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14 A command-line program to download videos from youtube.com and many other [video platforms](supportedsites.md)
16 This is a fork of
[youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) which is inturn a fork of
[youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl)
18 * [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
19 * [INSTALLATION](#installation)
22 * [DESCRIPTION](#description)
24 * [Network Options](#network-options)
25 * [Geo Restriction](#geo-restriction)
26 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
27 * [Download Options](#download-options)
28 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
29 * [Thumbnail images](#thumbnail-images)
30 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
31 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
32 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
33 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
34 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
35 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
36 * [Adobe Pass Options](#adobe-pass-options)
37 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
38 * [SponSkrub (SponsorBlock) Options](#sponskrub-sponsorblock-options)
39 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
40 * [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
41 * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
42 * [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
43 * [Output template and Windows batch files](#output-template-and-windows-batch-files)
44 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
45 * [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
46 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
47 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
48 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
54 The major new features from the latest release of
[blackjack4494/yt-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) are:
56 * **
[SponSkrub Integration](#sponskrub-sponsorblock-options)**: You can use [SponSkrub](https://github.com/yt-dlp/SponSkrub) to mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the
[SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
58 * **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using
`-S`. This allows for much easier format selection that what is possible by simply using
`--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
60 * **Merged with youtube-dl v2021.02
.22**: You get all the latest features and patches of
[youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) in addition to all the features of
[youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc)
62 * **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from
[animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including
`--get-comments`,
`BiliBiliSearch`,
`BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, Playlist infojson etc. Note that the NicoNico improvements are not available. See
[#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
64 * **Youtube improvements**:
65 * All Youtube Feeds (
`:ytfav`,
`:ytwatchlater`,
`:ytsubs`,
`:ythistory`,
`:ytrec`) works correctly and supports downloading multiple pages of content
66 * Youtube search (
`ytsearch:`,
`ytsearchdate:`) along with Search URLs works correctly
67 * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to
`/video` to preserve the old behaviour
69 * **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use aria2c as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats. No more slow ffmpeg/native downloads
71 * **New extractors**: AnimeLab, Philo MSO, Rcs, Gedi, bitwave.tv, mildom, audius, zee5
73 * **Fixed extractors**: archive.org, roosterteeth.com, skyit, instagram, itv, SouthparkDe, spreaker, Vlive, tiktok, akamai, ina, rumble, tennistv
75 * **Plugin support**: Extractors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
77 * **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. See [`--paths`](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/#:~:text=-P,%20--paths%20TYPE:PATH) for details
79 <!-- Relative link doesn't work for "#:~:text=" -->
81 * **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
83 * **Other new options**:
`--parse-metadata`,
`--list-formats-as-table`,
`--write-link`,
`--force-download-archive`,
`--force-overwrites`,
`--break-on-reject` etc
85 * **Improvements**: Multiple
`--postprocessor-args` and
`--external-downloader-args`, Date/time formatting in
`-o`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection) etc
87 * **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using
`yt-dlp -U`
90 See
[changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
93 **PS**: Some of these changes are already in youtube-dlc, but are still unreleased. See [this](Changelog.md#unreleased-changes-in-blackjack4494yt-dlc) for details
95 If you are coming from
[youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl), the amount of changes are very large. Compare
[options](#options) and [supported sites](supportedsites.md) with youtube-dl's to get an idea of the massive number of features/patches [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) has accumulated.
100 You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
101 * Download the binary from the
[latest release](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest) (recommended method)
102 * Use
[PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp):
`python -m pip install --upgrade yt-dlp`
103 * Use pip+git:
`python -m pip install --upgrade git+https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp.git@release`
104 * Install master branch:
`python -m pip install --upgrade git+https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp`
107 Starting from version
`2021.02.09`, you can use
`yt-dlp -U` to update if you are using the provided release.
108 If you are using
`pip`, simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program.
113 To build the Windows executable, you must have pyinstaller (and optionally mutagen and pycryptodome)
115 python -m pip install --upgrade pyinstaller mutagen pycryptodome
117 Once you have all the necessary dependancies installed, just run
`py pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (
32/
64 bit) as the python used to build it. It is strongly reccomended to use python3 although python2.6+ is supported.
