1 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
4 [](#readme)
6 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest)
7 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions)
8 [](LICENSE)
9 [](Collaborators.md#collaborators)
10 [](supportedsites.md)
11 []
(https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r)
12 []
(https://yt-dlp.readthedocs.io)
13 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits)
14 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits)
15 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest)
16 []
(https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
19 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
21 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
23 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "USAGE AND OPTIONS" SECTION HERE -->
25 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
26 * [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
27 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
28 * [INSTALLATION](#installation)
30 * [Release Files](#release-files)
31 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
33 * [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
34 * [General Options](#general-options)
35 * [Network Options](#network-options)
36 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
37 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
38 * [Download Options](#download-options)
39 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
40 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
41 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
42 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
43 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
44 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
45 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
46 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
47 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
48 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
49 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
50 * [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
51 * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
52 * [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
53 * [Output template and Windows batch files](#output-template-and-windows-batch-files)
54 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
55 * [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
56 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
57 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
58 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
59 * [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
60 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
61 * [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
63 * [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
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/5014bd6](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/5014bd67c22b421207b2650d4dc874b95b36dda1)** 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 improvements 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`) 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`
93 * **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using
`--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE]`
95 * **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using
`--split-chapters`
97 * **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
99 * **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use
`aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
101 * **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)
103 * **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN
105 * **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
107 * **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`)
109 * **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
111 * **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`
113 * **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as
`--print`,
`--wait-for-video`,
`--sleep-requests`,
`--convert-thumbnails`,
`--write-link`,
`--force-download-archive`,
`--force-overwrites`,
`--break-on-reject` etc
115 * **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in
`--match-filter`, multiple
`--postprocessor-args` and
`--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection), merge multi-video/audio, multiple
`--config-locations`, etc
117 * **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
119 * **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using
`yt-dlp -U`
121 See
[changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
123 ### Differences in default behavior
125 Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
127 * The options
`--auto-number` (
`-A`),
`--title` (
`-t`) and
`--literal` (
`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
128 * `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to
`ffmpeg`
129 * 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`
130 * 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
131 * 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
132 * 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
133 * `--ignore-errors` is enabled by default. Use
`--abort-on-error` or
`--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
134 * 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
135 * `--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
136 * 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
137 * `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
138 * The output of
`-F` is listed in a new format. Use
`--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
139 * 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
140 * 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
141 * 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. 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
142 * Unavailable videos are also listed for youtube playlists. Use
`--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
143 * 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
144 * Thumbnail embedding in
`mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use
`--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
145 * 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
146 * When
`--embed-subs` and
`--write-subs` are used together, the subtitles are written to disk and also embedded in the media file. You can use just
`--embed-subs` to embed the subs and automatically delete the separate file. See
[#630 (comment)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/630#issuecomment-893659460) for more info.
`--compat-options no-keep-subs` can be used to revert this
148 For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
149 * `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options
150 * `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as
`--compat-options all,-multistreams`
151 * `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as
`--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
156 You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
158 ### Using the release binary
160 You can simply download the
[correct binary file](#release-files) for your OS: **[[Windows](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)]
[[UNIX-like](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)]**
162 In UNIX-like OSes (MacOS, Linux, BSD), you can also install the same in one of the following ways:
165 sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
166 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
170 sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
171 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
175 sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp --dir /usr/local/bin -o yt-dlp
176 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
179 PS: The manpages, shell completion files etc. are available in
[yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
181 ### With [PIP](https://pypi.org/project/pip)
183 You can install the
[PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) with:
185 python3 -m pip install -U yt-dlp
188 You can install without any of the optional dependencies using:
190 python3 -m pip install --no-deps -U yt-dlp
193 If you want to be on the cutting edge, you can also install the master branch with:
195 python3 -m pip install --force-reinstall https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/archive/master.zip
198 Note that on some systems, you may need to use
`py` or
`python` instead of
`python3`
200 ### With [Homebrew](https://brew.sh)
202 macOS or Linux users that are using Homebrew can also install it by:
205 brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp
209 You can use
`yt-dlp -U` to update if you are [using the provided release](#using-the-release-binary)
211 If you [installed with pip](#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
213 If you [installed using Homebrew](#with-homebrew), run
`brew upgrade yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp`
215 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
222 [yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independant binary. Needs Python (recommended for **UNIX-like systems**)
223 [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**)
229 [yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|MacOS (
10.15+) standalone executable
230 [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
231 [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/> Does not contain
`pycryptodomex`, needs VC++
14
232 [yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
233 [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)
239 [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
240 [SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
241 [SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
242 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
245 Python versions
3.6+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
247 <!-- Python
3.5+ uses VC++
14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
248 <!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=
26999 --x>
249 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.
