1 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
4 [![YT-DLP](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master/.github/banner.svg)](#readme)
6 [![Release version](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?color=brightgreen&label=Download&style=for-the-badge)](#release-files "Release")
7 [![PyPi](https://img.shields.io/badge/-PyPi-blue.svg?logo=pypi&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)]
(https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp "PyPi")
8 [![Donate](https://img.shields.io/badge/_-Donate-red.svg?logo=githubsponsors&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](Collaborators.md#collaborators "Donate")
9 [![Matrix](https://img.shields.io/matrix/yt-dlp:matrix.org?color=brightgreen&labelColor=555555&label=&logo=element&style=for-the-badge)]
(https://matrix.to/#/#yt-dlp:matrix.org "Matrix")
10 [![Discord](https://img.shields.io/discord/807245652072857610?color=blue&labelColor=555555&label=&logo=discord&style=for-the-badge)]
(https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r "Discord")
11 [![Supported Sites](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Supported_Sites-brightgreen.svg?style=for-the-badge)](supportedsites.md "Supported Sites")
12 [![License: Unlicense](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Unlicense-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge)](LICENSE "License")
13 [![CI Status](https://img.shields.io/github/workflow/status/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/Core%20Tests/master?label=Tests&style=for-the-badge)]
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions "CI Status")
14 [![Commits](https://img.shields.io/github/commit-activity/m/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?label=commits&style=for-the-badge)]
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
15 [![Last Commit](https://img.shields.io/github/last-commit/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master?label=&style=for-the-badge)]
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "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 * Based on **youtube-dl
2021.12.17 [commit/8a158a9](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/8a158a936c8b002ef536e9e2b778ded02c09c0fa)**<!--(
[exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21))--> and **youtube-dlc
2020.11.11-
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 * All Feeds (
`:ytfav`,
`:ytwatchlater`,
`:ytsubs`,
`:ythistory`,
`:ytrec`,
`:ytnotif`) and private playlists supports downloading multiple pages of content
84 * Search (
`ytsearch:`,
`ytsearchdate:`), search URLs and in-channel search works
85 * Mixes supports downloading multiple pages of content
86 * Some (but not all) age-gated content can be downloaded without cookies
87 * Fix for
[n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326)
88 * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to
`/video` to preserve the old behaviour
89 * `255kbps` audio is extracted (if available) from youtube music when premium cookies are given
90 * Youtube music Albums, channels etc can be downloaded (
[except self-uploaded music](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/723))
91 * Download livestreams from the start using
`--live-from-start` (experimental)
92 * Support for downloading stories (
`ytstories:<channel UCID>`)
93 * Support for downloading clips
95 * **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using
`--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE]`
97 * **Download time range**: Videos can be downloaded partially based on either timestamps or chapters using
`--download-sections`
99 * **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using
`--split-chapters`
101 * **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
103 * **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use
`aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
105 * **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)
107 * **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN etc.
109 * **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
111 * **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`)
113 * **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
115 * **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`
117 * **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
119 * **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
121 * **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
123 * **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using
`yt-dlp -U`
125 See
[changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
127 ### Differences in default behavior
129 Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
131 * The options
`--auto-number` (
`-A`),
`--title` (
`-t`) and
`--literal` (
`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
132 * `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to
`ffmpeg`
133 * yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [configuration](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
134 * 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`
135 * 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
136 * 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
137 * 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
138 * `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use
`--abort-on-error` or
`--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
139 * 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
140 * `--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
141 * 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
142 * `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
143 * The output of
`-F` is listed in a new format. Use
`--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
144 * All *experiences* of a funimation episode are considered as a single video. This behavior breaks existing archives. Use
`--compat-options seperate-video-versions` to extract information from only the default player
145 * Youtube live chat (if available) is considered as a subtitle. Use
`--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use
`--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent live chat from downloading
146 * 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
147 * Unavailable videos are also listed for youtube playlists. Use
`--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
148 * 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
149 * Thumbnail embedding in
`mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use
`--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
150 * 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
151 * 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
152 * `certifi` will be used for SSL root certificates, if installed. If you want to use only system certificates, use
`--compat-options no-certifi`
153 * youtube-dl tries to remove some superfluous punctuations from filenames. While this can sometimes be helpfull, it is often undesirable. So yt-dlp tries to keep the fields in the filenames as close to their original values as possible. You can use
`--compat-options filename-sanitization` to revert to youtube-dl's behavior
155 For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
157 * `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
158 * `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as
`--compat-options all,-multistreams`
159 * `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as
`--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
164 You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
166 ### Using the release binary
168 You can simply download the [correct binary file](#release-files) for your OS
170 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
171 [![Windows](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Windows_x64-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=windows)]
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)
172 [![Linux](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Linux/BSD-red.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=linux)]
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
173 [![MacOS](https://img.shields.io/badge/-MacOS-lightblue.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=apple)]
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)
174 [![Source Tarball](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Source_tar-green.svg?style=for-the-badge)]
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
175 [![Other variants](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Other-grey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](#release-files)
176 [![All versions](https://img.shields.io/badge/-All_Versions-lightgrey.svg?style=for-the-badge)]
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
177 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
179 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)
181 <!-- TODO: Move to Wiki -->
182 In UNIX-like OSes (MacOS, Linux, BSD), you can also install the same in one of the following ways:
185 sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
186 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
190 sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
191 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
195 sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp --dir /usr/local/bin -o yt-dlp
196 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
200 ### With [PIP](https://pypi.org/project/pip)
202 You can install the
[PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) with:
204 python3 -m pip install -U yt-dlp
207 You can install without any of the optional dependencies using:
209 python3 -m pip install --no-deps -U yt-dlp
212 If you want to be on the cutting edge, you can also install the master branch with:
214 python3 -m pip install --force-reinstall https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/archive/master.tar.gz
217 On some systems, you may need to use
`py` or
`python` instead of
`python3`
219 <!-- TODO: Add to Wiki, Remove Taps -->
220 ### With [Homebrew](https://brew.sh)
222 macOS or Linux users that are using Homebrew can also install it by:
225 brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp
229 You can use
`yt-dlp -U` to update if you are [using the provided release](#using-the-release-binary)
231 If you [installed with pip](#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
233 If you [installed using Homebrew](#with-homebrew), run
`brew upgrade yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp`
235 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
242 [yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independant
[zipimport](https://docs.python.org/3/library/zipimport.html) binary. Needs Python (recommended for **Linux/BSD**)
243 [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**)
244 [yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|MacOS (
10.15+) standalone executable (recommended for **MacOS**)
250 [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
251 [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))
252 [yt-dlp_linux](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux)|UNIX standalone x64 binary
253 [yt-dlp_linux.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux.zip)|Unpackaged Unix executable (no auto-update)
254 [yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
255 [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)
261 [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
262 [SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
263 [SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
264 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
267 Python versions
3.7+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
269 <!-- Python
3.5+ uses VC++
14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
270 <!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=
26999 --x>
271 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.
