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 * Based on **youtube-dl
2021.12.17 [commit/6508688](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/6508688e88c83bb811653083db9351702cd39a6a)** (
[exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21)) and **youtube-dlc
2020.11.11-
3 [commit/f9401f2](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/f9401f2a91987068139c5f757b12fc711d4c0cee)**: You get all the features and patches of
[youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) in addition to the latest
[youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl)
76 * **
[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
78 * **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using
`-S`. This allows for much easier format selection than what is possible by simply using
`--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
80 * **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from
[animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including
`--write-comments`,
`BiliBiliSearch`,
`BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that the NicoNico livestreams are not available. See
[#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
82 * **Youtube improvements**:
83 * All Feeds (
`:ytfav`,
`:ytwatchlater`,
`:ytsubs`,
`:ythistory`,
`:ytrec`,
`:ytnotif`) and private playlists supports downloading multiple pages of content
84 * Search (
`ytsearch:`,
`ytsearchdate:`), search URLs and in-channel search works
85 * Mixes supports downloading multiple pages of content
86 * Some (but not all) age-gated content can be downloaded without cookies
87 * Fix for
[n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326)
88 * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to
`/video` to preserve the old behaviour
89 * `255kbps` audio is extracted (if available) from youtube music when premium cookies are given
90 * Youtube music Albums, channels etc can be downloaded (
[except self-uploaded music](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/723))
91 * Download livestreams from the start using
`--live-from-start` (experimental)
92 * Support for downloading stories (
`ytstories:<channel UCID>`)
94 * **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using
`--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE]`
96 * **Download time range**: Videos can be downloaded partially based on either timestamps or chapters using
`--download-sections`
98 * **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using
`--split-chapters`
100 * **Multi-threaded fragment downloads**: Download multiple fragments of m3u8/mpd videos in parallel. Use
`--concurrent-fragments` (
`-N`) option to set the number of threads used
102 * **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use
`aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
104 * **New and fixed extractors**: Many new extractors have been added and a lot of existing ones have been fixed. See the [changelog](Changelog.md) or the [list of supported sites](supportedsites.md)
106 * **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN etc.
108 * **Subtitle extraction from manifests**: Subtitles can be extracted from streaming media manifests. See
[commit/be6202f](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/be6202f12b97858b9d716e608394b51065d0419f) for details
110 * **Multiple paths and output templates**: You can give different [output templates](#output-template) and download paths for different types of files. You can also set a temporary path where intermediary files are downloaded to using
`--paths` (
`-P`)
112 * **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
114 * **Output template improvements**: Output templates can now have date-time formatting, numeric offsets, object traversal etc. See [output template](#output-template) for details. Even more advanced operations can also be done with the help of
`--parse-metadata` and
`--replace-in-metadata`
116 * **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as
`--alias`,
`--print`,
`--concat-playlist`,
`--wait-for-video`,
`--retry-sleep`,
`--sleep-requests`,
`--convert-thumbnails`,
`--force-download-archive`,
`--force-overwrites`,
`--break-on-reject` etc
118 * **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in
`--format`/
`--match-filter`, multiple
`--postprocessor-args` and
`--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection), merge multi-video/audio, multiple
`--config-locations`,
`--exec` at different stages, etc
120 * **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
122 * **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using
`yt-dlp -U`
124 See
[changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
126 ### Differences in default behavior
128 Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
130 * The options
`--auto-number` (
`-A`),
`--title` (
`-t`) and
`--literal` (
`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
131 * `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to
`ffmpeg`
132 * yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [configuration](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
133 * 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`
134 * 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
135 * 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
136 * 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
137 * `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use
`--abort-on-error` or
`--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
138 * 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
139 * `--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
140 * 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
141 * `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
142 * The output of
`-F` is listed in a new format. Use
`--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
143 * All *experiences* of a funimation episode are considered as a single video. This behavior breaks existing archives. Use
`--compat-options seperate-video-versions` to extract information from only the default player
144 * Youtube live chat (if available) is considered as a subtitle. Use
`--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use
`--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent live chat from downloading
145 * 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
146 * Unavailable videos are also listed for youtube playlists. Use
`--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
147 * 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
148 * Thumbnail embedding in
`mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use
`--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
149 * 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
150 * 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
151 * `certifi` will be used for SSL root certificates, if installed. If you want to use only system certificates, use
`--compat-options no-certifi`
152 * youtube-dl tries to remove some superfluous punctuations from filenames. While this can sometimes be helpfull, it is often undesirable. So yt-dlp tries to keep the fields in the filenames as close to their original values as possible. You can use
`--compat-options filename-sanitization` to revert to youtube-dl's behavior
154 For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
156 * `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
157 * `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as
`--compat-options all,-multistreams`
158 * `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as
`--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
163 You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
165 ### Using the release binary
167 You can simply download the [correct binary file](#release-files) for your OS
169 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
170 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)
171 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
172 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)
173 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
174 [](#release-files)
175 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
176 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
178 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)
180 <!-- TODO: Move to Wiki -->
181 In UNIX-like OSes (MacOS, Linux, BSD), you can also install the same in one of the following ways:
184 sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
185 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
189 sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
190 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
194 sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp --dir /usr/local/bin -o yt-dlp
195 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
199 ### With [PIP](https://pypi.org/project/pip)
201 You can install the
[PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) with:
203 python3 -m pip install -U yt-dlp
206 You can install without any of the optional dependencies using:
208 python3 -m pip install --no-deps -U yt-dlp
211 If you want to be on the cutting edge, you can also install the master branch with:
213 python3 -m pip install --force-reinstall https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/archive/master.tar.gz
216 On some systems, you may need to use
`py` or
`python` instead of
`python3`
218 <!-- TODO: Add to Wiki, Remove Taps -->
219 ### With [Homebrew](https://brew.sh)
221 macOS or Linux users that are using Homebrew can also install it by:
224 brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp
228 You can use
`yt-dlp -U` to update if you are [using the provided release](#using-the-release-binary)
230 If you [installed with pip](#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
232 If you [installed using Homebrew](#with-homebrew), run
`brew upgrade yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp`
234 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
241 [yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independant
[zipimport](https://docs.python.org/3/library/zipimport.html) binary. Needs Python (recommended for **Linux/BSD**)
242 [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**)
243 [yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|MacOS (
10.15+) standalone executable (recommended for **MacOS**)
249 [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
250 [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))
251 [yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
252 [yt-dlp_macos.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos.zip)|Unpackaged MacOS (
10.15+) executable (no auto-update)
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
3.6+ (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 will be used as a fallback. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
303 * [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or
[**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading
`rstp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. 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 Windows and MacOS 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 Windows/MacOS executable, you must have Python and
`pyinstaller` (plus any of yt-dlp's [optional dependencies](#dependencies) if needed). Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, simply run
`pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (
32/
64 bit) as the Python used.