252 While all the other dependencies are optional,
`ffmpeg` and
`ffprobe` are highly recommended
254 * [**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)
255 * [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen) - For embedding thumbnail in certain formats. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
256 * [**pycryptodomex**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome) - For decrypting AES-
128 HLS streams and various other data. Licensed under
[BSD2](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
257 * [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets) - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under
[BSD3](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
258 * [**secretstorage**](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage) - For accessing the Gnome keyring while decrypting cookies of Chromium-based browsers on Linux. Licensed under
[BSD](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage/blob/master/LICENSE)
259 * [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For embedding thumbnail in mp4/m4a if mutagen is not present. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
260 * [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading
`rtmp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
261 * [**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)
262 * [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licensed under
[BSD3](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
263 * [**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)
264 * Any external downloader that you want to use with
`--downloader`
266 To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
268 The Windows and MacOS standalone release binaries are already built with the python interpreter, mutagen, pycryptodomex and websockets included.
270 **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/wiki/Latest#latest-autobuilds) 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
276 To build the Windows executable, you must have pyinstaller (and optionally mutagen, pycryptodomex, websockets). Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, (optionally) build lazy extractors using
`devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py`, and then just run
`pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (
32/
64 bit) as the python used to build it.
278 py -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
279 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
282 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
285 You will need the required build tools:
`python`,
`make` (GNU),
`pandoc`,
`zip`,
`pytest`
286 Then simply run
`make`. You can also run
`make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files
288 **Note**: In either platform,
`devscripts/update-version.py` can be used to automatically update the version number
290 You can also fork the project on github and run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build a release
294 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
295 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
297 `Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
298 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
300 <!-- Auto generated -->
302 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
303 --version Print program version and exit
304 -U, --update Update this program to latest version. Make
305 sure that you have sufficient permissions
306 (run with sudo if needed)
307 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
308 The download will be considered successful
309 even if the postprocessing fails
310 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download
311 errors; e.g. to skip unavailable videos in
313 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
314 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
315 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
316 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
317 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
319 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
321 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
322 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
323 from google videos for the search term
324 "large apple". Use the value "auto" to let
325 yt-dlp guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
326 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
327 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
328 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
329 this is not possible instead of searching
330 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
331 except those given by --config-locations.
332 For backward compatibility, if this option
333 is found inside the system configuration
334 file, the user configuration is not loaded
335 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
336 (default). When given inside a
337 configuration file, ignore all previous
338 --config-locations defined in the current
340 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
341 either the path to the config or its
342 containing directory. Can be used multiple
343 times and inside other configuration files
344 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
346 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
347 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
348 Currently only supported for YouTube
350 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
352 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
353 available. Pass the minimum number of
354 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
355 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
356 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate).
357 Currently only supported for YouTube
358 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
359 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output
360 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
361 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
362 configurations by reverting some of the
363 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
364 default behavior" for details
367 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy.
368 To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper
370 socks5://
127.0.0.1:
1080/. Pass in an empty
371 string (--proxy "") for direct connection
372 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
373 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
374 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
375 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
378 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
379 some geo-restricted sites. The default
380 proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the
381 option is not present) is used for the
383 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
384 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
385 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
386 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
387 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
388 explicitly provided two-letter ISO
3166-
2
390 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
391 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR
395 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is
1)
396 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
397 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
398 indices of the videos in the playlist
399 separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
400 1,
2,
5,
8" if you want to download videos
401 indexed
1,
2,
5,
8 in the playlist. You can
402 specify range: "--playlist-items
403 1-
3,
7,
10-
13", it will download the videos
404 at index
1,
2,
3,
7,
10,
11,
12 and
13
405 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
406 SIZE (e.g.
50k or
44.6m)
407 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
409 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
410 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
411 "(now|today)[+-][
0-
9](day|week|month|year)(s)?"
412 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
413 this date. The date formats accepted is the
415 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
416 this date. The date formats accepted is the
418 --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Any field (see
419 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE") can be compared with a
420 number or a string using the operators
421 defined in "Filtering formats". You can
422 also simply specify a field to match if the
423 field is present and "!field" to check if
424 the field is not present. In addition,
425 Python style regular expression matching
426 can be done using "~=", and multiple
427 filters can be checked with "&". Use a "
\"
428 to escape "&" or quotes if needed. Eg:
429 --match-filter "!is_live & like_count>?
