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1170 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1171 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1172
53c18592 1173Available only when used in `--print`:
1174
1175 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1176 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the actual filename may be different due to post-processing. Use `--exec echo` to get the name after all postprocessing is complete
7a340e0d
NA
1177
1178Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1179
1180 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1181 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1182 - `categories` (list): The SponsorBlock categories the chapter belongs to
1183 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1184 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1185 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
53c18592 1186
49a57e70 1187Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. For example for `-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title `yt-dlp test video` and id `BaW_jenozKc`, this will result in a `yt-dlp test video-BaW_jenozKc.mp4` file created in the current directory.
1188
1189Note that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with placeholder value provided with `--output-na-placeholder` (`NA` by default).
b7770046 1190
0930b11f 1191**Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
b7770046 1192
49a57e70 1193For numeric sequences you can use [numeric related formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting), for example, `%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in `00042`.
b7770046
U
1194
1195Output 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.
1196
1197To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1198
91ebc640 1199The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
b7770046
U
1200
1201In 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:
1202
1203#### Output template and Windows batch files
1204
1205If you are using an output template inside a Windows batch file then you must escape plain percent characters (`%`) by doubling, so that `-o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"` should become `-o "%%(title)s-%%(id)s.%%(ext)s"`. However you should not touch `%`'s that are not plain characters, e.g. environment variables for expansion should stay intact: `-o "C:\%HOMEPATH%\Desktop\%%(title)s.%%(ext)s"`.
1206
1207#### Output template examples
1208
de6000d9 1209Note that on Windows you need to use double quotes instead of single.
b7770046
U
1210
1211```bash
7a5c1cfe
P
1212$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
1213youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
b7770046 1214
7a5c1cfe
P
1215$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
1216youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
b7770046
U
1217
1218# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
7a5c1cfe 1219$ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
b7770046 1220
b050d210 1221# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
7a5c1cfe 1222$ yt-dlp -o '%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
e29663c6 1223
b7770046 1224# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
7a5c1cfe 1225$ yt-dlp -o '%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists
b7770046
U
1226
1227# Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
7a5c1cfe 1228$ yt-dlp -u user -p password -P '~/MyVideos' -o '%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s - %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial/
b7770046
U
1229
1230# Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
7a5c1cfe 1231$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -o "%(series)s/%(season_number)s - %(season)s/%(episode_number)s - %(episode)s.%(ext)s" https://videomore.ru/kino_v_detalayah/5_sezon/367617
b7770046
U
1232
1233# Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
7a5c1cfe 1234$ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
b7770046
U
1235```
1236
1237# FORMAT SELECTION
1238
7a5c1cfe
P
1239By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1240This 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 1241
c111cefa 1242**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.
1243
eff63539 1244The general syntax for format selection is `-f FORMAT` (or `--format FORMAT`) where `FORMAT` is a *selector expression*, i.e. an expression that describes format or formats you would like to download.
b7770046
U
1245
1246**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1247
a439a3a4 1248The simplest case is requesting a specific format, for example with `-f 22` you can download the format with format code equal to 22. You can get the list of available format codes for particular video using `--list-formats` or `-F`. Note that these format codes are extractor specific.
b7770046
U
1249
1250You 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.
1251
1252You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1253
59a7a13e 1254 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1255 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
1256 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio
1257 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1258 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1259 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1260 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
1261 - `ba*`, `bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that **contains audio**. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `best*[acodec!=none]`
1262 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
909d24dd 1263 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1264 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
909d24dd 1265 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1266 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
909d24dd 1267 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
b7770046 1268
e58c22a0 1269For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use `-f worstvideo`. It is however recommended not to use `worst` and related options. When your format selector is `worst`, the format which is worst in all respects is selected. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use `-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps` instead of `-f worst`. See [sorting formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
eff63539 1270
1271You 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 1272
eb8a4433 1273If you want to download multiple videos and they don't have the same formats available, you can specify the order of preference using slashes. Note that formats on the left hand side are preferred, for example `-f 22/17/18` will download format 22 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 17 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 18 if it's available, otherwise it will complain that no suitable formats are available for download.
b7770046
U
1274
1275If 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`.