119 You can also build the executable without any version info or metadata by using:
121 pyinstaller.exe yt_dlp\__main__.py --onefile --name yt-dlp
124 You will need the required build tools:
`python`,
`make` (GNU),
`pandoc`,
`zip`,
`nosetests`
125 Then simply run
`make`. You can also run
`make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files
127 **Note**: In either platform,
`devscripts\update-version.py` can be used to automatically update the version number
130 **yt-dlp** is a command-line program to download videos from youtube.com many other [video platforms](supportedsites.md). It requires the Python interpreter, version
2.6,
2.7, or
3.2+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on your Unix box, on Windows or on macOS. It is released to the public domain, which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
132 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
136 `Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
137 <!-- Autogenerated -->
140 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
141 --version Print program version and exit
142 -U, --update Update this program to latest version. Make
143 sure that you have sufficient permissions
144 (run with sudo if needed)
145 -i, --ignore-errors Continue on download errors, for example to
146 skip unavailable videos in a playlist
147 (default) (Alias: --no-abort-on-error)
148 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
149 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
150 --dump-user-agent Display the current browser identification
151 --list-extractors List all supported extractors
152 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
154 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
156 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
157 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
158 from google videos for youtube-dl "large
159 apple". Use the value "auto" to let
160 youtube-dl guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
161 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
162 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
163 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
164 this is not possible instead of searching
165 --ignore-config, --no-config Disable loading any configuration files
166 except the one provided by --config-location.
167 When given inside a configuration
168 file, no further configuration files are
169 loaded. Additionally, (for backward
170 compatibility) if this option is found
171 inside the system configuration file, the
172 user configuration is not loaded
173 --config-location PATH Location of the main configuration file;
174 either the path to the config or its
176 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
178 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
179 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (YouTube only)
180 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched
181 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output
184 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy.
185 To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper
187 socks5://
127.0.0.1:
1080/. Pass in an empty
188 string (--proxy "") for direct connection
189 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
190 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
191 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
192 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
195 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
196 some geo-restricted sites. The default
197 proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the
198 option is not present) is used for the
200 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
201 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
202 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
203 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
204 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
205 explicitly provided two-letter ISO
3166-
2
207 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
208 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR
212 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is
1)
213 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
214 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
215 indices of the videos in the playlist
216 separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
217 1,
2,
5,
8" if you want to download videos
218 indexed
1,
2,
5,
8 in the playlist. You can
219 specify range: "--playlist-items
220 1-
3,
7,
10-
13", it will download the videos
221 at index
1,
2,
3,
7,
10,
11,
12 and
13
222 --match-title REGEX Download only matching titles (regex or
224 --reject-title REGEX Skip download for matching titles (regex or
226 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
227 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
228 SIZE (e.g.
50k or
44.6m)
229 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
231 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded in this date.
232 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
233 "(now|today)[+-][
0-
9](day|week|month|year)(s)?"
234 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
235 this date. The date formats accepted is the
237 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
238 this date. The date formats accepted is the
240 --min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than
242 --max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than
244 --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Specify any key (see
245 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a list of available
246 keys) to match if the key is present, !key
247 to check if the key is not present,
248 key>NUMBER (like "comment_count >
12", also
249 works with >=, <, <=, !=, =) to compare
250 against a number, key = 'LITERAL' (like
251 "uploader = 'Mike Smith'", also works with
252 !=) to match against a string literal and &
253 to require multiple matches. Values which
254 are not known are excluded unless you put a
255 question mark (?) after the operator. For
256 example, to only match videos that have
257 been liked more than
100 times and disliked
258 less than
50 times (or the dislike
259 functionality is not available at the given
260 service), but who also have a description,
261 use --match-filter "like_count >
100 &
262 dislike_count <?
50 & description"
263 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
264 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
265 to a video and a playlist
266 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
267 a video and a playlist
268 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
270 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
271 archive file. Record the IDs of all
272 downloaded videos in it
273 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
274 a file that is in the archive
275 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
276 a file that has been filtered out
277 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
278 --include-ads Download advertisements as well
280 --no-include-ads Do not download advertisements (default)
283 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
285 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is
10), or
287 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
288 is
10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and
290 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
291 hlsnative and ISM (default)
292 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
293 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading if a fragment is unavailable
294 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
295 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
296 downloading is finished
297 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
298 downloading is finished (default)
299 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g.
1024 or
16K)
301 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
302 from an initial value of --buffer-size
304 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
305 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
306 downloading (e.g.
