3 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest)
4 [](LICENSE)
5 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions)
6 []
(https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r)
8 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits)
9 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits)
10 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest)
11 []
(https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
12 []
(https://yt-dlp.readthedocs.io)
14 A command-line program to download videos from youtube.com and many other [video platforms](supportedsites.md)
16 This 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
18 * [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
19 * [INSTALLATION](#installation)
22 * [DESCRIPTION](#description)
24 * [Network Options](#network-options)
25 * [Geo Restriction](#geo-restriction)
26 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
27 * [Download Options](#download-options)
28 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
29 * [Thumbnail images](#thumbnail-images)
30 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
31 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
32 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
33 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
34 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
35 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
36 * [Adobe Pass Options](#adobe-pass-options)
37 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
38 * [SponSkrub (SponsorBlock) Options](#sponskrub-sponsorblock-options)
39 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
40 * [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
41 * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
42 * [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
43 * [Output template and Windows batch files](#output-template-and-windows-batch-files)
44 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
45 * [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
46 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
47 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
48 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
49 * [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
50 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
52 * [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
57 The major new features from the latest release of
[blackjack4494/yt-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) are:
59 * **
[SponSkrub Integration](#sponskrub-sponsorblock-options)**: You can use [SponSkrub](https://github.com/yt-dlp/SponSkrub) to mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the
[SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
61 * **[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 that what is possible by simply using
`--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
63 * **Merged with youtube-dl v2021.04
.01**: You get all the latest features and patches of
[youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) in addition to all the features of
[youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc)
65 * **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from
[animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including
`--get-comments`,
`BiliBiliSearch`,
`BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, Playlist infojson etc. Note that the NicoNico improvements are not available. See
[#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
67 * **Youtube improvements**:
68 * All Youtube Feeds (
`:ytfav`,
`:ytwatchlater`,
`:ytsubs`,
`:ythistory`,
`:ytrec`) works correctly and supports downloading multiple pages of content
69 * Youtube search (
`ytsearch:`,
`ytsearchdate:`) along with Search URLs works correctly
70 * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to
`/video` to preserve the old behaviour
72 * **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using
`--split-chapters`
74 * **Multithreaded fragment downloads**: Fragment downloads can be natively multi-threaded. Use
`--concurrent-fragments` (
`-N`) option to set the number of threads used
76 * **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use aria2c as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats. No more slow ffmpeg/native downloads
78 * **New extractors**: AnimeLab, Philo MSO, Rcs, Gedi, bitwave.tv, mildom, audius, zee5, mtv.it, wimtv, pluto.tv
80 * **Fixed extractors**: archive.org, roosterteeth.com, skyit, instagram, itv, SouthparkDe, spreaker, Vlive, tiktok, akamai, ina, rumble, tennistv, amcnetworks
82 * **Plugin extractors**: Extractors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
84 * **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`)
86 * **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
88 * **Other new options**:
`--parse-metadata`,
`--list-formats-as-table`,
`--write-link`,
`--force-download-archive`,
`--force-overwrites`,
`--break-on-reject` etc
90 * **Improvements**: Multiple
`--postprocessor-args` and
`--external-downloader-args`, Date/time formatting in
`-o`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection) etc
92 * **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using
`yt-dlp -U`
95 See
[changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
98 **PS**: Some of these changes are already in youtube-dlc, but are still unreleased. See [this](Changelog.md#unreleased-changes-in-blackjack4494yt-dlc) for details
100 If you are coming from
[youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl), the amount of changes are very large. Compare
[options](#options) and [supported sites](supportedsites.md) with youtube-dl's to get an idea of the massive number of features/patches [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) has accumulated.
105 You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
106 * Download the binary from the
[latest release](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest) (recommended method)
107 * Use
[PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp):
`python -m pip install --upgrade yt-dlp`
108 * Use pip+git:
`python -m pip install --upgrade git+https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp.git@release`
109 * Install master branch:
`python -m pip install --upgrade git+https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp`
111 UNIX users (Linux, macOS, BSD) can also install the
[latest release](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest) one of the following ways:
114 sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
115 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
119 sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
120 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
124 sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
125 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
129 Starting from version
`2021.02.09`, you can use
`yt-dlp -U` to update if you are using the provided release.
