1 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
4 [](#readme)
6 [](#installation "Installation")
7 []
(https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp "PyPi")
8 [](Collaborators.md#collaborators "Donate")
9 []
(https://matrix.to/#/#yt-dlp:matrix.org "Matrix")
10 []
(https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r "Discord")
11 [](supportedsites.md "Supported Sites")
12 [](LICENSE "License")
13 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions "CI Status")
14 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
15 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pulse/monthly "Last activity")
18 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
20 yt-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
22 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "USAGE AND OPTIONS" SECTION HERE -->
24 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
25 * [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
26 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
27 * [INSTALLATION](#installation)
28 * [Detailed instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation)
30 * [Release Files](#release-files)
31 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
33 * [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
34 * [General Options](#general-options)
35 * [Network Options](#network-options)
36 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
37 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
38 * [Download Options](#download-options)
39 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
40 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
41 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
42 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
43 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
44 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
45 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
46 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
47 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
48 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
49 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
50 * [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
51 * [Configuration file encoding](#configuration-file-encoding)
52 * [Authentication with netrc](#authentication-with-netrc)
53 * [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
54 * [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
55 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
56 * [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
57 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
58 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
59 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
60 * [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
61 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
62 * [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
64 * [Installing Plugins](#installing-plugins)
65 * [Developing Plugins](#developing-plugins)
66 * [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
67 * [Embedding examples](#embedding-examples)
68 * [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
69 * [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
70 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
71 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
72 * [WIKI](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki)
73 * [FAQ](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/FAQ)
74 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
79 * Forked from
[**yt-dlc@f9401f2**](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/f9401f2a91987068139c5f757b12fc711d4c0cee) and merged with
[**youtube-dl@be008e6**](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/be008e657d79832642e2158557c899249c9e31cd) (
[exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21))
81 * **
[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in YouTube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
83 * **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using
`-S`. This allows for much easier format selection than what is possible by simply using
`--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
85 * **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from
[animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including
`--write-comments`,
`BiliBiliSearch`,
`BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that NicoNico livestreams are not available. See
[#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
87 * **YouTube improvements**:
88 * Supports Clips, Stories (
`ytstories:<channel UCID>`), Search (including filters)**\***, YouTube Music Search, Channel-specific search, Search prefixes (
`ytsearch:`,
`ytsearchdate:`)**\***, Mixes, and Feeds (
`:ytfav`,
`:ytwatchlater`,
`:ytsubs`,
`:ythistory`,
`:ytrec`,
`:ytnotif`)
89 * Fix for
[n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326) **\***
90 * Supports some (but not all) age-gated content without cookies
91 * Download livestreams from the start using
`--live-from-start` (*experimental*)
92 * Channel URLs download all uploads of the channel, including shorts and live
94 * **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using
`--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]`
96 * **Download time range**: Videos can be downloaded partially based on either timestamps or chapters using
`--download-sections`
98 * **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using
`--split-chapters`
100 * **Multi-threaded fragment downloads**: Download multiple fragments of m3u8/mpd videos in parallel. Use
`--concurrent-fragments` (
`-N`) option to set the number of threads used
102 * **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use
`aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
104 * **New and fixed extractors**: Many new extractors have been added and a lot of existing ones have been fixed. See the [changelog](Changelog.md) or the [list of supported sites](supportedsites.md)
106 * **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN etc.
108 * **Subtitle extraction from manifests**: Subtitles can be extracted from streaming media manifests. See
[commit/be6202f](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/be6202f12b97858b9d716e608394b51065d0419f) for details
110 * **Multiple paths and output templates**: You can give different [output templates](#output-template) and download paths for different types of files. You can also set a temporary path where intermediary files are downloaded to using
`--paths` (
`-P`)
112 * **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for details
114 * **Output template improvements**: Output templates can now have date-time formatting, numeric offsets, object traversal etc. See [output template](#output-template) for details. Even more advanced operations can also be done with the help of
`--parse-metadata` and
`--replace-in-metadata`
116 * **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as
`--alias`,
`--print`,
`--concat-playlist`,
`--wait-for-video`,
`--retry-sleep`,
`--sleep-requests`,
`--convert-thumbnails`,
`--force-download-archive`,
`--force-overwrites`,
`--break-match-filter` etc
118 * **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in
`--format`/
`--match-filter`, multiple
`--postprocessor-args` and
`--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection), merge multi-video/audio, multiple
`--config-locations`,
`--exec` at different stages, etc
120 * **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
122 * **Self updater**: The releases can be updated using
`yt-dlp -U`, and downgraded using
`--update-to` if required
124 * **Automated builds**: [Nightly/master builds](#update-channels) can be used with
`--update-to nightly` and
`--update-to master`
126 See
[changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
128 Features marked with a **\*** have been back-ported to youtube-dl
130 ### Differences in default behavior
132 Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
134 * yt-dlp supports only
[Python 3.8+](## "Windows 7"), and *may* remove support for more versions as they [become EOL](https://devguide.python.org/versions/#python-release-cycle); while
[youtube-dl still supports Python 2.6+ and 3.2+](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/30568#issue-1118238743)
135 * The options
`--auto-number` (
`-A`),
`--title` (
`-t`) and
`--literal` (
`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
136 * `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to
`ffmpeg`
137 * yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
138 * The default [output template](#output-template) is
`%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`. There is no real reason for this change. This was changed before yt-dlp was ever made public and now there are no plans to change it back to
`%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`. Instead, you may use
`--compat-options filename`
139 * The default [format sorting](#sorting-formats) is different from youtube-dl and prefers higher resolution and better codecs rather than higher bitrates. You can use the
`--format-sort` option to change this to any order you prefer, or use
`--compat-options format-sort` to use youtube-dl's sorting order
140 * The default format selector is
`bv*+ba/b`. This means that if a combined video + audio format that is better than the best video-only format is found, the former will be preferred. Use
`-f bv+ba/b` or
`--compat-options format-spec` to revert this
141 * Unlike youtube-dlc, yt-dlp does not allow merging multiple audio/video streams into one file by default (since this conflicts with the use of
`-f bv*+ba`). If needed, this feature must be enabled using
`--audio-multistreams` and
`--video-multistreams`. You can also use
`--compat-options multistreams` to enable both
142 * `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use
`--abort-on-error` or
`--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
143 * When writing metadata files such as thumbnails, description or infojson, the same information (if available) is also written for playlists. Use
`--no-write-playlist-metafiles` or
`--compat-options no-playlist-metafiles` to not write these files
144 * `--add-metadata` attaches the
`infojson` to
`mkv` files in addition to writing the metadata when used with
`--write-info-json`. Use
`--no-embed-info-json` or
`--compat-options no-attach-info-json` to revert this
145 * Some metadata are embedded into different fields when using
`--add-metadata` as compared to youtube-dl. Most notably,
`comment` field contains the
`webpage_url` and
`synopsis` contains the
`description`. You can [use
`--parse-metadata`](#modifying-metadata) to modify this to your liking or use
`--compat-options embed-metadata` to revert this
146 * `playlist_index` behaves differently when used with options like
`--playlist-reverse` and
`--playlist-items`. See
[#302](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/302) for details. You can use
`--compat-options playlist-index` if you want to keep the earlier behavior
147 * The output of
`-F` is listed in a new format. Use
`--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
148 * Live chats (if available) are considered as subtitles. Use
`--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use
`--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent any live chat/danmaku from downloading
149 * YouTube channel URLs download all uploads of the channel. To download only the videos in a specific tab, pass the tab's URL. If the channel does not show the requested tab, an error will be raised. Also,
`/live` URLs raise an error if there are no live videos instead of silently downloading the entire channel. You may use
`--compat-options no-youtube-channel-redirect` to revert all these redirections
150 * Unavailable videos are also listed for YouTube playlists. Use
`--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
151 * The upload dates extracted from YouTube are in UTC
[when available](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/89e4d86171c7b7c997c77d4714542e0383bf0db0/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L3898-L3900). Use
`--compat-options no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date` to prefer the non-UTC upload date.
152 * If
`ffmpeg` is used as the downloader, the downloading and merging of formats happen in a single step when possible. Use
`--compat-options no-direct-merge` to revert this
153 * Thumbnail embedding in
`mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use
`--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
154 * Some internal metadata such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use
`--no-clean-infojson` or
`--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
155 * When
`--embed-subs` and
`--write-subs` are used together, the subtitles are written to disk and also embedded in the media file. You can use just
`--embed-subs` to embed the subs and automatically delete the separate file. See
[#630 (comment)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/630#issuecomment-893659460) for more info.
