1 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
4 [](#readme)
6 [](#release-files "Release")
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/commits "Commit History")
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)
29 * [Release Files](#release-files)
30 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
32 * [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
33 * [General Options](#general-options)
34 * [Network Options](#network-options)
35 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
36 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
37 * [Download Options](#download-options)
38 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
39 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
40 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
41 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
42 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
43 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
44 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
45 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
46 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
47 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
48 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
49 * [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
50 * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
51 * [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
52 * [Output template and Windows batch files](#output-template-and-windows-batch-files)
53 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
54 * [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
55 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
56 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
57 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
58 * [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
59 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
60 * [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
62 * [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
63 * [Embedding examples](#embedding-examples)
64 * [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
65 * [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
66 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
67 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
69 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
74 * Merged with **youtube-dl v2021.12
.17+
[commit/ed5c44e](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/ed5c44e7b74ac77f87ca5ed6cb5e964a0c6a0678)**<!--(
[exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21))--> and **youtube-dlc v2020.11
.11-
3+
[commit/f9401f2](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/f9401f2a91987068139c5f757b12fc711d4c0cee)**: You get all the features and patches of
[youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) in addition to the latest
[youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl)
76 * **
[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
78 * **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using
`-S`. This allows for much easier format selection than what is possible by simply using
`--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
80 * **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from
[animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including
`--write-comments`,
`BiliBiliSearch`,
`BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that the NicoNico livestreams are not available. See
[#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
82 * **YouTube improvements**:
83 * Supports Clips, Stories (
`ytstories:<channel UCID>`), Search (including filters)**\***, YouTube Music Search, Channel-specific search, Search prefixes (
`ytsearch:`,
`ytsearchdate:`)**\***, Mixes, YouTube Music Albums/Channels (
[except self-uploaded music](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/723)), and Feeds (
`:ytfav`,
`:ytwatchlater`,
`:ytsubs`,
`:ythistory`,
`:ytrec`,
`:ytnotif`)
84 * Fix for
[n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326) **\***
85 * Supports some (but not all) age-gated content without cookies
86 * Download livestreams from the start using
`--live-from-start` (*experimental*)
87 * `255kbps` audio is extracted (if available) from YouTube Music when premium cookies are given
88 * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to
`/video` to preserve the old behaviour
90 * **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using
`--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE]`
92 * **Download time range**: Videos can be downloaded partially based on either timestamps or chapters using
`--download-sections`
94 * **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using
`--split-chapters`
96 * **Multi-threaded fragment downloads**: Download multiple fragments of m3u8/mpd videos in parallel. Use
`--concurrent-fragments` (
`-N`) option to set the number of threads used
98 * **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use
`aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
100 * **New and fixed extractors**: Many new extractors have been added and a lot of existing ones have been fixed. See the [changelog](Changelog.md) or the [list of supported sites](supportedsites.md)
102 * **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN etc.
104 * **Subtitle extraction from manifests**: Subtitles can be extracted from streaming media manifests. See
[commit/be6202f](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/be6202f12b97858b9d716e608394b51065d0419f) for details
106 * **Multiple paths and output templates**: You can give different [output templates](#output-template) and download paths for different types of files. You can also set a temporary path where intermediary files are downloaded to using
`--paths` (
`-P`)
108 * **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for details
110 * **Output template improvements**: Output templates can now have date-time formatting, numeric offsets, object traversal etc. See [output template](#output-template) for details. Even more advanced operations can also be done with the help of
`--parse-metadata` and
`--replace-in-metadata`
112 * **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as
`--alias`,
`--print`,
`--concat-playlist`,
`--wait-for-video`,
`--retry-sleep`,
`--sleep-requests`,
`--convert-thumbnails`,
`--force-download-archive`,
`--force-overwrites`,
`--break-on-reject` etc
114 * **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in
`--format`/
`--match-filter`, multiple
`--postprocessor-args` and
`--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection), merge multi-video/audio, multiple
`--config-locations`,
`--exec` at different stages, etc
116 * **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
118 * **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using
`yt-dlp -U`
120 See
[changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
122 Features marked with a **\*** have been back-ported to youtube-dl
124 ### Differences in default behavior
126 Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
128 * The options
`--auto-number` (
`-A`),
`--title` (
`-t`) and
`--literal` (
`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
129 * `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to
`ffmpeg`
130 * yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
131 * The default [output template](#output-template) is
`%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`. There is no real reason for this change. This was changed before yt-dlp was ever made public and now there are no plans to change it back to
`%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`. Instead, you may use
`--compat-options filename`
132 * The default [format sorting](#sorting-formats) is different from youtube-dl and prefers higher resolution and better codecs rather than higher bitrates. You can use the
`--format-sort` option to change this to any order you prefer, or use
`--compat-options format-sort` to use youtube-dl's sorting order
133 * The default format selector is
`bv*+ba/b`. This means that if a combined video + audio format that is better than the best video-only format is found, the former will be preferred. Use
`-f bv+ba/b` or
`--compat-options format-spec` to revert this
134 * Unlike youtube-dlc, yt-dlp does not allow merging multiple audio/video streams into one file by default (since this conflicts with the use of
`-f bv*+ba`). If needed, this feature must be enabled using
`--audio-multistreams` and
`--video-multistreams`. You can also use
`--compat-options multistreams` to enable both
135 * `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use
`--abort-on-error` or
`--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
136 * When writing metadata files such as thumbnails, description or infojson, the same information (if available) is also written for playlists. Use
`--no-write-playlist-metafiles` or
`--compat-options no-playlist-metafiles` to not write these files
137 * `--add-metadata` attaches the
`infojson` to
`mkv` files in addition to writing the metadata when used with
`--write-info-json`. Use
`--no-embed-info-json` or
`--compat-options no-attach-info-json` to revert this
138 * Some metadata are embedded into different fields when using
`--add-metadata` as compared to youtube-dl. Most notably,
`comment` field contains the
`webpage_url` and
`synopsis` contains the
`description`. You can [use
`--parse-metadata`](#modifying-metadata) to modify this to your liking or use
`--compat-options embed-metadata` to revert this
139 * `playlist_index` behaves differently when used with options like
`--playlist-reverse` and
`--playlist-items`. See
[#302](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/302) for details. You can use
`--compat-options playlist-index` if you want to keep the earlier behavior
140 * The output of
`-F` is listed in a new format. Use
`--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
141 * Live chats (if available) are considered as subtitles. Use
`--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use
`--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent any live chat/danmaku from downloading
142 * Youtube channel URLs are automatically redirected to
`/video`. Append a
`/featured` to the URL to download only the videos in the home page. If the channel does not have a videos tab, we try to download the equivalent
`UU` playlist instead. For all other tabs, if the channel does not show the requested tab, an error will be raised. Also,
`/live` URLs raise an error if there are no live videos instead of silently downloading the entire channel. You may use
`--compat-options no-youtube-channel-redirect` to revert all these redirections
143 * Unavailable videos are also listed for youtube playlists. Use
`--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
144 * 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.