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 dependencies 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`** - Update the version number based on current timestamp
347 * **
`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.
349 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
353 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
354 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
356 `Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
357 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
359 <!-- Auto generated -->
361 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
362 --version Print program version and exit
363 -U, --update Update this program to latest version
364 --no-update Do not update (default)
365 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
366 The download will be considered successful
367 even if the postprocessing fails
368 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
369 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
371 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
372 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
373 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
374 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
375 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
377 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic extractor
378 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. Eg:
379 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
380 google videos for the search term "python".
381 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
382 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
383 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
384 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
385 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
386 possible instead of searching
387 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
388 except those given by --config-locations.
389 For backward compatibility, if this option
390 is found inside the system configuration
391 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
393 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
394 (default). When given inside a configuration
395 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
396 defined in the current file
397 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
398 either the path to the config or its
399 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
400 used multiple times and inside other
402 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
404 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
405 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
406 Currently only supported for YouTube
408 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
410 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
411 available. Pass the minimum number of
412 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
413 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
414 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
415 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
416 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output
417 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
418 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
419 configurations by reverting some of the
420 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
421 default behavior" for details
422 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
423 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
424 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
425 according to the Python string formatting
426 mini-language. Eg: --alias get-audio,-X
427 "-S=aext:{
0},abr -x --audio-format {
0}"
428 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
429 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
430 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
431 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
432 output. Alias options can trigger more
433 aliases; so be carefull to avoid defining
434 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
435 alias may be triggered a maximum of
100
436 times. This option can be used multiple times
439 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
440 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme.
441 Eg: socks5://user:pass@
127.0.0.1:
1080/. Pass
442 in an empty string (--proxy "") for direct
444 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
445 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
446 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
447 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
450 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
451 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
452 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
453 is not present) is used for the actual
455 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
456 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header (default)
457 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
458 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
459 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
460 explicitly provided two-letter ISO
3166-
2
462 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
463 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR notation
466 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma seperated playlist_index of the videos
467 to download. You can specify a range using
468 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
469 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
470 Use negative indices to count from the right
471 and negative STEP to download in reverse
472 order. Eg: "-I
1:
3,
7,-
5::
2" used on a
473 playlist of size
15 will download the videos
474 at index
1,
2,
3,
7,
11,
13,
15
475 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE
477 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
479 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
480 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
481 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
482 Eg: --date today-
2weeks
483 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
484 this date. The date formats accepted is the
486 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
487 this date. The date formats accepted is the
489 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
490 field can be compared with a number or a
491 string using the operators defined in
492 "Filtering formats". You can also simply
493 specify a field to match if the field is
494 present, use "!field" to check if the field
495 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
496 conditions. Use a "
\" to escape "&" or
497 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
498 the filter matches if atleast one of the
499 conditions are met. Eg: --match-filter
500 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?
100 &
501 description~='(?i)
\bcats \& dogs
\b'" matches
502 only videos that are not live OR those that
503 have a like count more than
100 (or the like
504 field is not available) and also has a
505 description that contains the phrase "cats &
506 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
507 interactively ask whether to download each
509 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
510 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
511 to a video and a playlist
512 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
513 a video and a playlist
514 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
516 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
517 archive file. Record the IDs of all
518 downloaded videos in it
519 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
520 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
521 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
522 a file that is in the archive
523 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
524 a file that has been filtered out
525 --break-per-input Make --break-on-existing, --break-on-reject
526 and --max-downloads act only on the current
528 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
529 terminates the entire download queue
530 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
531 the playlist is skipped
534 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
535 video that should be downloaded concurrently
537 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
539 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
540 below which throttling is assumed and the
541 video data is re-extracted (e.g.
100K)
542 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is
10), or
544 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
545 error (default is
3), or "infinite"
546 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
547 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
548 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR An expression for the time to sleep between
549 retries in seconds (optionally) prefixed by
550 the type of retry (file_access, fragment,
551 http (default)) to apply the sleep to. EXPR
552 can be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=
1]]
553 or exp=START[:END[:BASE=
2]]. This option can
554 be used multiple times to set the sleep for
555 the different retry types. Eg: --retry-sleep
556 linear=
1::
2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=
1:
20
557 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
558 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
559 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
560 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment
561 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
562 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
563 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
564 downloading is finished
565 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
566 downloading is finished (default)
567 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g.