100
430 & description~='(?i)
\bcats \& dogs
\b'"
431 matches only videos that are not live, has
432 a like count more than
100 (or the like
433 field is not available), and also has a
434 description that contains the phrase "cats
435 & dogs" (ignoring case)
436 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
437 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
438 to a video and a playlist
439 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
440 a video and a playlist
441 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
443 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
444 archive file. Record the IDs of all
445 downloaded videos in it
446 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
447 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
448 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
449 a file that is in the archive
450 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
451 a file that has been filtered out
452 --break-per-input Make --break-on-existing and --break-on-
453 reject act only on the current input URL
454 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and --break-on-reject
455 terminates the entire download queue
456 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest
457 of the playlist is skipped
460 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
461 video that should be downloaded
462 concurrently (default is
1)
463 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
465 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
466 below which throttling is assumed and the
467 video data is re-extracted (e.g.
100K)
468 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is
10), or
470 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
471 error (default is
10), or "infinite"
472 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
473 is
10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and
475 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
476 hlsnative and ISM (default)
477 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
478 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading if a fragment is unavailable
479 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
480 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
481 downloading is finished
482 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
483 downloading is finished (default)
484 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g.
1024 or
16K)
486 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
487 from an initial value of --buffer-size
489 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
490 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
491 downloading (e.g.
10485760 or
10M) (default
492 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
493 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
495 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
496 --no-playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in default order
498 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
499 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
501 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
502 allowing some players to play the video
503 while downloading, and reducing the chance
504 of file corruption if download is
505 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
507 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
508 videos. This is default when not
509 downloading live streams
510 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
511 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
512 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
513 use it for. Currently supports native,
514 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
515 wget (Recommended: aria2c). You can use
516 this option multiple times to set different
517 downloaders for different protocols. For
518 example, --downloader aria2c --downloader
519 "dash,m3u8:native" will use aria2c for
520 http/ftp downloads, and the native
521 downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
522 (Alias: --external-downloader)
523 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
524 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
525 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
526 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to
527 different positions using the same syntax
528 as --postprocessor-args. You can use this
529 option multiple times to give different
530 arguments to different downloaders
531 (Alias: --external-downloader-args)
533 ## Filesystem Options:
534 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
535 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
536 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
538 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
539 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
540 downloaded. Specify the type of file and
541 the path separated by a colon ":". All the
542 same TYPES as --output are supported.
543 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
544 (default) and "temp" paths. All
545 intermediary files are first downloaded to
546 the temp path and then the final files are
547 moved over to the home path after download
548 is finished. This option is ignored if
549 --output is an absolute path
550 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
551 TEMPLATE" for details
552 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder value for unavailable meta
553 fields in output filename template
555 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
556 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
558 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
560 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
561 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
562 using Windows (default)
563 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
564 extension) to the specified number of
566 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
567 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files.
568 This option includes --no-continue
569 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
570 related files (default)
571 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
573 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
574 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
575 restart download of the entire file
576 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
577 into output file (default)
578 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
580 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the
581 file modification time (default)
582 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
583 the file modification time
584 --write-description Write video description to a .description
586 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
587 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
588 (this may contain personal information)
589 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
590 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
591 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
592 --write-description etc. (default)
593 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
594 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
595 --clean-infojson Remove some private fields such as
596 filenames from the infojson. Note that it
597 could still contain some personal
598 information (default)
599 --no-clean-infojson Write all fields to the infojson
600 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
601 infojson. The comments are fetched even
602 without this option if the extraction is
603 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
604 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
605 extraction is known to be quick
606 (Alias: --no-get-comments)
607 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
608 (created with the "--write-info-json"
610 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies
611 from and dump cookie jar in
612 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
614 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE]
615 The name of the browser and (optionally)
616 the name/path of the profile to load
617 cookies from, separated by a ":". Currently
618 supported browsers are: brave, chrome,
619 chromium, edge, firefox, opera, safari,
620 vivaldi. By default, the most recently
621 accessed profile is used. The keyring used
622 for decrypting Chromium cookies on Linux
623 can be (optionally) specified after the
624 browser name separated by a "+". Currently
625 supported keyrings are: basictext,
626 gnomekeyring, kwallet
627 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
628 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
629 can store some downloaded information (such
630 as client ids and signatures) permanently.