145 * 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
146 * Thumbnail embedding in
`mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use
`--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
147 * Some private fields such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use
`--no-clean-infojson` or
`--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
148 * 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
149 * `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`
150 * 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
152 For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
154 * `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
155 * `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as
`--compat-options all,-multistreams`
156 * `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as
`--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
161 You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
163 ### Using the release binary
165 You can simply download the [correct binary file](#release-files) for your OS
167 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
168 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)
169 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
170 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)
171 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
172 [](#release-files)
173 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
174 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
176 Note: The manpages, shell completion files etc. are available in the
[source tarball](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
178 <!-- TODO: Move to Wiki -->
179 In UNIX-like OSes (MacOS, Linux, BSD), you can also install the same in one of the following ways:
182 sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
183 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
187 sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
188 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
192 sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp --dir /usr/local/bin -o yt-dlp
193 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
197 ### With [PIP](https://pypi.org/project/pip)
199 You can install the
[PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) with:
201 python3 -m pip install -U yt-dlp
204 You can install without any of the optional dependencies using:
206 python3 -m pip install --no-deps -U yt-dlp
209 If you want to be on the cutting edge, you can also install the master branch with:
211 python3 -m pip install --force-reinstall https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/archive/master.tar.gz
214 On some systems, you may need to use
`py` or
`python` instead of
`python3`
216 <!-- TODO: Add to Wiki, Remove Taps -->
217 ### With [Homebrew](https://brew.sh)
219 macOS or Linux users that are using Homebrew can also install it by:
222 brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp
226 You can use
`yt-dlp -U` to update if you are [using the provided release](#using-the-release-binary)
228 If you [installed with pip](#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
230 If you [installed using Homebrew](#with-homebrew), run
`brew upgrade yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp`
232 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
239 [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**)
240 [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**)
241 [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**)
247 [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
248 [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))
249 [yt-dlp_linux](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux)|Linux standalone x64 binary
250 [yt-dlp_linux.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux.zip)|Unpackaged Linux executable (no auto-update)
251 [yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
252 [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)
253 [yt-dlp_macos_legacy](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos_legacy)|MacOS (
10.9+) standalone x64 executable
259 [yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball. Also contains manpages, completions, etc
260 [SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
261 [SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
262 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
265 Python versions
3.7+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
267 <!-- Python
3.5+ uses VC++
14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
268 <!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=
26999 --x>
269 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.
272 While all the other dependencies are optional,
`ffmpeg` and
`ffprobe` are highly recommended
274 ### Strongly recommended
276 * [**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)
278 <!-- TODO: ffmpeg has merged this patch. Remove this note once there is new release -->
279 **Note**: There are some regressions in newer ffmpeg versions that causes various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependency, we provide
[custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#ffmpeg-static-auto-builds) with patches for these issues at
[yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds). See
[the readme](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#patches-applied) for details on the specific issues solved by these builds
282 * [**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)
283 * [**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>
284 * [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under
[BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
288 * [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For
`--embed-thumbnail` in certain formats. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
289 * [**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)
290 * [**xattr**](https://github.com/xattr/xattr),
[**pyxattr**](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr) or
[**setfattr**](http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/attr) - For writing xattr metadata (
`--xattr`) on **Linux**. Licensed under
[MIT](https://github.com/xattr/xattr/blob/master/LICENSE.txt),
[LGPL2.1](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr/blob/master/COPYING) and
[GPLv2+](http://git.savannah.nongnu.org/cgit/attr.git/tree/doc/COPYING) respectively
294 * [**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)
295 * [**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)
296 * [**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)
297 * Any external downloader that you want to use with
`--downloader`
301 * [**avconv** and **avprobe**](https://www.libav.org) - Now **deprecated** alternative to ffmpeg. License
[depends on the build](https://libav.org/legal)
302 * [**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)
303 * [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading
`rtmp` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with
`--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
304 * [**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)
306 To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
308 The standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with **\*** included.
310 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
315 ### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
316 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.
318 python3 -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
319 python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
322 On some systems, you may need to use
`py` or
`python` instead of
`python3`.
324 Note that pyinstaller with 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.
326 **Important**: Running
`pyinstaller` directly **without** using
`pyinst.py` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
328 ### Platform-independent Binary (UNIX)
329 You will need the build tools
`python` (
3.6+),
`zip`,
`make` (GNU),
`pandoc`\* and
`pytest`\*.
