1 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
4 [](#readme)
6 [](#release-files "Release")
7 []
(https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp "PyPi")
8 [](Collaborators.md#collaborators "Donate")
9 []
(https://matrix.to/#/#yt-dlp:matrix.org "Matrix")
10 []
(https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r "Discord")
11 [](supportedsites.md "Supported Sites")
12 [](LICENSE "License")
13 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions "CI Status")
14 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
15 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
18 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
20 yt-dlp is a
[youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) fork based on the now inactive
[youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc). The main focus of this project is adding new features and patches while also keeping up to date with the original project
22 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "USAGE AND OPTIONS" SECTION HERE -->
24 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
25 * [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
26 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
27 * [INSTALLATION](#installation)
29 * [Release Files](#release-files)
30 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
32 * [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
33 * [General Options](#general-options)
34 * [Network Options](#network-options)
35 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
36 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
37 * [Download Options](#download-options)
38 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
39 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
40 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
41 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
42 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
43 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
44 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
45 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
46 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
47 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
48 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
49 * [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
50 * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
51 * [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
52 * [Output template and Windows batch files](#output-template-and-windows-batch-files)
53 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
54 * [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
55 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
56 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
57 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
58 * [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
59 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
60 * [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
62 * [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
63 * [Embedding examples](#embedding-examples)
64 * [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
65 * [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
66 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
67 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
69 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
74 * Merged with **youtube-dl v2021.12
.17+
[commit/b0a60ce](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/b0a60ce2032172aeaaf27fe3866ab72768f10cb2)**<!--(
[exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21))--> and **youtube-dlc v2020.11
.11-
3+
[commit/f9401f2](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/f9401f2a91987068139c5f757b12fc711d4c0cee)**: You get all the features and patches of
[youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) in addition to the latest
[youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl)
76 * **
[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
78 * **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using
`-S`. This allows for much easier format selection than what is possible by simply using
`--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
80 * **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from
[animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including
`--write-comments`,
`BiliBiliSearch`,
`BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that the NicoNico livestreams are not available. See
[#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
82 * **YouTube improvements**:
83 * Supports Clips, Stories (
`ytstories:<channel UCID>`), Search (including filters)**\***, YouTube Music Search, Channel-specific search, Search prefixes (
`ytsearch:`,
`ytsearchdate:`)**\***, Mixes, YouTube Music Albums/Channels (
[except self-uploaded music](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/723)), and Feeds (
`:ytfav`,
`:ytwatchlater`,
`:ytsubs`,
`:ythistory`,
`:ytrec`,
`:ytnotif`)
84 * Fix for
[n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326) **\***
85 * Supports some (but not all) age-gated content without cookies
86 * Download livestreams from the start using
`--live-from-start` (*experimental*)
87 * `255kbps` audio is extracted (if available) from YouTube Music when premium cookies are given
88 * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to
`/video` to preserve the old behaviour
90 * **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using
`--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE]`
92 * **Download time range**: Videos can be downloaded partially based on either timestamps or chapters using
`--download-sections`
94 * **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using
`--split-chapters`
96 * **Multi-threaded fragment downloads**: Download multiple fragments of m3u8/mpd videos in parallel. Use
`--concurrent-fragments` (
`-N`) option to set the number of threads used
98 * **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use
`aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
100 * **New and fixed extractors**: Many new extractors have been added and a lot of existing ones have been fixed. See the [changelog](Changelog.md) or the [list of supported sites](supportedsites.md)
102 * **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN etc.
104 * **Subtitle extraction from manifests**: Subtitles can be extracted from streaming media manifests. See
[commit/be6202f](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/be6202f12b97858b9d716e608394b51065d0419f) for details
106 * **Multiple paths and output templates**: You can give different [output templates](#output-template) and download paths for different types of files. You can also set a temporary path where intermediary files are downloaded to using
`--paths` (
`-P`)
108 * **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for details
110 * **Output template improvements**: Output templates can now have date-time formatting, numeric offsets, object traversal etc. See [output template](#output-template) for details. Even more advanced operations can also be done with the help of
`--parse-metadata` and
`--replace-in-metadata`
112 * **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as
`--alias`,
`--print`,
`--concat-playlist`,
`--wait-for-video`,
`--retry-sleep`,
`--sleep-requests`,
`--convert-thumbnails`,
`--force-download-archive`,
`--force-overwrites`,
`--break-on-reject` etc
114 * **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in
`--format`/
`--match-filter`, multiple
`--postprocessor-args` and
`--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection), merge multi-video/audio, multiple
`--config-locations`,
`--exec` at different stages, etc
116 * **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
118 * **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using
`yt-dlp -U`
120 See
[changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
122 Features marked with a **\*** have been back-ported to youtube-dl
124 ### Differences in default behavior
126 Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
128 * The options
`--auto-number` (
`-A`),
`--title` (
`-t`) and
`--literal` (
`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
129 * `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to
`ffmpeg`
130 * yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
131 * The default [output template](#output-template) is
`%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`. There is no real reason for this change. This was changed before yt-dlp was ever made public and now there are no plans to change it back to
`%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`. Instead, you may use
`--compat-options filename`
132 * The default [format sorting](#sorting-formats) is different from youtube-dl and prefers higher resolution and better codecs rather than higher bitrates. You can use the
`--format-sort` option to change this to any order you prefer, or use
`--compat-options format-sort` to use youtube-dl's sorting order
133 * The default format selector is
`bv*+ba/b`. This means that if a combined video + audio format that is better than the best video-only format is found, the former will be preferred. Use
`-f bv+ba/b` or
`--compat-options format-spec` to revert this
134 * Unlike youtube-dlc, yt-dlp does not allow merging multiple audio/video streams into one file by default (since this conflicts with the use of
`-f bv*+ba`). If needed, this feature must be enabled using
`--audio-multistreams` and
`--video-multistreams`. You can also use
`--compat-options multistreams` to enable both
135 * `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use
`--abort-on-error` or
`--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
136 * When writing metadata files such as thumbnails, description or infojson, the same information (if available) is also written for playlists. Use
`--no-write-playlist-metafiles` or
`--compat-options no-playlist-metafiles` to not write these files
137 * `--add-metadata` attaches the
`infojson` to
`mkv` files in addition to writing the metadata when used with
`--write-info-json`. Use
`--no-embed-info-json` or
`--compat-options no-attach-info-json` to revert this
138 * Some metadata are embedded into different fields when using
`--add-metadata` as compared to youtube-dl. Most notably,
`comment` field contains the
`webpage_url` and
`synopsis` contains the
`description`. You can [use
`--parse-metadata`](#modifying-metadata) to modify this to your liking or use
`--compat-options embed-metadata` to revert this
139 * `playlist_index` behaves differently when used with options like
`--playlist-reverse` and
`--playlist-items`. See