631 By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/yt-dlp or
633 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
634 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
636 ## Thumbnail Options:
637 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
638 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk
640 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
641 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
642 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
644 ## Internet Shortcut Options:
645 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
646 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
647 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
648 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
649 OS caches the URL based on the file path
650 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
651 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
653 ## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
654 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with
655 --verbose, print the log to stderr
656 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
657 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
659 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
661 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
662 extracting metadata even if the videos are
663 not actually available for download
665 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
666 formats are found (default)
667 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
668 related files (Alias: --no-download)
669 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
670 screen per video. Prefix the template with
671 "playlist:" to print it once per playlist
672 instead. Implies --quiet and --simulate
673 (unless --no-simulate is used). This option
674 can be used multiple times
675 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
676 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
677 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
678 description of available keys
679 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
680 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
681 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
682 a playlist, the whole playlist information
683 is dumped in a single line
684 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be
685 written as far as no errors occur, even if
686 -s or another simulation option is used
687 (Alias: --force-download-archive)
688 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
689 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
690 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
691 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
692 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
693 Template for progress outputs, optionally
694 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
695 "download-title:" (the console title),
696 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
697 The video's fields are accessible under the
698 "info" key and the progress attributes are
699 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.:
700 --console-title --progress-template
701 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
702 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
703 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
704 to debug problems (very verbose)
705 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
706 files in the current directory to debug
708 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
711 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
712 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
713 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
714 information about the video (Currently
715 supported only for YouTube)
716 --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
717 --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video
718 access is restricted to one domain
719 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
720 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
721 option multiple times
722 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
723 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
724 or fribidi executable in PATH
725 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
726 during data extraction
727 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
728 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
729 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
730 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
731 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can
732 only be used along with --min-sleep-interval
733 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
736 ## Video Format Options:
737 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
739 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
740 "Sorting Formats" for more details
741 --S-force, --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
742 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
743 Formats" for more details
744 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
745 specified sort order (default), see
746 "Sorting Formats" for more details
747 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
749 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for
750 each output file (default)
751 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
753 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for
754 each output file (default)
755 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
756 over non-free ones of same quality. Use
757 with "-S ext" to strictly prefer free
758 containers irrespective of quality
759 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
761 --check-formats Check that the selected formats are
762 actually downloadable
763 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
764 actually downloadable
765 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
767 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
768 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
769 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
770 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
771 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
772 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
775 --write-subs Write subtitle file
776 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
777 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
778 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
779 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
780 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
781 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
782 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
783 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
784 preference, for example: "srt" or
786 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
787 be regex) or "all" separated by commas.
788 (Eg: --sub-langs "en.*,ja") You can prefix
789 the language code with a "-" to exempt it
790 from the requested languages. (Eg: --sub-
791 langs all,-live_chat) Use --list-subs for a
792 list of available language tags
794 ## Authentication Options:
795 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
796 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
797 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
798 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
799 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
800 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
801 either the path or its containing
802 directory. Defaults to ~/.netrc
803 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
804 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
805 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
806 a list of available MSOs
807 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
808 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
809 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
811 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
814 ## Post-Processing Options:
815 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
816 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
817 --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format to convert the audio
818 to when -x is used. Currently supported
819 formats are: best (default) or one of
820 best|aac|flac|mp3|m4a|opus|vorbis|wav|alac
821 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality, insert a
822 value between
0 (best) and
10 (worst) for
823 VBR or a specific bitrate like
128K
825 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
826 necessary (currently supported: mp4|mkv|flv
827 |webm|mov|avi|mp3|mka|m4a|ogg|opus). If
828 target container does not support the
829 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
830 can specify multiple rules; Eg.
831 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to
832 m4a, mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv.
833 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
834 re-encoding is necessary. The syntax and
835 supported formats are the same as --remux-video
836 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
837 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
838 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
839 to give the argument to the specified
840 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
841 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
842 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
843 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
844 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
845 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
846 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
847 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
848 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
849 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
850 specified executable only when being used
851 by the specified postprocessor.
852 Additionally, for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o"
853 can be appended to the prefix optionally
854 followed by a number to pass the argument
855 before the specified input/output file. Eg:
856 --ppa "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can
857 use this option multiple times to give
858 different arguments to different
859 postprocessors. (Alias: --ppa)
860 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
861 after post-processing
862 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
863 post-processing (default)
864 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
865 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
866 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
868 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
869 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
870 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
871 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
872 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
873 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json
874 are used (Alias: --add-metadata)
875 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
876 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
877 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
878 (Alias: --add-chapters)
879 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default)
880 (Alias: --no-add-chapters)
881 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
883 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
885 --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
886 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
888 --replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
889 Replace text in a metadata field using the
890 given regex. This option can be used
892 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
893 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
894 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
895 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
896 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
897 default; fix file if we can, warn
898 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
900 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
901 path to the binary or its containing
903 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
904 when to execute it (after_move if
905 unspecified), separated by a ":". Supported
906 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
907 --use-postprocessor. Same syntax as the
908 output template can be used to pass any
909 field as arguments to the command. After
910 download, an additional field "filepath"
911 that contains the final path of the
912 downloaded file is also available, and if
913 no fields are passed, %(filepath)q is
914 appended to the end of the command. This
915 option can be used multiple times
916 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
917 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
918 (currently supported: srt|vtt|ass|lrc)
919 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
920 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
921 (currently supported: jpg|png)
922 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
923 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix
924 can be used with "--paths" and "--output"
925 to set the output filename for the split
926 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
927 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters
929 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
930 given regular expression. Time ranges
931 prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place
932 of chapters to remove the specified range.