10485760 or
10M) (default
307 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
308 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
310 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
311 --no-playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in default order
313 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
314 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
316 --hls-prefer-native Use the native HLS downloader instead of
318 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg Use ffmpeg instead of the native HLS
320 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
321 allowing some players to play the video
322 while downloading, and reducing the chance
323 of file corruption if download is
324 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
326 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
327 videos. This is default when not
328 downloading live streams
329 --external-downloader NAME Use the specified external downloader.
330 Currently supports aria2c, avconv, axel,
331 curl, ffmpeg, httpie, wget
332 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
333 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
334 the arguments separated by a colon ":". You
335 can use this option multiple times
336 (Alias: --external-downloader-args)
338 ## Filesystem Options:
339 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-' for
340 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
341 with '#', ';' or ']' are considered as
343 -P, --paths TYPE:PATH The paths where the files should be
344 downloaded. Specify the type of file and
345 the path separated by a colon ":". All the
346 same types as --output are supported.
347 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
348 and "temp" paths. All intermediary files
349 are first downloaded to the temp path and
350 then the final files are moved over to the
351 home path after download is finished. This
352 option is ignored if --output is an
354 -o, --output [TYPE:]TEMPLATE Output filename template, see "OUTPUT
355 TEMPLATE" for details
356 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder value for unavailable meta
357 fields in output filename template
359 --autonumber-start NUMBER Specify the start value for %(autonumber)s
361 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
362 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
364 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
366 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be windows compatible
367 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames windows compatible only if
368 using windows (default)
369 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
370 extension) to the specified number of
372 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
373 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files.
374 This option includes --no-continue
375 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
376 related files (default)
377 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
379 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
380 fragments. If the file is unfragmented,
381 restart download of the entire file
382 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
383 into output file (default)
384 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
386 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the
387 file modification time (default)
388 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
389 the file modification time
390 --write-description Write video description to a .description
392 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
393 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
394 (this may contain personal information)
395 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
396 --write-annotations Write video annotations to a
397 .annotations.xml file
398 --no-write-annotations Do not write video annotations (default)
399 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
400 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
401 --write-description etc. (default)
402 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
403 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
404 --get-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
406 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
407 (created with the "--write-info-json"
409 --cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump cookie
411 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies (default)
412 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
413 can store some downloaded information
414 permanently. By default
415 $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or
416 ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the moment, only
417 YouTube player files (for videos with
418 obfuscated signatures) are cached, but that
420 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
421 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
424 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
425 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk
427 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
428 --list-thumbnails Simulate and list all available thumbnail
431 ## Internet Shortcut Options:
432 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
433 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
434 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
435 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
436 OS caches the URL based on the file path
437 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
438 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
440 ## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
441 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode
442 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
443 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
445 --skip-download Do not download the video
446 -g, --get-url Simulate, quiet but print URL
447 -e, --get-title Simulate, quiet but print title
448 --get-id Simulate, quiet but print id
449 --get-thumbnail Simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
450 --get-description Simulate, quiet but print video description
451 --get-duration Simulate, quiet but print video length
452 --get-filename Simulate, quiet but print output filename
453 --get-format Simulate, quiet but print output format
454 -j, --dump-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information.