130 If you are using
`pip`, simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program.
135 To build the Windows executable, you must have pyinstaller (and optionally mutagen and pycryptodome)
137 python -m pip install --upgrade pyinstaller mutagen pycryptodome
139 Once you have all the necessary dependancies installed, just run
`py pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (
32/
64 bit) as the python used to build it. It is strongly reccomended to use python3 although python2.6+ is supported.
141 You can also build the executable without any version info or metadata by using:
143 pyinstaller.exe yt_dlp\__main__.py --onefile --name yt-dlp
146 You will need the required build tools:
`python`,
`make` (GNU),
`pandoc`,
`zip`,
`nosetests`
147 Then simply run
`make`. You can also run
`make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files
149 **Note**: In either platform,
`devscripts\update-version.py` can be used to automatically update the version number
152 **yt-dlp** is a command-line program to download videos from youtube.com many other [video platforms](supportedsites.md). It requires the Python interpreter, version
2.6,
2.7, or
3.2+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on your Unix box, on Windows or on macOS. It is released to the public domain, which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
154 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
158 `Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
159 <!-- Autogenerated -->
162 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
163 --version Print program version and exit
164 -U, --update Update this program to latest version. Make
165 sure that you have sufficient permissions
166 (run with sudo if needed)
167 -i, --ignore-errors Continue on download errors, for example to
168 skip unavailable videos in a playlist
169 (default) (Alias: --no-abort-on-error)
170 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
171 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
172 --dump-user-agent Display the current browser identification
173 --list-extractors List all supported extractors
174 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
176 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
178 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
179 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
180 from google videos for youtube-dl "large
181 apple". Use the value "auto" to let
182 youtube-dl guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
183 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
184 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
185 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
186 this is not possible instead of searching
187 --ignore-config, --no-config Disable loading any configuration files
188 except the one provided by --config-location.
189 When given inside a configuration
190 file, no further configuration files are
191 loaded. Additionally, (for backward
192 compatibility) if this option is found
193 inside the system configuration file, the
194 user configuration is not loaded
195 --config-location PATH Location of the main configuration file;
196 either the path to the config or its
198 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
200 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
201 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (YouTube only)
202 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
203 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output
206 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy.
207 To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper
209 socks5://
127.0.0.1:
1080/. Pass in an empty
210 string (--proxy "") for direct connection
211 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
212 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
213 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
214 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
217 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
218 some geo-restricted sites. The default
219 proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the
220 option is not present) is used for the
222 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
223 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
224 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
225 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
226 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
227 explicitly provided two-letter ISO
3166-
2
229 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
230 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR
234 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is
1)
235 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
236 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
237 indices of the videos in the playlist
238 separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
239 1,
2,
5,
8" if you want to download videos
240 indexed
1,
2,
5,
8 in the playlist. You can
241 specify range: "--playlist-items
242 1-
3,
7,
10-
13", it will download the videos
243 at index
1,
2,
3,
7,
10,
11,
12 and
13
244 --match-title REGEX Download only matching titles (regex or
246 --reject-title REGEX Skip download for matching titles (regex or
248 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
249 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
250 SIZE (e.g.
50k or
44.6m)
251 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
253 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded in this date.
254 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
255 "(now|today)[+-][
0-
9](day|week|month|year)(s)?"
256 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
257 this date. The date formats accepted is the
259 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
260 this date. The date formats accepted is the
262 --min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than
264 --max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than
266 --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Specify any key (see
267 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a list of available
268 keys) to match if the key is present, !key
269 to check if the key is not present,
270 key>NUMBER (like "view_count >
12", also
271 works with >=, <, <=, !=, =) to compare
272 against a number, key = 'LITERAL' (like
273 "uploader = 'Mike Smith'", also works with
274 !=) to match against a string literal and &
275 to require multiple matches. Values which
276 are not known are excluded unless you put a
277 question mark (?) after the operator. For
278 example, to only match videos that have
279 been liked more than
100 times and disliked
280 less than
50 times (or the dislike
281 functionality is not available at the given
282 service), but who also have a description,
283 use --match-filter "like_count >
100 &
284 dislike_count <?
