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@66ab08**](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/66ab0814c4baa2dc79c2dd5287bc0ad61a37c5b9) (
[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 * **Nightly builds**: [Automated nightly builds](#update-channels) can be used with
`--update-to nightly`
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 3.7+](## "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 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 For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
164 * `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
165 * `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as
`--compat-options all,-multistreams,-playlist-match-filter`
166 * `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as
`--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect,-playlist-match-filter`
167 * `--compat-options 2021`: Same as
`--compat-options 2022,no-certifi,filename-sanitization,no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date`
168 * `--compat-options 2022`: Same as
`--compat-options playlist-match-filter,no-external-downloader-progress,prefer-legacy-http-handler`. Use this to enable all future compat options
173 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
174 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)
175 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
176 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)
177 []
(https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
178 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
179 [](#release-files)
180 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
181 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
183 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
187 You can use
`yt-dlp -U` to update if you are using the [release binaries](#release-files)
189 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
191 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
193 <a id="update-channels"/>
195 There are currently two release channels for binaries,
`stable` and
`nightly`.
196 `stable` is the default channel, and many of its changes have been tested by users of the nightly channel.
197 The
`nightly` channel has releases built after each push to the master branch, and will have the most recent fixes and additions, but also have more risk of regressions. They are available in
[their own repo](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds/releases).
199 When using
`--update`/
`-U`, a release binary will only update to its current channel.
200 `--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.
202 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.
205 * `yt-dlp --update-to nightly` change to
`nightly` channel and update to its latest release
206 * `yt-dlp --update-to stable@2023.02.17` upgrade/downgrade to release to
`stable` channel tag
`2023.02.17`
207 * `yt-dlp --update-to 2023.01.06` upgrade/downgrade to tag
`2023.01.06` if it exists on the current channel
208 * `yt-dlp --update-to example/yt-dlp@2023.03.01` upgrade/downgrade to the release from the
`example/yt-dlp` repository, tag
`2023.03.01`
210 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
217 [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**)
218 [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**)
219 [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**)
225 [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
226 [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))
227 [yt-dlp_linux](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux)|Linux standalone x64 binary
228 [yt-dlp_linux.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux.zip)|Unpackaged Linux executable (no auto-update)
229 [yt-dlp_linux_armv7l](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_armv7l)|Linux standalone armv7l (
32-bit) binary
230 [yt-dlp_linux_aarch64](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_aarch64)|Linux standalone aarch64 (
64-bit) binary
231 [yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
232 [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)
233 [yt-dlp_macos_legacy](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos_legacy)|MacOS (
10.9+) standalone x64 executable
239 [yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball
240 [SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
241 [SHA2-512SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA512 sums
242 [SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
243 [SHA2-256SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA256 sums
245 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)
248 curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/raw/master/public.key | gpg --import
249 gpg --verify SHA2-256SUMS.sig SHA2-256SUMS
250 gpg --verify SHA2-512SUMS.sig SHA2-512SUMS
252 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
254 **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)
257 Python versions
3.7+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
259 <!-- Python
3.5+ uses VC++
14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
260 <!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=
26999 --x>
261 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.
264 While all the other dependencies are optional,
`ffmpeg` and
`ffprobe` are highly recommended
266 ### Strongly recommended
268 * [**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)
270 There are bugs in ffmpeg that causes various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependency, we provide
[custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#ffmpeg-static-auto-builds) with patches for some of these issues at
[yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds). See
[the readme](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#patches-applied) for details on the specific issues solved by these builds
272 **Important**: What you need is ffmpeg *binary*, **NOT**
[the python package of the same name](https://pypi.org/project/ffmpeg)
275 * [**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)
276 * [**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>
277 * [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under
[BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
278 * [**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)
282 * [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For
`--embed-thumbnail` in certain formats. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
283 * [**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)
284 * [**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
288 * [**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)
289 * [**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)
290 * [**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)
291 * Any external downloader that you want to use with
`--downloader`
295 * [**avconv** and **avprobe**](https://www.libav.org) - Now **deprecated** alternative to ffmpeg. License
[depends on the build](https://libav.org/legal)
296 * [**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)
297 * [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading
`rtmp` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with
`--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
298 * [**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)
300 To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
302 The standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with **\*** included.
304 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
309 ### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
310 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.
312 python3 -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
313 python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
316 On some systems, you may need to use
`py` or
`python` instead of
`python3`.
318 `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).
320 **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.
322 **Important**: Running
`pyinstaller` directly **without** using
`pyinst.py` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
324 ### Platform-independent Binary (UNIX)
325 You will need the build tools
`python` (
3.7+),
`zip`,
`make` (GNU),
`pandoc`\* and
`pytest`\*.
327 After installing these, simply run
`make`.
329 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)
331 ### Standalone Py2Exe Builds (Windows)
333 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.
335 If you wish to build it anyway, install Python and py2exe, and then simply run
`setup.py py2exe`
337 py -m pip install -U py2exe -r requirements.txt
338 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
343 * **
`devscripts/update-version.py`** - Update the version number based on current date.
344 * **
`devscripts/set-variant.py`** - Set the build variant of the executable.
345 * **
`devscripts/make_changelog.py`** - Create a markdown changelog using short commit messages and update
`CONTRIBUTORS` file.
346 * **
`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.
348 Note: See their
`--help` for more info.
350 ### Forking the project
351 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.
355 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
356 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
358 `Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
359 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
361 <!-- Auto generated -->
363 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
364 --version Print program version and exit
365 -U, --update Update this program to the latest version
366 --no-update Do not check for updates (default)
367 --update-to [CHANNEL]@[TAG] Upgrade/downgrade to a specific version.