274 While all the other dependencies are optional,
`ffmpeg` and
`ffprobe` are highly recommended
276 ### Strongly recommended
278 * [**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)
280 <!-- TODO: ffmpeg has merged this patch. Remove this note once there is new release -->
281 **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
284 * [**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)
285 * [**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>
286 * [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under
[BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
290 * [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For
`--embed-thumbnail` in certain formats. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
291 * [**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)
292 * [**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
296 * [**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)
297 * [**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)
298 * [**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)
299 * Any external downloader that you want to use with
`--downloader`
303 * [**avconv** and **avprobe**](https://www.libav.org) - Now **deprecated** alternative to ffmpeg. License
[depends on the build](https://libav.org/legal)
304 * [**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)
305 * [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading
`rtmp` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with
`--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
306 * [**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)
308 To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
310 The Windows and MacOS standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with **\*** included.
312 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
317 ### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
318 To build the Windows/MacOS 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 (
32/
64 bit) as the Python used.
320 python3 -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
321 python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
324 On some systems, you may need to use
`py` or
`python` instead of
`python3`.
326 Note that pyinstaller
[does not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment.
328 **Important**: Running
`pyinstaller` directly **without** using
`pyinst.py` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
330 ### Platform-independent Binary (UNIX)
331 You will need the build tools
`python` (
3.6+),
`zip`,
`make` (GNU),
`pandoc`\* and
`pytest`\*.
333 After installing these, simply run
`make`.
335 You can also run
`make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files. (The dependencies marked with **\*** are not needed for this)
337 ### Standalone Py2Exe Builds (Windows)
339 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.
341 If you wish to build it anyway, install Python and py2exe, and then simply run
`setup.py py2exe`
343 py -m pip install -U py2exe -r requirements.txt
344 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
349 * **
`devscripts/update-version.py`** - Update the version number based on current timestamp
350 * **
`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.
352 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
356 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
357 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
359 `Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
360 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
362 <!-- Auto generated -->
364 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
365 --version Print program version and exit
366 -U, --update Update this program to latest version
367 --no-update Do not update (default)
368 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
369 The download will be considered successful
370 even if the postprocessing fails
371 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
372 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
374 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
375 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
376 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
377 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
378 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
380 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic extractor
381 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. Eg:
382 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
383 google videos for the search term "python".
384 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
385 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
386 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
387 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
388 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
389 possible instead of searching
390 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
391 except those given by --config-locations.
392 For backward compatibility, if this option
393 is found inside the system configuration
394 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
396 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
397 (default). When given inside a configuration
398 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
399 defined in the current file
400 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
401 either the path to the config or its
402 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
403 used multiple times and inside other
405 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
407 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
408 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
409 Currently only supported for YouTube
411 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
413 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
414 available. Pass the minimum number of
415 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
416 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
417 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
418 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
419 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output
420 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
421 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
422 configurations by reverting some of the
423 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
424 default behavior" for details
425 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
426 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
427 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
428 according to the Python string formatting
429 mini-language. Eg: --alias get-audio,-X
430 "-S=aext:{
0},abr -x --audio-format {
0}"
431 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
432 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
433 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
434 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
435 output. Alias options can trigger more
436 aliases; so be carefull to avoid defining
437 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
438 alias may be triggered a maximum of
100
439 times. This option can be used multiple times
442 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
443 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme.