455 See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a description of
457 -J, --dump-single-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information
458 for each command-line argument. If the URL
459 refers to a playlist, dump the whole
460 playlist information in a single line
461 --print-json Be quiet and print the video information as
462 JSON (video is still being downloaded)
463 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be
464 written as far as no errors occur,even if
465 -s or another simulation switch is used
466 (Alias: --force-download-archive)
467 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
468 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
469 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
470 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
471 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
472 to debug problems (very verbose)
473 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
474 files in the current directory to debug
476 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
479 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
480 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
481 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
482 information about the video. (Currently
483 supported only for YouTube)
484 --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
485 --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video
486 access is restricted to one domain
487 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
488 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
489 option multiple times
490 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
491 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
492 or fribidi executable in PATH
493 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
494 download when used alone or a lower bound
495 of a range for randomized sleep before each
496 download (minimum possible number of
497 seconds to sleep) when used along with
499 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Upper bound of a range for randomized sleep
500 before each download (maximum possible
501 number of seconds to sleep). Must only be
502 used along with --min-sleep-interval
503 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Enforce sleep interval on subtitles as well
505 ## Video Format Options:
506 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
508 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
509 "Sorting Formats" for more details
510 --S-force, --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
511 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
512 Formats" for more details
513 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
514 specified sort order (default), see
515 "Sorting Formats" for more details
516 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
518 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for
519 each output file (default)
520 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
522 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for
523 each output file (default)
524 --all-formats Download all available video formats
525 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
526 over non-free ones of same quality. Use
527 with "-S ext" to strictly prefer free
528 containers irrespective of quality
529 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
531 -F, --list-formats List all available formats of requested
533 --list-formats-as-table Present the output of -F in tabular form
535 --list-formats-old Present the output of -F in the old form
536 (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
537 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
538 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
539 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
540 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
541 --allow-unplayable-formats Allow unplayable formats to be listed and
542 downloaded. All video postprocessing will
544 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Do not allow unplayable formats to be
545 listed or downloaded (default)
548 --write-subs Write subtitle file
549 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
550 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
552 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write automatically generated
553 subtitle file (default)
554 --all-subs Download all the available subtitles of the
556 --list-subs List all available subtitles for the video
557 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
558 preference, for example: "srt" or
560 --sub-lang LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download
561 (optional) separated by commas, use --list-
562 subs for available language tags
564 ## Authentication Options:
565 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
566 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
567 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
568 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
569 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
570 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
572 ## Adobe Pass Options:
573 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
574 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
575 a list of available MSOs
576 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
577 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
578 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
580 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
583 ## Post-Processing Options:
584 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
585 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
586 --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format: "best", "aac",
587 "flac", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", "vorbis", or
588 "wav"; "best" by default; No effect without
590 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality, insert a
591 value between
0 (better) and
9 (worse) for
592 VBR or a specific bitrate like
128K
594 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
595 necessary (currently supported: mp4|mkv|flv
596 |webm|mov|avi|mp3|mka|m4a|ogg|opus). If
597 target container does not support the
598 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
599 can specify multiple rules; eg.
600 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to
601 m4a, mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv.
602 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
603 re-encoding is necessary. The supported
604 formats are the same as --remux-video
605 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
606 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
607 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
608 to give the argument to the specified
609 postprocessor/executable. Supported
610 postprocessors are: SponSkrub,
611 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
612 EmbedSubtitle, Metadata, Merger,
613 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
614 SubtitlesConvertor and EmbedThumbnail. The
615 supported executables are: SponSkrub,
616 FFmpeg, FFprobe, and AtomicParsley. You can
617 also specify "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the
618 arguments to the specified executable only
619 when being used by the specified
620 postprocessor. Additionally, for
621 ffmpeg/ffprobe, a number can be appended to
622 the exe name seperated by "_i" to pass the
623 argument before the specified input file.
624 Eg: --ppa "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You
625 can use this option multiple times to give
626 different arguments to different
627 postprocessors. (Alias: --ppa)
628 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
629 after post-processing
630 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
631 post-processing (default)
632 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
633 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
634 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
636 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
637 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
638 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
639 --add-metadata Write metadata to the video file
640 --no-add-metadata Do not write metadata (default)
641 --parse-metadata FIELD:FORMAT Parse additional metadata like title/artist
642 from other fields. Give field name to
643 extract data from, and format of the field
644 seperated by a ":". Either regular
645 expression with named capture groups or a
646 similar syntax to the output template can
647 also be used. The parsed parameters replace
648 any existing values and can be use in
649 output templateThis option can be used
650 multiple times. Example: --parse-metadata
651 "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s" matches a
652 title like "Coldplay - Paradise". Example
653 (regex): --parse-metadata
654 "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+?)"
655 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
656 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
657 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
658 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
659 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
660 default; fix file if we can, warn
662 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
663 path to the binary or its containing
665 --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
666 downloading and post-processing, similar to
667 find's -exec syntax. Example: --exec 'adb
668 push {} /sdcard/Music/ && rm {}'
669 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to other format
670 (currently supported: srt|ass|vtt|lrc)
672 ## SponSkrub (SponsorBlock) Options:
673 [SponSkrub](https://github.com/yt-dlp/SponSkrub) is a utility to
674 mark/remove sponsor segments from downloaded YouTube videos using
675 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
677 --sponskrub Use sponskrub to mark sponsored sections.