`--compat-options no-keep-subs` can be used to revert this
156 * `certifi` will be used for SSL root certificates, if installed. If you want to use system certificates (e.g. self-signed), use
`--compat-options no-certifi`
157 * yt-dlp's sanitization of invalid characters in filenames is different/smarter than in youtube-dl. You can use
`--compat-options filename-sanitization` to revert to youtube-dl's behavior
158 * yt-dlp tries to parse the external downloader outputs into the standard progress output if possible (Currently implemented:
[~~aria2c~~](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/5931)). You can use
`--compat-options no-external-downloader-progress` to get the downloader output as-is
159 * yt-dlp versions between
2021.09.01 and
2023.01.02 applies
`--match-filter` to nested playlists. This was an unintentional side-effect of
[8f18ac](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/8f18aca8717bb0dd49054555af8d386e5eda3a88) and is fixed in
[d7b460](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/d7b460d0e5fc710950582baed2e3fc616ed98a80). Use
`--compat-options playlist-match-filter` to revert this
160 * yt-dlp versions between
2021.11.10 and
2023.06.21 estimated
`filesize_approx` values for fragmented/manifest formats. This was added for convenience in
[f2fe69](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/f2fe69c7b0d208bdb1f6292b4ae92bc1e1a7444a), but was reverted in
[0dff8e](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/0dff8e4d1e6e9fb938f4256ea9af7d81f42fd54f) due to the potentially extreme inaccuracy of the estimated values. Use
`--compat-options manifest-filesize-approx` to keep extracting the estimated values
161 * yt-dlp uses modern http client backends such as
`requests`. Use
`--compat-options prefer-legacy-http-handler` to prefer the legacy http handler (
`urllib`) to be used for standard http requests.
162 * The sub-module
`swfinterp` is removed.
164 For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
166 * `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
167 * `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as
`--compat-options all,-multistreams,-playlist-match-filter,-manifest-filesize-approx`
168 * `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as
`--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect,-playlist-match-filter,-manifest-filesize-approx`
169 * `--compat-options 2021`: Same as
`--compat-options 2022,no-certifi,filename-sanitization,no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date`
170 * `--compat-options 2022`: Same as
`--compat-options 2023,playlist-match-filter,no-external-downloader-progress`
171 * `--compat-options 2023`: Same as
`--compat-options prefer-legacy-http-handler,manifest-filesize-approx`. Use this to enable all future compat options
176 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
177 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)
178 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
179 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)
180 []
(https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
181 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
182 [](#release-files)
183 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
184 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
186 You can install yt-dlp using
[the binaries](#release-files), [pip](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) or one using a third-party package manager. See
[the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation) for detailed instructions
190 You can use
`yt-dlp -U` to update if you are using the [release binaries](#release-files)
192 If you
[installed with pip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
194 For other third-party package managers, see
[the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#third-party-package-managers) or refer their documentation
196 <a id="update-channels"/>
198 There are currently three release channels for binaries:
`stable`,
`nightly` and
`master`.
200 * `stable` is the default channel, and many of its changes have been tested by users of the
`nightly` and
`master` channels.
201 * The
`nightly` channel has releases scheduled to build every day around midnight UTC, for a snapshot of the project's new patches and changes. This is the **recommended channel for regular users** of yt-dlp. The
`nightly` releases are available from
[yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds/releases) or as development releases of the
`yt-dlp` PyPI package (which can be installed with pip's
`--pre` flag).
202 * The
`master` channel features releases that are built after each push to the master branch, and these will have the very latest fixes and additions, but may also be more prone to regressions. They are available from
[yt-dlp/yt-dlp-master-builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-master-builds/releases).
204 When using
`--update`/
`-U`, a release binary will only update to its current channel.
205 `--update-to CHANNEL` can be used to switch to a different channel when a newer version is available.
`--update-to [CHANNEL@]TAG` can also be used to upgrade or downgrade to specific tags from a channel.
207 You may also use
`--update-to <repository>` (
`<owner>/<repository>`) to update to a channel on a completely different repository. Be careful with what repository you are updating to though, there is no verification done for binaries from different repositories.
210 * `yt-dlp --update-to master` switch to the
`master` channel and update to its latest release
211 * `yt-dlp --update-to stable@2023.07.06` upgrade/downgrade to release to
`stable` channel tag
`2023.07.06`
212 * `yt-dlp --update-to 2023.10.07` upgrade/downgrade to tag
`2023.10.07` if it exists on the current channel
213 * `yt-dlp --update-to example/yt-dlp@2023.09.24` upgrade/downgrade to the release from the
`example/yt-dlp` repository, tag
`2023.09.24`
215 **Important**: Any user experiencing an issue with the
`stable` release should install or update to the
`nightly` release before submitting a bug report:
217 # To update to nightly from stable executable/binary:
218 yt-dlp --update-to nightly
220 # To install nightly with pip:
221 python -m pip install -U --pre yt-dlp
224 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
231 [yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independent
[zipimport](https://docs.python.org/3/library/zipimport.html) binary. Needs Python (recommended for **Linux/BSD**)
232 [yt-dlp.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary (recommended for **Windows**)
233 [yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|Universal MacOS (
10.15+) standalone executable (recommended for **MacOS**)
239 [yt-dlp_x86.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_x86.exe)|Windows (Vista SP2+) standalone x86 (
32-bit) binary
240 [yt-dlp_min.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_min.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary built with
`py2exe`<br/> ([Not recommended](#standalone-py2exe-builds-windows))
241 [yt-dlp_linux](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux)|Linux standalone x64 binary
242 [yt-dlp_linux.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux.zip)|Unpackaged Linux executable (no auto-update)
243 [yt-dlp_linux_armv7l](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_armv7l)|Linux standalone armv7l (
32-bit) binary
244 [yt-dlp_linux_aarch64](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_aarch64)|Linux standalone aarch64 (
64-bit) binary
245 [yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
246 [yt-dlp_macos.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos.zip)|Unpackaged MacOS (
10.15+) executable (no auto-update)
247 [yt-dlp_macos_legacy](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos_legacy)|MacOS (
10.9+) standalone x64 executable
253 [yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball
254 [SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
255 [SHA2-512SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA512 sums
256 [SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
257 [SHA2-256SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA256 sums
259 The public key that can be used to verify the GPG signatures is
[available here](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/public.key)
262 curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/raw/master/public.key | gpg --import
263 gpg --verify SHA2-256SUMS.sig SHA2-256SUMS
264 gpg --verify SHA2-512SUMS.sig SHA2-512SUMS
266 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
268 **Note**: The manpages, shell completion (autocomplete) files etc. are available inside the
[source tarball](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
271 Python versions
3.8+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
273 <!-- Python
3.5+ uses VC++
14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
274 <!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=
26999 --x>
275 On 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.
278 While all the other dependencies are optional,
`ffmpeg` and
`ffprobe` are highly recommended
280 ### Strongly recommended
282 * [**ffmpeg** and **ffprobe**](https://www.ffmpeg.org) - Required for
[merging separate video and audio files](#format-selection) as well as for various [post-processing](#post-processing-options) tasks. License [depends on the build](https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html)
284 There are bugs in ffmpeg that cause various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependency, we provide
[custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#ffmpeg-static-auto-builds) with patches for some of these issues at
[yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds). See
[the readme](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#patches-applied) for details on the specific issues solved by these builds
286 **Important**: What you need is ffmpeg *binary*, **NOT**
[the python package of the same name](https://pypi.org/project/ffmpeg)
289 * [**certifi**](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi)\* - Provides Mozilla's root certificate bundle. Licensed under
[MPLv2](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi/blob/master/LICENSE)
290 * [**brotli**](https://github.com/google/brotli)\* or
[**brotlicffi**](https://github.com/python-hyper/brotlicffi) -
[Brotli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brotli) content encoding support. Both licensed under MIT <sup>
[1](https://github.com/google/brotli/blob/master/LICENSE) [2](https://github.com/python-hyper/brotlicffi/blob/master/LICENSE) </sup>
291 * [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under
[BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
292 * [**requests**](https://github.com/psf/requests)\* - HTTP library. For HTTPS proxy and persistent connections support. Licensed under
[Apache-2.0](https://github.com/psf/requests/blob/main/LICENSE)
296 * [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For
`--embed-thumbnail` in certain formats. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
297 * [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For
`--embed-thumbnail` in
`mp4`/
`m4a` files when
`mutagen`/
`ffmpeg` cannot. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
298 * [**xattr**](https://github.com/xattr/xattr),
[**pyxattr**](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr) or
[**setfattr**](http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/attr) - For writing xattr metadata (
`--xattr`) on **Mac** and **BSD**. Licensed under
[MIT](https://github.com/xattr/xattr/blob/master/LICENSE.txt),
[LGPL2.1](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr/blob/master/COPYING) and
[GPLv2+](http://git.savannah.nongnu.org/cgit/attr.git/tree/doc/COPYING) respectively
302 * [**pycryptodomex**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome)\* - For decrypting AES-
128 HLS streams and various other data. Licensed under
[BSD-2-Clause](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
303 * [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licensed under
[BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
304 * [**secretstorage**](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage)\* - For
`--cookies-from-browser` to access the **Gnome** keyring while decrypting cookies of **Chromium**-based browsers on **Linux**. Licensed under
[BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage/blob/master/LICENSE)
305 * Any external downloader that you want to use with
`--downloader`
309 * [**avconv** and **avprobe**](https://www.libav.org) - Now **deprecated** alternative to ffmpeg. License
[depends on the build](https://libav.org/legal)
310 * [**sponskrub**](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) - For using the now **deprecated**
[sponskrub options](#sponskrub-options). Licensed under [GPLv3+](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub/blob/master/LICENCE.md)
311 * [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading
`rtmp` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with
`--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
312 * [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or
[**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading
`rstp`/
`mms` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with
`--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
314 To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
316 The standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with **\*** included.
318 If you do not have the necessary dependencies for a task you are attempting, yt-dlp will warn you. All the currently available dependencies are visible at the top of the
`--verbose` output
323 ### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
324 To build the standalone executable, you must have Python and
`pyinstaller` (plus any of yt-dlp's [optional dependencies](#dependencies) if needed). Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, simply run
`pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (x86/ARM,
32/
64 bit) as the Python used.