444 Eg: socks5://user:pass@
127.0.0.1:
1080/. Pass
445 in an empty string (--proxy "") for direct
447 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
448 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
449 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
450 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
453 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
454 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
455 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
456 is not present) is used for the actual
458 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
459 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header (default)
460 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
461 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
462 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
463 explicitly provided two-letter ISO
3166-
2
465 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
466 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR notation
469 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma seperated playlist_index of the videos
470 to download. You can specify a range using
471 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
472 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
473 Use negative indices to count from the right
474 and negative STEP to download in reverse
475 order. Eg: "-I
1:
3,
7,-
5::
2" used on a
476 playlist of size
15 will download the videos
477 at index
1,
2,
3,
7,
11,
13,
15
478 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE
480 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
482 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
483 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
484 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
485 Eg: --date today-
2weeks
486 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
487 this date. The date formats accepted is the
489 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
490 this date. The date formats accepted is the
492 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
493 field can be compared with a number or a
494 string using the operators defined in
495 "Filtering formats". You can also simply
496 specify a field to match if the field is
497 present, use "!field" to check if the field
498 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
499 conditions. Use a "
\" to escape "&" or
500 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
501 the filter matches if atleast one of the
502 conditions are met. Eg: --match-filter
503 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?
100 &
504 description~='(?i)
\bcats \& dogs
\b'" matches
505 only videos that are not live OR those that
506 have a like count more than
100 (or the like
507 field is not available) and also has a
508 description that contains the phrase "cats &
509 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
510 interactively ask whether to download each
512 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
513 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
514 to a video and a playlist
515 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
516 a video and a playlist
517 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
519 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
520 archive file. Record the IDs of all
521 downloaded videos in it
522 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
523 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
524 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
525 a file that is in the archive
526 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
527 a file that has been filtered out
528 --break-per-input Make --break-on-existing, --break-on-reject
529 and --max-downloads act only on the current
531 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
532 terminates the entire download queue
533 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
534 the playlist is skipped
537 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
538 video that should be downloaded concurrently
540 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
542 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
543 below which throttling is assumed and the
544 video data is re-extracted (e.g.
100K)
545 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is
10), or
547 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
548 error (default is
3), or "infinite"
549 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
550 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
551 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR An expression for the time to sleep between
552 retries in seconds (optionally) prefixed by
553 the type of retry (file_access, fragment,
554 http (default)) to apply the sleep to. EXPR
555 can be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=
1]]
556 or exp=START[:END[:BASE=
2]]. This option can
557 be used multiple times to set the sleep for
558 the different retry types. Eg: --retry-sleep
559 linear=
1::
2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=
1:
20
560 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
561 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
562 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
563 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment
564 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
565 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
566 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
567 downloading is finished
568 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
569 downloading is finished (default)
570 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g.
1024 or
16K)
572 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
573 from an initial value of --buffer-size
575 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
576 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
577 downloading (e.g.
10485760 or
10M) (default
578 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
579 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
581 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
582 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
583 received. This disables n_entries,
584 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
585 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
586 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
587 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
589 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
590 allowing some players to play the video
591 while downloading, and reducing the chance
592 of file corruption if download is
593 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
595 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
596 videos. This is default when not downloading
598 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters whose title matches
599 the given regular expression. Time ranges
600 prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place
601 of chapters to download the specified range.
602 Eg: --download-sections "*
10:
15-
15:
00"
603 --download-sections "intro". Needs ffmpeg.
604 This option can be used multiple times to
605 download multiple sections
606 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
607 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
608 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
609 use it for. Currently supports native,
610 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
611 wget. You can use this option multiple times
612 to set different downloaders for different
613 protocols. For example, --downloader aria2c
614 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
615 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
616 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
617 (Alias: --external-downloader)
618 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
619 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
620 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
621 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
622 positions using the same syntax as
623 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
624 option multiple times to give different
625 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
626 --external-downloader-args)
628 ## Filesystem Options:
629 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
630 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
631 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
633 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
634 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
635 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
636 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
637 TYPES as --output are supported.
638 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
639 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
640 files are first downloaded to the temp path
641 and then the final files are moved over to
642 the home path after download is finished.
643 This option is ignored if --output is an
645 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
646 TEMPLATE" for details
647 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
648 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" (default: "NA")
649 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
650 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
651 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
653 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
654 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
655 using Windows (default)
656 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
657 extension) to the specified number of
659 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
660 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
661 option includes --no-continue
662 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
663 related files (default)
664 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
666 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
667 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
668 restart download of the entire file
669 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
670 into output file (default)
671 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
673 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
674 modification time (default)
675 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
676 the file modification time
677 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
678 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
679 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
680 (this may contain personal information)
681 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
682 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
683 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
684 --write-description etc. (default)
685 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
686 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
687 --clean-info-json Remove some private fields such as filenames
688 from the infojson. Note that it could still
689 contain some personal information (default)
690 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
691 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
692 infojson. The comments are fetched even
693 without this option if the extraction is
694 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
695 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
696 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
698 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
699 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
700 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
701 and dump cookie jar in
702 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
704 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE]
705 The name of the browser and (optionally) the
706 name/path of the profile to load cookies
707 from, separated by a ":". Currently
708 supported browsers are: brave, chrome,
709 chromium, edge, firefox, opera, safari,
710 vivaldi. By default, the most recently
711 accessed profile is used. The keyring used
712 for decrypting Chromium cookies on Linux can
713 be (optionally) specified after the browser
714 name separated by a "+". Currently supported
715 keyrings are: basictext, gnomekeyring, kwallet
716 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
717 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
718 can store some downloaded information (such
719 as client ids and signatures) permanently.