331 After installing these, simply run
`make`.
333 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)
335 ### Standalone Py2Exe Builds (Windows)
337 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.
339 If you wish to build it anyway, install Python and py2exe, and then simply run
`setup.py py2exe`
341 py -m pip install -U py2exe -r requirements.txt
342 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
347 * **
`devscripts/update-version.py [revision]`** - Update the version number based on current date
348 * **
`devscripts/set-variant.py variant [-M update_message]`** - Set the build variant of the executable
349 * **
`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.
351 You can also fork the project on github and run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build a full release
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 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
368 The download will be considered successful
369 even if the postprocessing fails
370 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
371 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
373 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
374 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
375 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
376 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
377 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
379 --use-extractors NAMES Extractor names to use separated by commas.
380 You can also use regexes, "all", "default"
381 and "end" (end URL matching); e.g. --ies
382 "holodex.*,end,youtube". Prefix the name
383 with a "-" to exclude it, e.g. --ies
384 default,-generic. Use --list-extractors for
385 a list of extractor names. (Alias: --ies)
386 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. E.g.
387 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
388 google videos for the search term "python".
389 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
390 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
391 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
392 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
393 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
394 possible instead of searching
395 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
396 except those given by --config-locations.
397 For backward compatibility, if this option
398 is found inside the system configuration
399 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
401 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
402 (default). When given inside a configuration
403 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
404 defined in the current file
405 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
406 either the path to the config or its
407 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
408 used multiple times and inside other
410 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
412 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
413 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
414 Currently only supported for YouTube
416 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
418 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
419 available. Pass the minimum number of
420 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
421 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
422 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
423 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
424 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output (Alias:
426 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
427 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
428 configurations by reverting some of the
429 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
430 default behavior" for details
431 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
432 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
433 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
434 according to the Python string formatting
435 mini-language. E.g. --alias get-audio,-X
436 "-S=aext:{
0},abr -x --audio-format {
0}"
437 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
438 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
439 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
440 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
441 output. Alias options can trigger more
442 aliases; so be careful to avoid defining
443 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
444 alias may be triggered a maximum of
100
445 times. This option can be used multiple times
448 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
449 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme,
450 e.g. socks5://user:pass@
127.0.0.1:
1080/.
451 Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for
453 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
454 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
455 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
456 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
459 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
460 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
461 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
462 is not present) is used for the actual
464 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
465 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header (default)
466 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
467 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
468 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
469 explicitly provided two-letter ISO
3166-
2
471 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
472 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR notation
475 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma separated playlist_index of the videos
476 to download. You can specify a range using
477 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
478 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
479 Use negative indices to count from the right
480 and negative STEP to download in reverse
481 order. E.g. "-I
1:
3,
7,-
5::
2" used on a
482 playlist of size
15 will download the videos
483 at index
1,
2,
3,
7,
11,
13,
15
484 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
485 SIZE, e.g.
50k or
44.6M
486 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE,
488 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
489 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
490 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
491 E.g. --date today-
2weeks
492 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
493 this date. The date formats accepted is the
495 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
496 this date. The date formats accepted is the
498 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
499 field can be compared with a number or a
500 string using the operators defined in
501 "Filtering Formats". You can also simply
502 specify a field to match if the field is
503 present, use "!field" to check if the field
504 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
505 conditions. Use a "
\" to escape "&" or
506 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
507 the filter matches if atleast one of the
508 conditions are met. E.g. --match-filter
509 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?
100 &
510 description~='(?i)
\bcats \& dogs
\b'" matches
511 only videos that are not live OR those that
512 have a like count more than
100 (or the like
513 field is not available) and also has a
514 description that contains the phrase "cats &
515 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
516 interactively ask whether to download each
518 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
519 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
520 to a video and a playlist
521 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
522 a video and a playlist
523 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
525 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
526 archive file. Record the IDs of all
527 downloaded videos in it
528 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
529 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
530 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
531 a file that is in the archive
532 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
533 a file that has been filtered out
534 --break-per-input --break-on-existing, --break-on-reject,
535 --max-downloads, and autonumber resets per
537 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
538 terminates the entire download queue
539 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
540 the playlist is skipped
543 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
544 video that should be downloaded concurrently
546 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second,
548 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
549 below which throttling is assumed and the
550 video data is re-extracted, e.g.
100K
551 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is
10), or
553 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
554 error (default is
3), or "infinite"
555 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
556 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
557 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR Time to sleep between retries in seconds
558 (optionally) prefixed by the type of retry
559 (http (default), fragment, file_access,
560 extractor) to apply the sleep to. EXPR can
561 be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=
1]] or
562 exp=START[:END[:BASE=
2]]. This option can be
563 used multiple times to set the sleep for the
564 different retry types, e.g. --retry-sleep
565 linear=
1::
2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=
1:
20
566 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
567 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
568 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
569 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment
570 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
571 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
572 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
573 downloading is finished
574 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
575 downloading is finished (default)
576 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer, e.g.
1024 or
16K
578 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
579 from an initial value of --buffer-size
581 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
582 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
583 downloading, e.g.
10485760 or
10M (default
584 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
585 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
587 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
588 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
589 received. This disables n_entries,
590 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
591 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
592 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
593 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
595 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
596 allowing some players to play the video
597 while downloading, and reducing the chance
598 of file corruption if download is
599 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
601 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
602 videos. This is default when not downloading
604 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters whose title matches
605 the given regular expression. Time ranges
606 prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place
607 of chapters to download the specified range.