[#302](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/302) for details. You can use
`--compat-options playlist-index` if you want to keep the earlier behavior
140 * The output of
`-F` is listed in a new format. Use
`--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
141 * Live chats (if available) are considered as subtitles. Use
`--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use
`--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent any live chat/danmaku from downloading
142 * Youtube channel URLs are automatically redirected to
`/video`. Append a
`/featured` to the URL to download only the videos in the home page. If the channel does not have a videos tab, we try to download the equivalent
`UU` playlist instead. For all other tabs, if the channel does not show the requested tab, an error will be raised. Also,
`/live` URLs raise an error if there are no live videos instead of silently downloading the entire channel. You may use
`--compat-options no-youtube-channel-redirect` to revert all these redirections
143 * Unavailable videos are also listed for youtube playlists. Use
`--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
144 * 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
145 * Thumbnail embedding in
`mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use
`--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
146 * 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
147 * 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
148 * `certifi` will be used for SSL root certificates, if installed. If you want to use system certificates (e.g. self-signed), use
`--compat-options no-certifi`
149 * yt-dlp's sanitization of invalid characters in filenames is different/smarter than in youtube-dl. You can use
`--compat-options filename-sanitization` to revert to youtube-dl's behavior
151 For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
153 * `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
154 * `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as
`--compat-options all,-multistreams`
155 * `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as
`--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
160 You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
162 ### Using the release binary
164 You can simply download the [correct binary file](#release-files) for your OS
166 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
167 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)
168 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
169 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)
170 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
171 [](#release-files)
172 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
173 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
175 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)
177 <!-- TODO: Move to Wiki -->
178 In UNIX-like OSes (MacOS, Linux, BSD), you can also install the same in one of the following ways:
181 sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
182 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
186 sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
187 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
191 sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp --dir /usr/local/bin -o yt-dlp
192 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
196 ### With [PIP](https://pypi.org/project/pip)
198 You can install the
[PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) with:
200 python3 -m pip install -U yt-dlp
203 You can install without any of the optional dependencies using:
205 python3 -m pip install --no-deps -U yt-dlp
208 If you want to be on the cutting edge, you can also install the master branch with:
210 python3 -m pip install --force-reinstall https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/archive/master.tar.gz
213 On some systems, you may need to use
`py` or
`python` instead of
`python3`
215 <!-- TODO: Add to Wiki, Remove Taps -->
216 ### With [Homebrew](https://brew.sh)
218 macOS or Linux users that are using Homebrew can also install it by:
221 brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp
225 You can use
`yt-dlp -U` to update if you are [using the provided release](#using-the-release-binary)
227 If you [installed with pip](#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
229 If you [installed using Homebrew](#with-homebrew), run
`brew upgrade yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp`
231 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
238 [yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independent
[zipimport](https://docs.python.org/3/library/zipimport.html) binary. Needs Python (recommended for **Linux/BSD**)
239 [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**)
240 [yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|Universal MacOS (
10.15+) standalone executable (recommended for **MacOS**)
246 [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
247 [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))
248 [yt-dlp_linux](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux)|Linux standalone x64 binary
249 [yt-dlp_linux.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux.zip)|Unpackaged Linux executable (no auto-update)
250 [yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
251 [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)
252 [yt-dlp_macos_legacy](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos_legacy)|MacOS (
10.9+) standalone x64 executable
258 [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
259 [SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
260 [SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
261 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
264 Python versions
3.7+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
266 <!-- Python
3.5+ uses VC++
14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
267 <!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=
26999 --x>
268 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.
271 While all the other dependencies are optional,
`ffmpeg` and
`ffprobe` are highly recommended
273 ### Strongly recommended
275 * [**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)
277 <!-- TODO: ffmpeg has merged this patch. Remove this note once there is new release -->
278 **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
281 * [**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)
282 * [**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>
283 * [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under
[BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
287 * [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For
`--embed-thumbnail` in certain formats. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
288 * [**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)
289 * [**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
293 * [**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)
294 * [**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)
295 * [**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)
296 * Any external downloader that you want to use with
`--downloader`
300 * [**avconv** and **avprobe**](https://www.libav.org) - Now **deprecated** alternative to ffmpeg. License
[depends on the build](https://libav.org/legal)
301 * [**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)
302 * [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading
`rtmp` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with
`--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
303 * [**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)
305 To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
307 The standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with **\*** included.
309 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
314 ### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
315 To build the standalone executable, you must have Python and
`pyinstaller` (plus any of yt-dlp's [optional dependencies](#dependencies) if needed). Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, simply run
`pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (x86/ARM,
32/
64 bit) as the Python used.
317 python3 -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
318 python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
321 On some systems, you may need to use
`py` or
`python` instead of
`python3`.
323 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.
325 **Important**: Running
`pyinstaller` directly **without** using
`pyinst.py` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
327 ### Platform-independent Binary (UNIX)
328 You will need the build tools
`python` (
3.6+),
`zip`,
`make` (GNU),
`pandoc`\* and
`pytest`\*.
330 After installing these, simply run
`make`.
332 You can also run
`make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files. (The build tools marked with **\*** are not needed for this)
334 ### Standalone Py2Exe Builds (Windows)
336 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.
338 If you wish to build it anyway, install Python and py2exe, and then simply run
`setup.py py2exe`
340 py -m pip install -U py2exe -r requirements.txt
341 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
346 * **
`devscripts/update-version.py [revision]`** - Update the version number based on current date
347 * **
`devscripts/set-variant.py variant [-M update_message]`** - Set the build variant of the executable
348 * **
`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.
350 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
354 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
355 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
357 `Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
358 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
360 <!-- Auto generated -->
362 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
363 --version Print program version and exit
364 -U, --update Update this program to the latest version
365 --no-update Do not check for updates (default)
366 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
367 The download will be considered successful
368 even if the postprocessing fails
369 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
370 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
372 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
373 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
374 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
375 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
376 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
378 --use-extractors NAMES Extractor names to use separated by commas.