720 By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/yt-dlp or
722 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
723 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
725 ## Thumbnail Options:
726 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
727 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
728 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
729 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
730 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
732 ## Internet Shortcut Options:
733 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
734 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
735 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
736 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
737 OS caches the URL based on the file path
738 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
739 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
741 ## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
742 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
743 print the log to stderr
744 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
745 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
747 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
749 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
750 extracting metadata even if the videos are
751 not actually available for download
753 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
754 formats are found (default)
755 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
756 related files (Alias: --no-download)
757 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
758 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
759 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
760 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
761 --use-postprocessor, and "video" (default).
762 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
763 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
764 used. This option can be used multiple times
765 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
766 Append given template to the file. The
767 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
768 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
769 output template. This option can be used
771 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
772 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
773 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
774 description of available keys
775 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
776 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
777 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
778 a playlist, the whole playlist information
779 is dumped in a single line
780 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
781 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
782 another simulation option is used (Alias:
783 --force-download-archive)
784 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
785 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
786 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
787 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
788 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
789 Template for progress outputs, optionally
790 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
791 "download-title:" (the console title),
792 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
793 The video's fields are accessible under the
794 "info" key and the progress attributes are
795 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.:
796 --console-title --progress-template
797 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
798 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
799 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
800 to debug problems (very verbose)
801 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
802 in the current directory to debug problems
803 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
806 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
807 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
808 that do not support RFC
5746 secure
810 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
811 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
812 information about the video (Currently
813 supported only for YouTube)
814 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
815 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
816 option multiple times
817 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
818 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
819 or fribidi executable in PATH
820 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
821 during data extraction
822 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
823 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
824 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
825 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
826 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
827 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
828 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
831 ## Video Format Options:
832 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
834 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
835 "Sorting Formats" for more details
836 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
837 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
838 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
839 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
840 specified sort order (default)
841 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
843 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
844 output file (default)
845 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
847 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
848 output file (default)
849 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
850 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
851 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
852 irrespective of quality
853 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
855 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
856 those that are actually downloadable
857 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
858 actually downloadable
859 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
861 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
862 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
863 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
864 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
865 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
866 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
869 --write-subs Write subtitle file
870 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
871 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
872 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
873 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
874 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
875 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
876 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
877 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
878 Eg: "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
879 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
880 be regex) or "all" separated by commas. (Eg:
881 --sub-langs "en.*,ja") You can prefix the
882 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
883 the requested languages. (Eg: --sub-langs
884 all,-live_chat) Use --list-subs for a list
885 of available language tags
887 ## Authentication Options:
888 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
889 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
890 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
891 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
892 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
893 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
894 either the path or its containing directory.
896 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
897 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
898 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
899 a list of available MSOs
900 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
901 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
902 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
904 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
905 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
906 format. May include the private key
907 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
908 Path to private key file for client
910 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
911 Password for client certificate private key,
912 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
913 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
915 ## Post-Processing Options:
916 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
917 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
918 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
919 used. (currently supported: best (default),
920 mp3, aac, m4a, opus, vorbis, flac, alac,
921 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
922 similar syntax as --remux-video
923 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
924 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
925 between
0 (best) and
10 (worst) for VBR or a
926 specific bitrate like
128K (default
5)
927 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
928 necessary (currently supported: mp4, mkv,
929 flv, webm, mov, avi, mka, ogg, mp3, aac,
930 m4a, opus, vorbis, flac, alac, wav). If
931 target container does not support the
932 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
933 can specify multiple rules; Eg.
934 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
935 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
936 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
937 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
938 are the same as --remux-video
939 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
940 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
941 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
942 to give the argument to the specified
943 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
944 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
945 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
946 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
947 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
948 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
949 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
950 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
951 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
952 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
953 specified executable only when being used by
954 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
955 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
956 appended to the prefix optionally followed
957 by a number to pass the argument before the
958 specified input/output file. Eg: --ppa
959 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
960 this option multiple times to give different
961 arguments to different postprocessors.
963 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
964 after post-processing
965 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
966 post-processing (default)
967 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
968 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
969 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
971 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
972 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
973 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
974 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
975 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
976 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
977 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
978 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
979 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
980 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
981 (Alias: --add-chapters)
982 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
984 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
986 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
988 --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
989 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
991 --replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
992 Replace text in a metadata field using the
993 given regex. This option can be used
995 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
996 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
997 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
998 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
999 (default; only when the videos form a single
1000 show). All the video files must have same
1001 codecs and number of streams to be
1002 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
1003 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1004 the output filename for the concatenated
1005 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1006 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
1007 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
1008 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
1009 default; fix file if we can, warn
1010 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
1012 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
1013 path to the binary or its containing directory
1014 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
1015 when to execute it (after_move if
1016 unspecified), separated by a ":". Supported
1017 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
1018 --use-postprocessor. Same syntax as the
1019 output template can be used to pass any
1020 field as arguments to the command. After
1021 download, an additional field "filepath"
1022 that contains the final path of the
1023 downloaded file is also available, and if no
1024 fields are passed, %(filepath)q is appended
1025 to the end of the command. This option can
1026 be used multiple times
1027 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
1028 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
1029 (currently supported: srt, vtt, ass, lrc)
1030 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
1031 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
1032 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
1033 can specify multiple rules using similar
1034 syntax as --remux-video
1035 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
1036 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
1037 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1038 the output filename for the split files. See
1039 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1040 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
1041 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
1042 given regular expression. The syntax is the
1043 same as --download-sections. This option can
1044 be used multiple times
1045 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1047 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
1048 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
1049 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1050 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1052 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1053 when cutting/splitting (default)
1054 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1055 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1056 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1057 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1058 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1059 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1060 The "when" argument determines when the
1061 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1062 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1063 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
1064 "before_dl" (before each video download),
1065 "post_process" (after each video download;
1066 default), "after_move" (after moving video
1067 file to it's final locations), "after_video"
1068 (after downloading and processing all
1069 formats of a video), or "playlist" (at end
1070 of playlist). This option can be used
1071 multiple times to add different postprocessors
1073 ## SponsorBlock Options:
1074 Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1075 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
1076 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1078 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1079 for, separated by commas. Available
1080 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1081 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
1082 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, all and
1083 default (=all). You can prefix the category
1084 with a "-" to exclude it. See [
1] for
1085 description of the categories. Eg:
1086 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1087 [
1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1088 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1089 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1090 category is present in both mark and remove,
1091 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1092 available categories are the same as for
1093 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
1094 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight is
1096 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
1097 An output template for the title of the
1098 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1099 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1100 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1101 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1102 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1103 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1104 --sponsorblock-remove
1105 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1106 https://sponsor.ajay.app
1108 ## Extractor Options:
1109 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1110 (default is
3), or "infinite"
1111 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1112 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1113 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1114 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1115 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1116 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1117 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1118 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1120 --extractor-args KEY:ARGS Pass these arguments to the extractor. See
1121 "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You can
1122 use this option multiple times to give
1123 arguments for different extractors
1127 You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
1129 1. **Main Configuration**: The file given by
`--config-location`
1130 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.