608 Needs ffmpeg. This option can be used
609 multiple times to download multiple
610 sections, e.g. --download-sections
611 "*
10:
15-
15:
00" --download-sections "intro"
612 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
613 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
614 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
615 use it for. Currently supports native,
616 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
617 wget. You can use this option multiple times
618 to set different downloaders for different
619 protocols. E.g. --downloader aria2c
620 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
621 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
622 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
623 (Alias: --external-downloader)
624 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
625 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
626 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
627 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
628 positions using the same syntax as
629 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
630 option multiple times to give different
631 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
632 --external-downloader-args)
634 ## Filesystem Options:
635 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
636 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
637 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
639 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
640 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
641 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
642 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
643 TYPES as --output are supported.
644 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
645 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
646 files are first downloaded to the temp path
647 and then the final files are moved over to
648 the home path after download is finished.
649 This option is ignored if --output is an
651 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
652 TEMPLATE" for details
653 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
654 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" (default: "NA")
655 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
656 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
657 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
659 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
660 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
661 using Windows (default)
662 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
663 extension) to the specified number of
665 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
666 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
667 option includes --no-continue
668 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
669 related files (default)
670 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
672 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
673 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
674 restart download of the entire file
675 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
676 into output file (default)
677 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
679 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
680 modification time (default)
681 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
682 the file modification time
683 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
684 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
685 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
686 (this may contain personal information)
687 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
688 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
689 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
690 --write-description etc. (default)
691 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
692 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
693 --clean-info-json Remove some private fields such as filenames
694 from the infojson. Note that it could still
695 contain some personal information (default)
696 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
697 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
698 infojson. The comments are fetched even
699 without this option if the extraction is
700 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
701 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
702 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
704 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
705 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
706 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
707 and dump cookie jar in
708 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
710 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]
711 The name of the browser to load cookies
712 from. Currently supported browsers are:
713 brave, chrome, chromium, edge, firefox,
714 opera, safari, vivaldi. Optionally, the
715 KEYRING used for decrypting Chromium cookies
716 on Linux, the name/path of the PROFILE to
717 load cookies from, and the CONTAINER name
718 (if Firefox) ("none" for no container) can
719 be given with their respective seperators.
720 By default, all containers of the most
721 recently accessed profile are used.
722 Currently supported keyrings are: basictext,
723 gnomekeyring, kwallet
724 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
725 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
726 can store some downloaded information (such
727 as client ids and signatures) permanently.
728 By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/yt-dlp or
730 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
731 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
733 ## Thumbnail Options:
734 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
735 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
736 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
737 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
738 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
740 ## Internet Shortcut Options:
741 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
742 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
743 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
744 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
745 OS caches the URL based on the file path
746 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
747 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
749 ## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
750 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
751 print the log to stderr
752 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
753 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
755 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
757 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
758 extracting metadata even if the videos are
759 not actually available for download
761 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
762 formats are found (default)
763 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
764 related files (Alias: --no-download)
765 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
766 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
767 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
768 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
769 --use-postprocessor, and "video" (default).
770 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
771 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
772 used. This option can be used multiple times
773 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
774 Append given template to the file. The
775 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
776 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
777 output template. This option can be used
779 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
780 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
781 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
782 description of available keys
783 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
784 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
785 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
786 a playlist, the whole playlist information
787 is dumped in a single line
788 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
789 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
790 another simulation option is used (Alias:
791 --force-download-archive)
792 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
793 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
794 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
795 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
796 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
797 Template for progress outputs, optionally
798 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
799 "download-title:" (the console title),
800 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
801 The video's fields are accessible under the
802 "info" key and the progress attributes are
803 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.
804 --console-title --progress-template
805 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
806 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
807 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
808 to debug problems (very verbose)
809 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
810 in the current directory to debug problems
811 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
814 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
815 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
816 that do not support RFC
5746 secure
818 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
819 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
820 information about the video (Currently
821 supported only for YouTube)
822 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
823 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
824 option multiple times
825 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
826 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
827 or fribidi executable in PATH
828 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
829 during data extraction
830 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
831 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
832 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
833 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
834 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
835 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
836 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
839 ## Video Format Options:
840 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
842 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
843 "Sorting Formats" for more details
844 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
845 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
846 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
847 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
848 specified sort order (default)
849 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
851 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
852 output file (default)
853 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
855 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
856 output file (default)
857 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
858 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
859 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
860 irrespective of quality
861 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
863 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
864 those that are actually downloadable
865 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
866 actually downloadable
867 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
869 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
870 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
871 --merge-output-format FORMAT Containers that may be used when merging
872 formats, separated by "/", e.g. "mp4/mkv".
873 Ignored if no merge is required. (currently
874 supported: avi, flv, mkv, mov, mp4, webm)
877 --write-subs Write subtitle file
878 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
879 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
880 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
881 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
882 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
883 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
884 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
885 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
886 e.g. "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
887 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
888 be regex) or "all" separated by commas, e.g.
889 --sub-langs "en.*,ja". You can prefix the
890 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
891 the requested languages, e.g. --sub-langs
892 all,-live_chat. Use --list-subs for a list
893 of available language tags
895 ## Authentication Options:
896 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
897 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
898 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
899 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
900 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
901 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
902 either the path or its containing directory.
904 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
905 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
906 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
907 a list of available MSOs
908 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
909 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
910 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
912 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
913 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
914 format. May include the private key
915 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
916 Path to private key file for client
918 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
919 Password for client certificate private key,
920 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
921 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
923 ## Post-Processing Options:
924 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
925 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
926 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
927 used. (currently supported: best (default),
928 aac, alac, flac, m4a, mp3, opus, vorbis,
929 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
930 similar syntax as --remux-video
931 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
932 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
933 between
0 (best) and
10 (worst) for VBR or a
934 specific bitrate like
128K (default
5)
935 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
936 necessary (currently supported: avi, flv,
937 mkv, mov, mp4, webm, aac, aiff, alac, flac,
938 m4a, mka, mp3, ogg, opus, vorbis, wav). If
939 target container does not support the
940 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
941 can specify multiple rules; e.g.