379 You can also use regexes, "all", "default"
380 and "end" (end URL matching); e.g. --ies
381 "holodex.*,end,youtube". Prefix the name
382 with a "-" to exclude it, e.g. --ies
383 default,-generic. Use --list-extractors for
384 a list of extractor names. (Alias: --ies)
385 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. E.g.
386 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
387 google videos for the search term "python".
388 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
389 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
390 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
391 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
392 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
393 possible instead of searching
394 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
395 except those given by --config-locations.
396 For backward compatibility, if this option
397 is found inside the system configuration
398 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
400 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
401 (default). When given inside a configuration
402 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
403 defined in the current file
404 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
405 either the path to the config or its
406 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
407 used multiple times and inside other
409 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
411 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
412 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
413 Currently only supported for YouTube
415 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
417 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
418 available. Pass the minimum number of
419 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
420 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
421 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
422 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
423 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output (Alias:
425 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
426 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
427 configurations by reverting some of the
428 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
429 default behavior" for details
430 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
431 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
432 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
433 according to the Python string formatting
434 mini-language. E.g. --alias get-audio,-X
435 "-S=aext:{
0},abr -x --audio-format {
0}"
436 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
437 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
438 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
439 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
440 output. Alias options can trigger more
441 aliases; so be careful to avoid defining
442 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
443 alias may be triggered a maximum of
100
444 times. This option can be used multiple times
447 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
448 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme,
449 e.g. socks5://user:pass@
127.0.0.1:
1080/.
450 Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for
452 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
453 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
454 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
455 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
458 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
459 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
460 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
461 is not present) is used for the actual
463 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
464 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header (default)
465 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
466 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
467 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
468 explicitly provided two-letter ISO
3166-
2
470 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
471 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR notation
474 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma separated playlist_index of the videos
475 to download. You can specify a range using
476 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
477 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
478 Use negative indices to count from the right
479 and negative STEP to download in reverse
480 order. E.g. "-I
1:
3,
7,-
5::
2" used on a
481 playlist of size
15 will download the videos
482 at index
1,
2,
3,
7,
11,
13,
15
483 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
484 SIZE, e.g.
50k or
44.6M
485 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE,
487 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
488 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
489 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
490 E.g. --date today-
2weeks
491 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
492 this date. The date formats accepted is the
494 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
495 this date. The date formats accepted is the
497 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
498 field can be compared with a number or a
499 string using the operators defined in
500 "Filtering Formats". You can also simply
501 specify a field to match if the field is
502 present, use "!field" to check if the field
503 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
504 conditions. Use a "
\" to escape "&" or
505 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
506 the filter matches if atleast one of the
507 conditions are met. E.g. --match-filter
508 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?
100 &
509 description~='(?i)
\bcats \& dogs
\b'" matches
510 only videos that are not live OR those that
511 have a like count more than
100 (or the like
512 field is not available) and also has a
513 description that contains the phrase "cats &
514 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
515 interactively ask whether to download each
517 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
518 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
519 to a video and a playlist
520 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
521 a video and a playlist
522 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
524 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
525 archive file. Record the IDs of all
526 downloaded videos in it
527 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
528 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
529 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
530 a file that is in the archive
531 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
532 a file that has been filtered out
533 --break-per-input Make --break-on-existing, --break-on-reject,
534 --max-downloads and autonumber reset per
536 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
537 terminates the entire download queue
538 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
539 the playlist is skipped
542 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
543 video that should be downloaded concurrently
545 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second,
547 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
548 below which throttling is assumed and the
549 video data is re-extracted, e.g.
100K
550 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is
10), or
552 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
553 error (default is
3), or "infinite"
554 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
555 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
556 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR Time to sleep between retries in seconds
557 (optionally) prefixed by the type of retry
558 (http (default), fragment, file_access,
559 extractor) to apply the sleep to. EXPR can
560 be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=
1]] or
561 exp=START[:END[:BASE=
2]]. This option can be
562 used multiple times to set the sleep for the
563 different retry types, e.g. --retry-sleep
564 linear=
1::
2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=
1:
20
565 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
566 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
567 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
568 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment
569 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
570 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
571 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
572 downloading is finished
573 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
574 downloading is finished (default)
575 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer, e.g.
1024 or
16K
577 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
578 from an initial value of --buffer-size
580 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
581 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
582 downloading, e.g.
10485760 or
10M (default
583 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
584 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
586 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
587 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
588 received. This disables n_entries,
589 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
590 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
591 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
592 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
594 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
595 allowing some players to play the video
596 while downloading, and reducing the chance
597 of file corruption if download is
598 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
600 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
601 videos. This is default when not downloading
603 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters whose title matches
604 the given regular expression. Time ranges
605 prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place
606 of chapters to download the specified range.
607 Needs ffmpeg. This option can be used
608 multiple times to download multiple
609 sections, e.g. --download-sections
610 "*
10:
15-
15:
00" --download-sections "intro"
611 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
612 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
613 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
614 use it for. Currently supports native,
615 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
616 wget. You can use this option multiple times
617 to set different downloaders for different
618 protocols. E.g. --downloader aria2c
619 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
620 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
621 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
622 (Alias: --external-downloader)
623 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
624 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
625 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
626 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
627 positions using the same syntax as
628 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
629 option multiple times to give different
630 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
631 --external-downloader-args)
633 ## Filesystem Options:
634 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
635 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
636 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
638 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
639 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
640 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
641 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
642 TYPES as --output are supported.
643 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
644 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
645 files are first downloaded to the temp path
646 and then the final files are moved over to
647 the home path after download is finished.