1131 1. **Home Configuration**:
`yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by
`-P`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
1132 1. **User Configuration**:
1133 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1134 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
1135 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1136 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1138 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
1140 `%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%`
1142 1. **System Configuration**:
`/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
1144 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:
1146 # Lines starting with # are comments
1148 # Always extract audio
1151 # Do not copy the mtime
1155 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1157 # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1158 -o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
1161 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`.
1163 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.
1165 ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
1167 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:
1170 chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
1172 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1174 machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
1178 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1179 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1181 To activate authentication with the
`.netrc` file you should pass
`--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
1183 The default location of the .netrc file is
`$HOME` (
`~`) in UNIX. On Windows, it is
`%HOME%` if present,
`%USERPROFILE%` (generally
`C:\Users\<user name>`) or
`%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
1187 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.
1189 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1190 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
1191 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1193 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).
1195 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). For example,
`%(NAME)s` or
`%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.
1197 The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
1199 1. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a
`.` (dot) separator. You can also do python slicing using
`:`. Eg:
`%(tags.0)s`,
`%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s`,
`%(id.3:7:-1)s`,
`%(formats.:.format_id)s`.
`%()s` refers to the entire infodict. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use
`-j` to see such fields
1201 1. **Addition**: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using
`+` and
`-` respectively. Eg:
`%(playlist_index+10)03d`,
`%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
1203 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
`>`. Eg:
`%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`,
`%(upload_date>%Y-%m-%d)s`,
`%(epoch-3600>%H-%M-%S)s`
1205 1. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a
`,`. Eg:
`%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
1207 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.
1209 1. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a
`|` separator. This overrides
`--output-na-template`. Eg:
`%(uploader|Unknown)s`
1211 1. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types
`diouxXeEfFgGcrs`,
`B`,
`j`,
`l`,
`q`,
`D`,
`S` can be used for converting to **B**ytes, **j**son (flag
`#` for pretty-printing), a comma separated **l**ist (flag
`#` for
`\n` newline-separated), a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag
`#` to split a list into different arguments), to add **D**ecimal suffixes (Eg:
10M) (flag
`#` to use
1024 as factor), and to **S**anitize as filename (flag
`#` for restricted), respectively
1213 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. Eg:
`%(title)+.100U` is NFKC
1215 To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1217 %(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
1220 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`. For example,
`-o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s"` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video. If any of the templates is empty, that type of file will not be written. Eg:
`--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for video.
1222 The available fields are:
1224 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1225 - `title` (string): Video title
1226 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
1227 - `url` (string): Video URL
1228 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1229 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
1230 - `description` (string): The description of the video
1231 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1232 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1233 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1234 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
1235 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
1236 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
1237 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
1238 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
1239 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
1240 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
1241 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1242 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1243 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
1244 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
1245 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1246 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
1247 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
1248 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1249 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1250 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1251 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1252 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
1253 - `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)
1254 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
1255 - `live_status` (string): One of "is_live", "was_live", "is_upcoming", "not_live"
1256 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
1257 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
1258 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
1259 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
1260 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1261 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
1262 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
1263 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by
`--format`
1264 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
1265 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
1266 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
1267 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
1268 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1269 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1270 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
1271 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1272 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1273 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
1274 - `dynamic_range` (string): The dynamic range of the video
1275 - `stretched_ratio` (float):
`width:height` of the video's pixels, if not square
1276 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
1277 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
1278 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
1279 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
1280 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
1281 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1282 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
1283 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
1284 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at
`--autonumber-start`
1285 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
1286 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
1287 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1288 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1289 - `playlist` (string):
`playlist_id` or
`playlist_title`
1290 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
1291 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1292 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
1293 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1294 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
1295 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
1296 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1297 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
1298 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as
`webpage_url` for playlist entries)
1300 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1302 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1303 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1304 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1306 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1308 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1309 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1310 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1311 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1312 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1313 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1314 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1316 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1318 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1319 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1320 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1321 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1322 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1323 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1324 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1325 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1326 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1327 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1329 Available only when using
`--download-sections` and for
`chapter:` prefix when using
`--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
1331 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1332 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1333 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1334 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1336 Available only when used in
`--print`:
1338 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1339 - `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
1340 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by
`--list-formats`
1341 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by
`--list-thumbnails`
1342 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by
`--list-subs`
1343 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by
`--list-subs`
1346 Available only in
`--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1348 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1349 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1350 - `categories` (list): The SponsorBlock categories the chapter belongs to
1351 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1352 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1353 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1355 Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. For example for
`-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title
`yt-dlp test video` and id
`BaW_jenozKc`, this will result in a
`yt-dlp test video-BaW_jenozKc.mp4` file created in the current directory.