933 Eg: --remove-chapters "*
10:
15-
15:
00"
934 --remove-chapters "intro". This option can
935 be used multiple times
936 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
938 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes around the chapters before
939 removing/splitting them. Requires a
940 re-encode and thus is very slow, but the
941 resulting video may have fewer artifacts
943 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
944 when cutting/splitting (default)
945 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS] The (case sensitive) name of plugin
946 postprocessors to be enabled, and
947 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
948 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
949 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
950 The "when" argument determines when the
951 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
952 "pre_process" (after extraction),
953 "before_dl" (before video download),
954 "post_process" (after video download;
955 default), "after_move" (after moving file
956 to their final locations), "after_video"
957 (after downloading and processing all
958 formats of a video), or "playlist" (end of
959 playlist). This option can be used multiple
960 times to add different postprocessors
962 ## SponsorBlock Options:
963 Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
964 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
965 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
967 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
968 for, separated by commas. Available
969 categories are all, default(=all), sponsor,
970 intro, outro, selfpromo, preview, filler,
971 interaction, music_offtopic, poi_highlight.
972 You can prefix the category with a "-" to
973 exempt it. See [
1] for description of the
974 categories. Eg: --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
975 [
1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
976 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
977 the video file, separated by commas. If a
978 category is present in both mark and
979 remove, remove takes precedence. The syntax
980 and available categories are the same as
981 for --sponsorblock-mark except that
982 "default" refers to "all,-filler" and
983 poi_highlight is not available
984 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
985 The title template for SponsorBlock
986 chapters created by --sponsorblock-mark.
987 The same syntax as the output template is
988 used, but the only available fields are
989 start_time, end_time, category, categories,
990 name, category_names. Defaults to
991 "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
992 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
993 --sponsorblock-remove
994 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
995 https://sponsor.ajay.app
997 ## Extractor Options:
998 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor
999 errors (default is
3), or "infinite"
1000 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1001 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1002 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1003 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1004 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1005 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1006 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1007 formats at discontinuities such as ad
1009 --extractor-args KEY:ARGS Pass these arguments to the extractor. See
1010 "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You can
1011 use this option multiple times to give
1012 arguments for different extractors
1016 You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
1018 1. **Main Configuration**: The file given by
`--config-location`
1019 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.
1020 1. **Home Configuration**:
`yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by
`-P "home:<path>"`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
1021 1. **User Configuration**:
1022 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1023 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
1024 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1025 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1027 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
1029 `%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%`
1030 1. **System Configuration**:
`/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
1032 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:
1034 # Lines starting with # are comments
1036 # Always extract audio
1039 # Do not copy the mtime
1043 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1045 # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1046 -o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
1049 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`.
1051 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.
1053 ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
1055 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:
1058 chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
1060 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1062 machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
1066 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1067 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1069 To activate authentication with the
`.netrc` file you should pass
`--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
1071 The default location of the .netrc file is
`$HOME` (
`~`) in UNIX. On Windows, it is
`%HOME%` if present,
`%USERPROFILE%` (generally
`C:\Users\<user name>`) or
`%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
1075 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.
1077 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1078 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
1079 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1081 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).
1083 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.
1085 The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
1086 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
1088 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`
1090 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`
1092 1. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a
`,`. Eg:
`%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
1094 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.
1096 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`
1098 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
1100 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
1102 To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1104 %(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
1107 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`. 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 (except default) 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.