1024 or
16K)
569 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
570 from an initial value of --buffer-size
572 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
573 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
574 downloading (e.g.
10485760 or
10M) (default
575 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
576 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
578 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
579 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
580 received. This disables n_entries,
581 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
582 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
583 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
584 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
586 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
587 allowing some players to play the video
588 while downloading, and reducing the chance
589 of file corruption if download is
590 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
592 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
593 videos. This is default when not downloading
595 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters whose title matches
596 the given regular expression. Time ranges
597 prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place
598 of chapters to download the specified range.
599 Eg: --download-sections "*
10:
15-
15:
00"
600 --download-sections "intro". Needs ffmpeg.
601 This option can be used multiple times to
602 download multiple sections
603 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
604 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
605 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
606 use it for. Currently supports native,
607 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
608 wget. You can use this option multiple times
609 to set different downloaders for different
610 protocols. For example, --downloader aria2c
611 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
612 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
613 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
614 (Alias: --external-downloader)
615 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
616 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
617 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
618 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
619 positions using the same syntax as
620 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
621 option multiple times to give different
622 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
623 --external-downloader-args)
625 ## Filesystem Options:
626 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
627 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
628 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
630 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
631 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
632 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
633 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
634 TYPES as --output are supported.
635 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
636 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
637 files are first downloaded to the temp path
638 and then the final files are moved over to
639 the home path after download is finished.
640 This option is ignored if --output is an
642 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
643 TEMPLATE" for details
644 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
645 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" (default: "NA")
646 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
647 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
648 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
650 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
651 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
652 using Windows (default)
653 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
654 extension) to the specified number of
656 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
657 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
658 option includes --no-continue
659 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
660 related files (default)
661 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
663 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
664 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
665 restart download of the entire file
666 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
667 into output file (default)
668 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
670 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
671 modification time (default)
672 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
673 the file modification time
674 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
675 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
676 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
677 (this may contain personal information)
678 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
679 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
680 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
681 --write-description etc. (default)
682 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
683 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
684 --clean-info-json Remove some private fields such as filenames
685 from the infojson. Note that it could still
686 contain some personal information (default)
687 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
688 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
689 infojson. The comments are fetched even
690 without this option if the extraction is
691 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
692 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
693 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
695 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
696 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
697 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
698 and dump cookie jar in
699 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
701 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE]
702 The name of the browser and (optionally) the
703 name/path of the profile to load cookies
704 from, separated by a ":". Currently
705 supported browsers are: brave, chrome,
706 chromium, edge, firefox, opera, safari,
707 vivaldi. By default, the most recently
708 accessed profile is used. The keyring used
709 for decrypting Chromium cookies on Linux can
710 be (optionally) specified after the browser
711 name separated by a "+". Currently supported
712 keyrings are: basictext, gnomekeyring, kwallet
713 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
714 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
715 can store some downloaded information (such
716 as client ids and signatures) permanently.
717 By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/yt-dlp or
719 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
720 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
722 ## Thumbnail Options:
723 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
724 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
725 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
726 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
727 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
729 ## Internet Shortcut Options:
730 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
731 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
732 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
733 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
734 OS caches the URL based on the file path
735 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
736 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
738 ## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
739 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
740 print the log to stderr
741 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
742 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
744 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
746 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
747 extracting metadata even if the videos are
748 not actually available for download
750 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
751 formats are found (default)
752 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
753 related files (Alias: --no-download)
754 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
755 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
756 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
757 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
758 --use-postprocessor, and "video" (default).
759 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
760 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
761 used. This option can be used multiple times
762 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
763 Append given template to the file. The
764 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
765 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
766 output template. This option can be used
768 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
769 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
770 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
771 description of available keys
772 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
773 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
774 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
775 a playlist, the whole playlist information
776 is dumped in a single line
777 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
778 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
779 another simulation option is used (Alias:
780 --force-download-archive)
781 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
782 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
783 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
784 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
785 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
786 Template for progress outputs, optionally
787 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
788 "download-title:" (the console title),
789 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
790 The video's fields are accessible under the
791 "info" key and the progress attributes are
792 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.:
793 --console-title --progress-template
794 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
795 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
796 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
797 to debug problems (very verbose)
798 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
799 in the current directory to debug problems
800 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
803 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
804 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
805 that do not support RFC
5746 secure
807 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
808 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
809 information about the video (Currently
810 supported only for YouTube)
811 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
812 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
813 option multiple times
814 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
815 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
816 or fribidi executable in PATH
817 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
818 during data extraction
819 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
820 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
821 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
822 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
823 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
824 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
825 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
828 ## Video Format Options:
829 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
831 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
832 "Sorting Formats" for more details
833 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
834 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
835 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
836 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
837 specified sort order (default)
838 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
840 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
841 output file (default)
842 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
844 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
845 output file (default)
846 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
847 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
848 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
849 irrespective of quality
850 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
852 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
853 those that are actually downloadable
854 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
855 actually downloadable
856 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
858 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
859 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
860 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
861 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
862 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
863 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
866 --write-subs Write subtitle file
867 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
868 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
869 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
870 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
871 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
872 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
873 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
874 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
875 Eg: "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
876 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
877 be regex) or "all" separated by commas. (Eg:
878 --sub-langs "en.*,ja") You can prefix the
879 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
880 the requested languages. (Eg: --sub-langs
881 all,-live_chat) Use --list-subs for a list
882 of available language tags
884 ## Authentication Options:
885 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
886 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
887 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
888 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
889 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
890 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
891 either the path or its containing directory.