50 & description"
285 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
286 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
287 to a video and a playlist
288 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
289 a video and a playlist
290 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
292 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
293 archive file. Record the IDs of all
294 downloaded videos in it
295 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
296 a file that is in the archive
297 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
298 a file that has been filtered out
299 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
302 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments to download
303 concurrently (default is
1)
304 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
306 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is
10), or
308 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
309 is
10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and
311 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
312 hlsnative and ISM (default)
313 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
314 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading if a fragment is unavailable
315 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
316 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
317 downloading is finished
318 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
319 downloading is finished (default)
320 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g.
1024 or
16K)
322 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
323 from an initial value of --buffer-size
325 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
326 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
327 downloading (e.g.
10485760 or
10M) (default
328 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
329 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
331 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
332 --no-playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in default order
334 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
335 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
337 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
338 allowing some players to play the video
339 while downloading, and reducing the chance
340 of file corruption if download is
341 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
343 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
344 videos. This is default when not
345 downloading live streams
346 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
347 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
348 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
349 use it for. Currently supports native,
350 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
351 wget (Recommended: aria2c). You can use
352 this option multiple times to set different
353 downloaders for different protocols. For
354 example, --downloader aria2c --downloader
355 "dash,m3u8:native" will use aria2c for
356 http/ftp downloads, and the native
357 downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
358 (Alias: --external-downloader)
359 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
360 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
361 the arguments separated by a colon ":". You
362 can use this option multiple times
363 (Alias: --external-downloader-args)
365 ## Filesystem Options:
366 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-' for
367 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
368 with '#', ';' or ']' are considered as
370 -P, --paths TYPES:PATH The paths where the files should be
371 downloaded. Specify the type of file and
372 the path separated by a colon ":". All the
373 same types as --output are supported.
374 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
375 and "temp" paths. All intermediary files
376 are first downloaded to the temp path and
377 then the final files are moved over to the
378 home path after download is finished. This
379 option is ignored if --output is an
381 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
382 TEMPLATE" for details
383 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder value for unavailable meta
384 fields in output filename template
386 --autonumber-start NUMBER Specify the start value for %(autonumber)s
388 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
389 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
391 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
393 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be windows compatible
394 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames windows compatible only if
395 using windows (default)
396 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
397 extension) to the specified number of
399 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
400 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files.
401 This option includes --no-continue
402 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
403 related files (default)
404 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
406 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
407 fragments. If the file is unfragmented,
408 restart download of the entire file
409 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
410 into output file (default)
411 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
413 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the
414 file modification time (default)
415 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
416 the file modification time
417 --write-description Write video description to a .description
419 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
420 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
421 (this may contain personal information)
422 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
423 --write-annotations Write video annotations to a
424 .annotations.xml file
425 --no-write-annotations Do not write video annotations (default)
426 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
427 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
428 --write-description etc. (default)
429 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
430 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
431 --clean-infojson Remove some private fields such as
432 filenames from the infojson. Note that it
433 could still contain some personal
434 information (default)
435 --no-clean-infojson Write all fields to the infojson
436 --get-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
437 .info.json file. The comments are fetched
438 even without this option if the extraction
440 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
441 (created with the "--write-info-json"
443 --cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump cookie
445 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies (default)
446 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
447 can store some downloaded information
448 permanently. By default
449 $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or
450 ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the moment, only
451 YouTube player files (for videos with
452 obfuscated signatures) are cached, but that
454 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
455 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
458 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
459 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk
461 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
462 --list-thumbnails Simulate and list all available thumbnail
465 ## Internet Shortcut Options:
466 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
467 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
468 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
469 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
470 OS caches the URL based on the file path
471 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
472 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
474 ## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
475 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode
476 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
477 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
479 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
480 related files (Alias: --no-download)
481 -g, --get-url Simulate, quiet but print URL
482 -e, --get-title Simulate, quiet but print title
483 --get-id Simulate, quiet but print id
484 --get-thumbnail Simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
485 --get-description Simulate, quiet but print video description
486 --get-duration Simulate, quiet but print video length
487 --get-filename Simulate, quiet but print output filename
488 --get-format Simulate, quiet but print output format
489 -j, --dump-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information.