678 This is enabled by default if the sponskrub
679 binary exists (Youtube only)
680 --no-sponskrub Do not use sponskrub
681 --sponskrub-cut Cut out the sponsor sections instead of
683 --no-sponskrub-cut Simply mark the sponsor sections, not cut
685 --sponskrub-force Run sponskrub even if the video was already
687 --no-sponskrub-force Do not cut out the sponsor sections if the
688 video was already downloaded (default)
689 --sponskrub-location PATH Location of the sponskrub binary; either
690 the path to the binary or its containing
693 ## Extractor Options:
694 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
695 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
696 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
697 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
698 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
699 discontinuities such as ad breaks
700 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
701 formats at discontinuities such as ad
703 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Download the DASH manifests and related
704 data on YouTube videos (default)
705 (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
706 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest Do not download the DASH manifests and
707 related data on YouTube videos
708 (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
709 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Download the HLS manifests and related data
710 on YouTube videos (default)
711 (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
712 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest Do not download the HLS manifests and
713 related data on YouTube videos
714 (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
718 You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
720 1. **Main Configuration**: The file given by
`--config-location`
721 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.
722 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
723 1. **User Configuration**:
724 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
725 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
726 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
727 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
729 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
731 Note that
`~` points to
`C:\Users\<user name>` on windows. Also,
`%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%` defaults to
`~/.config` if undefined
732 1. **System Configuration**:
`/etc/yt-dlp.conf` or
`/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
734 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:
736 # Lines starting with # are comments
738 # Always extract audio
741 # Do not copy the mtime
745 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
747 # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
748 -o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
751 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`.
753 You can use
`--ignore-config` if you want to disable all configuration files for a particular yt-dlp run. If
`--ignore-config` is found inside any configuration file, no further configuration will be loaded. For example, having the option in the portable configuration file prevents loading of user and system configurations. Additionally, (for backward compatibility) if
`--ignore-config` is found inside the system configuration file, the user configuration is not loaded.
755 ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
757 You may also want to configure automatic credentials storage for extractors that support authentication (by providing login and password with
`--username` and
`--password`) in order not to pass credentials as command line arguments on every yt-dlp execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command history. You can achieve this using a
[`.netrc` file](https://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on a per extractor basis. For that you will need to create a
`.netrc` file in your
`$HOME` and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
760 chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
762 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
764 machine <extractor> login <login> password <password>
768 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
769 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
771 To activate authentication with the
`.netrc` file you should pass
`--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
773 On Windows you may also need to setup the
`%HOME%` environment variable manually. For example:
775 set HOME=%USERPROFILE%
780 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.
782 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
784 The basic usage of
`-o` is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in
`yt-dlp -o funny_video.flv "https://some/video"`. However, it may contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according to
[python string formatting operations](https://docs.python.org/2/library/stdtypes.html#string-formatting). For example,
`%(NAME)s` or
`%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations. Date/time fields can also be formatted according to
[strftime formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes) by specifying it inside the parantheses seperated from the field name using a
`>`. For example,
`%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`.
786 Additionally, you can set different output templates for the various metadata files seperately from the general output template by specifying the type of file followed by the template seperated by a colon ":". The different filetypes supported are
`subtitle|thumbnail|description|annotation|infojson|pl_description|pl_infojson`. 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.
788 The available fields are:
790 - `id` (string): Video identifier
791 - `title` (string): Video title
792 - `url` (string): Video URL
793 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
794 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
795 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
796 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
797 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
798 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
799 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
800 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
801 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
802 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
803 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
804 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
805 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
806 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
807 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH-mm-ss)
808 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
809 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
810 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
811 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
812 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
813 - `comment_count` (numeric): Number of comments on the video
814 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
815 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
816 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
817 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
818 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
819 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
820 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
821 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by
`--format`
822 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
823 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
824 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
825 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
826 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
827 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
828 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
829 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
830 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
831 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
832 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
833 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
834 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
835 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
836 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
837 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
838 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
839 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch when creating the file
840 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at
`--autonumber-start`
841 - `playlist` (string): Name or id of the playlist that contains the video
842 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
843 - `playlist_id` (string): Playlist identifier
844 - `playlist_title` (string): Playlist title
845 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
846 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
848 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
850 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
851 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
852 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
854 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
856 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
857 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
858 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
859 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
860 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
861 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
862 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
864 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
866 - `track` (string): Title of the track
867 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
868 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
869 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
870 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
871 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
872 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
873 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
874 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
875 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
877 Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. Note that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with placeholder value provided with
`--output-na-placeholder` (
`NA` by default).