942 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
943 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
944 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
945 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
946 are the same as --remux-video
947 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
948 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
949 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
950 to give the argument to the specified
951 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
952 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
953 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
954 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
955 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
956 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
957 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
958 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
959 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
960 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
961 specified executable only when being used by
962 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
963 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
964 appended to the prefix optionally followed
965 by a number to pass the argument before the
966 specified input/output file, e.g. --ppa
967 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
968 this option multiple times to give different
969 arguments to different postprocessors.
971 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
972 after post-processing
973 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
974 post-processing (default)
975 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
976 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
977 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
979 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
980 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
981 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
982 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
983 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
984 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
985 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
986 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
987 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
988 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
989 (Alias: --add-chapters)
990 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
992 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
994 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
996 --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
997 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
999 --replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
1000 Replace text in a metadata field using the
1001 given regex. This option can be used
1003 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
1004 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
1005 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
1006 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
1007 (default; only when the videos form a single
1008 show). All the video files must have same
1009 codecs and number of streams to be
1010 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
1011 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1012 the output filename for the concatenated
1013 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1014 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
1015 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
1016 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
1017 default; fix file if we can, warn
1018 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
1020 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
1021 path to the binary or its containing directory
1022 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
1023 when to execute it (after_move if
1024 unspecified), separated by a ":". Supported
1025 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
1026 --use-postprocessor. Same syntax as the
1027 output template can be used to pass any
1028 field as arguments to the command. After
1029 download, an additional field "filepath"
1030 that contains the final path of the
1031 downloaded file is also available, and if no
1032 fields are passed, %(filepath)q is appended
1033 to the end of the command. This option can
1034 be used multiple times
1035 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
1036 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
1037 (currently supported: ass, lrc, srt, vtt)
1038 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
1039 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
1040 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
1041 can specify multiple rules using similar
1042 syntax as --remux-video
1043 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
1044 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
1045 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1046 the output filename for the split files. See
1047 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1048 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
1049 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
1050 given regular expression. The syntax is the
1051 same as --download-sections. This option can
1052 be used multiple times
1053 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1055 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
1056 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
1057 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1058 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1060 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1061 when cutting/splitting (default)
1062 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1063 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1064 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1065 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1066 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1067 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1068 The "when" argument determines when the
1069 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1070 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1071 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
1072 "before_dl" (before each video download),
1073 "post_process" (after each video download;
1074 default), "after_move" (after moving video
1075 file to it's final locations), "after_video"
1076 (after downloading and processing all
1077 formats of a video), or "playlist" (at end
1078 of playlist). This option can be used
1079 multiple times to add different postprocessors
1081 ## SponsorBlock Options:
1082 Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1083 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
1084 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1086 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1087 for, separated by commas. Available
1088 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1089 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
1090 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, all and
1091 default (=all). You can prefix the category
1092 with a "-" to exclude it. See [
1] for
1093 description of the categories. E.g.
1094 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1095 [
1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1096 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1097 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1098 category is present in both mark and remove,
1099 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1100 available categories are the same as for
1101 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
1102 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight is
1104 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
1105 An output template for the title of the
1106 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1107 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1108 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1109 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1110 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1111 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1112 --sponsorblock-remove
1113 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1114 https://sponsor.ajay.app
1116 ## Extractor Options:
1117 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1118 (default is
3), or "infinite"
1119 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1120 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1121 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1122 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1123 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1124 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1125 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1126 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1128 --extractor-args KEY:ARGS Pass these arguments to the extractor. See
1129 "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You can
1130 use this option multiple times to give
1131 arguments for different extractors
1135 You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
1137 1. **Main Configuration**: The file given by
`--config-location`
1138 1. **Portable Configuration**:
`yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the bundled binary. If you are running from source-code (
`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`), the root directory is used instead.
1139 1. **Home Configuration**:
`yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by
`-P`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
1140 1. **User Configuration**:
1141 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1142 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
1143 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1144 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1146 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
1148 `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%` defaults to
`~/.config` if undefined. On windows,
`%APPDATA%` generally points to
`C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming` and
`~` points to
`%HOME%` if present,
`%USERPROFILE%` (generally
`C:\Users\<user name>`), or
`%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
1150 1. **System Configuration**:
`/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
1152 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:
1154 # Lines starting with # are comments
1156 # Always extract audio
1159 # Do not copy the mtime
1163 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1165 # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1166 -o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
1169 Note that options in configuration file are just the same options aka switches used in regular command line calls; thus there **must be no whitespace** after
`-` or
`--`, e.g.
`-o` or
`--proxy` but not
`- o` or
`-- proxy`.
1171 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.
1173 ### Config file encoding
1175 The config files are decoded according to the UTF BOM if present, and in the encoding from system locale otherwise.
1177 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.
1179 ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
1181 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:
1184 chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
1186 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1188 machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
1192 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1193 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1195 To activate authentication with the
`.netrc` file you should pass
`--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
1197 The default location of the .netrc file is
`$HOME` (
`~`) in UNIX. On Windows, it is
`%HOME%` if present,
`%USERPROFILE%` (generally
`C:\Users\<user name>`) or
`%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
1201 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.
1203 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1204 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
1205 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1207 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).
1209 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.
1211 The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
1213 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
1215 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`
1217 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`
1219 1. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a
`,`. E.g.