1357 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).
1359 **Tip**: Look at the
`-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
1361 For numeric sequences you can use
[numeric related formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting), for example,
`%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to
5 characters, like in
`00042`.
1363 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.
1365 To use percent literals in an output template use
`%%`. To output to stdout use
`-o -`.
1367 The current default template is
`%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
1369 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.
1371 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1372 #### Output template and Windows batch files
1374 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"`.
1375 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1377 #### Output template examples
1380 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1381 test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1383 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1384 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
1386 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
1387 youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
1389 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
1390 $ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1392 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
1393 $ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1395 # Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
1396 $ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist_index|)s%(playlist_index& - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1398 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
1399 $ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1401 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
1402 $ 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"
1404 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
1405 $ 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"
1407 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1408 # and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1409 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1411 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1412 $ 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
1414 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
1415 $ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
1420 By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1421 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`.
1423 **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.
1425 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.
1427 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1428 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1429 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1431 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.
1433 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.
1435 You can use
`-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1437 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1439 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1440 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with
`--audio-multistreams`,
`--video-multistreams` or both)
1441 - `b*`,
`best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio
1442 - `b`,
`best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1443 - `bv`,
`bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec=none]`
1444 - `bv*`,
`bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none]`
1445 - `ba`,
`bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec=none]`
1446 - `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))
1447 - `w*
`, `worst*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
1448 - `w
`, `worst
`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]
`
1449 - `wv
`, `worstvideo
`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]
`
1450 - `wv*
`, `worstvideo*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]
`
1451 - `wa
`, `worstaudio
`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]
`
1452 - `wa*
`, `worstaudio*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]
`
1454 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.
1456 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.
1458 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.
1460 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
`.
1462 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.
1464 **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
1466 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. For example, `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --video-multistreams --audio-multistreams
` will download and merge all 3 given formats. The resulting file will have 2 video streams and 2 audio streams. But `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --no-video-multistreams
` will download and merge only `bestvideo
` and `bestaudio
`. `best
` is ignored since another format containing a video stream (`bestvideo
`) has already been selected. The order of the formats is therefore important. `-f best+bestaudio --no-audio-multistreams
` will download and merge both formats while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams
` will ignore `best
` and download only `bestaudio
`.
1468 ## Filtering Formats
1470 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=
720]"
` (or `-f "[filesize>
10M]"
`).
1472 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<
`, `<=
`, `>
`, `>=
`, `=
` (equals), `!=
` (not equals):
1474 - `filesize
`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1475 - `width
`: Width of the video, if known
1476 - `height
`: Height of the video, if known
1477 - `tbr
`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1478 - `abr
`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1479 - `vbr
`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1480 - `asr
`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1483 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 - `format_id
`: A short description of the format
1491 - `language
`: Language code
1493 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 `._-
`.
1495 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.
1497 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.
1499 Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if you want to download the best pre-merged mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480 you can use `-f "(mp4,webm)[height<
480]"
`.
1503 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...
`.
1505 The available fields are:
1507 - `hasvid
`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1508 - `hasaud
`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
1509 - `ie_pref
`: The format preference
1510 - `lang
`: The language preference
1511 - `quality
`: The quality of the format
1512 - `source
`: The preference of the source
1513 - `proto
`: Protocol used for download (`https
`/`ftps
` > `http
`/`ftp
` > `m3u8_native
`/`m3u8
` > `http_dash_segments
`> `websocket_frag
` > `mms
`/`rtsp
` > `f4f
`/`f4m
`)
1514 - `vcodec
`: Video Codec (`av01
` > `vp9.2
` > `vp9
` > `h265
` > `h264
` > `vp8
` > `h263
` > `theora
` > other)
1515 - `acodec
`: Audio Codec (`flac
`/`alac
` > `wav
`/`aiff
` > `opus
` > `vorbis
` > `aac
` > `mp4a
` > `mp3
` > `eac3
` > `ac3
` > `dts
` > other)
1516 - `codec
`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec
`
1517 - `vext
`: Video Extension (`mp4
` > `webm
` > `flv
` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats
` is used, `webm
` is preferred.
1518 - `aext
`: Audio Extension (`m4a
` > `aac
` > `mp3
` > `ogg
` > `opus
` > `webm
` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats
` is used, the order changes to `opus
` > `ogg
` > `webm
` > `m4a
` > `mp3
` > `aac
`.