368 CHANNEL can be a repository as well. CHANNEL
369 and TAG default to "stable" and "latest"
370 respectively if omitted; See "UPDATE" for
371 details. Supported channels: stable, nightly
372 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
373 The download will be considered successful
374 even if the postprocessing fails
375 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
376 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
378 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
379 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
380 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
381 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
382 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
384 --use-extractors NAMES Extractor names to use separated by commas.
385 You can also use regexes, "all", "default"
386 and "end" (end URL matching); e.g. --ies
387 "holodex.*,end,youtube". Prefix the name
388 with a "-" to exclude it, e.g. --ies
389 default,-generic. Use --list-extractors for
390 a list of extractor names. (Alias: --ies)
391 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. E.g.
392 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
393 google videos for the search term "python".
394 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
395 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
396 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
397 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
398 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
399 possible instead of searching
400 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
401 except those given by --config-locations.
402 For backward compatibility, if this option
403 is found inside the system configuration
404 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
406 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
407 (default). When given inside a configuration
408 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
409 defined in the current file
410 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
411 either the path to the config or its
412 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
413 used multiple times and inside other
415 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
417 --no-flat-playlist Fully extract the videos of a playlist
419 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
420 Currently only supported for YouTube
422 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
424 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
425 available. Pass the minimum number of
426 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
427 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
428 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
429 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
430 --color [STREAM:]POLICY Whether to emit color codes in output,
431 optionally prefixed by the STREAM (stdout or
432 stderr) to apply the setting to. Can be one
433 of "always", "auto" (default), "never", or
434 "no_color" (use non color terminal
435 sequences). Can be used multiple times
436 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
437 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
438 configurations by reverting some of the
439 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
440 default behavior" for details
441 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
442 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
443 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
444 according to the Python string formatting
445 mini-language. E.g. --alias get-audio,-X
446 "-S=aext:{
0},abr -x --audio-format {
0}"
447 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
448 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
449 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
450 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
451 output. Alias options can trigger more
452 aliases; so be careful to avoid defining
453 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
454 alias may be triggered a maximum of
100
455 times. This option can be used multiple times
458 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
459 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme,
460 e.g. socks5://user:pass@
127.0.0.1:
1080/.
461 Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for
463 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
464 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
465 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
466 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
467 --enable-file-urls Enable file:// URLs. This is disabled by
468 default for security reasons.
471 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
472 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
473 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
474 is not present) is used for the actual
476 --xff VALUE How to fake X-Forwarded-For HTTP header to
477 try bypassing geographic restriction. One of
478 "default" (only when known to be useful),
479 "never", an IP block in CIDR notation, or a
480 two-letter ISO
3166-
2 country code
483 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma separated playlist_index of the items
484 to download. You can specify a range using
485 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
486 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
487 Use negative indices to count from the right
488 and negative STEP to download in reverse
489 order. E.g. "-I
1:
3,
7,-
5::
2" used on a
490 playlist of size
15 will download the items
491 at index
1,
2,
3,
7,
11,
13,
15
492 --min-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is smaller than
493 SIZE, e.g.
50k or
44.6M
494 --max-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is larger than
495 SIZE, e.g.
50k or
44.6M
496 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
497 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
498 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
499 E.g. "--date today-
2weeks" downloads only
500 videos uploaded on the same day two weeks ago
501 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
502 this date. The date formats accepted is the
504 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
505 this date. The date formats accepted is the
507 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
508 field can be compared with a number or a
509 string using the operators defined in
510 "Filtering Formats". You can also simply
511 specify a field to match if the field is
512 present, use "!field" to check if the field
513 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
514 conditions. Use a "
\" to escape "&" or
515 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
516 the filter matches if atleast one of the
517 conditions are met. E.g. --match-filter
518 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?
100 &
519 description~='(?i)
\bcats \& dogs
\b'" matches
520 only videos that are not live OR those that
521 have a like count more than
100 (or the like
522 field is not available) and also has a
523 description that contains the phrase "cats &
524 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
525 interactively ask whether to download each
527 --no-match-filters Do not use any --match-filter (default)
528 --break-match-filters FILTER Same as "--match-filters" but stops the
529 download process when a video is rejected
530 --no-break-match-filters Do not use any --break-match-filters (default)
531 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
532 to a video and a playlist
533 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
534 a video and a playlist
535 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
537 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
538 archive file. Record the IDs of all
539 downloaded videos in it
540 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
541 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
542 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
543 a file that is in the archive
544 --break-per-input Alters --max-downloads, --break-on-existing,
545 --break-match-filter, and autonumber to
547 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
548 terminates the entire download queue
549 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
550 the playlist is skipped
553 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
554 video that should be downloaded concurrently
556 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second,
558 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
559 below which throttling is assumed and the
560 video data is re-extracted, e.g.
100K
561 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is
10), or
563 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
564 error (default is
3), or "infinite"
565 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
566 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
567 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR Time to sleep between retries in seconds
568 (optionally) prefixed by the type of retry
569 (http (default), fragment, file_access,
570 extractor) to apply the sleep to. EXPR can
571 be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=
1]] or
572 exp=START[:END[:BASE=
2]]. This option can be
573 used multiple times to set the sleep for the
574 different retry types, e.g. --retry-sleep
575 linear=
1::
2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=
1:
20
576 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
577 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
578 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragments)
579 --abort-on-unavailable-fragments
580 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
581 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
582 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
583 downloading is finished
584 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
585 downloading is finished (default)
586 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer, e.g.