1276
d806c9fd 1277You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using `-f <format1>+<format2>+...` (requires ffmpeg installed), for example `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg.
1278
1279**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
1280
1281Unless `--video-multistreams` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, unless `--audio-multistreams` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. For example, `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --video-multistreams --audio-multistreams` will download and merge all 3 given formats. The resulting file will have 2 video streams and 2 audio streams. But `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --no-video-multistreams` will download and merge only `bestvideo` and `bestaudio`. `best` is ignored since another format containing a video stream (`bestvideo`) has already been selected. The order of the formats is therefore important. `-f best+bestaudio --no-audio-multistreams` will download and merge both formats while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore `best` and download only `bestaudio`.
eb8a4433 1282
1283## Filtering Formats
1284
b7770046
U
1285You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
1286
1287The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1288
1289 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1290 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1291 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
1292 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1293 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1294 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1295 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1296 - `fps`: Frame rate
1297
1298Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains) and following string meta fields:
1299
1300 - `ext`: File extension
1301 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1302 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1303 - `container`: Name of the container format
1304 - `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`)
1305 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
29f7c58a 1306 - `language`: Language code
b7770046
U
1307
1308Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation `!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. `!*=` (does not contain).
1309
e58c22a0 1310Note that none of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by the website. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
b7770046 1311
e094cec1 1312Formats for which the value is not known are excluded unless you put a question mark (`?`) after the operator. You can combine format filters, so `-f "[height<=?720][tbr>500]"` selects up to 720p videos (or videos where the height is not known) with a bitrate of at least 500 KBit/s. You can also use the filters with `all` to download all formats that satisfy the filter. For example, `-f "all[vcodec=none]"` selects all audio-only formats.
b7770046 1313
b7770046
U
1314Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if you want to download the best mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480 you can use `-f '(mp4,webm)[height<480]'`.
1315
eb8a4433 1316## Sorting Formats
1317
2e7781a9 1318You can change the criteria for being considered the `best` by using `-S` (`--format-sort`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...`.
1319
1320The available fields are:
eb8a4433 1321
63be1aab 1322 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1323 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
1324 - `ie_pref`: The format preference as given by the extractor
1325 - `lang`: Language preference as given by the extractor
dca3ff4a 1326 - `quality`: The quality of the format as given by the extractor
63be1aab 1327 - `source`: Preference of the source as given by the extractor
e36d50c5 1328 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > other > `mms`/`rtsp` > unknown > `f4f`/`f4m`)
155d2b48 1329 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other > unknown)
aeb2a9ad 1330 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other > unknown)
eb8a4433 1331 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
63be1aab 1332 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `webm` > `flv` > other > unknown). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is prefered.
1333 - `aext`: Audio Extension (`m4a` > `aac` > `mp3` > `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > other > unknown). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to `opus` > `ogg` > `webm` > `m4a` > `mp3` > `aac`.
1334 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
0930b11f 1335 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
63be1aab 1336 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1337 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
eb8a4433 1338 - `height`: Height of video
1339 - `width`: Width of video
63be1aab 1340 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1341 - `fps`: Framerate of video
49a57e70 1342 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
63be1aab 1343 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1344 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1345 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1346 - `br`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr`
1347 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
d806c9fd 1348
1349**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 1350
9ee4f0bb 1351All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in descending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+`. Eg: `+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a preferred value for the fields, separated by a `:`. Eg: `res:720` prefers larger videos, but no larger than 720p and the smallest video if there are no videos less than 720p. For `codec` and `ext`, you can provide two preferred values, the first for video and the second for audio. Eg: `+codec:avc:m4a` (equivalent to `+vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a`) sets the video codec preference to `h264` > `h265` > `vp9` > `vp9.2` > `av01` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` and audio codec preference to `mp4a` > `aac` > `vorbis` > `opus` > `mp3` > `ac3` > `dts`. You can also make the sorting prefer the nearest values to the provided by using `~` as the delimiter. Eg: `filesize~1G` prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.