893 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
894 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
895 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
896 a list of available MSOs
897 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
898 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
899 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
901 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
902 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
903 format. May include the private key
904 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
905 Path to private key file for client
907 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
908 Password for client certificate private key,
909 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
910 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
912 ## Post-Processing Options:
913 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
914 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
915 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
916 used. (currently supported: best (default),
917 mp3, aac, m4a, opus, vorbis, flac, alac,
918 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
919 similar syntax as --remux-video
920 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
921 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
922 between
0 (best) and
10 (worst) for VBR or a
923 specific bitrate like
128K (default
5)
924 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
925 necessary (currently supported: mp4, mkv,
926 flv, webm, mov, avi, mka, ogg, mp3, aac,
927 m4a, opus, vorbis, flac, alac, wav). If
928 target container does not support the
929 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
930 can specify multiple rules; Eg.
931 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
932 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
933 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
934 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
935 are the same as --remux-video
936 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
937 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
938 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
939 to give the argument to the specified
940 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
941 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
942 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
943 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
944 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
945 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
946 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
947 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
948 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
949 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
950 specified executable only when being used by
951 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
952 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
953 appended to the prefix optionally followed
954 by a number to pass the argument before the
955 specified input/output file. Eg: --ppa
956 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
957 this option multiple times to give different
958 arguments to different postprocessors.
960 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
961 after post-processing
962 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
963 post-processing (default)
964 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
965 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
966 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
968 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
969 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
970 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
971 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
972 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
973 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
974 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
975 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
976 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
977 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
978 (Alias: --add-chapters)
979 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
981 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
983 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
985 --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
986 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
988 --replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
989 Replace text in a metadata field using the
990 given regex. This option can be used
992 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
993 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
994 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
995 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
996 (default; only when the videos form a single
997 show). All the video files must have same
998 codecs and number of streams to be
999 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
1000 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1001 the output filename for the concatenated
1002 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1003 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
1004 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
1005 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
1006 default; fix file if we can, warn
1007 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
1009 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
1010 path to the binary or its containing directory
1011 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
1012 when to execute it (after_move if
1013 unspecified), separated by a ":". Supported
1014 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
1015 --use-postprocessor. Same syntax as the
1016 output template can be used to pass any
1017 field as arguments to the command. After
1018 download, an additional field "filepath"
1019 that contains the final path of the
1020 downloaded file is also available, and if no
1021 fields are passed, %(filepath)q is appended
1022 to the end of the command. This option can
1023 be used multiple times
1024 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
1025 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
1026 (currently supported: srt, vtt, ass, lrc)
1027 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
1028 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
1029 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
1030 can specify multiple rules using similar
1031 syntax as --remux-video
1032 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
1033 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
1034 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1035 the output filename for the split files. See
1036 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1037 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
1038 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
1039 given regular expression. The syntax is the
1040 same as --download-sections. This option can
1041 be used multiple times
1042 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1044 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
1045 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
1046 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1047 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1049 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1050 when cutting/splitting (default)
1051 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1052 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1053 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1054 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1055 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1056 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1057 The "when" argument determines when the
1058 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1059 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1060 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
1061 "before_dl" (before each video download),
1062 "post_process" (after each video download;
1063 default), "after_move" (after moving video
1064 file to it's final locations), "after_video"
1065 (after downloading and processing all
1066 formats of a video), or "playlist" (at end
1067 of playlist). This option can be used
1068 multiple times to add different postprocessors
1070 ## SponsorBlock Options:
1071 Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1072 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
1073 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1075 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1076 for, separated by commas. Available
1077 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1078 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
1079 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, all and
1080 default (=all). You can prefix the category
1081 with a "-" to exclude it. See [
1] for
1082 description of the categories. Eg:
1083 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1084 [
1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1085 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1086 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1087 category is present in both mark and remove,
1088 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1089 available categories are the same as for
1090 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
1091 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight is
1093 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
1094 An output template for the title of the
1095 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1096 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1097 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1098 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1099 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1100 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1101 --sponsorblock-remove
1102 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1103 https://sponsor.ajay.app
1105 ## Extractor Options:
1106 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1107 (default is
3), or "infinite"
1108 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1109 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1110 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1111 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1112 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1113 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1114 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1115 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1117 --extractor-args KEY:ARGS Pass these arguments to the extractor. See
1118 "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You can
1119 use this option multiple times to give
1120 arguments for different extractors
1124 You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
1126 1. **Main Configuration**: The file given by
`--config-location`
1127 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.
1128 1. **Home Configuration**:
`yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by
`-P`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
1129 1. **User Configuration**:
1130 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1131 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
1132 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1133 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1135 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
1137 `%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%`
1139 1. **System Configuration**:
`/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
1141 For example, with the following configuration file yt-dlp will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under
`YouTube` directory in your home directory:
1143 # Lines starting with # are comments
1145 # Always extract audio
1148 # Do not copy the mtime
1152 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1154 # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1155 -o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
1158 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`.
1160 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.
1162 ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
1164 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:
1167 chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
1169 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1171 machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
1175 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1176 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1178 To activate authentication with the
`.netrc` file you should pass
`--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
1180 The default location of the .netrc file is
`$HOME` (
`~`) in UNIX. On Windows, it is
`%HOME%` if present,
`%USERPROFILE%` (generally
`C:\Users\<user name>`) or
`%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
1184 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.