`%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
1221 1. **Replacement**: A replacement value can specified using a
`&` separator. If the field is *not* empty, this replacement value will be used instead of the actual field content. This is done after alternate fields are considered; thus the replacement is used if *any* of the alternative fields is *not* empty.
1223 1. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a
`|` separator. This overrides
`--output-na-template`. E.g.
`%(uploader|Unknown)s`
1225 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),
`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)
1227 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
1229 To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1231 %(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
1234 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.
1236 The available fields are:
1238 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1239 - `title` (string): Video title
1240 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
1241 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1242 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
1243 - `description` (string): The description of the video
1244 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1245 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1246 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1247 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
1248 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
1249 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
1250 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
1251 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
1252 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
1253 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
1254 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1255 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1256 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
1257 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
1258 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1259 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
1260 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
1261 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1262 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1263 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1264 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1265 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
1266 - `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)
1267 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
1268 - `live_status` (string): One of "not_live", "is_live", "is_upcoming", "was_live", "post_live" (was live, but VOD is not yet processed)
1269 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
1270 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
1271 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
1272 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
1273 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1274 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
1275 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1276 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
1277 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
1278 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at
`--autonumber-start`
1279 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
1280 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
1281 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1282 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1283 - `playlist` (string):
`playlist_id` or
`playlist_title`
1284 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
1285 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1286 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
1287 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1288 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
1289 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
1290 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1291 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
1292 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as
`webpage_url` for playlist entries)
1294 All the fields in [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats) can also be used
1296 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1298 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1299 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1300 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1302 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1304 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1305 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1306 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1307 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1308 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1309 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1310 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1312 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1314 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1315 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1316 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1317 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1318 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1319 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1320 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1321 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1322 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1323 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1325 Available only when using
`--download-sections` and for
`chapter:` prefix when using
`--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
1327 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1328 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1329 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1330 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1332 Available only when used in
`--print`:
1334 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1335 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the actual filename may be different due to post-processing. Use
`--exec echo` to get the name after all postprocessing is complete
1336 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by
`--list-formats`
1337 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by
`--list-thumbnails`
1338 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by
`--list-subs`
1339 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by
`--list-subs`
1342 Available only in
`--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1344 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1345 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1346 - `categories` (list): The SponsorBlock categories the chapter belongs to
1347 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1348 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1349 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1351 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.
1353 Note that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with placeholder value provided with
`--output-na-placeholder` (
`NA` by default).
1355 **Tip**: Look at the
`-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
1357 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`.
1359 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.
1361 To use percent literals in an output template use
`%%`. To output to stdout use
`-o -`.
1363 The current default template is
`%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
1365 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.
1367 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1368 #### Output template and Windows batch files
1370 If you are using an output template inside a Windows batch file then you must escape plain percent characters (
`%`) by doubling, so that
`-o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"` should become
`-o "%%(title)s-%%(id)s.%%(ext)s"`. However you should not touch
`%`'s that are not plain characters, e.g. environment variables for expansion should stay intact:
`-o "C:\%HOMEPATH%\Desktop\%%(title)s.%%(ext)s"`.
1371 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1373 #### Output template examples
1376 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1377 test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1379 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1380 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
1382 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
1383 youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
1385 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
1386 $ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1388 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
1389 $ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1391 # Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
1392 $ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist_index|)s%(playlist_index& - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1394 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
1395 $ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1397 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
1398 $ 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"
1400 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
1401 $ 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"
1403 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1404 # and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1405 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1407 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1408 $ 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
1410 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
1411 $ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
1416 By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1417 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`.
1419 **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.
1421 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.
1423 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1424 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1425 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1427 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.
1429 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.
1431 You can use
`-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1433 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1435 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1436 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with
`--audio-multistreams`,
`--video-multistreams` or both)
1437 - `b*`,
`best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio or both (ie;
`vcodec!=none or acodec!=none`)
1438 - `b`,
`best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1439 - `bv`,
`bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec=none]`
1440 - `bv*`,
`bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none]`
1441 - `ba`,
`bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec=none]`
1442 - `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))
1443 - `w*
`, `worst*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
1444 - `w
`, `worst
`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]
`
1445 - `wv
`, `worstvideo
`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]
`
1446 - `wv*
`, `worstvideo*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]
`
1447 - `wa
`, `worstaudio
`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]
`
1448 - `wa*
`, `worstaudio*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]
`
1450 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.
1452 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.
1454 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.
1456 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
`.
1458 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.
1460 **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
1462 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 and merge both formats while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams
` will ignore `best
` and download only `bestaudio
`.
1464 ## Filtering Formats
1466 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=
720]"
` (or `-f "[filesize>
10M]"
`).
1468 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<
`, `<=
`, `>
`, `>=
`, `=
` (equals), `!=
` (not equals):
1470 - `filesize
`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1471 - `filesize_approx
`: An estimate for the number of bytes
1472 - `width
`: Width of the video, if known
1473 - `height
`: Height of the video, if known
1474 - `tbr
`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1475 - `abr
`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1476 - `vbr
`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1477 - `asr
`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1479 - `audio_channels
`: The number of audio channels
1480 - `stretched_ratio
`: `width:height
` of the video's pixels, if not square
1482 Also filtering work for comparisons `=
` (equals), `^=
` (starts with), `$=
` (ends with), `*=
` (contains), `~=
` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
1485 - `ext
`: File extension
1486 - `acodec
`: Name of the audio codec in use
1487 - `vcodec
`: Name of the video codec in use
1488 - `container
`: Name of the container format
1489 - `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
`)
1490 - `language
`: Language code
1491 - `dynamic_range
`: The dynamic range of the video
1492 - `format_id
`: A short description of the format
1493 - `format
`: A human-readable description of the format
1494 - `format_note
`: Additional info about the format
1495 - `resolution
`: Textual description of width and height
1497 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 `._-
`.