1024 or
16K
588 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
589 from an initial value of --buffer-size
591 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
592 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
593 downloading, e.g.
10485760 or
10M (default
594 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
595 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
597 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
598 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
599 received. This disables n_entries,
600 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
601 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
602 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
603 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
605 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
606 allowing some players to play the video
607 while downloading, and reducing the chance
608 of file corruption if download is
609 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
611 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
612 videos. This is default when not downloading
614 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters that match the
615 regular expression. A "*" prefix denotes
616 time-range instead of chapter. Negative
617 timestamps are calculated from the end.
618 "*from-url" can be used to download between
619 the "start_time" and "end_time" extracted
620 from the URL. Needs ffmpeg. This option can
621 be used multiple times to download multiple
622 sections, e.g. --download-sections
623 "*
10:
15-inf" --download-sections "intro"
624 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
625 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
626 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
627 use it for. Currently supports native,
628 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
629 wget. You can use this option multiple times
630 to set different downloaders for different
631 protocols. E.g. --downloader aria2c
632 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
633 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
634 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
635 (Alias: --external-downloader)
636 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
637 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
638 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
639 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
640 positions using the same syntax as
641 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
642 option multiple times to give different
643 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
644 --external-downloader-args)
646 ## Filesystem Options:
647 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
648 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
649 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
651 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
652 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
653 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
654 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
655 TYPES as --output are supported.
656 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
657 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
658 files are first downloaded to the temp path
659 and then the final files are moved over to
660 the home path after download is finished.
661 This option is ignored if --output is an
663 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
664 TEMPLATE" for details
665 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
666 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" (default: "NA")
667 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
668 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
669 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
671 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
672 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
673 using Windows (default)
674 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
675 extension) to the specified number of
677 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
678 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
679 option includes --no-continue
680 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
681 related files (default)
682 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
684 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
685 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
686 restart download of the entire file
687 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
688 into output file (default)
689 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
691 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
692 modification time (default)
693 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
694 the file modification time
695 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
696 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
697 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
698 (this may contain personal information)
699 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
700 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
701 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
702 --write-description etc. (default)
703 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
704 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
705 --clean-info-json Remove some internal metadata such as
706 filenames from the infojson (default)
707 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
708 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
709 infojson. The comments are fetched even
710 without this option if the extraction is
711 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
712 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
713 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
715 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
716 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
717 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
718 and dump cookie jar in
719 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
721 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]
722 The name of the browser to load cookies
723 from. Currently supported browsers are:
724 brave, chrome, chromium, edge, firefox,
725 opera, safari, vivaldi. Optionally, the
726 KEYRING used for decrypting Chromium cookies
727 on Linux, the name/path of the PROFILE to
728 load cookies from, and the CONTAINER name
729 (if Firefox) ("none" for no container) can
730 be given with their respective seperators.
731 By default, all containers of the most
732 recently accessed profile are used.
733 Currently supported keyrings are: basictext,
734 gnomekeyring, kwallet, kwallet5, kwallet6
735 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
736 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where yt-dlp can
737 store some downloaded information (such as
738 client ids and signatures) permanently. By
739 default ${XDG_CACHE_HOME}/yt-dlp
740 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
741 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
743 ## Thumbnail Options:
744 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
745 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
746 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
747 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
748 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
750 ## Internet Shortcut Options:
751 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
752 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
753 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
754 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
755 OS caches the URL based on the file path
756 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
757 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
759 ## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
760 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
761 print the log to stderr
762 --no-quiet Deactivate quiet mode. (Default)
763 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
764 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
766 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
768 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
769 extracting metadata even if the videos are
770 not actually available for download
772 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
773 formats are found (default)
774 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
775 related files (Alias: --no-download)
776 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
777 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
778 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
779 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
780 --use-postprocessor (default: video).
781 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
782 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
783 used. This option can be used multiple times
784 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
785 Append given template to the file. The
786 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
787 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
788 output template. This option can be used
790 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
791 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
792 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
793 description of available keys
794 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
795 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
796 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
797 a playlist, the whole playlist information
798 is dumped in a single line
799 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
800 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
801 another simulation option is used (Alias:
802 --force-download-archive)
803 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
804 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
805 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
806 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
807 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
808 Template for progress outputs, optionally
809 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
810 "download-title:" (the console title),
811 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
812 The video's fields are accessible under the
813 "info" key and the progress attributes are
814 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.
815 --console-title --progress-template
816 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
817 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
818 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
819 to debug problems (very verbose)
820 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
821 in the current directory to debug problems
822 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
825 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
826 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
827 that do not support RFC
5746 secure
829 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
830 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
831 information about the video (Currently
832 supported only for YouTube)
833 --add-headers FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
834 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
835 option multiple times
836 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
837 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
838 or fribidi executable in PATH
839 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
840 during data extraction
841 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
842 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
843 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
844 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
845 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
846 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
847 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
850 ## Video Format Options:
851 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
853 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
854 "Sorting Formats" for more details
855 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
856 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
857 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
858 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
859 specified sort order (default)
860 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
862 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
863 output file (default)
864 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
866 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
867 output file (default)
868 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
869 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
870 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
871 irrespective of quality
872 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
874 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
875 those that are actually downloadable
876 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
877 actually downloadable
878 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
880 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
881 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
882 --merge-output-format FORMAT Containers that may be used when merging
883 formats, separated by "/", e.g. "mp4/mkv".
884 Ignored if no merge is required. (currently
885 supported: avi, flv, mkv, mov, mp4, webm)
888 --write-subs Write subtitle file
889 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
890 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
891 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
892 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
893 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
894 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
895 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
896 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
897 e.g. "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
898 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
899 be regex) or "all" separated by commas, e.g.