648 This option is ignored if --output is an
650 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
651 TEMPLATE" for details
652 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
653 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" (default: "NA")
654 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
655 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
656 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
658 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
659 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
660 using Windows (default)
661 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
662 extension) to the specified number of
664 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
665 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
666 option includes --no-continue
667 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
668 related files (default)
669 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
671 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
672 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
673 restart download of the entire file
674 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
675 into output file (default)
676 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
678 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
679 modification time (default)
680 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
681 the file modification time
682 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
683 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
684 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
685 (this may contain personal information)
686 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
687 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
688 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
689 --write-description etc. (default)
690 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
691 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
692 --clean-info-json Remove some private fields such as filenames
693 from the infojson. Note that it could still
694 contain some personal information (default)
695 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
696 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
697 infojson. The comments are fetched even
698 without this option if the extraction is
699 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
700 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
701 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
703 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
704 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
705 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
706 and dump cookie jar in
707 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
709 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]
710 The name of the browser to load cookies
711 from. Currently supported browsers are:
712 brave, chrome, chromium, edge, firefox,
713 opera, safari, vivaldi. Optionally, the
714 KEYRING used for decrypting Chromium cookies
715 on Linux, the name/path of the PROFILE to
716 load cookies from, and the CONTAINER name
717 (if Firefox) ("none" for no container) can
718 be given with their respective seperators.
719 By default, all containers of the most
720 recently accessed profile are used.
721 Currently supported keyrings are: basictext,
722 gnomekeyring, kwallet
723 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
724 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
725 can store some downloaded information (such
726 as client ids and signatures) permanently.
727 By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/yt-dlp or
729 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
730 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
732 ## Thumbnail Options:
733 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
734 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
735 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
736 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
737 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
739 ## Internet Shortcut Options:
740 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
741 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
742 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
743 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
744 OS caches the URL based on the file path
745 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
746 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
748 ## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
749 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
750 print the log to stderr
751 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
752 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
754 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
756 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
757 extracting metadata even if the videos are
758 not actually available for download
760 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
761 formats are found (default)
762 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
763 related files (Alias: --no-download)
764 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
765 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
766 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
767 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
768 --use-postprocessor, and "video" (default).
769 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
770 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
771 used. This option can be used multiple times
772 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
773 Append given template to the file. The
774 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
775 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
776 output template. This option can be used
778 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
779 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
780 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
781 description of available keys
782 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
783 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
784 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
785 a playlist, the whole playlist information
786 is dumped in a single line
787 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
788 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
789 another simulation option is used (Alias:
790 --force-download-archive)
791 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
792 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
793 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
794 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
795 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
796 Template for progress outputs, optionally
797 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
798 "download-title:" (the console title),
799 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
800 The video's fields are accessible under the
801 "info" key and the progress attributes are
802 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.
803 --console-title --progress-template
804 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
805 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
806 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
807 to debug problems (very verbose)
808 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
809 in the current directory to debug problems
810 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
813 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
814 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
815 that do not support RFC
5746 secure
817 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
818 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
819 information about the video (Currently
820 supported only for YouTube)
821 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
822 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
823 option multiple times
824 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
825 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
826 or fribidi executable in PATH
827 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
828 during data extraction
829 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
830 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
831 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
832 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
833 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
834 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
835 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
838 ## Video Format Options:
839 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
841 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
842 "Sorting Formats" for more details
843 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
844 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
845 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
846 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
847 specified sort order (default)
848 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
850 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
851 output file (default)
852 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
854 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
855 output file (default)
856 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
857 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
858 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
859 irrespective of quality
860 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
862 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
863 those that are actually downloadable
864 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
865 actually downloadable
866 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
868 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
869 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
870 --merge-output-format FORMAT Containers that may be used when merging
871 formats, separated by "/", e.g. "mp4/mkv".
872 Ignored if no merge is required. (currently
873 supported: avi, flv, mkv, mov, mp4, webm)
876 --write-subs Write subtitle file
877 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
878 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
879 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
880 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
881 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
882 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
883 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
884 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
885 e.g. "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
886 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
887 be regex) or "all" separated by commas, e.g.
888 --sub-langs "en.*,ja". You can prefix the
889 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
890 the requested languages, e.g. --sub-langs
891 all,-live_chat. Use --list-subs for a list
892 of available language tags
894 ## Authentication Options:
895 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
896 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
897 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
898 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
899 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
900 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
901 either the path or its containing directory.
903 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
904 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
905 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
906 a list of available MSOs
907 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
908 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
909 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
911 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
912 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
913 format. May include the private key
914 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
915 Path to private key file for client
917 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
918 Password for client certificate private key,
919 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
920 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
922 ## Post-Processing Options:
923 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
924 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
925 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
926 used. (currently supported: best (default),
927 aac, alac, flac, m4a, mp3, opus, vorbis,
928 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
929 similar syntax as --remux-video
930 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
931 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
932 between
0 (best) and
10 (worst) for VBR or a
933 specific bitrate like
128K (default
5)
934 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
935 necessary (currently supported: avi, flv,
936 mkv, mov, mp4, webm, aac, aiff, alac, flac,
937 m4a, mka, mp3, ogg, opus, vorbis, wav). If
938 target container does not support the
939 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
940 can specify multiple rules; e.g.
941 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
942 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
943 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
944 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
945 are the same as --remux-video
946 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
947 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
948 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
949 to give the argument to the specified
950 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
951 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
952 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
953 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
954 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
955 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
956 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
957 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
958 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
959 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
960 specified executable only when being used by
961 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
962 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
963 appended to the prefix optionally followed
964 by a number to pass the argument before the
965 specified input/output file, e.g. --ppa
966 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
967 this option multiple times to give different
968 arguments to different postprocessors.