490 See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a description of
492 -J, --dump-single-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information
493 for each command-line argument. If the URL
494 refers to a playlist, dump the whole
495 playlist information in a single line
496 --print-json Be quiet and print the video information as
497 JSON (video is still being downloaded)
498 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be
499 written as far as no errors occur,even if
500 -s or another simulation switch is used
501 (Alias: --force-download-archive)
502 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
503 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
504 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
505 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
506 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
507 to debug problems (very verbose)
508 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
509 files in the current directory to debug
511 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
514 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
515 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
516 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
517 information about the video (Currently
518 supported only for YouTube)
519 --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
520 --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video
521 access is restricted to one domain
522 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
523 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
524 option multiple times
525 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
526 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
527 or fribidi executable in PATH
528 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
529 during data extraction
530 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
531 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
532 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
533 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
534 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can
535 only be used along with --min-sleep-interval
536 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
539 ## Video Format Options:
540 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
542 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
543 "Sorting Formats" for more details
544 --S-force, --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
545 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
546 Formats" for more details
547 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
548 specified sort order (default), see
549 "Sorting Formats" for more details
550 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
552 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for
553 each output file (default)
554 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
556 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for
557 each output file (default)
558 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
559 over non-free ones of same quality. Use
560 with "-S ext" to strictly prefer free
561 containers irrespective of quality
562 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
564 -F, --list-formats List all available formats of requested
566 --list-formats-as-table Present the output of -F in tabular form
568 --list-formats-old Present the output of -F in the old form
569 (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
570 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
571 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
572 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
573 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
574 --allow-unplayable-formats Allow unplayable formats to be listed and
575 downloaded. All video postprocessing will
577 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Do not allow unplayable formats to be
578 listed or downloaded (default)
581 --write-subs Write subtitle file
582 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
583 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
584 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
585 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
586 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
587 --all-subs Download all the available subtitles of the
589 --list-subs List all available subtitles for the video
590 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
591 preference, for example: "srt" or
593 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download
594 (optional) separated by commas, use --list-
595 subs for available language tags
597 ## Authentication Options:
598 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
599 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
600 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
601 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
602 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
603 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
605 ## Adobe Pass Options:
606 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
607 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
608 a list of available MSOs
609 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
610 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
611 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
613 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
616 ## Post-Processing Options:
617 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
618 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
619 --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format: "best", "aac",
620 "flac", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", "vorbis", or
621 "wav"; "best" by default; No effect without
623 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality, insert a
624 value between
0 (better) and
9 (worse) for
625 VBR or a specific bitrate like
128K
627 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
628 necessary (currently supported: mp4|mkv|flv
629 |webm|mov|avi|mp3|mka|m4a|ogg|opus). If
630 target container does not support the
631 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
632 can specify multiple rules; eg.
633 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to
634 m4a, mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv.