879 For example for
`-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title
`yt-dlp test video` and id
`BaW_jenozKcj`, this will result in a
`yt-dlp test video-BaW_jenozKcj.mp4` file created in the current directory.
881 For numeric sequences you can use numeric related formatting, for example,
`%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to
5 characters, like in
`00042`.
883 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.
885 To use percent literals in an output template use
`%%`. To output to stdout use
`-o -`.
887 The current default template is
`%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
889 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:
891 #### Output template and Windows batch files
893 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"`.
895 #### Output template examples
897 Note that on Windows you need to use double quotes instead of single.
900 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
901 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
903 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
904 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
906 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
907 $ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
909 # Download YouTube playlist videos in seperate directories according to their uploaded year
910 $ yt-dlp -o '%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
912 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
913 $ yt-dlp -o '%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists
915 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
916 $ 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/
918 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
919 $ 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
921 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
922 $ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
927 By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
928 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`.
930 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.
932 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
934 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.
936 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.
938 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
940 - `all`: Select all formats
941 - `b*`,
`best*`: Select the best quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio.
942 - `w*`,
`worst*`: Select the worst quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio.
943 - `b`,
`best`: Select the best quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
944 - `w`,
`worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
945 - `bv`,
`bestvideo`: Select the best quality video-only format. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec=none]`
946 - `wv`,
`worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to
`worst*[acodec=none]`
947 - `bv*`,
`bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none]`
948 - `wv*`,
`worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec!=none]`
949 - `ba`,
`bestaudio`: Select the best quality audio-only format. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec=none]`
950 - `wa`,
`worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec=none]`
951 - `ba*`,
`bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec!=none]`
952 - `wa*`,
`worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to
`worst*[acodec!=none]`
954 For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use
`-f worstvideo`. It is however recomended to never actually 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.
956 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.
958 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`.
960 You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using
`-f <format1>+<format2>+...` (requires ffmpeg installed), for example
`-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg. If
`--no-video-multistreams` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, if
`--no-audio-multistreams` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. For example,
`-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio` will download and merge all
3 given formats. The resulting file will have
2 video streams and
2 audio streams. But
`-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --no-video-multistreams` will download and merge only
`bestvideo` and
`bestaudio`.
`best` is ignored since another format containing a video stream (
`bestvideo`) has already been selected. The order of the formats is therefore important.
`-f best+bestaudio --no-audio-multistreams` will download and merge both formats while
`-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore
`best` and download only
`bestaudio`.
964 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in
`-f "best[height=720]"` (or
`-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
966 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons
`<`,
`<=`,
`>`,
`>=`,
`=` (equals),
`!=` (not equals):
968 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
969 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
970 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
971 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
972 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
973 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
974 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
977 Also filtering work for comparisons
`=` (equals),
`^=` (starts with),
`$=` (ends with),
`*=` (contains) and following string meta fields:
979 - `ext`: File extension
980 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
981 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
982 - `container`: Name of the container format
983 - `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`)
984 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
985 - `language`: Language code
987 Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation
`!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g.
`!*=` (does not contain).
989 Note that none of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by the video hoster. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
991 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.
993 Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if you want to download the best mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than
480 you can use
`-f '(mp4,webm)[height<480]'`.
997 You can change the criteria for being considered the
`best` by using
`-S` (
`--format-sort`). The general format for this is
`--format-sort field1,field2...`. The available fields are:
999 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1000 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
1001 - `ie_pref`: The format preference as given by the extractor
1002 - `lang`: Language preference as given by the extractor
1003 - `quality`: The quality of the format as given by the extractor
1004 - `source`: Preference of the source as given by the extractor
1005 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (
`https`/
`ftps` >
`http`/
`ftp` >
`m3u8-native` >
`m3u8` >
`http-dash-segments` > other >
`mms`/
`rtsp` > unknown >
`f4f`/
`f4m`)
1006 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (
`av01` >
`vp9.2` >
`vp9` >
`h265` >
`h264` >
`vp8` >
`h263` >
`theora` > other > unknown)
1007 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (
`opus` >
`vorbis` >
`aac` >
`mp4a` >
`mp3` >
`ac3` >
`dts` > other > unknown)
1008 - `codec`: Equivalent to
`vcodec,acodec`
1009 - `vext`: Video Extension (
`mp4` >
`webm` >
`flv` > other > unknown). If
`--prefer-free-formats` is used,
`webm` is prefered.