326 python3 -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
327 python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
330 On some systems, you may need to use
`py` or
`python` instead of
`python3`.
332 `pyinst.py` accepts any arguments that can be passed to
`pyinstaller`, such as
`--onefile/-F` or
`--onedir/-D`, which is further
[documented here](https://pyinstaller.org/en/stable/usage.html#what-to-generate).
334 **Note**: Pyinstaller versions below
4.4 [do not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment.
336 **Important**: Running
`pyinstaller` directly **without** using
`pyinst.py` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
338 ### Platform-independent Binary (UNIX)
339 You will need the build tools
`python` (
3.8+),
`zip`,
`make` (GNU),
`pandoc`\* and
`pytest`\*.
341 After installing these, simply run
`make`.
343 You can also run
`make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files. (The build tools marked with **\*** are not needed for this)
345 ### Standalone Py2Exe Builds (Windows)
347 While we provide the option to build with
[py2exe](https://www.py2exe.org), it is recommended to build [using PyInstaller](#standalone-pyinstaller-builds) instead since the py2exe builds **cannot contain
`pycryptodomex`/
`certifi` and needs VC++
14** on the target computer to run.
349 If you wish to build it anyway, install Python and py2exe, and then simply run
`setup.py py2exe`
351 py -m pip install -U py2exe -r requirements.txt
352 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
357 * **
`devscripts/update-version.py`** - Update the version number based on current date.
358 * **
`devscripts/set-variant.py`** - Set the build variant of the executable.
359 * **
`devscripts/make_changelog.py`** - Create a markdown changelog using short commit messages and update
`CONTRIBUTORS` file.
360 * **
`devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py`** - Create lazy extractors. Running this before building the binaries (any variant) will improve their startup performance. Set the environment variable
`YTDLP_NO_LAZY_EXTRACTORS=1` if you wish to forcefully disable lazy extractor loading.
362 Note: See their
`--help` for more info.
364 ### Forking the project
365 If you fork the project on GitHub, you can run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build the selected version(s) as artifacts. Alternatively, you can run the [release workflow](.github/workflows/release.yml) or enable the [nightly workflow](.github/workflows/release-nightly.yml) to create full (pre-)releases.
369 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
370 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
372 `Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
373 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
375 <!-- Auto generated -->
377 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
378 --version Print program version and exit
379 -U, --update Update this program to the latest version
380 --no-update Do not check for updates (default)
381 --update-to [CHANNEL]@[TAG] Upgrade/downgrade to a specific version.
382 CHANNEL can be a repository as well. CHANNEL
383 and TAG default to "stable" and "latest"
384 respectively if omitted; See "UPDATE" for
385 details. Supported channels: stable,
387 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
388 The download will be considered successful
389 even if the postprocessing fails
390 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
391 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
393 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
394 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
395 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
396 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
397 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
399 --use-extractors NAMES Extractor names to use separated by commas.
400 You can also use regexes, "all", "default"
401 and "end" (end URL matching); e.g. --ies
402 "holodex.*,end,youtube". Prefix the name
403 with a "-" to exclude it, e.g. --ies
404 default,-generic. Use --list-extractors for
405 a list of extractor names. (Alias: --ies)
406 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. E.g.
407 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
408 google videos for the search term "python".
409 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
410 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
411 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
412 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
413 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
414 possible instead of searching
415 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
416 except those given by --config-locations.
417 For backward compatibility, if this option
418 is found inside the system configuration
419 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
421 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
422 (default). When given inside a configuration
423 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
424 defined in the current file
425 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
426 either the path to the config or its
427 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
428 used multiple times and inside other
430 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
432 --no-flat-playlist Fully extract the videos of a playlist
434 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
435 Currently only supported for YouTube
437 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
439 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
440 available. Pass the minimum number of
441 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
442 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
443 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
444 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
445 --color [STREAM:]POLICY Whether to emit color codes in output,
446 optionally prefixed by the STREAM (stdout or
447 stderr) to apply the setting to. Can be one
448 of "always", "auto" (default), "never", or
449 "no_color" (use non color terminal
450 sequences). Can be used multiple times
451 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
452 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
453 configurations by reverting some of the
454 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
455 default behavior" for details
456 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
457 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
458 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
459 according to the Python string formatting
460 mini-language. E.g. --alias get-audio,-X
461 "-S=aext:{
0},abr -x --audio-format {
0}"
462 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
463 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
464 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
465 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
466 output. Alias options can trigger more
467 aliases; so be careful to avoid defining
468 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
469 alias may be triggered a maximum of
100
470 times. This option can be used multiple times
473 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
474 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme,
475 e.g. socks5://user:pass@
127.0.0.1:
1080/.
476 Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for
478 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
479 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
480 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
481 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
482 --enable-file-urls Enable file:// URLs. This is disabled by
483 default for security reasons.
486 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
487 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
488 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
489 is not present) is used for the actual
491 --xff VALUE How to fake X-Forwarded-For HTTP header to
492 try bypassing geographic restriction. One of
493 "default" (only when known to be useful),
494 "never", an IP block in CIDR notation, or a
495 two-letter ISO
3166-
2 country code
498 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma separated playlist_index of the items
499 to download. You can specify a range using
500 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
501 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
502 Use negative indices to count from the right
503 and negative STEP to download in reverse
504 order. E.g. "-I
1:
3,
7,-
5::
2" used on a
505 playlist of size
15 will download the items
506 at index
1,
2,
3,
7,
11,
13,
15
507 --min-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is smaller than
508 SIZE, e.g.
50k or
44.6M
509 --max-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is larger than
510 SIZE, e.g.
50k or
44.6M
511 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
512 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
513 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
514 E.g. "--date today-
2weeks" downloads only
515 videos uploaded on the same day two weeks ago
516 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
517 this date. The date formats accepted is the
519 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
520 this date. The date formats accepted is the
522 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
523 field can be compared with a number or a
524 string using the operators defined in
525 "Filtering Formats". You can also simply
526 specify a field to match if the field is
527 present, use "!field" to check if the field
528 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
529 conditions. Use a "
\" to escape "&" or
530 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
531 the filter matches if atleast one of the
532 conditions are met. E.g. --match-filter
533 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?
100 &
534 description~='(?i)
\bcats \& dogs
\b'" matches
535 only videos that are not live OR those that
536 have a like count more than
100 (or the like
537 field is not available) and also has a
538 description that contains the phrase "cats &
539 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
540 interactively ask whether to download each
542 --no-match-filters Do not use any --match-filter (default)
543 --break-match-filters FILTER Same as "--match-filters" but stops the
544 download process when a video is rejected
545 --no-break-match-filters Do not use any --break-match-filters (default)
546 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
547 to a video and a playlist
548 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
549 a video and a playlist
550 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
552 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
553 archive file. Record the IDs of all
554 downloaded videos in it
555 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
556 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
557 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
558 a file that is in the archive
559 --break-per-input Alters --max-downloads, --break-on-existing,
560 --break-match-filter, and autonumber to
562 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
563 terminates the entire download queue
564 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
565 the playlist is skipped
568 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
569 video that should be downloaded concurrently
571 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second,
573 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
574 below which throttling is assumed and the
575 video data is re-extracted, e.g.
100K
576 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is
10), or
578 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
579 error (default is
3), or "infinite"
580 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
581 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
582 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR Time to sleep between retries in seconds
583 (optionally) prefixed by the type of retry
584 (http (default), fragment, file_access,
585 extractor) to apply the sleep to. EXPR can
586 be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=
1]] or
587 exp=START[:END[:BASE=
2]]. This option can be
588 used multiple times to set the sleep for the
589 different retry types, e.g. --retry-sleep
590 linear=
1::
2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=
1:
20
591 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
592 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
593 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragments)
594 --abort-on-unavailable-fragments
595 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
596 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
597 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
598 downloading is finished
599 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
600 downloading is finished (default)
601 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer, e.g.
1024 or
16K
603 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
604 from an initial value of --buffer-size
606 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
607 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
608 downloading, e.g.
10485760 or
10M (default
609 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
610 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
612 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
613 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
614 received. This disables n_entries,
615 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
616 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
617 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
618 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
620 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
621 allowing some players to play the video
622 while downloading, and reducing the chance
623 of file corruption if download is
624 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
626 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
627 videos. This is default when not downloading
629 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters that match the
630 regular expression. A "*" prefix denotes
631 time-range instead of chapter. Negative
632 timestamps are calculated from the end.
633 "*from-url" can be used to download between
634 the "start_time" and "end_time" extracted
635 from the URL. Needs ffmpeg. This option can
636 be used multiple times to download multiple
637 sections, e.g. --download-sections
638 "*
10:
15-inf" --download-sections "intro"
639 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
640 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
641 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
642 use it for. Currently supports native,
643 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
644 wget. You can use this option multiple times
645 to set different downloaders for different
646 protocols. E.g. --downloader aria2c
647 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
648 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
649 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
650 (Alias: --external-downloader)
651 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
652 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
653 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
654 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
655 positions using the same syntax as
656 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
657 option multiple times to give different
658 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
659 --external-downloader-args)
661 ## Filesystem Options:
662 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
663 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
664 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
666 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
667 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
668 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
669 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
670 TYPES as --output are supported.
671 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
672 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
673 files are first downloaded to the temp path
674 and then the final files are moved over to
675 the home path after download is finished.