1186 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1187 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
1188 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1190 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).
1192 It may however also contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according to
[Python string formatting operations](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting). For example,
`%(NAME)s` or
`%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.
1194 The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
1196 1. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a
`.` (dot) separator. You can also do python slicing using
`:`. Eg:
`%(tags.0)s`,
`%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s`,
`%(id.3:7:-1)s`,
`%(formats.:.format_id)s`.
`%()s` refers to the entire infodict. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use
`-j` to see such fields
1198 1. **Addition**: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using
`+` and
`-` respectively. Eg:
`%(playlist_index+10)03d`,
`%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
1200 1. **Date/time Formatting**: Date/time fields can be formatted according to
[strftime formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes) by specifying it separated from the field name using a
`>`. Eg:
`%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`,
`%(upload_date>%Y-%m-%d)s`,
`%(epoch-3600>%H-%M-%S)s`
1202 1. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a
`,`. Eg:
`%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
1204 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.
1206 1. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a
`|` separator. This overrides
`--output-na-template`. Eg:
`%(uploader|Unknown)s`
1208 1. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types
`diouxXeEfFgGcrs`,
`B`,
`j`,
`l`,
`q`,
`D`,
`S` can be used for converting to **B**ytes, **j**son (flag
`#` for pretty-printing), a comma separated **l**ist (flag
`#` for
`\n` newline-separated), a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag
`#` to split a list into different arguments), to add **D**ecimal suffixes (Eg:
10M) (flag
`#` to use
1024 as factor), and to **S**anitize as filename (flag
`#` for restricted), respectively
1210 1. **Unicode normalization**: The format type
`U` can be used for NFC
[unicode normalization](https://docs.python.org/3/library/unicodedata.html#unicodedata.normalize). The alternate form flag (
`#`) changes the normalization to NFD and the conversion flag
`+` can be used for NFKC/NFKD compatibility equivalence normalization. Eg:
`%(title)+.100U` is NFKC
1212 To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1214 %(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
1217 Additionally, you can set different output templates for the various metadata files separately from the general output template by specifying the type of file followed by the template separated by a colon
`:`. The different file types supported are
`subtitle`,
`thumbnail`,
`description`,
`annotation` (deprecated),
`infojson`,
`link`,
`pl_thumbnail`,
`pl_description`,
`pl_infojson`,
`chapter`,
`pl_video`. For example,
`-o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s"` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video. If any of the templates is empty, that type of file will not be written. Eg:
`--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for video.
1219 The available fields are:
1221 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1222 - `title` (string): Video title
1223 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
1224 - `url` (string): Video URL
1225 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1226 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
1227 - `description` (string): The description of the video
1228 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1229 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1230 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1231 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
1232 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
1233 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
1234 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
1235 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
1236 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
1237 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
1238 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1239 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1240 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
1241 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
1242 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1243 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
1244 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
1245 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1246 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1247 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1248 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1249 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
1250 - `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)
1251 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
1252 - `live_status` (string): One of "is_live", "was_live", "is_upcoming", "not_live"
1253 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
1254 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
1255 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
1256 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
1257 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1258 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
1259 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
1260 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by
`--format`
1261 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
1262 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
1263 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
1264 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
1265 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1266 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1267 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
1268 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1269 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1270 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
1271 - `dynamic_range` (string): The dynamic range of the video
1272 - `stretched_ratio` (float):
`width:height` of the video's pixels, if not square
1273 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
1274 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
1275 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
1276 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
1277 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
1278 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1279 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
1280 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
1281 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at
`--autonumber-start`
1282 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
1283 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
1284 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1285 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1286 - `playlist` (string):
`playlist_id` or
`playlist_title`
1287 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
1288 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1289 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
1290 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1291 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
1292 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
1293 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1294 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
1295 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as
`webpage_url` for playlist entries)
1297 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1299 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1300 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1301 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1303 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1305 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1306 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1307 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1308 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1309 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1310 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1311 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1313 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1315 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1316 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1317 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1318 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1319 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1320 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1321 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1322 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1323 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1324 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1326 Available only when using
`--download-sections` and for
`chapter:` prefix when using
`--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
1328 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1329 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1330 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1331 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1333 Available only when used in
`--print`:
1335 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1336 - `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
1337 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by
`--list-formats`
1338 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by
`--list-thumbnails`
1339 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by
`--list-subs`
1340 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by
`--list-subs`
1343 Available only in
`--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1345 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1346 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1347 - `categories` (list): The SponsorBlock categories the chapter belongs to
1348 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1349 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1350 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1352 Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. For example for
`-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title
`yt-dlp test video` and id
`BaW_jenozKc`, this will result in a
`yt-dlp test video-BaW_jenozKc.mp4` file created in the current directory.
1354 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).
1356 **Tip**: Look at the
`-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
1358 For numeric sequences you can use
[numeric related formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting), for example,
`%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to
5 characters, like in
`00042`.
1360 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.
1362 To use percent literals in an output template use
`%%`. To output to stdout use
`-o -`.
1364 The current default template is
`%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
1366 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.
1368 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1369 #### Output template and Windows batch files
1371 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"`.
1372 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1374 #### Output template examples
1377 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1378 test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1380 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1381 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
1383 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
1384 youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
1386 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
1387 $ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1389 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
1390 $ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1392 # Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
1393 $ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist_index|)s%(playlist_index& - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1395 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
1396 $ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1398 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
1399 $ 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"
1401 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
1402 $ 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"
1404 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1405 # and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1406 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1408 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1409 $ 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
1411 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
1412 $ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
1417 By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1418 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`.
1420 **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.