900 --sub-langs "en.*,ja". You can prefix the
901 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
902 the requested languages, e.g. --sub-langs
903 all,-live_chat. Use --list-subs for a list
904 of available language tags
906 ## Authentication Options:
907 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
908 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
909 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
910 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
911 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
912 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
913 either the path or its containing directory.
915 --netrc-cmd NETRC_CMD Command to execute to get the credentials
917 --video-password PASSWORD Video-specific password
918 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
919 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
920 a list of available MSOs
921 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
922 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
923 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
925 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
926 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
927 format. May include the private key
928 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
929 Path to private key file for client
931 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
932 Password for client certificate private key,
933 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
934 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
936 ## Post-Processing Options:
937 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
938 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
939 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
940 used. (currently supported: best (default),
941 aac, alac, flac, m4a, mp3, opus, vorbis,
942 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
943 similar syntax as --remux-video
944 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
945 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
946 between
0 (best) and
10 (worst) for VBR or a
947 specific bitrate like
128K (default
5)
948 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
949 necessary (currently supported: avi, flv,
950 gif, mkv, mov, mp4, webm, aac, aiff, alac,
951 flac, m4a, mka, mp3, ogg, opus, vorbis,
952 wav). If target container does not support
953 the video/audio codec, remuxing will fail.
954 You can specify multiple rules; e.g.
955 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
956 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
957 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
958 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
959 are the same as --remux-video
960 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
961 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
962 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
963 to give the argument to the specified
964 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
965 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
966 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
967 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
968 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
969 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
970 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
971 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
972 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
973 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
974 specified executable only when being used by
975 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
976 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
977 appended to the prefix optionally followed
978 by a number to pass the argument before the
979 specified input/output file, e.g. --ppa
980 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
981 this option multiple times to give different
982 arguments to different postprocessors.
984 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
985 after post-processing
986 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
987 post-processing (default)
988 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
989 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
990 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
992 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
993 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
994 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
995 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
996 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
997 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
998 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
999 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
1000 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
1001 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
1002 (Alias: --add-chapters)
1003 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
1005 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
1007 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
1009 --parse-metadata [WHEN:]FROM:TO
1010 Parse additional metadata like title/artist
1011 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
1012 for details. Supported values of "WHEN" are
1013 the same as that of --use-postprocessor
1014 (default: pre_process)
1015 --replace-in-metadata [WHEN:]FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
1016 Replace text in a metadata field using the
1017 given regex. This option can be used
1018 multiple times. Supported values of "WHEN"
1019 are the same as that of --use-postprocessor
1020 (default: pre_process)
1021 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
1022 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
1023 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
1024 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
1025 (default; only when the videos form a single
1026 show). All the video files must have same
1027 codecs and number of streams to be
1028 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
1029 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1030 the output filename for the concatenated
1031 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1032 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
1033 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
1034 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
1035 default; fix file if we can, warn
1036 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
1038 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
1039 path to the binary or its containing directory
1040 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
1041 when to execute it, separated by a ":".
1042 Supported values of "WHEN" are the same as
1043 that of --use-postprocessor (default:
1044 after_move). Same syntax as the output
1045 template can be used to pass any field as
1046 arguments to the command. If no fields are
1047 passed, %(filepath,_filename|)q is appended
1048 to the end of the command. This option can
1049 be used multiple times
1050 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
1051 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
1052 (currently supported: ass, lrc, srt, vtt)
1053 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
1054 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
1055 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
1056 can specify multiple rules using similar
1057 syntax as --remux-video
1058 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
1059 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
1060 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1061 the output filename for the split files. See
1062 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1063 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
1064 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
1065 given regular expression. The syntax is the
1066 same as --download-sections. This option can
1067 be used multiple times
1068 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1070 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
1071 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
1072 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1073 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1075 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1076 when cutting/splitting (default)
1077 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1078 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1079 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1080 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1081 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1082 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1083 The "when" argument determines when the
1084 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1085 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1086 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
1087 "video" (after --format; before
1088 --print/--output), "before_dl" (before each
1089 video download), "post_process" (after each
1090 video download; default), "after_move"
1091 (after moving video file to it's final
1092 locations), "after_video" (after downloading
1093 and processing all formats of a video), or
1094 "playlist" (at end of playlist). This option
1095 can be used multiple times to add different
1098 ## SponsorBlock Options:
1099 Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1100 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
1101 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1103 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1104 for, separated by commas. Available
1105 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1106 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
1107 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, chapter, all
1108 and default (=all). You can prefix the
1109 category with a "-" to exclude it. See [
1]
1110 for description of the categories. E.g.
1111 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1112 [
1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1113 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1114 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1115 category is present in both mark and remove,
1116 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1117 available categories are the same as for
1118 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
1119 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight,
1120 chapter are not available
1121 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
1122 An output template for the title of the
1123 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1124 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1125 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1126 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1127 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1128 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1129 --sponsorblock-remove
1130 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1131 https://sponsor.ajay.app
1133 ## Extractor Options:
1134 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1135 (default is
3), or "infinite"
1136 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1137 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1138 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1139 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1140 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1141 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1142 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1143 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1145 --extractor-args IE_KEY:ARGS Pass ARGS arguments to the IE_KEY extractor.