1109 The available fields are:
1111 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1112 - `title` (string): Video title
1113 - `url` (string): Video URL
1114 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1115 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
1116 - `description` (string): The description of the video
1117 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1118 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1119 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1120 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
1121 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
1122 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
1123 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
1124 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
1125 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1126 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1127 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
1128 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1129 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
1130 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
1131 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1132 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1133 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1134 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1135 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
1136 - `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)
1137 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
1138 - `live_status` (string): One of "is_live", "was_live", "is_upcoming", "not_live"
1139 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
1140 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
1141 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
1142 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
1143 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1144 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
1145 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
1146 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by
`--format`
1147 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
1148 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
1149 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
1150 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
1151 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1152 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1153 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
1154 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1155 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1156 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
1157 - `dynamic_range` (string): The dynamic range of the video
1158 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
1159 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
1160 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
1161 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
1162 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
1163 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1164 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
1165 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch when creating the file
1166 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at
`--autonumber-start`
1167 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
1168 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
1169 - `playlist` (string): Name or id of the playlist that contains the video
1170 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1171 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
1172 - `playlist_id` (string): Playlist identifier
1173 - `playlist_title` (string): Playlist title
1174 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1175 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
1176 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
1177 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1178 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
1179 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as
`webpage_url` for playlist entries)
1181 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1183 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1184 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1185 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1187 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1189 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1190 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1191 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1192 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1193 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1194 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1195 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1197 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1199 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1200 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1201 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1202 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1203 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1204 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1205 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1206 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1207 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1208 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1210 Available for
`chapter:` prefix when using
`--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
1212 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1213 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1214 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1215 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1217 Available only when used in
`--print`:
1219 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1220 - `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
1222 Available only in
`--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1224 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1225 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1226 - `categories` (list): The SponsorBlock categories the chapter belongs to
1227 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1228 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1229 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1231 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.
1233 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).
1235 **Tip**: Look at the
`-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
1237 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`.
1239 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.
1241 To use percent literals in an output template use
`%%`. To output to stdout use
`-o -`.
1243 The current default template is
`%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
1245 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.
1247 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1248 #### Output template and Windows batch files
1250 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"`.
1251 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1253 #### Output template examples
1256 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1257 test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1259 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1260 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
1262 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
1263 youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
1265 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
1266 $ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1268 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
1269 $ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1271 # Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
1272 $ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist_index|)s%(playlist_index& - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1274 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
1275 $ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1277 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
1278 $ 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"
1280 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
1281 $ 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"
1283 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1284 # and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1285 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1287 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1288 $ 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
1290 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
1291 $ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
1296 By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1297 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`.
1299 **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.
1301 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.
1303 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1304 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1305 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1307 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.
1309 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.
1311 You can use
`-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1313 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1315 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1316 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with
`--audio-multistreams`,
`--video-multistreams` or both)
1317 - `b*`,
`best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio
1318 - `b`,
`best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1319 - `bv`,
`bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec=none]`
1320 - `bv*`,
`bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none]`
1321 - `ba`,
`bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec=none]`
1322 - `ba*`,
`bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that **contains audio**. It may also contain video. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec!=none]`
1323 - `w*`,
`worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
1324 - `w`,
`worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1325 - `wv`,
`worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to
`worst*[acodec=none]`
1326 - `wv*`,
`worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec!=none]`
1327 - `wa`,
`worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec=none]`
1328 - `wa*`,
`worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to
`worst*[acodec!=none]`
1330 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
`-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps` instead of
`-f worst`. See [sorting formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
1332 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.
1334 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.
1336 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`.
1338 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.
1340 **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
1342 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`.
1344 ## Filtering Formats
1346 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in
`-f "best[height=720]"` (or
`-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
1348 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons
`<`,
`<=`,
`>`,
`>=`,
`=` (equals),
`!=` (not equals):
1350 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1351 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1352 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
1353 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1354 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1355 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1356 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1359 Also filtering work for comparisons
`=` (equals),
`^=` (starts with),
`$=` (ends with),
`*=` (contains) and following string meta fields:
1361 - `ext`: File extension
1362 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1363 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1364 - `container`: Name of the container format
1365 - `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`)
1366 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
1367 - `language`: Language code
1369 Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation
`!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g.
`!*=` (does not contain).
1371 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.
1373 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.
1375 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]"`.
1379 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...`.
1381 The available fields are:
1383 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1384 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
1385 - `ie_pref`: The format preference as given by the extractor
1386 - `lang`: Language preference as given by the extractor
1387 - `quality`: The quality of the format as given by the extractor
1388 - `source`: Preference of the source as given by the extractor
1389 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (
`https`/
`ftps` >
`http`/
`ftp` >
`m3u8_native`/
`m3u8` >
`http_dash_segments`>
`websocket_frag` >
`mms`/
`rtsp` >
`f4f`/
`f4m`)
1390 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (
`av01` >
`vp9.2` >
`vp9` >
`h265` >
`h264` >
`vp8` >
`h263` >
`theora` > other)
1391 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (
`flac`/
`alac` >
`wav`/
`aiff` >
`opus` >
`vorbis` >
`aac` >
`mp4a` >
`mp3` >
`eac3` >
`ac3` >
`dts` > other)
1392 - `codec`: Equivalent to
`vcodec,acodec`
1393 - `vext`: Video Extension (
`mp4` >
`webm` >
`flv` > other). If
`--prefer-free-formats` is used,
`webm` is preferred.