1352
176f1866 1353The fields `hasvid` and `ie_pref` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using `--format-sort-force`. Apart from these, the default order used is: `lang,quality,res,fps,hdr:12,codec:vp9.2,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. The extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
eb8a4433 1354
176f1866 1355Note that the default has `codec:vp9.2`; i.e. `av1` is not prefered. Similarly, the default for hdr is `hdr:12`; i.e. dolby vision is not prefered. These choices are made since DV and AV1 formats are not yet fully compatible with most devices. This may be changed in the future as more devices become capable of smoothly playing back these formats.
eb8a4433 1356
e58c22a0 1357If 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 1358
1359**Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1360
eb8a4433 1361## Format Selection examples
b7770046
U
1362
1363Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
1364
1365```bash
e58c22a0 1366# Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
909d24dd 1367# or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
7a5c1cfe 1368$ yt-dlp -f 'bv+ba/b'
909d24dd 1369
1370# Download best format that contains video,
1371# and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
7a5c1cfe 1372$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba/b'
2af884ff 1373
1374# Same as above
7a5c1cfe 1375$ yt-dlp
909d24dd 1376
6fd35a11 1377# Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1378# For this case, an output template should be used since
1379# by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
7a5c1cfe 1380$ yt-dlp -f 'bv,ba' -o '%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s'
909d24dd 1381
f8d4ad9a 1382# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1383# and all audio-only formats into one file
1384$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]' --audio-multistreams
1385
1386# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1387# and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1388$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba+ba.2' --audio-multistreams
909d24dd 1389
6fd35a11 1390
1391# The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
f8d4ad9a 1392# and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
6fd35a11 1393
1394# Download the worst video available (old method)
7a5c1cfe 1395$ yt-dlp -f 'wv*+wa/w'
eb8a4433 1396
1397# Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
7a5c1cfe 1398$ yt-dlp -S '+res'
eb8a4433 1399
1400# Download the smallest video available
7a5c1cfe 1401$ yt-dlp -S '+size,+br'
eb8a4433 1402
1403
909d24dd 1404
eb8a4433 1405# Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
7a5c1cfe 1406$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b'
eb8a4433 1407
1408# Download the best video with the best extension
1409# (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
7a5c1cfe 1410$ yt-dlp -S 'ext'
eb8a4433 1411
1412
909d24dd 1413
eb8a4433 1414# Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1415# or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
7a5c1cfe 1416$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w'
b7770046 1417
eb8a4433 1418# Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1419# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
7a5c1cfe 1420$ yt-dlp -S 'height:480'
b7770046 1421
eb8a4433 1422# Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1423# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1424# Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1425# So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
7a5c1cfe 1426$ yt-dlp -S 'res:480'
b7770046 1427
b7770046 1428
909d24dd 1429
eb8a4433 1430# Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1431# or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
7a5c1cfe 1432$ yt-dlp -f 'b[filesize<50M] / w'
eb8a4433 1433
1434# Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1435# or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
7a5c1cfe 1436$ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize:50M'
eb8a4433 1437
1438# Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
7a5c1cfe 1439$ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize~50M'
eb8a4433 1440
1441
909d24dd 1442
eb8a4433 1443# Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1444# or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1445$ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)'
eb8a4433 1446
1447# Download best video available via the best protocol
1448# (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
7a5c1cfe 1449$ yt-dlp -S 'proto'
eb8a4433 1450
1451
909d24dd 1452
eb8a4433 1453# Download the best video with h264 codec, or the best video if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1454$ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[vcodec^=avc1] / (bv*+ba/b)'
eb8a4433 1455
1456# Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1457# or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1458$ yt-dlp -S 'codec:h264'
eb8a4433 1459
1460# Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1461# or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1462$ yt-dlp -S '+codec:h264'
eb8a4433 1463
1464
1465
1466# More complex examples
1467