1146 See "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You
1147 can use this option multiple times to give
1148 arguments for different extractors
1152 You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
1154 1. **Main Configuration**:
1155 * The file given by
`--config-location`
1156 1. **Portable Configuration**: (Recommended for portable installations)
1157 * If using a binary,
`yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the binary
1158 * If running from source-code,
`yt-dlp.conf` in the parent directory of
`yt_dlp`
1159 1. **Home Configuration**:
1160 * `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by
`-P`
1161 * If
`-P` is not given, the current directory is searched
1162 1. **User Configuration**:
1163 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp.conf`
1164 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1165 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1166 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp.conf`
1167 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1168 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1170 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
1171 * `~/.yt-dlp/config`
1172 * `~/.yt-dlp/config.txt`
1174 See also: [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
1175 1. **System Configuration**:
1176 * `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
1177 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config`
1178 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1180 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:
1182 # Lines starting with # are comments
1184 # Always extract audio
1187 # Do not copy the mtime
1191 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1193 # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1194 -o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
1197 **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.
1199 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.
1201 ### Configuration file encoding
1203 The configuration files are decoded according to the UTF BOM if present, and in the encoding from system locale otherwise.
1205 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.
1207 ### Authentication with netrc
1209 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:
1211 touch ${HOME}/.netrc
1212 chmod a-rwx,u+rw ${HOME}/.netrc
1214 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1216 machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
1220 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1221 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1223 To activate authentication with the
`.netrc` file you should pass
`--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
1225 The default location of the .netrc file is
`~` (see below).
1227 As an alternative to using the
`.netrc` file, which has the disadvantage of keeping your passwords in a plain text file, you can configure a custom shell command to provide the credentials for an extractor. This is done by providing the
`--netrc-cmd` parameter, it shall output the credentials in the netrc format and return
`0` on success, other values will be treated as an error.
`{}` in the command will be replaced by the name of the extractor to make it possible to select the credentials for the right extractor.
1229 E.g. To use an encrypted
`.netrc` file stored as
`.authinfo.gpg`
1231 yt-dlp --netrc-cmd 'gpg --decrypt ~/.authinfo.gpg' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc
1235 ### Notes about environment variables
1236 * Environment variables are normally specified as
`${VARIABLE}`/
`$VARIABLE` on UNIX and
`%VARIABLE%` on Windows; but is always shown as
`${VARIABLE}` in this documentation
1237 * yt-dlp also allow using UNIX-style variables on Windows for path-like options; e.g.
`--output`,
`--config-location`
1238 * If unset,
`${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}` defaults to
`~/.config` and
`${XDG_CACHE_HOME}` to
`~/.cache`
1239 * On Windows,
`~` points to
`${HOME}` if present; or,
`${USERPROFILE}` or
`${HOMEDRIVE}${HOMEPATH}` otherwise
1240 * On Windows,
`${USERPROFILE}` generally points to
`C:\Users\<user name>` and
`${APPDATA}` to
`${USERPROFILE}\AppData\Roaming`
1244 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.
1246 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1247 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
1248 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1250 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).
1252 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.
1254 The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
1256 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
1258 1. **Addition**: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using
`+` and
`-` respectively. E.g.
`%(playlist_index+10)03d`,
`%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
1260 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`
1262 1. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a
`,`. E.g.
`%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
1264 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`
1266 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`
1268 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)
1270 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
1272 To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1274 %(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
1277 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.
1279 <a id="outtmpl-postprocess-note"/>
1281 **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.
1283 The available fields are:
1285 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1286 - `title` (string): Video title
1287 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
1288 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1289 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
1290 - `description` (string): The description of the video
1291 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1292 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1293 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1294 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
1295 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
1296 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
1297 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
1298 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
1299 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
1300 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
1301 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1302 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1303 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
1304 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
1305 - `channel_is_verified` (boolean): Whether the channel is verified on the platform
1306 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1307 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
1308 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
1309 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1310 - `concurrent_view_count` (numeric): How many users are currently watching the video on the platform.
1311 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1312 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1313 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1314 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
1315 - `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)
1316 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
1317 - `live_status` (string): One of "not_live", "is_live", "is_upcoming", "was_live", "post_live" (was live, but VOD is not yet processed)
1318 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
1319 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
1320 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
1321 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
1322 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1323 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
1324 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1325 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
1326 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
1327 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at
`--autonumber-start`, padded with leading zeros to
5 digits
1328 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
1329 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
1330 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1331 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1332 - `playlist` (string):
`playlist_id` or
`playlist_title`
1333 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
1334 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1335 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
1336 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1337 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
1338 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
1339 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1340 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
1341 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as
`webpage_url` for playlist entries)
1343 All the fields in [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats) can also be used
1345 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1347 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1348 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1349 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1351 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1353 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1354 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1355 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1356 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1357 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1358 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1359 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1361 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1363 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1364 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1365 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1366 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1367 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1368 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1369 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1370 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1371 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1372 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1374 Available only when using
`--download-sections` and for
`chapter:` prefix when using
`--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
1376 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1377 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1378 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1379 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1381 Available only when used in
`--print`:
1383 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1384 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the [actual filename may differ](#outtmpl-postprocess-note)
1385 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by
`--list-formats`
1386 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by
`--list-thumbnails`
1387 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by
`--list-subs`
1388 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by
`--list-subs`
1390 Available only after the video is downloaded (
`post_process`/
`after_move`):
1392 - `filepath`: Actual path of downloaded video file
1394 Available only in
`--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1396 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1397 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1398 - `categories` (list): The
[SponsorBlock categories](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Category) the chapter belongs to
1399 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1400 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1401 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1402 - `type` (string): The
[SponsorBlock action type](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Action_Type) of the chapter
1404 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.
1406 **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).
1408 **Tip**: Look at the
`-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
1410 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`.
1412 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.