1394 - `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`.
1395 - `ext`: Equivalent to
`vext,aext`
1396 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
1397 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1398 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
1399 - `height`: Height of video
1400 - `width`: Width of video
1401 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1402 - `fps`: Framerate of video
1403 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (
`DV` >
`HDR12` >
`HDR10+` >
`HDR10` >
`HLG` >
`SDR`)
1404 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1405 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1406 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1407 - `br`: Equivalent to using
`tbr,vbr,abr`
1408 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
1410 **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.
1412 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.
1414 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.
1416 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.
1418 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`.
1420 **Tip**: You can use the
`-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1422 ## Format Selection examples
1425 # Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
1426 # or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
1427 $ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
1429 # Download best format that contains video,
1430 # and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
1431 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
1436 # Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1437 # For this case, an output template should be used since
1438 # by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
1439 $ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
1441 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1442 # and all audio-only formats into one file
1443 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
1445 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1446 # and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1447 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
1450 # The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
1451 # and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
1453 # Download the worst video available (old method)
1454 $ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
1456 # Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
1459 # Download the smallest video available
1460 $ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
1464 # Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
1465 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
1467 # Download the best video with the best extension
1468 # (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
1473 # Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1474 # or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
1475 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
1477 # Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1478 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1479 $ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
1481 # Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1482 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1483 # Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1484 # So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
1485 $ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
1489 # Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1490 # or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1491 $ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
1493 # Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1494 # or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1495 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
1497 # Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
1498 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
1502 # Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1503 # or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
1504 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
1506 # Download best video available via the best protocol
1507 # (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
1512 # Download the best video with h264 codec, or the best video if there is no such video
1513 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[vcodec^=avc1] / (bv*+ba/b)"
1515 # Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1516 # or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
1517 $ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
1519 # Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1520 # or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
1521 $ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
1525 # More complex examples
1527 # Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1528 # or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
1529 $ yt-dlp -f "((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)"
1531 # Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
1532 # or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
1533 # preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
1534 $ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
1538 # Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1539 # or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
1540 # preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
1541 $ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
1544 # MODIFYING METADATA
1546 The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using
`--parse-metadata` and
`--replace-in-metadata`
1548 `--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.
1550 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.
1552 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`.
1554 This option also has a few special uses:
1555 * 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
1556 * 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.
1558 For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1560 Metadata fields|From
1562 `title`|
`track` or
`title`
1563 `date`|
`upload_date`
1564 `description`,
`synopsis`|
`description`
1565 `purl`,
`comment`|
`webpage_url`
1566 `track`|
`track_number`
1567 `artist`|
`artist`,
`creator`,
`uploader` or
`uploader_id`
1570 `album_artist`|
`album_artist`
1571 `disc`|
`disc_number`
1573 `season_number`|
`season_number`
1574 `episode_id`|
`episode` or
`episode_id`
1575 `episode_sort`|
`episode_number`
1576 `language` of each stream|From the format's
`language`
1577 **Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1580 ## Modifying metadata examples
1583 # Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
1584 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
1587 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
1589 # Set title as "Series name S01E05"
1590 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
1592 # Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url
1593 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --add-metadata
1595 # Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
1596 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<formats>)" -j
1598 # Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
1599 $ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
1603 # EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1605 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_agegate,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
1607 The following extractors use this feature:
1610 * `skip`:
`hls` or
`dash` (or both) to skip download of the respective manifests
1611 * `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are
`web`,
`android`,
`ios`,
`mweb`. These also have
`_music`,
`_embedded`,
`_agegate`, and
`_creator` variants (Eg:
`web_embedded`) (
`mweb` has only
`_agegate`). By default,
`android,web` is used, but the agegate and creator variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly the music variants are added for
`music.youtube.com` urls. You can also use
`all` to use all the clients, and
`default` for the default clients.
1612 * `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
1613 * `include_live_dash`: Include live dash formats even without
`--live-from-start` (These formats don't download properly)
1614 * `comment_sort`:
`top` or
`new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
1615 * `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`.
1616 * 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.
1617 * `max_comment_depth` Maximum depth for nested comments. YouTube supports depths
1 or
2 (default)
1618 * **Deprecated**: Set
`max-replies` to
`0` or
`all` in
`max_comments` instead (e.g.