e58c22a0 1468# Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1469# or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1470$ 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 1471
1472# Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
f8d4ad9a 1473# or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1474# preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
7a5c1cfe 1475$ yt-dlp -S 'res:720,fps'
eb8a4433 1476
1477
909d24dd 1478
eb8a4433 1479# Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1480# or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1481# preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
7a5c1cfe 1482$ yt-dlp -S '+res:480,codec,br'
b7770046 1483```
eb8a4433 1484
73cd218f 1485# MODIFYING METADATA
1486
a4211baf 1487The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
e9f4ccd1 1488
418964fa 1489`--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 1490
2e7781a9 1491The general syntax of `--parse-metadata FROM:TO` is to give the name of a field or an [output template](#output-template) to extract data from, and the format to interpret it as, separated by a colon `:`. Either a [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax) with named capture groups or a similar syntax to the [output template](#output-template) (only `%(field)s` formatting is supported) can be used for `TO`. The option can be used multiple times to parse and modify various fields.
73cd218f 1492
1493Note that any field created by this can be used in the [output template](#output-template) and will also affect the media file's metadata added when using `--add-metadata`.
1494
9c2b75b5 1495This option also has a few special uses:
28b0eb0f 1496* You can download an additional URL based on the metadata of the currently downloaded video. To do this, set the field `additional_urls` to the URL that you want to download. Eg: `--parse-metadata "description:(?P<additional_urls>https?://www\.vimeo\.com/\d+)` will download the first vimeo video found in the description
b11d2101 1497* You can use this to change the metadata that is embedded in the media file. To do this, set the value of the corresponding field with a `meta_` prefix. For example, any value you set to `meta_description` field will be added to the `description` field in the file. For example, you can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis". Any value set to the `meta_` field will overwrite all default values.
c31be5b0 1498
1499For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1500
1501Metadata fields|From
1502:---|:---
1503`title`|`track` or `title`
1504`date`|`upload_date`
1505`description`, `synopsis`|`description`
1506`purl`, `comment`|`webpage_url`
1507`track`|`track_number`
1508`artist`|`artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1509`genre`|`genre`
1510`album`|`album`
1511`album_artist`|`album_artist`
1512`disc`|`disc_number`
1513`show`|`series`
1514`season_number`|`season_number`
1515`episode_id`|`episode` or `episode_id`
1516`episode_sort`|`episode_number`
1517`language` of each stream|From the format's `language`
1518**Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1519
73cd218f 1520
1521## Modifying metadata examples
1522
1523Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
1524
1525```bash
1526# Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
02aabd45 1527$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'title:%(artist)s - %(title)s'
73cd218f 1528
1529# Regex example
02aabd45 1530$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)'
73cd218f 1531
1532# Set title as "Series name S01E05"
02aabd45 1533$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata '%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s'
73cd218f 1534
1535# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url
02aabd45 1536$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)' --add-metadata
73cd218f 1537
0930b11f 1538# Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
1539$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ':(?P<formats>)' -j
1540
e9f4ccd1 1541# Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
1542$ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata 'title,uploader' '[ _]' '-'
1543
73cd218f 1544```
1545
5d3a0e79 1546# EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1547
59a7a13e 1548Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS`. `ARGS` is a `;` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2`. Eg: `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_agegate,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
5d3a0e79 1549
1550The following extractors use this feature:
96565c7e 1551
1552#### youtube
1553* `skip`: `hls` or `dash` (or both) to skip download of the respective manifests
1554* `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web`, `android`, `ios`, `mweb`. These also have `_music`, `_embedded`, `_agegate`, and `_creator` variants (Eg: `web_embedded`) (`mweb` has only `_agegate`). By default, `android,web` is used, but the agegate and creator variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com` urls. You can also use `all` to use all the clients
1555* `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
1556* `include_live_dash`: Include live dash formats (These formats don't download properly)