635 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
636 re-encoding is necessary. The supported
637 formats are the same as --remux-video
638 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
639 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
640 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
641 to give the argument to the specified
642 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
643 Merger, ExtractAudio, SplitChapters,
644 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
645 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
646 VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor, SponSkrub,
647 FixupStretched, FixupM4a and FixupM3u8. The
648 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
649 FFmpeg, FFprobe, and SponSkrub. You can
650 also specify "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the
651 arguments to the specified executable only
652 when being used by the specified
653 postprocessor. Additionally, for
654 ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be appended
655 to the prefix optionally followed by a
656 number to pass the argument before the
657 specified input/output file. Eg: --ppa
658 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
659 this option multiple times to give
660 different arguments to different
661 postprocessors. (Alias: --ppa)
662 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
663 after post-processing
664 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
665 post-processing (default)
666 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
667 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
668 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
670 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
671 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
672 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
673 --add-metadata Write metadata to the video file
674 --no-add-metadata Do not write metadata (default)
675 --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
676 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
678 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
679 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
680 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
681 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
682 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
683 default; fix file if we can, warn
685 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
686 path to the binary or its containing
688 --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
689 downloading and post-processing. Similar
690 syntax to the output template can be used
691 to pass any field as arguments to the
692 command. An additional field "filepath"
693 that contains the final path of the
694 downloaded file is also available. If no
695 fields are passed, "%(filepath)s" is
696 appended to the end of the command
697 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
698 (currently supported: srt|ass|vtt|lrc)
699 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
700 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
701 (currently supported: jpg)
702 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
703 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix
704 can be used with "--paths" and "--output"
705 to set the output filename for the split
706 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
707 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters
710 ## SponSkrub (SponsorBlock) Options:
711 [SponSkrub](https://github.com/yt-dlp/SponSkrub) is a utility to
712 mark/remove sponsor segments from downloaded YouTube videos using
713 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
715 --sponskrub Use sponskrub to mark sponsored sections.
716 This is enabled by default if the sponskrub
717 binary exists (Youtube only)
718 --no-sponskrub Do not use sponskrub
719 --sponskrub-cut Cut out the sponsor sections instead of
721 --no-sponskrub-cut Simply mark the sponsor sections, not cut
723 --sponskrub-force Run sponskrub even if the video was already
725 --no-sponskrub-force Do not cut out the sponsor sections if the
726 video was already downloaded (default)
727 --sponskrub-location PATH Location of the sponskrub binary; either
728 the path to the binary or its containing
731 ## Extractor Options:
732 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor
733 errors (default is
3), or "infinite"
734 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
735 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
736 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
737 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
738 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
739 discontinuities such as ad breaks
740 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
741 formats at discontinuities such as ad
743 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Download the DASH manifests and related
744 data on YouTube videos (default)
745 (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
746 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest Do not download the DASH manifests and
747 related data on YouTube videos
748 (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
749 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Download the HLS manifests and related data
750 on YouTube videos (default)
751 (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
752 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest Do not download the HLS manifests and
753 related data on YouTube videos
754 (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
758 You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
760 1. **Main Configuration**: The file given by
`--config-location`
761 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.
762 1. **Home Configuration**:
`yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by
`-P "home:<path>"`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
763 1. **User Configuration**:
764 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
765 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
766 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
767 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
769 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
771 Note that
`~` points to
`C:\Users\<user name>` on windows. Also,
`%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%` defaults to
`~/.config` if undefined
772 1. **System Configuration**:
`/etc/yt-dlp.conf` or
`/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
774 For example, with the following configuration file yt-dlp will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under
`YouTube` directory in your home directory:
776 # Lines starting with # are comments
778 # Always extract audio
781 # Do not copy the mtime
785 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
787 # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
788 -o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
791 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`.
793 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 user and system configurations. Additionally, (for backward compatibility) if
`--ignore-config` is found inside the system configuration file, the user configuration is not loaded.
795 ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
797 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 your
`$HOME` and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
800 chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
802 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
804 machine <extractor> login <login> password <password>
808 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
809 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
811 To activate authentication with the
`.netrc` file you should pass
`--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
813 On Windows you may also need to setup the
`%HOME%` environment variable manually. For example:
815 set HOME=%USERPROFILE%
820 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.
822 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
824 The basic 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). However, it may 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/2/library/stdtypes.html#string-formatting). For example,
`%(NAME)s` or
`%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations. Date/time fields can also be formatted according to
[strftime formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes) by specifying it inside the parantheses separated from the field name using a
`>`. For example,
`%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`.