1422 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.
1424 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1425 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1426 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1428 The simplest case is requesting a specific format, for example with
`-f 22` you can download the format with format code equal to
22. You can get the list of available format codes for particular video using
`--list-formats` or
`-F`. Note that these format codes are extractor specific.
1430 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.
1432 You can use
`-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1434 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1436 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1437 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with
`--audio-multistreams`,
`--video-multistreams` or both)
1438 - `b*`,
`best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio
1439 - `b`,
`best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1440 - `bv`,
`bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec=none]`
1441 - `bv*`,
`bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none]`
1442 - `ba`,
`bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec=none]`
1443 - `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))
1444 - `w*
`, `worst*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
1445 - `w
`, `worst
`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]
`
1446 - `wv
`, `worstvideo
`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]
`
1447 - `wv*
`, `worstvideo*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]
`
1448 - `wa
`, `worstaudio
`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]
`
1449 - `wa*
`, `worstaudio*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]
`
1451 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.
1453 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.
1455 If you want to download multiple videos and they don't have the same formats available, you can specify the order of preference using slashes. Note that formats on the left hand side are preferred, for example `-f
22/
17/
18` will download format 22 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 17 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 18 if it's available, otherwise it will complain that no suitable formats are available for download.
1457 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
`.
1459 You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using `-f <format1>+<format2>+...
` (requires ffmpeg installed), for example `-f bestvideo+bestaudio
` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg.
1461 **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
1463 Unless `--video-multistreams
` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, unless `--audio-multistreams
` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. For example, `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --video-multistreams --audio-multistreams
` will download and merge all 3 given formats. The resulting file will have 2 video streams and 2 audio streams. But `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --no-video-multistreams
` will download and merge only `bestvideo
` and `bestaudio
`. `best
` is ignored since another format containing a video stream (`bestvideo
`) has already been selected. The order of the formats is therefore important. `-f best+bestaudio --no-audio-multistreams
` will download and merge both formats while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams
` will ignore `best
` and download only `bestaudio
`.
1465 ## Filtering Formats
1467 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=
720]"
` (or `-f "[filesize>
10M]"
`).
1469 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<
`, `<=
`, `>
`, `>=
`, `=
` (equals), `!=
` (not equals):
1471 - `filesize
`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1472 - `width
`: Width of the video, if known
1473 - `height
`: Height of the video, if known
1474 - `tbr
`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1475 - `abr
`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1476 - `vbr
`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1477 - `asr
`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1480 Also filtering work for comparisons `=
` (equals), `^=
` (starts with), `$=
` (ends with), `*=
` (contains), `~=
` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
1482 - `ext
`: File extension
1483 - `acodec
`: Name of the audio codec in use
1484 - `vcodec
`: Name of the video codec in use
1485 - `container
`: Name of the container format
1486 - `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
`)
1487 - `format_id
`: A short description of the format
1488 - `language
`: Language code
1490 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 `._-
`.
1492 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.
1494 Formats for which the value is not known are excluded unless you put a question mark (`?
`) after the operator. You can combine format filters, so `-f "[height<=?
720][tbr>
500]"
` selects up to 720p videos (or videos where the height is not known) with a bitrate of at least 500 KBit/s. You can also use the filters with `all
` to download all formats that satisfy the filter. For example, `-f "all[vcodec=none]"
` selects all audio-only formats.
1496 Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if you want to download the best pre-merged mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480 you can use `-f "(mp4,webm)[height<
480]"
`.
1500 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...
`.
1502 The available fields are:
1504 - `hasvid
`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1505 - `hasaud
`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
1506 - `ie_pref
`: The format preference
1507 - `lang
`: The language preference
1508 - `quality
`: The quality of the format
1509 - `source
`: The preference of the source
1510 - `proto
`: Protocol used for download (`https
`/`ftps
` > `http
`/`ftp
` > `m3u8_native
`/`m3u8
` > `http_dash_segments
`> `websocket_frag
` > `mms
`/`rtsp
` > `f4f
`/`f4m
`)
1511 - `vcodec
`: Video Codec (`av01
` > `vp9.2
` > `vp9
` > `h265
` > `h264
` > `vp8
` > `h263
` > `theora
` > other)
1512 - `acodec
`: Audio Codec (`flac
`/`alac
` > `wav
`/`aiff
` > `opus
` > `vorbis
` > `aac
` > `mp4a
` > `mp3
` > `eac3
` > `ac3
` > `dts
` > other)
1513 - `codec
`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec
`
1514 - `vext
`: Video Extension (`mp4
` > `webm
` > `flv
` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats
` is used, `webm
` is preferred.
1515 - `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
`.
1516 - `ext
`: Equivalent to `vext,aext
`
1517 - `filesize
`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
1518 - `fs_approx
`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1519 - `size
`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
1520 - `height
`: Height of video
1521 - `width
`: Width of video
1522 - `res
`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1523 - `fps
`: Framerate of video
1524 - `hdr
`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV
` > `HDR12
` > `HDR10+
` > `HDR10
` > `HLG
` > `SDR
`)
1525 - `tbr
`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1526 - `vbr
`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1527 - `abr
`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1528 - `br
`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr
`
1529 - `asr
`: Audio sample rate in Hz
1531 **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.