1010 - `aext`: Audio Extension (
`m4a` >
`aac` >
`mp3` >
`ogg` >
`opus` >
`webm` > other > unknown). If
`--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to
`opus` >
`ogg` >
`webm` >
`m4a` >
`mp3` >
`aac`.
1011 - `ext`: Equivalent to
`vext,aext`
1012 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if know in advance. This will be unavailable for mu38 and DASH formats.
1013 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1014 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
1015 - `height`: Height of video
1016 - `width`: Width of video
1017 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1018 - `fps`: Framerate of video
1019 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1020 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1021 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1022 - `br`: Equivalent to using
`tbr,vbr,abr`
1023 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
1025 Note that any other **numerical** field made available by the extractor can also be used. All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in decending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a
`+`. Eg:
`+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a prefered value for the fields, seperated by a
`:`. Eg:
`res:720` prefers larger videos, but no larger than
720p and the smallest video if there are no videos less than
720p. For
`codec` and
`ext`, you can provide two prefered values, the first for video and the second for audio. Eg:
`+codec:avc:m4a` (equivalent to
`+vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a`) sets the video codec preference to
`h264` >
`h265` >
`vp9` >
`vp9.2` >
`av01` >
`vp8` >
`h263` >
`theora` and audio codec preference to
`mp4a` >
`aac` >
`vorbis` >
`opus` >
`mp3` >
`ac3` >
`dts`. You can also make the sorting prefer the nearest values to the provided by using
`~` as the delimiter. Eg:
`filesize~1G` prefers the format with filesize closest to
1 GiB.
1027 The fields
`hasvid`,
`ie_pref`,
`lang` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using
`--force-format-sort`. Apart from these, the default order used is:
`quality,res,fps,codec:vp9.2,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. Note that the extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
1029 If your format selector is
`worst`, the last item is selected after sorting. This means it will select the format that is worst in all repects. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use
`-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps`.
1031 **Tip**: You can use the
`-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1033 ## Format Selection examples
1035 Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
1038 # Download and merge the best best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
1039 # or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
1040 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv+ba/b'
1042 # Download best format that contains video,
1043 # and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
1044 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba/b'
1049 # Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1050 # For this case, an output template should be used since
1051 # by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
1052 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv,ba' -o '%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s'
1056 # The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
1057 # and how to use -S to achieve a similar but better result
1059 # Download the worst video available (old method)
1060 $ yt-dlp -f 'wv*+wa/w'
1062 # Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
1065 # Download the smallest video available
1066 $ yt-dlp -S '+size,+br'
1070 # Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
1071 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b'
1073 # Download the best video with the best extension
1074 # (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
1079 # Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1080 # or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
1081 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w'
1083 # Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1084 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1085 $ yt-dlp -S 'height:480'
1087 # Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1088 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1089 # Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1090 # So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
1091 $ yt-dlp -S 'res:480'
1095 # Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1096 # or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1097 $ yt-dlp -f 'b[filesize<50M] / w'
1099 # Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1100 # or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1101 $ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize:50M'
1103 # Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
1104 $ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize~50M'
1108 # Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1109 # or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
1110 $ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)'
1112 # Download best video available via the best protocol
1113 # (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
1118 # Download the best video with h264 codec, or the best video if there is no such video
1119 $ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[vcodec^=avc1] / (bv*+ba/b)'
1121 # Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1122 # or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
1123 $ yt-dlp -S 'codec:h264'
1125 # Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1126 # or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
1127 $ yt-dlp -S '+codec:h264'
1131 # More complex examples
1133 # Download the best video no better than 720p prefering framerate greater than 30,
1134 # or the worst video (still prefering framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
1135 $ yt-dlp -f '((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)'
1137 # Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
1138 # or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
1139 # prefering larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
1140 $ yt-dlp -S 'res:720,fps'
1144 # Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1145 # or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
1146 # prefering better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
1147 $ yt-dlp -S '+res:480,codec,br'
1152 Plugins are loaded from
`<root-dir>/ytdlp_plugins/<type>/__init__.py`. Currently only
`extractor` plugins are supported. Support for
`downloader` and
`postprocessor` plugins may be added in the future. See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example.
1154 **Note**:
`<root-dir>` is the directory of the binary (
`<root-dir>/yt-dlp`), or the root directory of the module if you are running directly from source-code (
`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`)
1157 For FAQ, Developer Instructions etc., see the
[original README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)