1557* `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
1558* `max_comments`: Maximum amount of comments to download (default all)
1559* `max_comment_depth`: Maximum depth for nested comments. YouTube supports depths 1 or 2 (default)
1560
1561#### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1562* `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)
1563
1564#### funimation
1565* `language`: Languages to extract. Eg: `funimation:language=english,japanese`
1566* `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1567
a9d4da60 1568#### crunchyroll
1569* `language`: Languages to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:language=jaJp`
1570* `hardsub`: Which hard-sub versions to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:hardsub=None,enUS`
1571
96565c7e 1572#### vikichannel
1573* `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
73d829c1 1574
bc97cdae 1575NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
5d3a0e79 1576
3acf6d38 1577
f74980cb 1578# PLUGINS
b7770046 1579
3ae5e797 1580Plugins are loaded from `<root-dir>/ytdlp_plugins/<type>/__init__.py`; where `<root-dir>` is the directory of the binary (`<root-dir>/yt-dlp`), or the root directory of the module if you are running directly from source-code (`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`). Plugins are currently not supported for the `pip` version
1581
1582Plugins can be of `<type>`s `extractor` or `postprocessor`. Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it. Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME`.
1583
1584See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example plugins.
1585
1586Note 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
1587
1588If you are a plugin author, add [ytdlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/ytdlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability
b7770046 1589
b7770046 1590
8c6f4daa 1591
1592# EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1593
1594yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1595
1596Your 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.
1597
1598From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1599
1600```python
59a7a13e 1601from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
8c6f4daa 1602
093a1710 1603ydl_opts = {'format': 'bestaudio'}
59a7a13e 1604with YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
8c6f4daa 1605 ydl.download(['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
1606```
1607
1608Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of options available, have a look at [`yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py`](yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py#L154-L452).
1609
093a1710 1610Here's a more complete example demonstrating various functionality:
8c6f4daa 1611
1612```python
1613import json
8c6f4daa 1614import yt_dlp
8c6f4daa 1615
1616
1617class MyLogger:
1618 def debug(self, msg):
1619 # For compatability with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
1620 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
1621 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
1622 pass
1623 else:
1624 self.info(msg)
1625
1626 def info(self, msg):
1627 pass
1628
1629 def warning(self, msg):
1630 pass
1631
1632 def error(self, msg):
1633 print(msg)
1634
1635
093a1710 1636# ℹ️ See the docstring of yt_dlp.postprocessor.common.PostProcessor
59a7a13e 1637class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
093a1710 1638 # ℹ️ See docstring of yt_dlp.postprocessor.common.PostProcessor.run
8c6f4daa 1639 def run(self, info):
1640 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
1641 return [], info
1642
1643
093a1710 1644# ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in the docstring of yt_dlp.YoutubeDL
8c6f4daa 1645def my_hook(d):
1646 if d['status'] == 'finished':
1647 print('Done downloading, now converting ...')
1648
1649
093a1710 1650def format_selector(ctx):
1651 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
1652 This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
1653
1654 # formats are already sorted worst to best
1655 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
1656
1657 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
1658 best_video = next(f for f in formats
1659 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
1660
1661 # find compatible audio extension
1662 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
1663 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
1664 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
1665 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
1666
1667 yield {
1668 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
1669 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
1670 'ext': best_video['ext'],
1671 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
1672 # Must be + seperated list of protocols
1673 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
1674 }
1675
1676
1677# ℹ️ See docstring of yt_dlp.YoutubeDL for a description of the options
8c6f4daa 1678ydl_opts = {
093a1710 1679 'format': format_selector,
8c6f4daa 1680 'postprocessors': [{
093a1710 1681 # Embed metadata in video using ffmpeg.