970 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
971 after post-processing
972 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
973 post-processing (default)
974 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
975 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
976 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
978 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
979 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
980 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
981 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
982 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
983 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
984 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
985 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
986 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
987 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
988 (Alias: --add-chapters)
989 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
991 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
993 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
995 --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
996 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
998 --replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
999 Replace text in a metadata field using the
1000 given regex. This option can be used
1002 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
1003 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
1004 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
1005 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
1006 (default; only when the videos form a single
1007 show). All the video files must have same
1008 codecs and number of streams to be
1009 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
1010 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1011 the output filename for the concatenated
1012 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1013 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
1014 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
1015 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
1016 default; fix file if we can, warn
1017 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
1019 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
1020 path to the binary or its containing directory
1021 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
1022 when to execute it (after_move if
1023 unspecified), separated by a ":". Supported
1024 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
1025 --use-postprocessor. Same syntax as the
1026 output template can be used to pass any
1027 field as arguments to the command. After
1028 download, an additional field "filepath"
1029 that contains the final path of the
1030 downloaded file is also available, and if no
1031 fields are passed, %(filepath)q is appended
1032 to the end of the command. This option can
1033 be used multiple times
1034 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
1035 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
1036 (currently supported: ass, lrc, srt, vtt)
1037 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
1038 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
1039 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
1040 can specify multiple rules using similar
1041 syntax as --remux-video
1042 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
1043 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
1044 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1045 the output filename for the split files. See
1046 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1047 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
1048 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
1049 given regular expression. The syntax is the
1050 same as --download-sections. This option can
1051 be used multiple times
1052 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1054 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
1055 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
1056 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1057 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1059 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1060 when cutting/splitting (default)
1061 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1062 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1063 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1064 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1065 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1066 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1067 The "when" argument determines when the
1068 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1069 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1070 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
1071 "before_dl" (before each video download),
1072 "post_process" (after each video download;
1073 default), "after_move" (after moving video
1074 file to it's final locations), "after_video"
1075 (after downloading and processing all
1076 formats of a video), or "playlist" (at end
1077 of playlist). This option can be used
1078 multiple times to add different postprocessors
1080 ## SponsorBlock Options:
1081 Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1082 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
1083 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1085 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1086 for, separated by commas. Available
1087 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1088 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
1089 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, all and
1090 default (=all). You can prefix the category
1091 with a "-" to exclude it. See [
1] for
1092 description of the categories. E.g.
1093 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1094 [
1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1095 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1096 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1097 category is present in both mark and remove,
1098 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1099 available categories are the same as for
1100 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
1101 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight is
1103 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
1104 An output template for the title of the
1105 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1106 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1107 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1108 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1109 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1110 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1111 --sponsorblock-remove
1112 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1113 https://sponsor.ajay.app
1115 ## Extractor Options:
1116 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1117 (default is
3), or "infinite"
1118 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1119 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1120 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1121 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1122 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1123 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1124 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1125 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1127 --extractor-args KEY:ARGS Pass these arguments to the extractor. See
1128 "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You can
1129 use this option multiple times to give
1130 arguments for different extractors
1134 You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
1136 1. **Main Configuration**: The file given by
`--config-location`
1137 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.
1138 1. **Home Configuration**:
`yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by
`-P`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
1139 1. **User Configuration**:
1140 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1141 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
1142 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1143 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1145 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
1147 `%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%`
1149 1. **System Configuration**:
`/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
1151 E.g. with the following configuration file yt-dlp will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under
`YouTube` directory in your home directory:
1153 # Lines starting with # are comments
1155 # Always extract audio
1158 # Do not copy the mtime
1162 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1164 # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1165 -o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
1168 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`.
1170 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.
1172 ### Config file encoding
1174 The config files are decoded according to the UTF BOM if present, and in the encoding from system locale otherwise.
1176 If you want your file to be decoded differently, add
`# coding: ENCODING` to the beginning of the file (e.g.
`# coding: shift-jis`). There must be no characters before that, even spaces or BOM.
1178 ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
1180 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:
1183 chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
1185 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1187 machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
1191 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1192 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1194 To activate authentication with the
`.netrc` file you should pass
`--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
1196 The default location of the .netrc file is
`$HOME` (
`~`) in UNIX. On Windows, it is
`%HOME%` if present,
`%USERPROFILE%` (generally
`C:\Users\<user name>`) or
`%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
1200 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.
1202 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1203 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
1204 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1206 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).
1208 It may however also contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according to
[Python string formatting operations](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting), e.g.
`%(NAME)s` or
`%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.
1210 The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
1212 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
`:`. E.g.
`%(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
1214 1. **Addition**: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using
`+` and
`-` respectively. E.g.
`%(playlist_index+10)03d`,
`%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
1216 1. **Date/time Formatting**: Date/time fields can be formatted according to
[strftime formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes) by specifying it separated from the field name using a
`>`. E.g.
`%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`,
`%(upload_date>%Y-%m-%d)s`,
`%(epoch-3600>%H-%M-%S)s`
1218 1. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a
`,`. E.g.
`%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
1220 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.
1222 1. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a
`|` separator. This overrides
`--output-na-template`. E.g.
`%(uploader|Unknown)s`
1224 1. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types
`diouxXeEfFgGcrs`, yt-dlp additionally supports converting to
`B` = **B**ytes,
`j` = **j**son (flag
`#` for pretty-printing),
`h` = HTML escaping,
`l` = a comma separated **l**ist (flag
`#` for
`\n` newline-separated),
`q` = a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag
`#` to split a list into different arguments),
`D` = add **D**ecimal suffixes (e.g.
10M) (flag
`#` to use
1024 as factor), and
`S` = **S**anitize as filename (flag
`#` for restricted)
1226 1. **Unicode normalization**: The format type
`U` can be used for NFC
[unicode normalization](https://docs.python.org/3/library/unicodedata.html#unicodedata.normalize). The alternate form flag (
`#`) changes the normalization to NFD and the conversion flag
`+` can be used for NFKC/NFKD compatibility equivalence normalization. E.g.
`%(title)+.100U` is NFKC
1228 To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1230 %(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
1233 Additionally, you can set different output templates for the various metadata files separately from the general output template by specifying the type of file followed by the template separated by a colon
`:`. The different file types supported are
`subtitle`,
`thumbnail`,
`description`,
`annotation` (deprecated),
`infojson`,
`link`,
`pl_thumbnail`,
`pl_description`,
`pl_infojson`,
`chapter`,
`pl_video`. E.g.
`-o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s"` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video. If any of the templates is empty, that type of file will not be written. E.g.
`--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for video.