1414 To use percent literals in an output template use
`%%`. To output to stdout use
`-o -`.
1416 The current default template is
`%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
1418 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.
1420 #### Output template examples
1423 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1424 test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1426 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1427 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
1429 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
1430 youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
1432 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
1433 $ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1435 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
1436 $ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1438 # Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
1439 $ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist_index&{} - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1441 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
1442 $ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1444 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
1445 $ 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"
1447 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
1448 $ 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"
1450 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1451 # and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1452 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1454 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1455 $ 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
1457 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
1458 $ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
1463 By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1464 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`.
1466 **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.
1468 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.
1470 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1471 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1472 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1474 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.
1476 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.
1478 You can use
`-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1480 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1482 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1483 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with
`--audio-multistreams`,
`--video-multistreams` or both)
1484 - `b*`,
`best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio or both (ie;
`vcodec!=none or acodec!=none`)
1485 - `b`,
`best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1486 - `bv`,
`bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec=none]`
1487 - `bv*`,
`bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none]`
1488 - `ba`,
`bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec=none]`
1489 - `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))
1490 - `w*
`, `worst*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
1491 - `w
`, `worst
`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]
`
1492 - `wv
`, `worstvideo
`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]
`
1493 - `wv*
`, `worstvideo*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]
`
1494 - `wa
`, `worstaudio
`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]
`
1495 - `wa*
`, `worstaudio*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]
`
1497 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.
1499 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.
1501 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.
1503 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
`.
1505 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.
1507 **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
1509 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
`.
1511 ## Filtering Formats
1513 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
`).
1515 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<
`, `<=
`, `>
`, `>=
`, `=
` (equals), `!=
` (not equals):
1517 - `filesize
`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1518 - `filesize_approx
`: An estimate for the number of bytes
1519 - `width
`: Width of the video, if known
1520 - `height
`: Height of the video, if known
1521 - `aspect_ratio
`: Aspect ratio of the video, if known
1522 - `tbr
`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1523 - `abr
`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1524 - `vbr
`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1525 - `asr
`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1527 - `audio_channels
`: The number of audio channels
1528 - `stretched_ratio
`: `width:height
` of the video's pixels, if not square
1530 Also filtering work for comparisons `=
` (equals), `^=
` (starts with), `$=
` (ends with), `*=
` (contains), `~=
` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
1533 - `ext
`: File extension
1534 - `acodec
`: Name of the audio codec in use
1535 - `vcodec
`: Name of the video codec in use
1536 - `container
`: Name of the container format
1537 - `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
`)
1538 - `language
`: Language code
1539 - `dynamic_range
`: The dynamic range of the video
1540 - `format_id
`: A short description of the format
1541 - `format
`: A human-readable description of the format
1542 - `format_note
`: Additional info about the format
1543 - `resolution
`: Textual description of width and height
1545 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 `._-
`.
1547 **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.
1549 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.
1551 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.
1555 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...
`.
1557 The available fields are:
1559 - `hasvid
`: Gives priority to formats that have a video stream
1560 - `hasaud
`: Gives priority to formats that have an audio stream
1561 - `ie_pref
`: The format preference
1562 - `lang
`: The language preference
1563 - `quality
`: The quality of the format
1564 - `source
`: The preference of the source
1565 - `proto
`: Protocol used for download (`https
`/`ftps
` > `http
`/`ftp
` > `m3u8_native
`/`m3u8
` > `http_dash_segments
`> `websocket_frag
` > `mms
`/`rtsp
` > `f4f
`/`f4m
`)
1566 - `vcodec
`: Video Codec (`av01
` > `vp9.2
` > `vp9
` > `h265
` > `h264
` > `vp8
` > `h263
` > `theora
` > other)
1567 - `acodec
`: Audio Codec (`flac
`/`alac
` > `wav
`/`aiff
` > `opus
` > `vorbis
` > `aac
` > `mp4a
` > `mp3
` > `ac4
` > `eac3
` > `ac3
` > `dts
` > other)
1568 - `codec
`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec
`
1569 - `vext
`: Video Extension (`mp4
` > `mov
` > `webm
` > `flv
` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats
` is used, `webm
` is preferred.
1570 - `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
`
1571 - `ext
`: Equivalent to `vext,aext
`
1572 - `filesize
`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
1573 - `fs_approx
`: Approximate filesize
1574 - `size
`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
1575 - `height
`: Height of video
1576 - `width
`: Width of video
1577 - `res
`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1578 - `fps
`: Framerate of video
1579 - `hdr
`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV
` > `HDR12
` > `HDR10+
` > `HDR10
` > `HLG
` > `SDR
`)
1580 - `channels
`: The number of audio channels
1581 - `tbr
`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1582 - `vbr
`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1583 - `abr
`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1584 - `br
`: Average bitrate in KBit/s, `tbr
`/`vbr
`/`abr
`
1585 - `asr
`: Audio sample rate in Hz
1587 **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.
1589 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.
1591 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.
1593 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.
1595 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
`.