1682 # ℹ️ See yt_dlp.postprocessor.FFmpegMetadataPP for the arguments it accepts
1683 'key': 'FFmpegMetadata',
1684 'add_chapters': True,
1685 'add_metadata': True,
8c6f4daa 1686 }],
1687 'logger': MyLogger(),
1688 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
1689}
1690
59a7a13e 1691
1692# Add custom headers
1693yt_dlp.utils.std_headers.update({'Referer': 'https://www.google.com'})
1694
093a1710 1695# ℹ️ See the public functions in yt_dlp.YoutubeDL for for other available functions.
1696# Eg: "ydl.download", "ydl.download_with_info_file"
8c6f4daa 1697with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1698 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP())
1699 info = ydl.extract_info('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc')
093a1710 1700
1701 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
8c6f4daa 1702 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1703```
1704
49a57e70 1705**Tip**: If you are porting your code from youtube-dl to yt-dlp, one important point to look out for is that we do not guarantee the return value of `YoutubeDL.extract_info` to be json serializable, or even be a dictionary. It will be dictionary-like, but if you want to ensure it is a serializable dictionary, pass it through `YoutubeDL.sanitize_info` as shown in the example above
1706
8c6f4daa 1707
e167860c 1708# DEPRECATED OPTIONS
1709
1710These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
1711
6ccf351a 1712#### Redundant options
1713While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
f4536226 1714
53c18592 1715 --get-description --print description
1716 --get-duration --print duration_string
1717 --get-filename --print filename
1718 --get-format --print format
1719 --get-id --print id
1720 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
1721 -e, --get-title --print title
1722 -g, --get-url --print urls
2b8a2973 1723 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
8f18aca8 1724 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
1725 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
1726 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
1727 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
6ccf351a 1728
1729
1730#### Not recommended
1731While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
1732
d9aa2332 1733 --all-formats -f all
c32b0aab 1734 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
b7b04c78 1735 --print-json -j --no-simulate
e167860c 1736 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)03d
a439a3a4 1737 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
19b824f6 1738 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
73cd218f 1739 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
52a8a1e1 1740 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
1741 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
53ed7066 1742 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
1743 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
5d3a0e79 1744 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
1745 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
1746 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
1747 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
6ccf351a 1748
1749
1750#### Developer options
1751These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
1752
34488702 1753 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
6ccf351a 1754 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
88acdbc2 1755 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
1756 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
f4536226 1757
1758
1759#### Old aliases
1760These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
1761
1762 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
1763 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
1764 --dump-headers --print-traffic
1765 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
1766 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
1767 --load-info --load-info-json
1768 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
e167860c 1769 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
e167860c 1770 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
1771 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
f4536226 1772 --split-tracks --split-chapters
1773 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
e167860c 1774 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
f4536226 1775 --write-srt --write-subs
e167860c 1776 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
f4536226 1777
7a340e0d
NA
1778#### Sponskrub Options
1779Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of `--sponsorblock`
1780
1781 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
1782 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
1783 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
1784 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
1785 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
1786 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
1787 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
1788 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
1789
f4536226 1790#### No longer supported
1791These options may no longer work as intended
1792
1793 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
1794 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
1795 -C, --call-home Not implemented
1796 --no-call-home Default
1797 --include-ads No longer supported
1798 --no-include-ads Default
0bb1bc1b 1799 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
1800 --no-write-annotations Default
486fb179 1801
1802#### Removed
1803These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
1804
f4536226 1805 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1806 -t, --title -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1807 -l, --literal -o accepts literal names
1808
8c6f4daa 1809# CONTRIBUTING
1810See [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 1811
c2b5f311 1812# MORE
8c6f4daa 1813For FAQ see the [youtube-dl README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)