1235 The available fields are:
1237 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1238 - `title` (string): Video title
1239 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
1240 - `url` (string): Video URL
1241 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1242 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
1243 - `description` (string): The description of the video
1244 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1245 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1246 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1247 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
1248 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
1249 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
1250 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
1251 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
1252 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
1253 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
1254 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1255 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1256 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
1257 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
1258 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1259 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
1260 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
1261 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1262 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1263 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1264 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1265 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
1266 - `comment_count` (numeric): Number of comments on the video (For some extractors, comments are only downloaded at the end, and so this field cannot be used)
1267 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
1268 - `live_status` (string): One of "not_live", "is_live", "is_upcoming", "was_live", "post_live" (was live, but VOD is not yet processed)
1269 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
1270 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
1271 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
1272 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
1273 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1274 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
1275 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
1276 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by
`--format`
1277 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
1278 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
1279 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
1280 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
1281 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1282 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1283 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
1284 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1285 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1286 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
1287 - `dynamic_range` (string): The dynamic range of the video
1288 - `audio_channels` (numeric): The number of audio channels
1289 - `stretched_ratio` (float):
`width:height` of the video's pixels, if not square
1290 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
1291 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
1292 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
1293 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
1294 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
1295 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1296 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
1297 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
1298 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at
`--autonumber-start`
1299 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
1300 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
1301 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1302 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1303 - `playlist` (string):
`playlist_id` or
`playlist_title`
1304 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
1305 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1306 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
1307 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1308 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
1309 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
1310 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1311 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
1312 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as
`webpage_url` for playlist entries)
1314 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1316 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1317 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1318 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1320 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1322 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1323 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1324 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1325 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1326 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1327 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1328 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1330 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1332 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1333 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1334 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1335 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1336 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1337 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1338 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1339 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1340 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1341 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1343 Available only when using
`--download-sections` and for
`chapter:` prefix when using
`--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
1345 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1346 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1347 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1348 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1350 Available only when used in
`--print`:
1352 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1353 - `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
1354 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by
`--list-formats`
1355 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by
`--list-thumbnails`
1356 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by
`--list-subs`
1357 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by
`--list-subs`
1360 Available only in
`--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1362 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1363 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1364 - `categories` (list): The SponsorBlock categories the chapter belongs to
1365 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1366 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1367 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1369 Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. E.g. for
`-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title
`yt-dlp test video` and id
`BaW_jenozKc`, this will result in a
`yt-dlp test video-BaW_jenozKc.mp4` file created in the current directory.
1371 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).
1373 **Tip**: Look at the
`-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
1375 For numeric sequences you can use
[numeric related formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting); e.g.
`%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to
5 characters, like in
`00042`.
1377 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.
1379 To use percent literals in an output template use
`%%`. To output to stdout use
`-o -`.
1381 The current default template is
`%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
1383 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.
1385 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1386 #### Output template and Windows batch files
1388 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"`.
1389 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1391 #### Output template examples
1394 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1395 test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1397 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1398 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
1400 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
1401 youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
1403 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
1404 $ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1406 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
1407 $ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1409 # Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
1410 $ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist_index|)s%(playlist_index& - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1412 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
1413 $ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1415 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
1416 $ 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"
1418 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
1419 $ 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"
1421 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1422 # and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1423 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1425 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1426 $ 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
1428 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
1429 $ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
1434 By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1435 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`.
1437 **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.
1439 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.
1441 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1442 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1443 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1445 The simplest case is requesting a specific format; e.g. with
`-f 22` you can download the format with format code equal to
22. You can get the list of available format codes for particular video using
`--list-formats` or
`-F`. Note that these format codes are extractor specific.
1447 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.
1449 You can use
`-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1451 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1453 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1454 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with
`--audio-multistreams`,
`--video-multistreams` or both)
1455 - `b*`,
`best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio or both (ie;
`vcodec!=none or acodec!=none`)
1456 - `b`,
`best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1457 - `bv`,
`bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec=none]`
1458 - `bv*`,
`bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none]`
1459 - `ba`,
`bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec=none]`
1460 - `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))
1461 - `w*
`, `worst*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
1462 - `w
`, `worst
`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]
`
1463 - `wv
`, `worstvideo
`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]
`
1464 - `wv*
`, `worstvideo*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]
`
1465 - `wa
`, `worstaudio
`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]
`
1466 - `wa*
`, `worstaudio*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]
`
1468 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.
1470 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.
1472 If you want to download multiple videos and they don't have the same formats available, you can specify the order of preference using slashes. Note that formats on the left hand side are preferred; e.g. `-f
22/
17/
18` will download format 22 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 17 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 18 if it's available, otherwise it will complain that no suitable formats are available for download.
1474 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
`.
1476 You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using `-f <format1>+<format2>+...
` (requires ffmpeg installed); e.g. `-f bestvideo+bestaudio
` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg.
1478 **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
1480 Unless `--video-multistreams
` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, unless `--audio-multistreams
` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. E.g. `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --video-multistreams --audio-multistreams
` will download and merge all 3 given formats. The resulting file will have 2 video streams and 2 audio streams. But `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --no-video-multistreams
` will download and merge only `bestvideo
` and `bestaudio
`. `best
` is ignored since another format containing a video stream (`bestvideo
`) has already been selected. The order of the formats is therefore important. `-f best+bestaudio --no-audio-multistreams
` will download and merge both formats while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams
` will ignore `best
` and download only `bestaudio
`.
1482 ## Filtering Formats
1484 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=
720]"
` (or `-f "[filesize>
10M]"
`).
1486 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<
`, `<=
`, `>
`, `>=
`, `=
` (equals), `!=
` (not equals):
1488 - `filesize
`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1489 - `width
`: Width of the video, if known
1490 - `height
`: Height of the video, if known
1491 - `tbr
`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1492 - `abr
`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1493 - `vbr
`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1494 - `asr
`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1497 Also filtering work for comparisons `=
` (equals), `^=
` (starts with), `$=
` (ends with), `*=
` (contains), `~=
` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
1499 - `ext
`: File extension
1500 - `acodec
`: Name of the audio codec in use
1501 - `vcodec
`: Name of the video codec in use
1502 - `container
`: Name of the container format
1503 - `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
`)
1504 - `format_id
`: A short description of the format
1505 - `language
`: Language code
1507 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 `._-
`.
1509 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.
1511 Formats for which the value is not known are excluded unless you put a question mark (`?
`) after the operator. You can combine format filters, so `-f "[height<=?
720][tbr>
500]"
` selects up to 720p videos (or videos where the height is not known) with a bitrate of at least 500 KBit/s. You can also use the filters with `all
` to download all formats that satisfy the filter, e.g. `-f "all[vcodec=none]"
` selects all audio-only formats.
1513 Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses; e.g. `-f "(mp4,webm)[height<
480]"
` will download the best pre-merged mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480.
1517 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...
`.