`max_comments=all,all,0` to get no replies)
1620 #### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1621 * `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)
1624 * `language`: Languages to extract. Eg:
`funimation:language=english,japanese`
1625 * `version`: The video version to extract -
`uncut` or
`simulcast`
1628 * `language`: Languages to extract. Eg:
`crunchyroll:language=jaJp`
1629 * `hardsub`: Which hard-sub versions to extract. Eg:
`crunchyroll:hardsub=None,enUS`
1632 * `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of
`episodes`,
`movies`,
`clips`,
`trailers`
1634 #### youtubewebarchive
1635 * `check_all`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of
`thumbnails`,
`captures`
1638 * `comment_sort`:
`hot` (default),
`you` (cookies needed),
`top`,
`new` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1641 * `res`: resolution to ignore - one or more of
`sd`,
`hd`,
`fhd`
1642 * `vcodec`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of
`h264`,
`h265`,
`dvh265`
1643 * `dr`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of
`sdr`,
`hdr10`,
`dv`
1645 NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
1647 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1652 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
1654 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`.
1656 See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example plugins.
1658 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
1660 If you are a plugin author, add
[ytdlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/ytdlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability
1666 yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1668 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.
1670 From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1673 from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
1675 ydl_opts = {'format': 'bestaudio'}
1676 with YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1677 ydl.download(['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
1680 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#L162).
1682 Here's a more complete example demonstrating various functionality:
1690 def debug(self, msg):
1691 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
1692 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
1693 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
1698 def info(self, msg):
1701 def warning(self, msg):
1704 def error(self, msg):
1708 # ℹ️ See the docstring of yt_dlp.postprocessor.common.PostProcessor
1709 class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
1710 # ℹ️ See docstring of yt_dlp.postprocessor.common.PostProcessor.run
1711 def run(self, info):
1712 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
1716 # ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in the docstring of yt_dlp.YoutubeDL
1718 if d['status'] == 'finished':
1719 print('Done downloading, now converting ...')
1722 def format_selector(ctx):
1723 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
1724 This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
1726 # formats are already sorted worst to best
1727 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
1729 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
1730 best_video = next(f for f in formats
1731 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
1733 # find compatible audio extension
1734 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
1735 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
1736 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
1737 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
1740 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
1741 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
1742 'ext': best_video['ext'],
1743 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
1744 # Must be + separated list of protocols
1745 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
1749 # ℹ️ See docstring of yt_dlp.YoutubeDL for a description of the options
1751 'format': format_selector,
1752 'postprocessors': [{
1753 # Embed metadata in video using ffmpeg.
1754 # ℹ️ See yt_dlp.postprocessor.FFmpegMetadataPP for the arguments it accepts
1755 'key': 'FFmpegMetadata',
1756 'add_chapters': True,
1757 'add_metadata': True,
1759 'logger': MyLogger(),
1760 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
1764 # Add custom headers
1765 yt_dlp.utils.std_headers.update({'Referer': 'https://www.google.com'})
1767 # ℹ️ See the public functions in yt_dlp.YoutubeDL for for other available functions.
1768 # Eg: "ydl.download", "ydl.download_with_info_file"
1769 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1770 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP())
1771 info = ydl.extract_info('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc')
1773 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
1774 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1777 **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 above
1780 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
1782 # DEPRECATED OPTIONS
1784 These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
1786 #### Redundant options
1787 While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
1789 --get-description --print description
1790 --get-duration --print duration_string
1791 --get-filename --print filename
1792 --get-format --print format
1794 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
1795 -e, --get-title --print title
1796 -g, --get-url --print urls
1797 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
1798 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
1799 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
1800 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
1801 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
1804 #### Not recommended
1805 While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
1807 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
1808 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
1809 --all-formats -f all
1810 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
1811 --print-json -j --no-simulate
1812 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)
03d
1813 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
1814 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1815 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
1816 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
1817 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
1818 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
1819 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
1820 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
1821 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
1822 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
1823 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
1826 #### Developer options
1827 These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
1829 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
1830 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
1831 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
1832 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
1836 These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
1838 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
1839 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
1840 --dump-headers --print-traffic
1841 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
1842 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
1843 --load-info --load-info-json
1844 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
1845 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
1846 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
1847 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
1848 --split-tracks --split-chapters
1849 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
1850 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
1851 --write-srt --write-subs
1852 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
1854 #### Sponskrub Options
1855 Support for
[SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the
`--sponsorblock` options
1857 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
1858 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
1859 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
1860 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
1861 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
1862 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
1863 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
1864 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
1866 #### No longer supported
1867 These options may no longer work as intended
1869 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
1870 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
1871 -C, --call-home Not implemented
1872 --no-call-home Default
1873 --include-ads No longer supported
1874 --no-include-ads Default
1875 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
1876 --no-write-annotations Default
1879 These options were deprecated since
2014 and have now been entirely removed
1881 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1882 -t, --title -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1883 -l, --literal -o accepts literal names
1886 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)
1889 For FAQ see the
[youtube-dl README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)
projects / yt-dlp.git / blob