676 This option is ignored if --output is an
678 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
679 TEMPLATE" for details
680 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
681 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" (default: "NA")
682 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
683 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
684 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
686 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
687 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
688 using Windows (default)
689 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
690 extension) to the specified number of
692 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
693 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
694 option includes --no-continue
695 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
696 related files (default)
697 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
699 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
700 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
701 restart download of the entire file
702 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
703 into output file (default)
704 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
706 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
707 modification time (default)
708 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
709 the file modification time
710 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
711 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
712 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
713 (this may contain personal information)
714 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
715 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
716 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
717 --write-description etc. (default)
718 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
719 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
720 --clean-info-json Remove some internal metadata such as
721 filenames from the infojson (default)
722 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
723 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
724 infojson. The comments are fetched even
725 without this option if the extraction is
726 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
727 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
728 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
730 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
731 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
732 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
733 and dump cookie jar in
734 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
736 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]
737 The name of the browser to load cookies
738 from. Currently supported browsers are:
739 brave, chrome, chromium, edge, firefox,
740 opera, safari, vivaldi. Optionally, the
741 KEYRING used for decrypting Chromium cookies
742 on Linux, the name/path of the PROFILE to
743 load cookies from, and the CONTAINER name
744 (if Firefox) ("none" for no container) can
745 be given with their respective seperators.
746 By default, all containers of the most
747 recently accessed profile are used.
748 Currently supported keyrings are: basictext,
749 gnomekeyring, kwallet, kwallet5, kwallet6
750 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
751 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where yt-dlp can
752 store some downloaded information (such as
753 client ids and signatures) permanently. By
754 default ${XDG_CACHE_HOME}/yt-dlp
755 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
756 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
758 ## Thumbnail Options:
759 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
760 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
761 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
762 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
763 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
765 ## Internet Shortcut Options:
766 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
767 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
768 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
769 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
770 OS caches the URL based on the file path
771 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
772 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
774 ## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
775 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
776 print the log to stderr
777 --no-quiet Deactivate quiet mode. (Default)
778 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
779 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
781 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
783 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
784 extracting metadata even if the videos are
785 not actually available for download
787 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
788 formats are found (default)
789 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
790 related files (Alias: --no-download)
791 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
792 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
793 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
794 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
795 --use-postprocessor (default: video).
796 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
797 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
798 used. This option can be used multiple times
799 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
800 Append given template to the file. The
801 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
802 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
803 output template. This option can be used
805 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
806 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
807 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
808 description of available keys
809 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
810 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
811 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
812 a playlist, the whole playlist information
813 is dumped in a single line
814 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
815 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
816 another simulation option is used (Alias:
817 --force-download-archive)
818 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
819 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
820 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
821 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
822 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
823 Template for progress outputs, optionally
824 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
825 "download-title:" (the console title),
826 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
827 The video's fields are accessible under the
828 "info" key and the progress attributes are
829 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.
830 --console-title --progress-template
831 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
832 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
833 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
834 to debug problems (very verbose)
835 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
836 in the current directory to debug problems
837 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
840 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
841 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
842 that do not support RFC
5746 secure
844 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
845 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
846 information about the video (Currently
847 supported only for YouTube)
848 --add-headers FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
849 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
850 option multiple times
851 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
852 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
853 or fribidi executable in PATH
854 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
855 during data extraction
856 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
857 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
858 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
859 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
860 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
861 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
862 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
865 ## Video Format Options:
866 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
868 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
869 "Sorting Formats" for more details
870 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
871 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
872 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
873 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
874 specified sort order (default)
875 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
877 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
878 output file (default)
879 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
881 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
882 output file (default)
883 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
884 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
885 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
886 irrespective of quality
887 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
889 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
890 those that are actually downloadable
891 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
892 actually downloadable
893 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
895 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
896 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
897 --merge-output-format FORMAT Containers that may be used when merging
898 formats, separated by "/", e.g. "mp4/mkv".
899 Ignored if no merge is required. (currently
900 supported: avi, flv, mkv, mov, mp4, webm)
903 --write-subs Write subtitle file
904 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
905 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
906 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
907 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
908 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
909 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
910 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
911 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
912 e.g. "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
913 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
914 be regex) or "all" separated by commas, e.g.
915 --sub-langs "en.*,ja". You can prefix the
916 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
917 the requested languages, e.g. --sub-langs
918 all,-live_chat. Use --list-subs for a list
919 of available language tags
921 ## Authentication Options:
922 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
923 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
924 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
925 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
926 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
927 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
928 either the path or its containing directory.
930 --netrc-cmd NETRC_CMD Command to execute to get the credentials
932 --video-password PASSWORD Video-specific password
933 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
934 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
935 a list of available MSOs
936 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
937 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
938 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
940 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
941 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
942 format. May include the private key
943 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
944 Path to private key file for client
946 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
947 Password for client certificate private key,
948 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
949 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
951 ## Post-Processing Options:
952 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
953 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
954 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
955 used. (currently supported: best (default),
956 aac, alac, flac, m4a, mp3, opus, vorbis,
957 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
958 similar syntax as --remux-video
959 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
960 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
961 between
0 (best) and
10 (worst) for VBR or a
962 specific bitrate like
128K (default
5)
963 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
964 necessary (currently supported: avi, flv,
965 gif, mkv, mov, mp4, webm, aac, aiff, alac,
966 flac, m4a, mka, mp3, ogg, opus, vorbis,
967 wav). If target container does not support
968 the video/audio codec, remuxing will fail.
969 You can specify multiple rules; e.g.
970 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
971 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
972 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
973 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
974 are the same as --remux-video
975 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
976 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
977 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
978 to give the argument to the specified
979 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
980 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
981 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
982 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
983 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
984 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
985 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
986 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
987 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
988 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
989 specified executable only when being used by
990 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
991 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
992 appended to the prefix optionally followed
993 by a number to pass the argument before the
994 specified input/output file, e.g. --ppa
995 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
996 this option multiple times to give different
997 arguments to different postprocessors.
999 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
1000 after post-processing
1001 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
1002 post-processing (default)
1003 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
1004 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
1005 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
1006 webm and mkv videos)
1007 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
1008 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
1009 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
1010 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
1011 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
1012 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
1013 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
1014 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
1015 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
1016 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
1017 (Alias: --add-chapters)
1018 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
1020 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
1022 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
1024 --parse-metadata [WHEN:]FROM:TO
1025 Parse additional metadata like title/artist
1026 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
1027 for details. Supported values of "WHEN" are
1028 the same as that of --use-postprocessor
1029 (default: pre_process)
1030 --replace-in-metadata [WHEN:]FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
1031 Replace text in a metadata field using the
1032 given regex. This option can be used
1033 multiple times. Supported values of "WHEN"
1034 are the same as that of --use-postprocessor
1035 (default: pre_process)
1036 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
1037 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
1038 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
1039 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
1040 (default; only when the videos form a single
1041 show). All the video files must have same
1042 codecs and number of streams to be
1043 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
1044 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1045 the output filename for the concatenated
1046 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1047 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
1048 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
1049 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
1050 default; fix file if we can, warn
1051 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
1053 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
1054 path to the binary or its containing directory
1055 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
1056 when to execute it, separated by a ":".
1057 Supported values of "WHEN" are the same as
1058 that of --use-postprocessor (default:
1059 after_move). Same syntax as the output
1060 template can be used to pass any field as
1061 arguments to the command. If no fields are
1062 passed, %(filepath,_filename|)q is appended
1063 to the end of the command. This option can
1064 be used multiple times
1065 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
1066 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
1067 (currently supported: ass, lrc, srt, vtt)
1068 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
1069 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
1070 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
1071 can specify multiple rules using similar
1072 syntax as --remux-video
1073 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
1074 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
1075 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1076 the output filename for the split files. See
1077 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1078 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
1079 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
1080 given regular expression. The syntax is the
1081 same as --download-sections. This option can
1082 be used multiple times
1083 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1085 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
1086 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
1087 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1088 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1090 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1091 when cutting/splitting (default)
1092 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1093 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1094 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1095 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1096 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1097 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1098 The "when" argument determines when the
1099 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1100 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1101 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
1102 "video" (after --format; before
1103 --print/--output), "before_dl" (before each
1104 video download), "post_process" (after each
1105 video download; default), "after_move"
1106 (after moving video file to it's final
1107 locations), "after_video" (after downloading
1108 and processing all formats of a video), or
1109 "playlist" (at end of playlist). This option
1110 can be used multiple times to add different
1113 ## SponsorBlock Options:
1114 Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1115 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
1116 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1118 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1119 for, separated by commas. Available
1120 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1121 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
1122 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, chapter, all
1123 and default (=all). You can prefix the
1124 category with a "-" to exclude it. See [
1]
1125 for description of the categories. E.g.