1519 The available fields are:
1521 - `hasvid
`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1522 - `hasaud
`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
1523 - `ie_pref
`: The format preference
1524 - `lang
`: The language preference
1525 - `quality
`: The quality of the format
1526 - `source
`: The preference of the source
1527 - `proto
`: Protocol used for download (`https
`/`ftps
` > `http
`/`ftp
` > `m3u8_native
`/`m3u8
` > `http_dash_segments
`> `websocket_frag
` > `mms
`/`rtsp
` > `f4f
`/`f4m
`)
1528 - `vcodec
`: Video Codec (`av01
` > `vp9.2
` > `vp9
` > `h265
` > `h264
` > `vp8
` > `h263
` > `theora
` > other)
1529 - `acodec
`: Audio Codec (`flac
`/`alac
` > `wav
`/`aiff
` > `opus
` > `vorbis
` > `aac
` > `mp4a
` > `mp3
` > `eac3
` > `ac3
` > `dts
` > other)
1530 - `codec
`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec
`
1531 - `vext
`: Video Extension (`mp4
` > `webm
` > `flv
` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats
` is used, `webm
` is preferred.
1532 - `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
`.
1533 - `ext
`: Equivalent to `vext,aext
`
1534 - `filesize
`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
1535 - `fs_approx
`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1536 - `size
`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
1537 - `height
`: Height of video
1538 - `width
`: Width of video
1539 - `res
`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1540 - `fps
`: Framerate of video
1541 - `hdr
`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV
` > `HDR12
` > `HDR10+
` > `HDR10
` > `HLG
` > `SDR
`)
1542 - `channels
`: The number of audio channels
1543 - `tbr
`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1544 - `vbr
`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1545 - `abr
`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1546 - `br
`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr
`
1547 - `asr
`: Audio sample rate in Hz
1549 **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.
1551 All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in descending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+
`. E.g. `+res
` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a preferred value for the fields, separated by a `:
`. E.g. `res:
720` prefers larger videos, but no larger than 720p and the smallest video if there are no videos less than 720p. For `codec
` and `ext
`, you can provide two preferred values, the first for video and the second for audio. E.g. `+codec:avc:m4a
` (equivalent to `+vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a
`) sets the video codec preference to `h264
` > `h265
` > `vp9
` > `vp9.2
` > `av01
` > `vp8
` > `h263
` > `theora
` and audio codec preference to `mp4a
` > `aac
` > `vorbis
` > `opus
` > `mp3
` > `ac3
` > `dts
`. You can also make the sorting prefer the nearest values to the provided by using `~
` as the delimiter. E.g. `filesize~
1G
` prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.
1553 The fields `hasvid
` and `ie_pref
` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using `--format-sort-force
`. Apart from these, the default order used is: `lang,quality,res,fps,hdr:
12,vcodec:vp9.2,channels,acodec,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id
`. The extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
1555 Note that the default has `vcodec:vp9.2
`; i.e. `av1
` is not preferred. Similarly, the default for hdr is `hdr:
12`; i.e. dolby vision is not preferred. These choices are made since DV and AV1 formats are not yet fully compatible with most devices. This may be changed in the future as more devices become capable of smoothly playing back these formats.
1557 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
`.
1559 **Tip**: You can use the `-v -F
` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1561 ## Format Selection examples
1564 # Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
1565 # or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
1566 $ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
1568 # Download best format that contains video,
1569 # and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
1570 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
1575 # Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1576 # For this case, an output template should be used since
1577 # by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
1578 $ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
1580 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1581 # and all audio-only formats into one file
1582 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
1584 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1585 # and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1586 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
1589 # The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
1590 # and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
1592 # Download the worst video available (old method)
1593 $ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
1595 # Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
1598 # Download the smallest video available
1599 $ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
1603 # Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
1604 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
1606 # Download the best video with the best extension
1607 # (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
1612 # Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1613 # or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
1614 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
1616 # Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1617 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1618 $ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
1620 # Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1621 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1622 # Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1623 # So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
1624 $ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
1628 # Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1629 # or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1630 $ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
1632 # Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1633 # or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1634 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
1636 # Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
1637 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
1641 # Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1642 # or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
1643 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
1645 # Download best video available via the best protocol
1646 # (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
1651 # Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1652 # or the best video if there is no such video
1653 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
1655 # Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1656 # or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
1657 $ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
1659 # Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1660 # or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
1661 $ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
1665 # More complex examples
1667 # Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1668 # or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
1669 $ yt-dlp -f "((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)"
1671 # Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
1672 # or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
1673 # preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
1674 $ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
1678 # Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1679 # or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
1680 # preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
1681 $ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
1684 # MODIFYING METADATA
1686 The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata
` and `--replace-in-metadata
`
1688 `--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.
1690 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.
1692 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
`.
1694 This option also has a few special uses:
1696 * You can download an additional URL based on the metadata of the currently downloaded video. To do this, set the field `additional_urls
` to the URL that you want to download. E.g. `--parse-metadata "description:(?P<additional_urls>https?://www\.vimeo\.com/\d+)
` will download the first vimeo video found in the description
1698 * You can use this to change the metadata that is embedded in the media file. To do this, set the value of the corresponding field with a `meta_
` prefix. For example, any value you set to `meta_description
` field will be added to the `description
` field in the file - you can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis". To modify the metadata of individual streams, use the `meta<n>_
` prefix (e.g. `meta1_language
`). Any value set to the `meta_
` field will overwrite all default values.
1700 **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.
1702 For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1704 Metadata fields | From
1705 :--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1706 `title
` | `track
` or `title
`
1707 `date
` | `upload_date
`
1708 `description
`, `synopsis
` | `description
`
1709 `purl
`, `comment
` | `webpage_url
`
1710 `track
` | `track_number
`
1711 `artist
` | `artist
`, `creator
`, `uploader
` or `uploader_id
`
1714 `album_artist
` | `album_artist
`
1715 `disc
` | `disc_number
`
1717 `season_number
` | `season_number
`
1718 `episode_id
` | `episode
` or `episode_id
`
1719 `episode_sort
` | `episode_number
`
1720 `language
` of each stream | the format's `language
`
1722 **Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1725 ## Modifying metadata examples
1728 # Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
1729 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
1732 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
1734 # Set title as "Series name S01E05"
1735 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
1737 # Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
1738 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --add-metadata
1740 # Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1741 # handling multiple lines correctly
1742 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --add-metadata
1744 # Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
1745 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
1747 # Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
1748 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<formats>)" -j
1750 # Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
1751 $ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
1755 # EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1757 Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS
`. `ARGS
` is a `;
` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2
`. E.g. `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_embedded,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"
`
1759 The following extractors use this feature:
1762 * `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
1763 * `player_client
`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web
`, `android
` and `ios
` with variants `_music
`, `_embedded
`, `_embedscreen
`, `_creator
` (e.g. `web_embedded
`); and `mweb
` and `tv_embedded
` (agegate bypass) with no variants. By default, `android,web
` is used, but `tv_embedded
` and `creator
` variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com
` urls. You can use `all
` to use all the clients, and `default
` for the default clients.