1499 Note that none of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by the website. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
1501 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 "[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.
1503 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.
1507 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...
`.
1509 The available fields are:
1511 - `hasvid
`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1512 - `hasaud
`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
1513 - `ie_pref
`: The format preference
1514 - `lang
`: The language preference
1515 - `quality
`: The quality of the format
1516 - `source
`: The preference of the source
1517 - `proto
`: Protocol used for download (`https
`/`ftps
` > `http
`/`ftp
` > `m3u8_native
`/`m3u8
` > `http_dash_segments
`> `websocket_frag
` > `mms
`/`rtsp
` > `f4f
`/`f4m
`)
1518 - `vcodec
`: Video Codec (`av01
` > `vp9.2
` > `vp9
` > `h265
` > `h264
` > `vp8
` > `h263
` > `theora
` > other)
1519 - `acodec
`: Audio Codec (`flac
`/`alac
` > `wav
`/`aiff
` > `opus
` > `vorbis
` > `aac
` > `mp4a
` > `mp3
` > `eac3
` > `ac3
` > `dts
` > other)
1520 - `codec
`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec
`
1521 - `vext
`: Video Extension (`mp4
` > `webm
` > `flv
` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats
` is used, `webm
` is preferred.
1522 - `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
`
1523 - `ext
`: Equivalent to `vext,aext
`
1524 - `filesize
`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
1525 - `fs_approx
`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1526 - `size
`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
1527 - `height
`: Height of video
1528 - `width
`: Width of video
1529 - `res
`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1530 - `fps
`: Framerate of video
1531 - `hdr
`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV
` > `HDR12
` > `HDR10+
` > `HDR10
` > `HLG
` > `SDR
`)
1532 - `channels
`: The number of audio channels
1533 - `tbr
`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1534 - `vbr
`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1535 - `abr
`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1536 - `br
`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr
`
1537 - `asr
`: Audio sample rate in Hz
1539 **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.
1541 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.
1543 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.
1545 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.
1547 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
`.
1549 **Tip**: You can use the `-v -F
` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1551 ## Format Selection examples
1554 # Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
1555 # or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
1556 $ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
1558 # Download best format that contains video,
1559 # and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
1560 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
1565 # Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1566 # For this case, an output template should be used since
1567 # by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
1568 $ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
1570 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1571 # and all audio-only formats into one file
1572 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
1574 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1575 # and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1576 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
1579 # The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
1580 # and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
1582 # Download the worst video available (old method)
1583 $ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
1585 # Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
1588 # Download the smallest video available
1589 $ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
1593 # Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
1594 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
1596 # Download the best video with the best extension
1597 # (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
1602 # Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1603 # or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
1604 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
1606 # Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1607 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1608 $ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
1610 # Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1611 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1612 # Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1613 # So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
1614 $ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
1618 # Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1619 # or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1620 $ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
1622 # Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1623 # or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1624 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
1626 # Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
1627 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
1631 # Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1632 # or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
1633 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
1635 # Download best video available via the best protocol
1636 # (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
1641 # Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1642 # or the best video if there is no such video
1643 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
1645 # Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1646 # or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
1647 $ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
1649 # Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1650 # or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
1651 $ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
1655 # More complex examples
1657 # Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1658 # or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
1659 $ yt-dlp -f "((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)"
1661 # Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
1662 # or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
1663 # preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
1664 $ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
1668 # Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1669 # or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
1670 # preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
1671 $ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
1674 # MODIFYING METADATA
1676 The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata
` and `--replace-in-metadata
`
1678 `--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.
1680 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 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.
1682 Note that any field created by this can be used in the [output template](#output-template) and will also affect the media file's metadata added when using `--add-metadata
`.
1684 This option also has a few special uses:
1686 * 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
1688 * 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.
1690 **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.
1692 For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1694 Metadata fields | From
1695 :--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1696 `title
` | `track
` or `title
`
1697 `date
` | `upload_date
`
1698 `description
`, `synopsis
` | `description
`
1699 `purl
`, `comment
` | `webpage_url
`
1700 `track
` | `track_number
`
1701 `artist
` | `artist
`, `creator
`, `uploader
` or `uploader_id
`
1704 `album_artist
` | `album_artist
`
1705 `disc
` | `disc_number
`
1707 `season_number
` | `season_number
`
1708 `episode_id
` | `episode
` or `episode_id
`
1709 `episode_sort
` | `episode_number
`
1710 `language
` of each stream | the format's `language
`
1712 **Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1715 ## Modifying metadata examples
1718 # Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
1719 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
1722 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
1724 # Set title as "Series name S01E05"
1725 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
1727 # Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
1728 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --add-metadata
1730 # Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1731 # handling multiple lines correctly
1732 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --add-metadata
1734 # Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
1735 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
1737 # Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
1738 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<formats>)" -j
1740 # Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
1741 $ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
1745 # EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1747 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"
`
1749 The following extractors use this feature:
1752 * `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
1753 * `player_client
`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web
`, `android
` and `ios
` with variants `_music
`, `_embedded
`, `_embedscreen
`, `_creator
` (e.g. `web_embedded
`); and `mweb
` and `tv_embedded
` (agegate bypass) with no variants. By default, `android,web
` is used, but `tv_embedded
` and `creator
` variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com
` urls. You can use `all
` to use all the clients, and `default
` for the default clients.