1126 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1127 [
1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1128 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1129 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1130 category is present in both mark and remove,
1131 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1132 available categories are the same as for
1133 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
1134 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight,
1135 chapter are not available
1136 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
1137 An output template for the title of the
1138 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1139 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1140 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1141 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1142 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1143 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1144 --sponsorblock-remove
1145 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1146 https://sponsor.ajay.app
1148 ## Extractor Options:
1149 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1150 (default is
3), or "infinite"
1151 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1152 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1153 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1154 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1155 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1156 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1157 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1158 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1160 --extractor-args IE_KEY:ARGS Pass ARGS arguments to the IE_KEY extractor.
1161 See "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You
1162 can use this option multiple times to give
1163 arguments for different extractors
1167 You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
1169 1. **Main Configuration**:
1170 * The file given by
`--config-location`
1171 1. **Portable Configuration**: (Recommended for portable installations)
1172 * If using a binary,
`yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the binary
1173 * If running from source-code,
`yt-dlp.conf` in the parent directory of
`yt_dlp`
1174 1. **Home Configuration**:
1175 * `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by
`-P`
1176 * If
`-P` is not given, the current directory is searched
1177 1. **User Configuration**:
1178 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp.conf`
1179 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1180 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1181 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp.conf`
1182 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1183 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1185 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
1186 * `~/.yt-dlp/config`
1187 * `~/.yt-dlp/config.txt`
1189 See also: [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
1190 1. **System Configuration**:
1191 * `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
1192 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config`
1193 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1195 E.g. with the following configuration file yt-dlp will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under
`YouTube` directory in your home directory:
1197 # Lines starting with # are comments
1199 # Always extract audio
1202 # Do not copy the mtime
1206 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1208 # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1209 -o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
1212 **Note**: Options in configuration file are just the same options aka switches used in regular command line calls; thus there **must be no whitespace** after
`-` or
`--`, e.g.
`-o` or
`--proxy` but not
`- o` or
`-- proxy`. They must also be quoted when necessary as-if it were a UNIX shell.
1214 You 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.
1216 ### Configuration file encoding
1218 The configuration files are decoded according to the UTF BOM if present, and in the encoding from system locale otherwise.
1220 If you want your file to be decoded differently, add
`# coding: ENCODING` to the beginning of the file (e.g.
`# coding: shift-jis`). There must be no characters before that, even spaces or BOM.
1222 ### Authentication with netrc
1224 You 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:
1226 touch ${HOME}/.netrc
1227 chmod a-rwx,u+rw ${HOME}/.netrc
1229 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1231 machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
1235 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1236 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1238 To activate authentication with the
`.netrc` file you should pass
`--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
1240 The default location of the .netrc file is
`~` (see below).
1242 As an alternative to using the
`.netrc` file, which has the disadvantage of keeping your passwords in a plain text file, you can configure a custom shell command to provide the credentials for an extractor. This is done by providing the
`--netrc-cmd` parameter, it shall output the credentials in the netrc format and return
`0` on success, other values will be treated as an error.
`{}` in the command will be replaced by the name of the extractor to make it possible to select the credentials for the right extractor.
1244 E.g. To use an encrypted
`.netrc` file stored as
`.authinfo.gpg`
1246 yt-dlp --netrc-cmd 'gpg --decrypt ~/.authinfo.gpg' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc
1250 ### Notes about environment variables
1251 * Environment variables are normally specified as
`${VARIABLE}`/
`$VARIABLE` on UNIX and
`%VARIABLE%` on Windows; but is always shown as
`${VARIABLE}` in this documentation
1252 * yt-dlp also allow using UNIX-style variables on Windows for path-like options; e.g.
`--output`,
`--config-location`
1253 * If unset,
`${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}` defaults to
`~/.config` and
`${XDG_CACHE_HOME}` to
`~/.cache`
1254 * On Windows,
`~` points to
`${HOME}` if present; or,
`${USERPROFILE}` or
`${HOMEDRIVE}${HOMEPATH}` otherwise
1255 * On Windows,
`${USERPROFILE}` generally points to
`C:\Users\<user name>` and
`${APPDATA}` to
`${USERPROFILE}\AppData\Roaming`
1259 The
`-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.
1261 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1262 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
1263 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1265 The 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).
1267 It may however also contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according to
[Python string formatting operations](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting), e.g.
`%(NAME)s` or
`%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.
1269 The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
1271 1. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a dot
`.` separator; e.g.
`%(tags.0)s`,
`%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s`. You can do Python slicing with colon
`:`; E.g.
`%(id.3:7:-1)s`,
`%(formats.:.format_id)s`. Curly braces
`{}` can be used to build dictionaries with only specific keys; e.g.
`%(formats.:.{format_id,height})#j`. An empty field name
`%()s` refers to the entire infodict; e.g.
`%(.{id,title})s`. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use
`-j` to see such fields
1273 1. **Arithmetic**: Simple arithmetic can be done on numeric fields using
`+`,
`-` and
`*`. E.g.
`%(playlist_index+10)03d`,
`%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
1275 1. **Date/time Formatting**: Date/time fields can be formatted according to
[strftime formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes) by specifying it separated from the field name using a
`>`. E.g.
`%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`,
`%(upload_date>%Y-%m-%d)s`,
`%(epoch-3600>%H-%M-%S)s`
1277 1. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a
`,`. E.g.
`%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
1279 1. **Replacement**: A replacement value can be specified using a
`&` separator according to the
[`str.format` mini-language](https://docs.python.org/3/library/string.html#format-specification-mini-language). If the field is *not* empty, this replacement value will be used instead of the actual field content. This is done after alternate fields are considered; thus the replacement is used if *any* of the alternative fields is *not* empty. E.g.
`%(chapters&has chapters|no chapters)s`,
`%(title&TITLE={:>20}|NO TITLE)s`
1281 1. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a
`|` separator. This overrides
`--output-na-placeholder`. E.g.
`%(uploader|Unknown)s`
1283 1. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types
`diouxXeEfFgGcrs`, yt-dlp additionally supports converting to
`B` = **B**ytes,
`j` = **j**son (flag
`#` for pretty-printing,
`+` for Unicode),
`h` = HTML escaping,
`l` = a comma separated **l**ist (flag
`#` for
`\n` newline-separated),
`q` = a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag
`#` to split a list into different arguments),
`D` = add **D**ecimal suffixes (e.g.
10M) (flag
`#` to use
1024 as factor), and
`S` = **S**anitize as filename (flag
`#` for restricted)
1285 1. **Unicode normalization**: The format type
`U` can be used for NFC
[Unicode normalization](https://docs.python.org/3/library/unicodedata.html#unicodedata.normalize). The alternate form flag (
`#`) changes the normalization to NFD and the conversion flag
`+` can be used for NFKC/NFKD compatibility equivalence normalization. E.g.
`%(title)+.100U` is NFKC
1287 To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1289 %(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
1292 Additionally, you can set different output templates for the various metadata files separately from the general output template by specifying the type of file followed by the template separated by a colon
`:`. The different file types supported are
`subtitle`,
`thumbnail`,
`description`,
`annotation` (deprecated),
`infojson`,
`link`,
`pl_thumbnail`,
`pl_description`,
`pl_infojson`,
`chapter`,
`pl_video`. E.g.
`-o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s"` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video. If any of the templates is empty, that type of file will not be written. E.g.
`--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for video.
1294 <a id="outtmpl-postprocess-note"/>
1296 **Note**: Due to post-processing (i.e. merging etc.), the actual output filename might differ. Use
`--print after_move:filepath` to get the name after all post-processing is complete.
1298 The available fields are:
1300 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1301 - `title` (string): Video title
1302 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
1303 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1304 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
1305 - `description` (string): The description of the video
1306 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1307 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1308 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1309 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
1310 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
1311 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
1312 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
1313 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
1314 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the video or album was released
1315 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
1316 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
1317 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1318 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1319 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
1320 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
1321 - `channel_is_verified` (boolean): Whether the channel is verified on the platform
1322 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1323 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
1324 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
1325 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1326 - `concurrent_view_count` (numeric): How many users are currently watching the video on the platform.
1327 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1328 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1329 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1330 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
1331 - `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)
1332 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
1333 - `live_status` (string): One of "not_live", "is_live", "is_upcoming", "was_live", "post_live" (was live, but VOD is not yet processed)
1334 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
1335 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
1336 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
1337 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
1338 - `media_type` (string): The type of media as classified by the site, e.g. "episode", "clip", "trailer"
1339 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1340 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
1341 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1342 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
1343 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
1344 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at
`--autonumber-start`, padded with leading zeros to
5 digits
1345 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
1346 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
1347 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1348 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1349 - `playlist` (string):
`playlist_id` or
`playlist_title`
1350 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
1351 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1352 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
1353 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1354 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
1355 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
1356 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1357 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
1358 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as
`webpage_url` for playlist entries)
1360 All the fields in [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats) can also be used
1362 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1364 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1365 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1366 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1368 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1370 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1371 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1372 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1373 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1374 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1375 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1376 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1378 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1380 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1381 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1382 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1383 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1384 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1385 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1386 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1387 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1388 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1390 Available only when using
`--download-sections` and for
`chapter:` prefix when using
`--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
1392 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1393 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1394 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1395 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1397 Available only when used in
`--print`:
1399 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1400 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the [actual filename may differ](#outtmpl-postprocess-note)
1401 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by
`--list-formats`
1402 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by
`--list-thumbnails`
1403 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by
`--list-subs`
1404 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by
`--list-subs`
1406 Available only after the video is downloaded (
`post_process`/
`after_move`):
1408 - `filepath`: Actual path of downloaded video file
1410 Available only in
`--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1412 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1413 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1414 - `categories` (list): The
[SponsorBlock categories](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Category) the chapter belongs to
1415 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1416 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1417 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1418 - `type` (string): The
[SponsorBlock action type](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Action_Type) of the chapter
1420 Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. E.g. for
`-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title
`yt-dlp test video` and id
`BaW_jenozKc`, this will result in a
`yt-dlp test video-BaW_jenozKc.mp4` file created in the current directory.