1533 All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in descending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+
`. Eg: `+res
` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a preferred value for the fields, separated by a `:
`. Eg: `res:
720` prefers larger videos, but no larger than 720p and the smallest video if there are no videos less than 720p. For `codec
` and `ext
`, you can provide two preferred values, the first for video and the second for audio. Eg: `+codec:avc:m4a
` (equivalent to `+vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a
`) sets the video codec preference to `h264
` > `h265
` > `vp9
` > `vp9.2
` > `av01
` > `vp8
` > `h263
` > `theora
` and audio codec preference to `mp4a
` > `aac
` > `vorbis
` > `opus
` > `mp3
` > `ac3
` > `dts
`. You can also make the sorting prefer the nearest values to the provided by using `~
` as the delimiter. Eg: `filesize~
1G
` prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.
1535 The fields `hasvid
` and `ie_pref
` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using `--format-sort-force
`. Apart from these, the default order used is: `lang,quality,res,fps,hdr:
12,codec:vp9.2,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id
`. The extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
1537 Note that the default has `codec:vp9.2
`; i.e. `av1
` is not preferred. Similarly, the default for hdr is `hdr:
12`; i.e. dolby vision is not preferred. These choices are made since DV and AV1 formats are not yet fully compatible with most devices. This may be changed in the future as more devices become capable of smoothly playing back these formats.
1539 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
`.
1541 **Tip**: You can use the `-v -F
` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1543 ## Format Selection examples
1546 # Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
1547 # or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
1548 $ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
1550 # Download best format that contains video,
1551 # and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
1552 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
1557 # Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1558 # For this case, an output template should be used since
1559 # by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
1560 $ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
1562 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1563 # and all audio-only formats into one file
1564 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
1566 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1567 # and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1568 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
1571 # The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
1572 # and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
1574 # Download the worst video available (old method)
1575 $ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
1577 # Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
1580 # Download the smallest video available
1581 $ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
1585 # Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
1586 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
1588 # Download the best video with the best extension
1589 # (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
1594 # Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1595 # or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
1596 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
1598 # Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1599 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1600 $ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
1602 # Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1603 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1604 # Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1605 # So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
1606 $ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
1610 # Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1611 # or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1612 $ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
1614 # Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1615 # or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1616 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
1618 # Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
1619 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
1623 # Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1624 # or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
1625 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
1627 # Download best video available via the best protocol
1628 # (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
1633 # Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1634 # or the best video if there is no such video
1635 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
1637 # Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1638 # or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
1639 $ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
1641 # Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1642 # or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
1643 $ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
1647 # More complex examples
1649 # Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1650 # or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
1651 $ yt-dlp -f "((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)"
1653 # Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
1654 # or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
1655 # preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
1656 $ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
1660 # Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1661 # or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
1662 # preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
1663 $ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
1666 # MODIFYING METADATA
1668 The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata
` and `--replace-in-metadata
`
1670 `--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.
1672 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.
1674 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
`.
1676 This option also has a few special uses:
1678 * You can download an additional URL based on the metadata of the currently downloaded video. To do this, set the field `additional_urls
` to the URL that you want to download. Eg: `--parse-metadata "description:(?P<additional_urls>https?://www\.vimeo\.com/\d+)
` will download the first vimeo video found in the description
1680 * You can use this to change the metadata that is embedded in the media file. To do this, set the value of the corresponding field with a `meta_
` prefix. For example, any value you set to `meta_description
` field will be added to the `description
` field in the file. For example, you can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis". To modify the metadata of individual streams, use the `meta<n>_
` prefix (Eg: `meta1_language
`). Any value set to the `meta_
` field will overwrite all default values.
1682 **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.
1684 For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1686 Metadata fields | From
1687 :--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1688 `title
` | `track
` or `title
`
1689 `date
` | `upload_date
`
1690 `description
`, `synopsis
` | `description
`
1691 `purl
`, `comment
` | `webpage_url
`
1692 `track
` | `track_number
`
1693 `artist
` | `artist
`, `creator
`, `uploader
` or `uploader_id
`
1696 `album_artist
` | `album_artist
`
1697 `disc
` | `disc_number
`
1699 `season_number
` | `season_number
`
1700 `episode_id
` | `episode
` or `episode_id
`
1701 `episode_sort
` | `episode_number
`
1702 `language
` of each stream | the format's `language
`
1704 **Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1707 ## Modifying metadata examples
1710 # Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
1711 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
1714 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
1716 # Set title as "Series name S01E05"
1717 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
1719 # Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
1720 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --add-metadata
1722 # Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1723 # handling multiple lines correctly
1724 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --add-metadata
1726 # Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
1727 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
1729 # Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
1730 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<formats>)" -j
1732 # Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
1733 $ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
1737 # EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1739 Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS
`. `ARGS
` is a `;
` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2
`. Eg: `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_embedded,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"
`
1741 The following extractors use this feature:
1744 * `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
1745 * `player_client
`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web
`, `android
` and `ios
` with variants `_music
`, `_embedded
`, `_embedscreen
`, `_creator
` (Eg: `web_embedded
`); and `mweb
` and `tv_embedded
` (agegate bypass) with no variants. By default, `android,web
` is used, but `tv_embedded
` and `creator
` variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com
` urls. You can use `all
` to use all the clients, and `default
` for the default clients.