1597 **Tip**: You can use the `-v -F
` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1599 ## Format Selection examples
1602 # Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
1603 # or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
1604 $ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
1606 # Download best format that contains video,
1607 # and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
1608 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
1613 # Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1614 # For this case, an output template should be used since
1615 # by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
1616 $ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
1618 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1619 # and all audio-only formats into one file
1620 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
1622 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1623 # and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1624 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
1627 # The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
1628 # and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
1630 # Download the worst video available (old method)
1631 $ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
1633 # Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
1636 # Download the smallest video available
1637 $ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
1641 # Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
1642 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
1644 # Download the best video with the best extension
1645 # (For video, mp4 > mov > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
1650 # Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1651 # or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
1652 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
1654 # Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1655 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1656 $ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
1658 # Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1659 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1660 # Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1661 # So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
1662 $ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
1666 # Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1667 # or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1668 $ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
1670 # Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1671 # or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1672 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
1674 # Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
1675 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
1679 # Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1680 # or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
1681 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
1683 # Download best video available via the best protocol
1684 # (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
1689 # Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1690 # or the best video if there is no such video
1691 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
1693 # Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1694 # or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
1695 $ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
1697 # Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1698 # or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
1699 $ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
1703 # More complex examples
1705 # Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1706 # or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
1707 $ yt-dlp -f "((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)"
1709 # Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
1710 # or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
1711 # preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
1712 $ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
1716 # Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1717 # or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
1718 # preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
1719 $ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
1722 # MODIFYING METADATA
1724 The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata
` and `--replace-in-metadata
`
1726 `--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.
1728 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.
1730 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
`.
1732 This option also has a few special uses:
1734 * 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
1736 * 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.
1738 **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.
1740 For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1742 Metadata fields | From
1743 :--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1744 `title
` | `track
` or `title
`
1745 `date
` | `upload_date
`
1746 `description
`, `synopsis
` | `description
`
1747 `purl
`, `comment
` | `webpage_url
`
1748 `track
` | `track_number
`
1749 `artist
` | `artist
`, `creator
`, `uploader
` or `uploader_id
`
1752 `album_artist
` | `album_artist
`
1753 `disc
` | `disc_number
`
1755 `season_number
` | `season_number
`
1756 `episode_id
` | `episode
` or `episode_id
`
1757 `episode_sort
` | `episode_number
`
1758 `language
` of each stream | the format's `language
`
1760 **Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1763 ## Modifying metadata examples
1766 # Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
1767 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
1770 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
1772 # Set title as "Series name S01E05"
1773 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
1775 # Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
1776 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --embed-metadata
1778 # Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1779 # handling multiple lines correctly
1780 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --embed-metadata
1782 # Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
1783 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
1785 # Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
1786 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "video::(?P<formats>)" --write-info-json
1788 # Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
1789 $ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
1793 # EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1795 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"
`
1797 Note: In CLI, `ARG
` can use `-
` instead of `_
`; e.g. `youtube:player-client"
` becomes `youtube:player_client"
`
1799 The following extractors use this feature:
1802 * `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
1803 * `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
1804 * `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, `android,web,ios
` 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.
1805 * `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
1806 * `player_params
`: YouTube player parameters to use for player requests. Will overwrite any default ones set by yt-dlp.
1807 * `comment_sort
`: `top
` or `new
` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
1808 * `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
`
1809 * 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
1810 * `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)
1811 * `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
1812 * `innertube_key
`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
1813 * `raise_incomplete_data
`: `Incomplete Data Received
` raises an error instead of reporting a warning
1815 #### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1816 * `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)
1817 * `approximate_date
`: Extract approximate `upload_date
` and `timestamp
` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
1820 * `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
1821 * `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
`
1822 * `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
1823 * `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
`
1826 * `language
`: Audio languages to extract, e.g. `funimation:language=english,japanese
`
1827 * `version
`: The video version to extract - `uncut
` or `simulcast
`
1829 #### crunchyrollbeta (Crunchyroll)
1830 * `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
`
1831 * `hardsub
`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract, or `all
` (default: `None
` = no hardsubs), e.g. `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None
`
1834 * `video_types
`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes
`, `movies
`, `clips
`, `trailers
`
1837 * `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.**
1839 #### youtubewebarchive
1840 * `check_all
`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails
`, `captures
`
1843 * `comment_sort
`: `hot
` (default), `you
` (cookies needed), `top
`, `new
` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1846 * `res
`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd
`, `hd
`, `fhd
`
1847 * `vcodec
`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264
`, `h265
`, `dvh265
`
1848 * `dr
`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr
`, `hdr10
`, `dv
`
1850 #### niconicochannelplus
1851 * `max_comments
`: Maximum number of comments to extract - default is `120`
1854 * `api_hostname
`: Hostname to use for mobile API requests, e.g. `api-h2.tiktokv.com
`
1855 * `app_version
`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version
`, e.g. `20.2.1`
1856 * `manifest_app_version
`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with, e.g. `221`
1859 * `tab
`: Which tab to download - one of `new
`, `top
`, `videos
`, `podcasts
`, `streams
`, `stacks
`
1862 * `api
`: Select one of `graphql
` (default), `legacy
` or `syndication
` as the API for tweet extraction. Has no effect if logged in
1864 #### stacommu, wrestleuniverse
1865 * `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
1868 * `client_id
`: Client ID value to be sent with GraphQL requests, e.g. `twitch:client_id=kimne78kx3ncx6brgo4mv6wki5h1ko
`
1870 #### nhkradirulive (NHK らじる★らじる LIVE)
1871 * `area
`: Which regional variation to extract. Valid areas are: `sapporo
`, `sendai
`, `tokyo
`, `nagoya
`, `osaka
`, `hiroshima
`, `matsuyama
`, `fukuoka
`. Defaults to `tokyo
`
1874 * `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
1876 **Note**: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
1878 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1883 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!**
1885 Plugins can be of `<type>
`s `extractor
` or `postprocessor
`.
1886 - Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it.
1887 - Extractor plugins take priority over builtin extractors.
1888 - Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME
`.
1891 Plugins are loaded from the namespace packages `yt_dlp_plugins.extractor
` and `yt_dlp_plugins.postprocessor
`.
1893 In other words, the file structure on the disk looks something like:
1901 yt-dlp looks for these `yt_dlp_plugins
` namespace folders in many locations (see below) and loads in plugins from **all** of them.