1764 * `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
1765 * `include_live_dash
`: Include live dash formats even without `--live-from-start
` (These formats don't download properly)
1766 * `comment_sort
`: `top
` or `new
` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
1767 * `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
`
1768 * 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
1769 * `innertube_host
`: Innertube API host to use for all API requests; e.g. `studio.youtube.com
`, `youtubei.googleapis.com
`. Note that cookies exported from one subdomain will not work on others
1770 * `innertube_key
`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
1772 #### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1773 * `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)
1774 * `approximate_date
`: Extract approximate `upload_date
` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
1777 * `language
`: Languages to extract, e.g. `funimation:language=english,japanese
`
1778 * `version
`: The video version to extract - `uncut
` or `simulcast
`
1781 * `language
`: Languages to extract, e.g. `crunchyroll:language=jaJp
`
1782 * `hardsub
`: Which hard-sub versions to extract, e.g. `crunchyroll:hardsub=None,enUS
`
1784 #### crunchyrollbeta
1785 * `format
`: Which stream type(s) to extract (default: `adaptive_hls
`). Potentially useful values include `adaptive_hls
`, `adaptive_dash
`, `vo_adaptive_hls
`, `vo_adaptive_dash
`, `download_hls
`, `download_dash
`, `multitrack_adaptive_hls_v2
`
1786 * `hardsub
`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract (default: `None
` = no hardsubs), e.g. `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None
`
1789 * `video_types
`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes
`, `movies
`, `clips
`, `trailers
`
1792 * `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.**
1794 #### youtubewebarchive
1795 * `check_all
`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails
`, `captures
`
1798 * `comment_sort
`: `hot
` (default), `you
` (cookies needed), `top
`, `new
` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1801 * `res
`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd
`, `hd
`, `fhd
`
1802 * `vcodec
`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264
`, `h265
`, `dvh265
`
1803 * `dr
`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr
`, `hdr10
`, `dv
`
1806 * `app_version
`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version
`, e.g. `20.2.1`
1807 * `manifest_app_version
`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with, e.g. `221`
1810 * `tab
`: Which tab to download - one of `new
`, `top
`, `videos
`, `podcasts
`, `streams
`, `stacks
`
1813 NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
1815 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1820 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
1822 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
`.
1824 See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example plugins.
1826 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
1828 If you are a plugin author, add [ytdlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/ytdlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability
1834 yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1836 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.
1838 From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1841 from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
1843 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1844 with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1848 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).
1850 **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)
1852 ## Embedding examples
1854 #### Extracting information
1860 URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1862 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
1864 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1865 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
1867 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
1868 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1870 #### Download using an info-json
1875 INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
1877 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1878 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
1880 print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
1881 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
1889 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1892 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
1893 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
1894 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
1895 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
1896 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
1900 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1901 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1909 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1911 def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
1912 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
1913 duration = info.get('duration')
1914 if duration and duration < 60:
1915 return 'The video is too short'
1918 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
1921 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1922 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1925 #### Adding logger and progress hook
1930 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1933 def debug(self, msg):
1934 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
1935 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
1936 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
1941 def info(self, msg):
1944 def warning(self, msg):
1947 def error(self, msg):
1951 # ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
1953 if d['status'] == 'finished':
1954 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
1958 'logger': MyLogger(),
1959 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
1962 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1966 #### Add a custom PostProcessor
1971 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1973 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
1974 class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
1975 def run(self, info):
1976 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
1980 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1981 # ℹ️ "when" can take any value in yt_dlp.utils.POSTPROCESS_WHEN
1982 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP(), when='pre_process')
1987 #### Use a custom format selector
1992 URL = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1994 def format_selector(ctx):
1995 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
1996 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
1998 # formats are already sorted worst to best
1999 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
2001 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
2002 best_video = next(f for f in formats
2003 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
2005 # find compatible audio extension
2006 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
2007 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
2008 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
2009 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
2011 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
2013 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
2014 'ext': best_video['ext'],
2015 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
2016 # Must be + separated list of protocols
2017 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
2022 'format': format_selector,
2025 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2029 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
2031 # DEPRECATED OPTIONS
2033 These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
2035 #### Almost redundant options
2036 While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
2038 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
2039 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
2040 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
2041 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
2043 #### Redundant options
2044 While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
2046 --get-description --print description
2047 --get-duration --print duration_string
2048 --get-filename --print filename
2049 --get-format --print format
2051 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
2052 -e, --get-title --print title
2053 -g, --get-url --print urls
2054 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
2055 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2056 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2057 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
2058 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2059 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
2060 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2061 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2062 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2063 --no-playlist-reverse Default
2066 #### Not recommended
2067 While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2069 --force-generic-extractor --ies generic,default
2070 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2071 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
2072 --all-formats -f all
2073 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
2074 --print-json -j --no-simulate
2075 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting, e.g. %(autonumber)03d
2076 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
2077 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2078 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
2079 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2080 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
2081 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2082 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
2083 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2084 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2085 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2086 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
2089 #### Developer options
2090 These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2092 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
2093 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
2094 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
2095 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2096 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
2100 These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2102 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
2103 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
2104 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2105 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2106 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2107 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2108 --load-info --load-info-json
2109 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
2110 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
2111 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
2112 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2113 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
2114 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2115 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
2116 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
2117 --write-srt --write-subs
2118 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
2120 #### Sponskrub Options
2121 Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock
` options
2123 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2124 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2125 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2126 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2127 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2128 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2129 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2130 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2132 #### No longer supported
2133 These options may no longer work as intended
2135 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2136 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2137 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2138 --no-call-home Default
2139 --include-ads No longer supported
2140 --no-include-ads Default
2141 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2142 --no-write-annotations Default
2143 --compat-options seperate-video-versions No longer needed
2146 These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2148 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2149 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2152 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)
2155 For FAQ see the [youtube-dl README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)
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