1422 **Note**: Some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with placeholder value provided with
`--output-na-placeholder` (
`NA` by default).
1424 **Tip**: Look at the
`-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
1426 For numeric sequences you can use
[numeric related formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting); e.g.
`%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to
5 characters, like in
`00042`.
1428 Output 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.
1430 To use percent literals in an output template use
`%%`. To output to stdout use
`-o -`.
1432 The current default template is
`%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
1434 In 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.
1436 #### Output template examples
1439 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1440 test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1442 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1443 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
1445 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
1446 youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
1448 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
1449 $ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1451 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
1452 $ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1454 # Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
1455 $ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist_index&{} - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1457 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
1458 $ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1460 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
1461 $ 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"
1463 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
1464 $ 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"
1466 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1467 # and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1468 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1470 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1471 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "subtitle:%(uploader)s/subs/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --write-subs
1473 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
1474 $ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
1479 By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1480 This 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`.
1482 **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.
1484 The 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.
1486 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1487 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1488 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1490 The simplest case is requesting a specific format; e.g. with
`-f 22` you can download the format with format code equal to
22. You can get the list of available format codes for particular video using
`--list-formats` or
`-F`. Note that these format codes are extractor specific.
1492 You 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.
1494 You can use
`-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1496 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1498 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1499 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with
`--audio-multistreams`,
`--video-multistreams` or both)
1500 - `b*`,
`best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio or both (ie;
`vcodec!=none or acodec!=none`)
1501 - `b`,
`best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1502 - `bv`,
`bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec=none]`
1503 - `bv*`,
`bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none]`
1504 - `ba`,
`bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec=none]`
1505 - `ba*`,
`bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that **contains audio**. It may also contain video. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec!=none]` ([Do not use!](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/979#issuecomment-919629354))
1506 - `w*
`, `worst*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
1507 - `w
`, `worst
`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]
`
1508 - `wv
`, `worstvideo
`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]
`
1509 - `wv*
`, `worstvideo*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]
`
1510 - `wa
`, `worstaudio
`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]
`
1511 - `wa*
`, `worstaudio*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]
`
1513 For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use `-f worstvideo
`. It is however recommended not to use `worst
` and related options. When your format selector is `worst
`, the format which is worst in all respects is selected. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use `-S +size
` or more rigorously, `-S +size,+br,+res,+fps
` instead of `-f worst
`. See [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
1515 You 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.
1517 If you want to download multiple videos, and they don't have the same formats available, you can specify the order of preference using slashes. Note that formats on the left hand side are preferred; e.g. `-f
22/
17/
18` will download format 22 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 17 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 18 if it's available, otherwise it will complain that no suitable formats are available for download.
1519 If 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
`.
1521 You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using `-f <format1>+<format2>+...
` (requires ffmpeg installed); e.g. `-f bestvideo+bestaudio
` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg.
1523 **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
1525 Unless `--video-multistreams
` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, unless `--audio-multistreams
` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. E.g. `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --video-multistreams --audio-multistreams
` will download and merge all 3 given formats. The resulting file will have 2 video streams and 2 audio streams. But `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --no-video-multistreams
` will download and merge only `bestvideo
` and `bestaudio
`. `best
` is ignored since another format containing a video stream (`bestvideo
`) has already been selected. The order of the formats is therefore important. `-f best+bestaudio --no-audio-multistreams
` will download only `best
` while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams
` will ignore `best
` and download only `bestaudio
`.
1527 ## Filtering Formats
1529 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=
720]"
` (or `-f "[filesize>
10M]"
` since filters without a selector are interpreted as `best
`).
1531 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<
`, `<=
`, `>
`, `>=
`, `=
` (equals), `!=
` (not equals):
1533 - `filesize
`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1534 - `filesize_approx
`: An estimate for the number of bytes
1535 - `width
`: Width of the video, if known
1536 - `height
`: Height of the video, if known
1537 - `aspect_ratio
`: Aspect ratio of the video, if known
1538 - `tbr
`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1539 - `abr
`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1540 - `vbr
`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1541 - `asr
`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1543 - `audio_channels
`: The number of audio channels
1544 - `stretched_ratio
`: `width:height
` of the video's pixels, if not square
1546 Also filtering work for comparisons `=
` (equals), `^=
` (starts with), `$=
` (ends with), `*=
` (contains), `~=
` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
1549 - `ext
`: File extension
1550 - `acodec
`: Name of the audio codec in use
1551 - `vcodec
`: Name of the video codec in use
1552 - `container
`: Name of the container format
1553 - `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
`)
1554 - `language
`: Language code
1555 - `dynamic_range
`: The dynamic range of the video
1556 - `format_id
`: A short description of the format
1557 - `format
`: A human-readable description of the format
1558 - `format_note
`: Additional info about the format
1559 - `resolution
`: Textual description of width and height
1561 Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation `!
` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. `!*=
` (does not contain). The comparand of a string comparison needs to be quoted with either double or single quotes if it contains spaces or special characters other than `._-
`.
1563 **Note**: None of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by the website. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
1565 Formats for which the value is not known are excluded unless you put a question mark (`?
`) after the operator. You can combine format filters, so `-f "bv[height<=?
720][tbr>
500]"
` selects up to 720p videos (or videos where the height is not known) with a bitrate of at least 500 KBit/s. You can also use the filters with `all
` to download all formats that satisfy the filter, e.g. `-f "all[vcodec=none]"
` selects all audio-only formats.
1567 Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses; e.g. `-f "(mp4,webm)[height<
480]"
` will download the best pre-merged mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480.
1571 You can change the criteria for being considered the `best
` by using `-S
` (`--format-sort
`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...
`.
1573 The available fields are:
1575 - `hasvid
`: Gives priority to formats that have a video stream
1576 - `hasaud
`: Gives priority to formats that have an audio stream
1577 - `ie_pref
`: The format preference
1578 - `lang
`: The language preference
1579 - `quality
`: The quality of the format
1580 - `source
`: The preference of the source
1581 - `proto
`: Protocol used for download (`https
`/`ftps
` > `http
`/`ftp
` > `m3u8_native
`/`m3u8
` > `http_dash_segments
`> `websocket_frag
` > `mms
`/`rtsp
` > `f4f
`/`f4m
`)
1582 - `vcodec
`: Video Codec (`av01
` > `vp9.2
` > `vp9
` > `h265
` > `h264
` > `vp8
` > `h263
` > `theora
` > other)
1583 - `acodec
`: Audio Codec (`flac
`/`alac
` > `wav
`/`aiff
` > `opus
` > `vorbis
` > `aac
` > `mp4a
` > `mp3
` > `ac4
` > `eac3
` > `ac3
` > `dts
` > other)
1584 - `codec
`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec
`
1585 - `vext
`: Video Extension (`mp4
` > `mov
` > `webm
` > `flv
` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats
` is used, `webm
` is preferred.
1586 - `aext
`: Audio Extension (`m4a
` > `aac
` > `mp3
` > `ogg
` > `opus
` > `webm
` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats
` is used, the order changes to `ogg
` > `opus
` > `webm
` > `mp3
` > `m4a
` > `aac
`
1587 - `ext
`: Equivalent to `vext,aext
`
1588 - `filesize
`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
1589 - `fs_approx
`: Approximate filesize
1590 - `size
`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
1591 - `height
`: Height of video
1592 - `width
`: Width of video
1593 - `res
`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1594 - `fps
`: Framerate of video
1595 - `hdr
`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV
` > `HDR12
` > `HDR10+
` > `HDR10
` > `HLG
` > `SDR
`)
1596 - `channels
`: The number of audio channels
1597 - `tbr
`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1598 - `vbr
`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1599 - `abr
`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1600 - `br
`: Average bitrate in KBit/s, `tbr
`/`vbr
`/`abr
`
1601 - `asr
`: Audio sample rate in Hz
1603 **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.
1605 All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in descending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+
`. E.g. `+res
` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a preferred value for the fields, separated by a `:
`. E.g. `res:
720` prefers larger videos, but no larger than 720p and the smallest video if there are no videos less than 720p. For `codec
` and `ext
`, you can provide two preferred values, the first for video and the second for audio. E.g. `+codec:avc:m4a
` (equivalent to `+vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a
`) sets the video codec preference to `h264
` > `h265
` > `vp9
` > `vp9.2
` > `av01
` > `vp8
` > `h263
` > `theora
` and audio codec preference to `mp4a
` > `aac
` > `vorbis
` > `opus
` > `mp3
` > `ac3
` > `dts
`. You can also make the sorting prefer the nearest values to the provided by using `~
` as the delimiter. E.g. `filesize~
1G
` prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.