826 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 filetypes supported are
`subtitle`,
`thumbnail`,
`description`,
`annotation`,
`infojson`,
`pl_description`,
`pl_infojson`,
`chapter`. For example,
`-o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' -o 'thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s'` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video.
828 The available fields are:
830 - `id` (string): Video identifier
831 - `title` (string): Video title
832 - `url` (string): Video URL
833 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
834 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
835 - `description` (string): The description of the video
836 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
837 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
838 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
839 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
840 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
841 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
842 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
843 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
844 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
845 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
846 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
847 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
848 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH-mm-ss)
849 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
850 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
851 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
852 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
853 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
854 - `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)
855 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
856 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
857 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
858 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
859 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is 'private', 'premium_only', 'subscriber_only', 'needs_auth', 'unlisted' or 'public'
860 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
861 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
862 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
863 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by
`--format`
864 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
865 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
866 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
867 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
868 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
869 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
870 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
871 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
872 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
873 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
874 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
875 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
876 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
877 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
878 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
879 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
880 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
881 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch when creating the file
882 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at
`--autonumber-start`
883 - `playlist` (string): Name or id of the playlist that contains the video
884 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
885 - `playlist_id` (string): Playlist identifier
886 - `playlist_title` (string): Playlist title
887 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
888 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
890 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
892 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
893 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
894 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
896 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
898 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
899 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
900 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
901 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
902 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
903 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
904 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
906 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
908 - `track` (string): Title of the track
909 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
910 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
911 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
912 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
913 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
914 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
915 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
916 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
917 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
919 Available for
`chapter:` prefix when using
`--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
921 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
922 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
923 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
924 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
926 Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. 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).
928 For example for
`-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title
`yt-dlp test video` and id
`BaW_jenozKcj`, this will result in a
`yt-dlp test video-BaW_jenozKcj.mp4` file created in the current directory.
930 For numeric sequences you can use numeric related formatting, for example,
`%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to
5 characters, like in
`00042`.
932 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.
934 To use percent literals in an output template use
`%%`. To output to stdout use
`-o -`.
936 The current default template is
`%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
938 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:
940 #### Output template and Windows batch files
942 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"`.
944 #### Output template examples
946 Note that on Windows you need to use double quotes instead of single.
949 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
950 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
952 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
953 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
955 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
956 $ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
958 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
959 $ yt-dlp -o '%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
961 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
962 $ yt-dlp -o '%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists
964 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
965 $ 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/
967 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
968 $ 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
970 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
971 $ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
976 By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
977 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`.
979 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.
981 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
983 The simplest case is requesting a specific format, for example with
`-f 22` you can download the format with format code equal to
22. You can get the list of available format codes for particular video using
`--list-formats` or
`-F`. Note that these format codes are extractor specific.
985 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.
987 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
989 - `all`: Select all formats
990 - `mergeall`: Select and merge all formats (Must be used with
`--audio-multistreams`,
`--video-multistreams` or both)
991 - `b*`,
`best*`: Select the best quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio
992 - `w*`,
`worst*`: Select the worst quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio
993 - `b`,
`best`: Select the best quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
994 - `w`,
`worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
995 - `bv`,
`bestvideo`: Select the best quality video-only format. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec=none]`
996 - `wv`,
`worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to
`worst*[acodec=none]`
997 - `bv*`,
`bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none]`
998 - `wv*`,
`worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec!=none]`
999 - `ba`,
`bestaudio`: Select the best quality audio-only format. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec=none]`
1000 - `wa`,
`worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec=none]`
1001 - `ba*`,
`bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec!=none]`
1002 - `wa*`,
`worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to
`worst*[acodec!=none]`
1004 For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use
`-f worstvideo`. It is however recomended not to use
`worst` and related options. When your format selector is
`worst`, the format which is worst in all respects is selected. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use
`-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps` instead of
`-f worst`. See [sorting formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
1006 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.
1008 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, for example
`-f 22/17/18` will download format
22 if it's available, otherwise it will download format
17 if it's available, otherwise it will download format
18 if it's available, otherwise it will complain that no suitable formats are available for download.