1903 See the [wiki for some known plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugins)
1905 ## Installing Plugins
1907 Plugins can be installed using various methods and locations.
1909 1. **Configuration directories**:
1910 Plugin packages (containing a `yt_dlp_plugins
` namespace folder) can be dropped into the following standard [configuration locations](#configuration):
1912 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1913 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
`
1914 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
` (recommended on Windows)
1915 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
`
1916 * `~/.yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
`
1917 * `~/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
`
1918 * **System Plugins**
1919 * `/etc/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
`
1920 * `/etc/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
`
1921 2. **Executable location**: Plugin packages can similarly be installed in a `yt-dlp-plugins
` directory under the executable location (recommended for portable installations):
1922 * Binary: where `<root-dir>/yt-dlp.exe
`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
`
1923 * Source: where `<root-dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py
`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
`
1925 3. **pip and other locations in `PYTHONPATH
`**
1926 * 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.
1927 * Note: plugin files between plugin packages installed with pip must have unique filenames.
1928 * Any path in `PYTHONPATH
` is searched in for the `yt_dlp_plugins
` namespace folder.
1929 * Note: This does not apply for Pyinstaller/py2exe builds.
1932 `.zip
`, `.egg
` and `.whl
` archives containing a `yt_dlp_plugins
` namespace folder in their root are also supported as plugin packages.
1933 * e.g. `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/mypluginpkg.zip
` where `mypluginpkg.zip
` contains `yt_dlp_plugins/<type>/myplugin.py
`
1935 Run yt-dlp with `--verbose
` to check if the plugin has been loaded.
1937 ## Developing Plugins
1939 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.
1941 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
`).
1943 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.
1945 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.
1947 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.
1951 yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1953 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.
1955 From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1958 from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
1960 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1961 with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1965 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.
1967 **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)
1969 ## Embedding examples
1971 #### Extracting information
1977 URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1979 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
1981 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1982 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
1984 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
1985 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1987 #### Download using an info-json
1992 INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
1994 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1995 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
1997 print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
1998 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
2006 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2009 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
2010 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
2011 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
2012 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
2013 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
2017 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2018 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
2026 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2028 def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
2029 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
2030 duration = info.get('duration')
2031 if duration and duration < 60:
2032 return 'The video is too short'
2035 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
2038 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2039 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
2042 #### Adding logger and progress hook
2047 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2050 def debug(self, msg):
2051 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
2052 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
2053 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
2058 def info(self, msg):
2061 def warning(self, msg):
2064 def error(self, msg):
2068 # ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
2070 if d['status'] == 'finished':
2071 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
2075 'logger': MyLogger(),
2076 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
2079 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2083 #### Add a custom PostProcessor
2088 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2090 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
2091 class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
2092 def run(self, info):
2093 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
2097 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
2098 # ℹ️ "when" can take any value in yt_dlp.utils.POSTPROCESS_WHEN
2099 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP(), when='pre_process')
2104 #### Use a custom format selector
2109 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2111 def format_selector(ctx):
2112 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
2113 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
2115 # formats are already sorted worst to best
2116 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
2118 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
2119 best_video = next(f for f in formats
2120 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
2122 # find compatible audio extension
2123 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
2124 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
2125 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
2126 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
2128 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
2130 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
2131 'ext': best_video['ext'],
2132 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
2133 # Must be + separated list of protocols
2134 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
2139 'format': format_selector,
2142 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2146 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
2148 # DEPRECATED OPTIONS
2150 These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
2152 #### Almost redundant options
2153 While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
2155 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
2156 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
2157 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
2158 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
2160 #### Redundant options
2161 While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
2163 --get-description --print description
2164 --get-duration --print duration_string
2165 --get-filename --print filename
2166 --get-format --print format
2168 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
2169 -e, --get-title --print title
2170 -g, --get-url --print urls
2171 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
2172 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2173 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2174 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
2175 --break-on-reject Use --break-match-filter
2176 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2177 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
2178 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2179 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2180 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2181 --no-playlist-reverse Default
2182 --no-colors --color no_color
2185 #### Not recommended
2186 While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2188 --force-generic-extractor --ies generic,default
2189 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2190 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
2191 --all-formats -f all
2192 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
2193 --print-json -j --no-simulate
2194 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting, e.g. %(autonumber)03d
2195 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
2196 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2197 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
2198 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2199 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
2200 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2201 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
2202 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2203 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2204 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2205 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
2206 --geo-bypass --xff "default"
2207 --no-geo-bypass --xff "never"
2208 --geo-bypass-country CODE --xff CODE
2209 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK --xff IP_BLOCK
2212 #### Developer options
2213 These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2215 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
2216 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
2217 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
2218 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2219 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
2223 These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2225 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
2226 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
2227 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2228 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2229 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2230 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2231 --load-info --load-info-json
2232 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
2233 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
2234 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
2235 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2236 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
2237 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2238 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
2239 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
2240 --write-srt --write-subs
2241 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
2243 #### Sponskrub Options
2244 Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock
` options
2246 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2247 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2248 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2249 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2250 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2251 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2252 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2253 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2255 #### No longer supported
2256 These options may no longer work as intended
2258 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2259 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2260 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2261 --no-call-home Default
2262 --include-ads No longer supported
2263 --no-include-ads Default
2264 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2265 --no-write-annotations Default
2266 --compat-options seperate-video-versions No longer needed
2269 These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2271 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2272 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2275 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)
2278 See the [Wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki) for more information
projects / yt-dlp.git / blob