1607 The fields `hasvid
` and `ie_pref
` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using `--format-sort-force
`. Apart from these, the default order used is: `lang,quality,res,fps,hdr:
12,vcodec:vp9.2,channels,acodec,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id
`. The extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
1609 Note that the default has `vcodec:vp9.2
`; i.e. `av1
` is not preferred. Similarly, the default for hdr is `hdr:
12`; i.e. dolby vision is not preferred. These choices are made since DV and AV1 formats are not yet fully compatible with most devices. This may be changed in the future as more devices become capable of smoothly playing back these formats.
1611 If 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
`.
1613 **Tip**: You can use the `-v -F
` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1615 ## Format Selection examples
1618 # Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
1619 # or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
1620 $ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
1622 # Download best format that contains video,
1623 # and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
1624 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
1629 # Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1630 # For this case, an output template should be used since
1631 # by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
1632 $ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
1634 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1635 # and all audio-only formats into one file
1636 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
1638 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1639 # and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1640 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
1643 # The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
1644 # and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
1646 # Download the worst video available (old method)
1647 $ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
1649 # Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
1652 # Download the smallest video available
1653 $ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
1657 # Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
1658 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
1660 # Download the best video with the best extension
1661 # (For video, mp4 > mov > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
1666 # Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1667 # or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
1668 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
1670 # Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1671 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1672 $ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
1674 # Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1675 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1676 # Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1677 # So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
1678 $ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
1682 # Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1683 # or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1684 $ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
1686 # Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1687 # or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1688 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
1690 # Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
1691 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
1695 # Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1696 # or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
1697 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
1699 # Download best video available via the best protocol
1700 # (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
1705 # Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1706 # or the best video if there is no such video
1707 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
1709 # Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1710 # or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
1711 $ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
1713 # Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1714 # or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
1715 $ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
1719 # More complex examples
1721 # Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1722 # or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
1723 $ yt-dlp -f "((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)"
1725 # Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
1726 # or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
1727 # preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
1728 $ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
1732 # Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1733 # or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
1734 # preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
1735 $ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
1738 # MODIFYING METADATA
1740 The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata
` and `--replace-in-metadata
`
1742 `--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.
1744 The general syntax of `--parse-metadata FROM:TO
` is to give the name of a field or an [output template](#output-template) to extract data from, and the format to interpret it as, separated by a colon `:`. Either a [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax) with named capture groups, a single field name, or a similar syntax to the [output template](#output-template) (only `%(field)s
` formatting is supported) can be used for `TO
`. The option can be used multiple times to parse and modify various fields.
1746 Note that these options preserve their relative order, allowing replacements to be made in parsed fields and viceversa. Also, any field thus created can be used in the [output template](#output-template) and will also affect the media file's metadata added when using `--embed-metadata
`.
1748 This option also has a few special uses:
1750 * You can download an additional URL based on the metadata of the currently downloaded video. To do this, set the field `additional_urls
` to the URL that you want to download. E.g. `--parse-metadata "description:(?P<additional_urls>https?://www\.vimeo\.com/\d+)"
` will download the first vimeo video found in the description
1752 * You can use this to change the metadata that is embedded in the media file. To do this, set the value of the corresponding field with a `meta_
` prefix. For example, any value you set to `meta_description
` field will be added to the `description
` field in the file - you can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis". To modify the metadata of individual streams, use the `meta<n>_
` prefix (e.g. `meta1_language
`). Any value set to the `meta_
` field will overwrite all default values.
1754 **Note**: Metadata modification happens before format selection, post-extraction and other post-processing operations. Some fields may be added or changed during these steps, overriding your changes.
1756 For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1758 Metadata fields | From
1759 :--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1760 `title
` | `track
` or `title
`
1761 `date
` | `upload_date
`
1762 `description
`, `synopsis
` | `description
`
1763 `purl
`, `comment
` | `webpage_url
`
1764 `track
` | `track_number
`
1765 `artist
` | `artist
`, `creator
`, `uploader
` or `uploader_id
`
1768 `album_artist
` | `album_artist
`
1769 `disc
` | `disc_number
`
1771 `season_number
` | `season_number
`
1772 `episode_id
` | `episode
` or `episode_id
`
1773 `episode_sort
` | `episode_number
`
1774 `language
` of each stream | the format's `language
`
1776 **Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1779 ## Modifying metadata examples
1782 # Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
1783 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
1786 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
1788 # Set title as "Series name S01E05"
1789 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
1791 # Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
1792 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --embed-metadata
1794 # Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1795 # handling multiple lines correctly
1796 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --embed-metadata
1798 # Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
1799 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
1801 # Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
1802 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "video::(?P<formats>)" --write-info-json
1804 # Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
1805 $ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
1809 # EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1811 Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS
`. `ARGS
` is a `;
` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2
`. E.g. `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_embedded,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"
`
1813 Note: In CLI, `ARG
` can use `-
` instead of `_
`; e.g. `youtube:player-client"
` becomes `youtube:player_client"
`
1815 The following extractors use this feature:
1818 * `lang
`: Prefer translated metadata (`title
`, `description
` etc) of this language code (case-sensitive). By default, the video primary language metadata is preferred, with a fallback to `en
` translated. See [youtube.py](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/c26f9b991a0681fd3ea548d535919cec1fbbd430/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L381-L390) for list of supported content language codes
1819 * `skip
`: One or more of `hls
`, `dash
` or `translated_subs
` to skip extraction of the m3u8 manifests, dash manifests and [auto-translated subtitles](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/4090#issuecomment-1158102032) respectively
1820 * `player_client
`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web
`, `android
` and `ios
` with variants `_music
`, `_embedded
`, `_embedscreen
`, `_creator
` (e.g. `web_embedded
`); and `mweb
`, `mweb_embedscreen
` and `tv_embedded
` (agegate bypass) with no variants. By default, `ios,android,web
` is used, but `tv_embedded
` and `creator
` variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly, the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com
` urls. You can use `all
` to use all the clients, and `default
` for the default clients.
1821 * `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
1822 * `player_params
`: YouTube player parameters to use for player requests. Will overwrite any default ones set by yt-dlp.
1823 * `comment_sort
`: `top
` or `new
` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
1824 * `max_comments
`: Limit the amount of comments to gather. Comma-separated list of integers representing `max-comments,max-parents,max-replies,max-replies-per-thread
`. Default is `all,all,all,all
`
1825 * E.g. `all,all,
1000,
10` will get a maximum of 1000 replies total, with up to 10 replies per thread. `1000,all,
100` will get a maximum of 1000 comments, with a maximum of 100 replies total
1826 * `formats
`: Change the types of formats to return. `dashy
` (convert HTTP to DASH), `duplicate
` (identical content but different URLs or protocol; includes `dashy
`), `incomplete
` (cannot be downloaded completely - live dash and post-live m3u8)
1827 * `innertube_host
`: Innertube API host to use for all API requests; e.g. `studio.youtube.com
`, `youtubei.googleapis.com
`. Note that cookies exported from one subdomain will not work on others
1828 * `innertube_key
`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
1829 * `raise_incomplete_data
`: `Incomplete Data Received
` raises an error instead of reporting a warning
1831 #### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1832 * `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)
1833 * `approximate_date
`: Extract approximate `upload_date
` and `timestamp
` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
1836 * `fragment_query
`: Passthrough any query in mpd/m3u8 manifest URLs to their fragments if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `fragment_query=VALUE
`. Does not apply to ffmpeg
1837 * `variant_query
`: Passthrough the master m3u8 URL query to its variant playlist URLs if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `variant_query=VALUE
`
1838 * `hls_key
`: An HLS AES-128 key URI *or* key (as hex), and optionally the IV (as hex), in the form of `(URI|KEY)[,IV]
`; e.g. `generic:hls_key=ABCDEF1234567980,
0xFEDCBA0987654321`. Passing any of these values will force usage of the native HLS downloader and override the corresponding values found in the m3u8 playlist
1839 * `is_live
`: Bypass live HLS detection and manually set `live_status
` - a value of `false
` will set `not_live
`, any other value (or no value) will set `is_live
`
1842 * `language
`: Audio languages to extract, e.g. `funimation:language=english,japanese
`
1843 * `version
`: The video version to extract - `uncut
` or `simulcast
`
1845 #### crunchyrollbeta (Crunchyroll)
1846 * `format
`: Which stream type(s) to extract (default: `adaptive_hls
`). Potentially useful values include `adaptive_hls
`, `adaptive_dash
`, `vo_adaptive_hls
`, `vo_adaptive_dash
`, `download_hls
`, `download_dash
`, `multitrack_adaptive_hls_v2
`
1847 * `hardsub
`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract, or `all
` (default: `None
` = no hardsubs), e.g. `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None
`
1850 * `video_types
`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes
`, `movies
`, `clips
`, `trailers
`
1853 * `segment_duration
`: Segment duration in milliseconds for HLS-DMC formats. Use it at your own risk since this feature **may result in your account termination.**
1855 #### youtubewebarchive
1856 * `check_all
`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails
`, `captures
`
1859 * `comment_sort
`: `hot
` (default), `you
` (cookies needed), `top
`, `new
` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1862 * `res
`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd
`, `hd
`, `fhd
`
1863 * `vcodec
`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264
`, `h265
`, `dvh265
`
1864 * `dr
`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr
`, `hdr10
`, `dv
`
1866 #### niconicochannelplus
1867 * `max_comments
`: Maximum number of comments to extract - default is `120`
1870 * `api_hostname
`: Hostname to use for mobile API requests, e.g. `api-h2.tiktokv.com
`
1871 * `app_version
`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version
`, e.g. `20.2.1`
1872 * `manifest_app_version
`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with, e.g. `221`
1875 * `tab
`: Which tab to download - one of `new
`, `top
`, `videos
`, `podcasts
`, `streams
`, `stacks
`
1878 * `api
`: Select one of `graphql
` (default), `legacy
` or `syndication
` as the API for tweet extraction. Has no effect if logged in
1880 #### stacommu, wrestleuniverse
1881 * `device_id
`: UUID value assigned by the website and used to enforce device limits for paid livestream content. Can be found in browser local storage
1884 * `client_id
`: Client ID value to be sent with GraphQL requests, e.g. `twitch:client_id=kimne78kx3ncx6brgo4mv6wki5h1ko
`
1886 #### nhkradirulive (NHK らじる★らじる LIVE)
1887 * `area
`: Which regional variation to extract. Valid areas are: `sapporo
`, `sendai
`, `tokyo
`, `nagoya
`, `osaka
`, `hiroshima
`, `matsuyama
`, `fukuoka
`. Defaults to `tokyo
`
1890 * `type
`: Type(s) of game replays to extract. Valid types are: `full_game
`, `full_game_spanish
`, `condensed_game
` and `all_22
`. You can use `all
` to extract all available replay types, which is the default
1893 * `bitrate
`: Audio bitrates to request. One or more of `16`, `32`, `64`, `128`, `320`. Default is `128,
320`
1895 **Note**: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
1897 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1902 Note 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!**
1904 Plugins can be of `<type>
`s `extractor
` or `postprocessor
`.