1010 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`.
1012 You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using
`-f <format1>+<format2>+...` (requires ffmpeg installed), for example
`-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg. If
`--no-video-multistreams` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, if
`--no-audio-multistreams` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. For example,
`-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio` 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`.
1014 ## Filtering Formats
1016 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in
`-f "best[height=720]"` (or
`-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
1018 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons
`<`,
`<=`,
`>`,
`>=`,
`=` (equals),
`!=` (not equals):
1020 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1021 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1022 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
1023 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1024 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1025 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1026 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1029 Also filtering work for comparisons
`=` (equals),
`^=` (starts with),
`$=` (ends with),
`*=` (contains) and following string meta fields:
1031 - `ext`: File extension
1032 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1033 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1034 - `container`: Name of the container format
1035 - `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`)
1036 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
1037 - `language`: Language code
1039 Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation
`!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g.
`!*=` (does not contain).
1041 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 video hoster. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
1043 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. For example,
`-f "all[vcodec=none]"` selects all audio-only formats.
1045 Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if you want to download the best mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than
480 you can use
`-f '(mp4,webm)[height<480]'`.
1049 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...`. The available fields are:
1051 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1052 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
1053 - `ie_pref`: The format preference as given by the extractor
1054 - `lang`: Language preference as given by the extractor
1055 - `quality`: The quality of the format as given by the extractor
1056 - `source`: Preference of the source as given by the extractor
1057 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (
`https`/
`ftps` >
`http`/
`ftp` >
`m3u8-native` >
`m3u8` >
`http-dash-segments` > other >
`mms`/
`rtsp` > unknown >
`f4f`/
`f4m`)
1058 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (
`av01` >
`vp9.2` >
`vp9` >
`h265` >
`h264` >
`vp8` >
`h263` >
`theora` > other > unknown)
1059 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (
`opus` >
`vorbis` >
`aac` >
`mp4a` >
`mp3` >
`ac3` >
`dts` > other > unknown)
1060 - `codec`: Equivalent to
`vcodec,acodec`
1061 - `vext`: Video Extension (
`mp4` >
`webm` >
`flv` > other > unknown). If
`--prefer-free-formats` is used,
`webm` is prefered.
1062 - `aext`: Audio Extension (
`m4a` >
`aac` >
`mp3` >
`ogg` >
`opus` >
`webm` > other > unknown). If
`--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to
`opus` >
`ogg` >
`webm` >
`m4a` >
`mp3` >
`aac`.
1063 - `ext`: Equivalent to
`vext,aext`
1064 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if know in advance. This will be unavailable for mu38 and DASH formats.
1065 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1066 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
1067 - `height`: Height of video
1068 - `width`: Width of video
1069 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1070 - `fps`: Framerate of video
1071 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1072 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1073 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1074 - `br`: Equivalent to using
`tbr,vbr,abr`
1075 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
1077 Note that any other **numerical** field made available by the extractor can also be used. All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in decending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a
`+`. Eg:
`+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a prefered value for the fields, separated by a
`:`. Eg:
`res:720` prefers larger videos, but no larger than
720p and the smallest video if there are no videos less than
720p. For
`codec` and
`ext`, you can provide two prefered values, the first for video and the second for audio. Eg:
`+codec:avc:m4a` (equivalent to
`+vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a`) sets the video codec preference to
`h264` >
`h265` >
`vp9` >
`vp9.2` >
`av01` >
`vp8` >
`h263` >
`theora` and audio codec preference to
`mp4a` >
`aac` >
`vorbis` >
`opus` >
`mp3` >
`ac3` >
`dts`. You can also make the sorting prefer the nearest values to the provided by using
`~` as the delimiter. Eg:
`filesize~1G` prefers the format with filesize closest to
1 GiB.
1079 The fields
`hasvid`,
`ie_pref`,
`lang` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using
`--force-format-sort`. Apart from these, the default order used is:
`quality,res,fps,codec:vp9.2,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. Note that the extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
1081 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 repects. 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`.