1519 - `ext
`: Equivalent to `vext,aext
`
1520 - `filesize
`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
1521 - `fs_approx
`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1522 - `size
`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
1523 - `height
`: Height of video
1524 - `width
`: Width of video
1525 - `res
`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1526 - `fps
`: Framerate of video
1527 - `hdr
`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV
` > `HDR12
` > `HDR10+
` > `HDR10
` > `HLG
` > `SDR
`)
1528 - `tbr
`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1529 - `vbr
`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1530 - `abr
`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1531 - `br
`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr
`
1532 - `asr
`: Audio sample rate in Hz
1534 **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.
1536 All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in descending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+
`. Eg: `+res
` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a preferred value for the fields, separated by a `:
`. Eg: `res:
720` prefers larger videos, but no larger than 720p and the smallest video if there are no videos less than 720p. For `codec
` and `ext
`, you can provide two preferred values, the first for video and the second for audio. Eg: `+codec:avc:m4a
` (equivalent to `+vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a
`) sets the video codec preference to `h264
` > `h265
` > `vp9
` > `vp9.2
` > `av01
` > `vp8
` > `h263
` > `theora
` and audio codec preference to `mp4a
` > `aac
` > `vorbis
` > `opus
` > `mp3
` > `ac3
` > `dts
`. You can also make the sorting prefer the nearest values to the provided by using `~
` as the delimiter. Eg: `filesize~
1G
` prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.
1538 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,codec:vp9.2,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id
`. The extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
1540 Note that the default has `codec: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.
1542 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
`.
1544 **Tip**: You can use the `-v -F
` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1546 ## Format Selection examples
1549 # Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
1550 # or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
1551 $ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
1553 # Download best format that contains video,
1554 # and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
1555 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
1560 # Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1561 # For this case, an output template should be used since
1562 # by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
1563 $ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
1565 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1566 # and all audio-only formats into one file
1567 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
1569 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1570 # and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1571 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
1574 # The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
1575 # and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
1577 # Download the worst video available (old method)
1578 $ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
1580 # Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
1583 # Download the smallest video available
1584 $ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
1588 # Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
1589 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
1591 # Download the best video with the best extension
1592 # (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
1597 # Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1598 # or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
1599 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
1601 # Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1602 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1603 $ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
1605 # Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1606 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1607 # Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1608 # So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
1609 $ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
1613 # Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1614 # or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1615 $ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
1617 # Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1618 # or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1619 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
1621 # Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
1622 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
1626 # Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1627 # or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
1628 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
1630 # Download best video available via the best protocol
1631 # (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
1636 # Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1637 # or the best video if there is no such video
1638 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
1640 # Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1641 # or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
1642 $ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
1644 # Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1645 # or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
1646 $ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
1650 # More complex examples
1652 # Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1653 # or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
1654 $ yt-dlp -f "((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)"
1656 # Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
1657 # or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
1658 # preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
1659 $ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
1663 # Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1664 # or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
1665 # preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
1666 $ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
1669 # MODIFYING METADATA
1671 The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata
` and `--replace-in-metadata
`
1673 `--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.
1675 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.
1677 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
`.
1679 This option also has a few special uses:
1681 * You can download an additional URL based on the metadata of the currently downloaded video. To do this, set the field `additional_urls
` to the URL that you want to download. Eg: `--parse-metadata "description:(?P<additional_urls>https?://www\.vimeo\.com/\d+)
` will download the first vimeo video found in the description
1683 * You can use this to change the metadata that is embedded in the media file. To do this, set the value of the corresponding field with a `meta_
` prefix. For example, any value you set to `meta_description
` field will be added to the `description
` field in the file. For example, you can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis". To modify the metadata of individual streams, use the `meta<n>_
` prefix (Eg: `meta1_language
`). Any value set to the `meta_
` field will overwrite all default values.
1685 **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.
1687 For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1689 Metadata fields | From
1690 :--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1691 `title
` | `track
` or `title
`
1692 `date
` | `upload_date
`
1693 `description
`, `synopsis
` | `description
`
1694 `purl
`, `comment
` | `webpage_url
`
1695 `track
` | `track_number
`
1696 `artist
` | `artist
`, `creator
`, `uploader
` or `uploader_id
`
1699 `album_artist
` | `album_artist
`
1700 `disc
` | `disc_number
`
1702 `season_number
` | `season_number
`
1703 `episode_id
` | `episode
` or `episode_id
`
1704 `episode_sort
` | `episode_number
`
1705 `language
` of each stream | the format's `language
`
1707 **Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1710 ## Modifying metadata examples
1713 # Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
1714 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
1717 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
1719 # Set title as "Series name S01E05"
1720 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
1722 # Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
1723 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --add-metadata
1725 # Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1726 # handling multiple lines correctly
1727 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --add-metadata
1729 # Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
1730 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
1732 # Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
1733 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<formats>)" -j
1735 # Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
1736 $ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
1740 # EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1742 Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS
`. `ARGS
` is a `;
` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2
`. Eg: `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_embedded,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"
`
1744 The following extractors use this feature:
1747 * `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
1748 * `player_client
`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web
`, `android
` and `ios
` with variants `_music
`, `_embedded
`, `_embedscreen
`, `_creator
` (Eg: `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.