1905 - Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it.
1906 - Extractor plugins take priority over builtin extractors.
1907 - Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME
`.
1910 Plugins are loaded from the namespace packages `yt_dlp_plugins.extractor
` and `yt_dlp_plugins.postprocessor
`.
1912 In other words, the file structure on the disk looks something like:
1920 yt-dlp looks for these `yt_dlp_plugins
` namespace folders in many locations (see below) and loads in plugins from **all** of them.
1922 See the [wiki for some known plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugins)
1924 ## Installing Plugins
1926 Plugins can be installed using various methods and locations.
1928 1. **Configuration directories**:
1929 Plugin packages (containing a `yt_dlp_plugins
` namespace folder) can be dropped into the following standard [configuration locations](#configuration):
1931 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1932 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
`
1933 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
` (recommended on Windows)
1934 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
`
1935 * `~/.yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
`
1936 * `~/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
`
1937 * **System Plugins**
1938 * `/etc/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
`
1939 * `/etc/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
`
1940 2. **Executable location**: Plugin packages can similarly be installed in a `yt-dlp-plugins
` directory under the executable location (recommended for portable installations):
1941 * Binary: where `<root-dir>/yt-dlp.exe
`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
`
1942 * Source: where `<root-dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py
`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
`
1944 3. **pip and other locations in `PYTHONPATH
`**
1945 * Plugin packages can be installed and managed using `pip
`. See [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) for an example.
1946 * Note: plugin files between plugin packages installed with pip must have unique filenames.
1947 * Any path in `PYTHONPATH
` is searched in for the `yt_dlp_plugins
` namespace folder.
1948 * Note: This does not apply for Pyinstaller/py2exe builds.
1951 `.zip
`, `.egg
` and `.whl
` archives containing a `yt_dlp_plugins
` namespace folder in their root are also supported as plugin packages.
1952 * e.g. `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/mypluginpkg.zip
` where `mypluginpkg.zip
` contains `yt_dlp_plugins/<type>/myplugin.py
`
1954 Run yt-dlp with `--verbose
` to check if the plugin has been loaded.
1956 ## Developing Plugins
1958 See the [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) repo for a template plugin package and the [Plugin Development](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugin-Development) section of the wiki for a plugin development guide.
1960 All public classes with a name ending in `IE
`/`PP
` are imported from each file for extractors and postprocessors repectively. This respects underscore prefix (e.g. `_MyBasePluginIE
` is private) and `__all__
`. Modules can similarly be excluded by prefixing the module name with an underscore (e.g. `_myplugin.py
`).
1962 To replace an existing extractor with a subclass of one, set the `plugin_name
` class keyword argument (e.g. `class MyPluginIE(ABuiltInIE, plugin_name='myplugin')
` will replace `ABuiltInIE
` with `MyPluginIE
`). Since the extractor replaces the parent, you should exclude the subclass extractor from being imported separately by making it private using one of the methods described above.
1964 If you are a plugin author, add [yt-dlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/yt-dlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability.
1966 See the [Developer Instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions) on how to write and test an extractor.
1970 yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1972 Your 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.
1974 From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1977 from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
1979 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1980 with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1984 Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of options available, have a look at [`yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py`](yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py#L183) or `help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)` in a Python shell. If you are already familiar with the CLI, you can use [`devscripts/cli_to_api.py`](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/devscripts/cli_to_api.py) to translate any CLI switches to `YoutubeDL
` params.
1986 **Tip**: If you are porting your code from youtube-dl to yt-dlp, one important point to look out for is that we do not guarantee the return value of `YoutubeDL.extract_info
` to be json serializable, or even be a dictionary. It will be dictionary-like, but if you want to ensure it is a serializable dictionary, pass it through `YoutubeDL.sanitize_info
` as shown in the [example below](#extracting-information)
1988 ## Embedding examples
1990 #### Extracting information
1996 URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1998 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
2000 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2001 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
2003 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
2004 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
2006 #### Download using an info-json
2011 INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
2013 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
2014 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
2016 print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
2017 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
2025 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2028 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
2029 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
2030 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
2031 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
2032 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
2036 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2037 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
2045 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2047 def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
2048 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
2049 duration = info.get('duration')
2050 if duration and duration < 60:
2051 return 'The video is too short'
2054 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
2057 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2058 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
2061 #### Adding logger and progress hook
2066 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2069 def debug(self, msg):
2070 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
2071 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
2072 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
2077 def info(self, msg):
2080 def warning(self, msg):
2083 def error(self, msg):
2087 # ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
2089 if d['status'] == 'finished':
2090 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
2094 'logger': MyLogger(),
2095 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
2098 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2102 #### Add a custom PostProcessor
2107 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2109 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
2110 class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
2111 def run(self, info):
2112 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
2116 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
2117 # ℹ️ "when" can take any value in yt_dlp.utils.POSTPROCESS_WHEN
2118 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP(), when='pre_process')
2123 #### Use a custom format selector
2128 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2130 def format_selector(ctx):
2131 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
2132 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
2134 # formats are already sorted worst to best
2135 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
2137 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
2138 best_video = next(f for f in formats
2139 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
2141 # find compatible audio extension
2142 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
2143 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
2144 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
2145 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
2147 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
2149 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
2150 'ext': best_video['ext'],
2151 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
2152 # Must be + separated list of protocols
2153 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
2158 'format': format_selector,
2161 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2165 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
2167 # DEPRECATED OPTIONS
2169 These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
2171 #### Almost redundant options
2172 While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
2174 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
2175 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
2176 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
2177 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
2179 #### Redundant options
2180 While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
2182 --get-description --print description
2183 --get-duration --print duration_string
2184 --get-filename --print filename
2185 --get-format --print format
2187 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
2188 -e, --get-title --print title
2189 -g, --get-url --print urls
2190 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
2191 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2192 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2193 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
2194 --break-on-reject Use --break-match-filter
2195 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2196 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
2197 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2198 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2199 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2200 --no-playlist-reverse Default
2201 --no-colors --color no_color
2204 #### Not recommended
2205 While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2207 --force-generic-extractor --ies generic,default
2208 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2209 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
2210 --all-formats -f all
2211 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
2212 --print-json -j --no-simulate
2213 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting, e.g. %(autonumber)03d
2214 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
2215 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2216 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
2217 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2218 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
2219 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2220 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
2221 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2222 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2223 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2224 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
2225 --geo-bypass --xff "default"
2226 --no-geo-bypass --xff "never"
2227 --geo-bypass-country CODE --xff CODE
2228 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK --xff IP_BLOCK
2231 #### Developer options
2232 These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2234 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
2235 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
2236 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
2237 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2238 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
2242 These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2244 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
2245 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
2246 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2247 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2248 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2249 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2250 --load-info --load-info-json
2251 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
2252 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
2253 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
2254 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2255 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
2256 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2257 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
2258 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
2259 --write-srt --write-subs
2260 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
2262 #### Sponskrub Options
2263 Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock
` options
2265 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2266 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2267 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2268 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2269 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2270 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2271 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2272 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2274 #### No longer supported
2275 These options may no longer work as intended
2277 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2278 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2279 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2280 --no-call-home Default
2281 --include-ads No longer supported
2282 --no-include-ads Default
2283 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2284 --no-write-annotations Default
2285 --compat-options seperate-video-versions No longer needed
2288 These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2290 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2291 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2294 See [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)
2297 See the [Wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki) for more information
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