1746 * `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
1747 * `include_live_dash
`: Include live dash formats even without `--live-from-start
` (These formats don't download properly)
1748 * `comment_sort
`: `top
` or `new
` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
1749 * `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
`
1750 * 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
1751 * `innertube_host
`: Innertube API host to use for all API requests
1752 * e.g. `studio.youtube.com
`, `youtubei.googleapis.com
`
1753 * Note: Cookies exported from `www.youtube.com
` will not work with hosts other than `*.youtube.com
`
1754 * `innertube_key
`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
1756 #### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1757 * `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)
1758 * `approximate_date
`: Extract approximate `upload_date
` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
1761 * `language
`: Languages to extract. Eg: `funimation:language=english,japanese
`
1762 * `version
`: The video version to extract - `uncut
` or `simulcast
`
1765 * `language
`: Languages to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:language=jaJp
`
1766 * `hardsub
`: Which hard-sub versions to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:hardsub=None,enUS
`
1768 #### crunchyrollbeta
1769 * `format
`: Which stream type(s) to extract. Default is `adaptive_hls
` Eg: `crunchyrollbeta:format=vo_adaptive_hls
`
1770 * Potentially useful values include `adaptive_hls
`, `adaptive_dash
`, `vo_adaptive_hls
`, `vo_adaptive_dash
`, `download_hls
`, `trailer_hls
`, `trailer_dash
`
1771 * `hardsub
`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract. Default is `None
` (no hardsubs). Eg: `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None
`
1774 * `video_types
`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes
`, `movies
`, `clips
`, `trailers
`
1777 * `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.**
1779 #### youtubewebarchive
1780 * `check_all
`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails
`, `captures
`
1783 * `comment_sort
`: `hot
` (default), `you
` (cookies needed), `top
`, `new
` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1786 * `res
`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd
`, `hd
`, `fhd
`
1787 * `vcodec
`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264
`, `h265
`, `dvh265
`
1788 * `dr
`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr
`, `hdr10
`, `dv
`
1791 * `app_version
`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version
`. (e.g. `20.2.1`)
1792 * `manifest_app_version
`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with. (e.g. `221`)
1795 * `tab
`: Which tab to download. One of `new
`, `top
`, `videos
`, `podcasts
`, `streams
`, `stacks
`. (E.g. `rokfinchannel:tab=streams
`)
1798 NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
1800 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1805 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
1807 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
`.
1809 See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example plugins.
1811 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
1813 If you are a plugin author, add [ytdlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/ytdlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability
1819 yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1821 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.
1823 From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1826 from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
1828 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1829 with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1833 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).
1835 **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)
1837 ## Embedding examples
1839 #### Extracting information
1845 URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1847 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
1849 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1850 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
1852 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
1853 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1855 #### Download using an info-json
1860 INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
1862 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1863 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
1865 print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
1866 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
1874 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1877 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
1878 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
1879 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
1880 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
1881 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
1885 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1886 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1894 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1896 def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
1897 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
1898 duration = info.get('duration')
1899 if duration and duration < 60:
1900 return 'The video is too short'
1903 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
1906 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1907 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1910 #### Adding logger and progress hook
1915 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1918 def debug(self, msg):
1919 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
1920 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
1921 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
1926 def info(self, msg):
1929 def warning(self, msg):
1932 def error(self, msg):
1936 # ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
1938 if d['status'] == 'finished':
1939 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
1943 'logger': MyLogger(),
1944 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
1947 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1951 #### Add a custom PostProcessor
1956 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1958 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
1959 class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
1960 def run(self, info):
1961 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
1965 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1966 # ℹ️ "when" can take any value in yt_dlp.utils.POSTPROCESS_WHEN
1967 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP(), when='pre_process')
1972 #### Use a custom format selector
1977 URL = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1979 def format_selector(ctx):
1980 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
1981 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
1983 # formats are already sorted worst to best
1984 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
1986 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
1987 best_video = next(f for f in formats
1988 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
1990 # find compatible audio extension
1991 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
1992 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
1993 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
1994 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
1996 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
1998 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
1999 'ext': best_video['ext'],
2000 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
2001 # Must be + separated list of protocols
2002 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
2007 'format': format_selector,
2010 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2014 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
2016 # DEPRECATED OPTIONS
2018 These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
2020 #### Almost redundant options
2021 While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
2023 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
2024 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
2025 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
2026 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
2028 #### Redundant options
2029 While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
2031 --get-description --print description
2032 --get-duration --print duration_string
2033 --get-filename --print filename
2034 --get-format --print format
2036 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
2037 -e, --get-title --print title
2038 -g, --get-url --print urls
2039 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
2040 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2041 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2042 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
2043 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2044 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
2045 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2046 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2047 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2048 --no-playlist-reverse Default
2051 #### Not recommended
2052 While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2054 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2055 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
2056 --all-formats -f all
2057 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
2058 --print-json -j --no-simulate
2059 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)03d
2060 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
2061 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2062 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
2063 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2064 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
2065 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2066 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
2067 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2068 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2069 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2070 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
2073 #### Developer options
2074 These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2076 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
2077 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
2078 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
2079 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2080 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
2084 These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2086 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
2087 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
2088 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2089 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2090 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2091 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2092 --load-info --load-info-json
2093 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
2094 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
2095 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
2096 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2097 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
2098 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2099 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
2100 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
2101 --write-srt --write-subs
2102 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
2104 #### Sponskrub Options
2105 Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock
` options
2107 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2108 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2109 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2110 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2111 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2112 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2113 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2114 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2116 #### No longer supported
2117 These options may no longer work as intended
2119 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2120 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2121 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2122 --no-call-home Default
2123 --include-ads No longer supported
2124 --no-include-ads Default
2125 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2126 --no-write-annotations Default
2129 These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2131 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2132 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2135 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)
2138 For FAQ see the [youtube-dl README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)
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