1749 * `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
1750 * `include_live_dash
`: Include live dash formats even without `--live-from-start
` (These formats don't download properly)
1751 * `comment_sort
`: `top
` or `new
` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
1752 * `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
`
1753 * 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
1754 * `innertube_host
`: Innertube API host to use for all API requests
1755 * e.g. `studio.youtube.com
`, `youtubei.googleapis.com
`
1756 * Note: Cookies exported from `www.youtube.com
` will not work with hosts other than `*.youtube.com
`
1757 * `innertube_key
`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
1759 #### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1760 * `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)
1761 * `approximate_date
`: Extract approximate `upload_date
` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
1764 * `language
`: Languages to extract. Eg: `funimation:language=english,japanese
`
1765 * `version
`: The video version to extract - `uncut
` or `simulcast
`
1768 * `language
`: Languages to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:language=jaJp
`
1769 * `hardsub
`: Which hard-sub versions to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:hardsub=None,enUS
`
1771 #### crunchyrollbeta
1772 * `format
`: Which stream type(s) to extract. Default is `adaptive_hls
` Eg: `crunchyrollbeta:format=vo_adaptive_hls
`
1773 * Potentially useful values include `adaptive_hls
`, `adaptive_dash
`, `vo_adaptive_hls
`, `vo_adaptive_dash
`, `download_hls
`, `trailer_hls
`, `trailer_dash
`
1774 * `hardsub
`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract. Default is `None
` (no hardsubs). Eg: `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None
`
1777 * `video_types
`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes
`, `movies
`, `clips
`, `trailers
`
1780 * `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.**
1782 #### youtubewebarchive
1783 * `check_all
`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails
`, `captures
`
1786 * `comment_sort
`: `hot
` (default), `you
` (cookies needed), `top
`, `new
` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1789 * `res
`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd
`, `hd
`, `fhd
`
1790 * `vcodec
`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264
`, `h265
`, `dvh265
`
1791 * `dr
`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr
`, `hdr10
`, `dv
`
1794 * `app_version
`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version
`. (e.g. `20.2.1`)
1795 * `manifest_app_version
`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with. (e.g. `221`)
1798 * `tab
`: Which tab to download. One of `new
`, `top
`, `videos
`, `podcasts
`, `streams
`, `stacks
`. (E.g. `rokfinchannel:tab=streams
`)
1801 NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
1803 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1808 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
1810 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
`.
1812 See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example plugins.
1814 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
1816 If you are a plugin author, add [ytdlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/ytdlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability
1822 yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1824 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.
1826 From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1829 from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
1831 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1832 with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1836 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).
1838 **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)
1840 ## Embedding examples
1842 #### Extracting information
1848 URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1850 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
1852 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1853 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
1855 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
1856 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1858 #### Download using an info-json
1863 INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
1865 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1866 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
1868 print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
1869 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
1877 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1880 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
1881 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
1882 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
1883 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
1884 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
1888 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1889 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1897 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1899 def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
1900 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
1901 duration = info.get('duration')
1902 if duration and duration < 60:
1903 return 'The video is too short'
1906 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
1909 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1910 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1913 #### Adding logger and progress hook
1918 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1921 def debug(self, msg):
1922 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
1923 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
1924 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
1929 def info(self, msg):
1932 def warning(self, msg):
1935 def error(self, msg):
1939 # ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
1941 if d['status'] == 'finished':
1942 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
1946 'logger': MyLogger(),
1947 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
1950 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1954 #### Add a custom PostProcessor
1959 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1961 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
1962 class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
1963 def run(self, info):
1964 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
1968 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1969 # ℹ️ "when" can take any value in yt_dlp.utils.POSTPROCESS_WHEN
1970 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP(), when='pre_process')
1975 #### Use a custom format selector
1980 URL = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1982 def format_selector(ctx):
1983 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
1984 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
1986 # formats are already sorted worst to best
1987 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
1989 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
1990 best_video = next(f for f in formats
1991 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
1993 # find compatible audio extension
1994 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
1995 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
1996 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
1997 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
1999 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
2001 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
2002 'ext': best_video['ext'],
2003 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
2004 # Must be + separated list of protocols
2005 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
2010 'format': format_selector,
2013 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2017 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
2019 # DEPRECATED OPTIONS
2021 These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
2023 #### Almost redundant options
2024 While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
2026 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
2027 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
2028 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
2029 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
2031 #### Redundant options
2032 While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
2034 --get-description --print description
2035 --get-duration --print duration_string
2036 --get-filename --print filename
2037 --get-format --print format
2039 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
2040 -e, --get-title --print title
2041 -g, --get-url --print urls
2042 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
2043 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2044 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2045 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
2046 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2047 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
2048 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2049 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2050 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2051 --no-playlist-reverse Default
2054 #### Not recommended
2055 While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2057 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2058 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
2059 --all-formats -f all
2060 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
2061 --print-json -j --no-simulate
2062 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)03d
2063 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
2064 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2065 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
2066 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2067 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
2068 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2069 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
2070 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2071 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2072 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2073 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
2076 #### Developer options
2077 These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2079 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
2080 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
2081 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
2082 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2083 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
2087 These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2089 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
2090 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
2091 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2092 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2093 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2094 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2095 --load-info --load-info-json
2096 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
2097 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
2098 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
2099 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2100 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
2101 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2102 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
2103 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
2104 --write-srt --write-subs
2105 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
2107 #### Sponskrub Options
2108 Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock
` options
2110 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2111 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2112 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2113 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2114 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2115 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2116 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2117 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2119 #### No longer supported
2120 These options may no longer work as intended
2122 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2123 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2124 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2125 --no-call-home Default
2126 --include-ads No longer supported
2127 --no-include-ads Default
2128 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2129 --no-write-annotations Default
2132 These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2134 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2135 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2138 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)
2141 For FAQ see the [youtube-dl README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)