1754 * `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
1755 * `include_live_dash
`: Include live dash formats even without `--live-from-start
` (These formats don't download properly)
1756 * `comment_sort
`: `top
` or `new
` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
1757 * `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
`
1758 * 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
1759 * `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
1760 * `innertube_key
`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
1762 #### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1763 * `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)
1764 * `approximate_date
`: Extract approximate `upload_date
` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
1767 * `language
`: Languages to extract, e.g. `funimation:language=english,japanese
`
1768 * `version
`: The video version to extract - `uncut
` or `simulcast
`
1771 * `language
`: Languages to extract, e.g. `crunchyroll:language=jaJp
`
1772 * `hardsub
`: Which hard-sub versions to extract, e.g. `crunchyroll:hardsub=None,enUS
`
1774 #### crunchyrollbeta
1775 * `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
`
1776 * `hardsub
`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract (default: `None
` = no hardsubs), e.g. `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None
`
1779 * `video_types
`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes
`, `movies
`, `clips
`, `trailers
`
1782 * `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.**
1784 #### youtubewebarchive
1785 * `check_all
`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails
`, `captures
`
1788 * `comment_sort
`: `hot
` (default), `you
` (cookies needed), `top
`, `new
` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1791 * `res
`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd
`, `hd
`, `fhd
`
1792 * `vcodec
`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264
`, `h265
`, `dvh265
`
1793 * `dr
`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr
`, `hdr10
`, `dv
`
1796 * `app_version
`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version
`, e.g. `20.2.1`
1797 * `manifest_app_version
`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with, e.g. `221`
1800 * `tab
`: Which tab to download - one of `new
`, `top
`, `videos
`, `podcasts
`, `streams
`, `stacks
`
1803 NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
1805 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1810 Plugins are loaded from `<root-dir>/ytdlp_plugins/<type>/__init__.py
`; where `<root-dir>
` is the directory of the binary (`<root-dir>/yt-dlp
`), or the root directory of the module if you are running directly from source-code (`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py
`). Plugins are currently not supported for the `pip
` version
1812 Plugins can be of `<type>
`s `extractor
` or `postprocessor
`. Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it. Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME
`.
1814 See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example plugins.
1816 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
1818 If you are a plugin author, add [ytdlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/ytdlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability
1824 yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1826 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.
1828 From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1831 from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
1833 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1834 with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1838 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#L180).
1840 **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)
1842 ## Embedding examples
1844 #### Extracting information
1850 URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1852 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
1854 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1855 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
1857 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
1858 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1860 #### Download using an info-json
1865 INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
1867 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1868 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
1870 print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
1871 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
1879 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1882 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
1883 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
1884 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
1885 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
1886 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
1890 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1891 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1899 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1901 def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
1902 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
1903 duration = info.get('duration')
1904 if duration and duration < 60:
1905 return 'The video is too short'
1908 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
1911 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1912 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1915 #### Adding logger and progress hook
1920 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1923 def debug(self, msg):
1924 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
1925 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
1926 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
1931 def info(self, msg):
1934 def warning(self, msg):
1937 def error(self, msg):
1941 # ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
1943 if d['status'] == 'finished':
1944 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
1948 'logger': MyLogger(),
1949 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
1952 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1956 #### Add a custom PostProcessor
1961 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1963 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
1964 class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
1965 def run(self, info):
1966 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
1970 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1971 # ℹ️ "when" can take any value in yt_dlp.utils.POSTPROCESS_WHEN
1972 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP(), when='pre_process')
1977 #### Use a custom format selector
1982 URL = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1984 def format_selector(ctx):
1985 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
1986 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
1988 # formats are already sorted worst to best
1989 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
1991 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
1992 best_video = next(f for f in formats
1993 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
1995 # find compatible audio extension
1996 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
1997 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
1998 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
1999 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
2001 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
2003 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
2004 'ext': best_video['ext'],
2005 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
2006 # Must be + separated list of protocols
2007 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
2012 'format': format_selector,
2015 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2019 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
2021 # DEPRECATED OPTIONS
2023 These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
2025 #### Almost redundant options
2026 While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
2028 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
2029 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
2030 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
2031 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
2033 #### Redundant options
2034 While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
2036 --get-description --print description
2037 --get-duration --print duration_string
2038 --get-filename --print filename
2039 --get-format --print format
2041 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
2042 -e, --get-title --print title
2043 -g, --get-url --print urls
2044 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
2045 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2046 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2047 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
2048 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2049 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
2050 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2051 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2052 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2053 --no-playlist-reverse Default
2056 #### Not recommended
2057 While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2059 --force-generic-extractor --ies generic,default
2060 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2061 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
2062 --all-formats -f all
2063 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
2064 --print-json -j --no-simulate
2065 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting, e.g. %(autonumber)03d
2066 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
2067 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2068 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
2069 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2070 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
2071 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2072 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
2073 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2074 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2075 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2076 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
2079 #### Developer options
2080 These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2082 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
2083 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
2084 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
2085 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2086 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
2090 These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2092 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
2093 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
2094 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2095 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2096 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2097 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2098 --load-info --load-info-json
2099 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
2100 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
2101 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
2102 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2103 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
2104 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2105 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
2106 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
2107 --write-srt --write-subs
2108 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
2110 #### Sponskrub Options
2111 Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock
` options
2113 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2114 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2115 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2116 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2117 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2118 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2119 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2120 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2122 #### No longer supported
2123 These options may no longer work as intended
2125 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2126 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2127 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2128 --no-call-home Default
2129 --include-ads No longer supported
2130 --no-include-ads Default
2131 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2132 --no-write-annotations Default
2133 --compat-options seperate-video-versions No longer needed
2136 These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2138 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2139 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2142 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)
2145 For FAQ see the [youtube-dl README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)
projects / yt-dlp.git / blob