1083 **Tip**: You can use the
`-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1085 ## Format Selection examples
1087 Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
1090 # Download and merge the best best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
1091 # or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
1092 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv+ba/b'
1094 # Download best format that contains video,
1095 # and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
1096 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba/b'
1101 # Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1102 # For this case, an output template should be used since
1103 # by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
1104 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv,ba' -o '%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s'
1106 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1107 # and all audio-only formats into one file
1108 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]' --audio-multistreams
1110 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1111 # and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1112 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba+ba.2' --audio-multistreams
1115 # The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
1116 # and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
1118 # Download the worst video available (old method)
1119 $ yt-dlp -f 'wv*+wa/w'
1121 # Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
1124 # Download the smallest video available
1125 $ yt-dlp -S '+size,+br'
1129 # Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
1130 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b'
1132 # Download the best video with the best extension
1133 # (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
1138 # Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1139 # or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
1140 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w'
1142 # Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1143 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1144 $ yt-dlp -S 'height:480'
1146 # Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1147 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1148 # Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1149 # So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
1150 $ yt-dlp -S 'res:480'
1154 # Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1155 # or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1156 $ yt-dlp -f 'b[filesize<50M] / w'
1158 # Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1159 # or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1160 $ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize:50M'
1162 # Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
1163 $ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize~50M'
1167 # Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1168 # or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
1169 $ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)'
1171 # Download best video available via the best protocol
1172 # (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
1177 # Download the best video with h264 codec, or the best video if there is no such video
1178 $ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[vcodec^=avc1] / (bv*+ba/b)'
1180 # Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1181 # or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
1182 $ yt-dlp -S 'codec:h264'
1184 # Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1185 # or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
1186 $ yt-dlp -S '+codec:h264'
1190 # More complex examples
1192 # Download the best video no better than 720p prefering framerate greater than 30,
1193 # or the worst video (still prefering framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
1194 $ yt-dlp -f '((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)'
1196 # Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
1197 # or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
1198 # prefering larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
1199 $ yt-dlp -S 'res:720,fps'
1203 # Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1204 # or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
1205 # prefering better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
1206 $ yt-dlp -S '+res:480,codec,br'
1209 # MODIFYING METADATA
1211 The metadata obtained the the extractors can be modified by using
`--parse-metadata FROM:TO`. The general syntax is to give the name of a field or a template (with similar syntax to
[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.
1213 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`.
1215 You can also use this to change only 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", for example.
1217 ## Modifying metadata examples
1219 Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
1222 # Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
1223 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'title:%(artist)s - %(title)s'
1226 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)'
1228 # Set title as "Series name S01E05"
1229 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata '%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s'
1231 # Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url
1232 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)' --add-metadata
1238 Plugins are loaded from
`<root-dir>/ytdlp_plugins/<type>/__init__.py`. Currently only
`extractor` plugins are supported. Support for
`downloader` and
`postprocessor` plugins may be added in the future. See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example.
1240 **Note**:
`<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`)
1242 # DEPRECATED OPTIONS
1244 These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
1246 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
1247 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1248 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1249 -t, --title -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1250 -l, --literal -o accepts literal names
1251 --all-formats -f all
1252 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)
03d
1253 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
1254 --prefer-avconv avconv is no longer officially supported (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
1255 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
1256 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
1257 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
1258 --avconv-location avconv is no longer officially supported
1259 -C, --call-home Not implemented
1260 --no-call-home Default
1261 --include-ads Not implemented
1262 --no-include-ads Default
1263 --write-srt --write-subs
1264 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
1265 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
1266 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
1267 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
1268 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
1269 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
1270 --dump-headers --print-traffic
1271 --youtube-print-sig-code No longer supported
1272 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
1273 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
1274 --load-info --load-info-json
1275 --split-tracks --split-chapters
1276 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
1277 --sponskrub-args ARGS --ppa "sponskrub:ARGS"
1278 --test Only used for testing extractors
1282 For FAQ, Developer Instructions etc., see the
[original README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)
projects / yt-dlp.git / blob