1 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
4 [](#readme)
6 [](#release-files "Release")
7 []
(https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp "PyPi")
8 [](Collaborators.md#collaborators "Donate")
9 []
(https://matrix.to/#/#yt-dlp:matrix.org "Matrix")
10 []
(https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r "Discord")
11 [](supportedsites.md "Supported Sites")
12 [](LICENSE "License")
13 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions "CI Status")
14 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
15 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
18 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
20 yt-dlp is a
[youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) fork based on the now inactive
[youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc). The main focus of this project is adding new features and patches while also keeping up to date with the original project
22 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "USAGE AND OPTIONS" SECTION HERE -->
24 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
25 * [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
26 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
27 * [INSTALLATION](#installation)
29 * [Release Files](#release-files)
30 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
32 * [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
33 * [General Options](#general-options)
34 * [Network Options](#network-options)
35 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
36 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
37 * [Download Options](#download-options)
38 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
39 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
40 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
41 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
42 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
43 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
44 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
45 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
46 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
47 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
48 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
49 * [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
50 * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
51 * [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
52 * [Output template and Windows batch files](#output-template-and-windows-batch-files)
53 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
54 * [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
55 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
56 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
57 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
58 * [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
59 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
60 * [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
62 * [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
63 * [Embedding examples](#embedding-examples)
64 * [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
65 * [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
66 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
67 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
69 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
74 * Merged with **youtube-dl v2021.12
.17+
[commit/a03b977](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/a03b9775d544b06a5b4f2aa630214c7c22fc2229)**<!--(
[exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21))--> and **youtube-dlc v2020.11
.11-
3+
[commit/f9401f2](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/f9401f2a91987068139c5f757b12fc711d4c0cee)**: You get all the features and patches of
[youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) in addition to the latest
[youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl)
76 * **
[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
78 * **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using
`-S`. This allows for much easier format selection than what is possible by simply using
`--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
80 * **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from
[animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including
`--write-comments`,
`BiliBiliSearch`,
`BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that the NicoNico livestreams are not available. See
[#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
82 * **YouTube improvements**:
83 * Supports Clips, Stories (
`ytstories:<channel UCID>`), Search (including filters)**\***, YouTube Music Search, Channel-specific search, Search prefixes (
`ytsearch:`,
`ytsearchdate:`)**\***, Mixes, YouTube Music Albums/Channels (
[except self-uploaded music](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/723)), and Feeds (
`:ytfav`,
`:ytwatchlater`,
`:ytsubs`,
`:ythistory`,
`:ytrec`,
`:ytnotif`)
84 * Fix for
[n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326) **\***
85 * Supports some (but not all) age-gated content without cookies
86 * Download livestreams from the start using
`--live-from-start` (*experimental*)
87 * `255kbps` audio is extracted (if available) from YouTube Music when premium cookies are given
88 * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to
`/video` to preserve the old behaviour
90 * **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using
`--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE]`
92 * **Download time range**: Videos can be downloaded partially based on either timestamps or chapters using
`--download-sections`
94 * **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using
`--split-chapters`
96 * **Multi-threaded fragment downloads**: Download multiple fragments of m3u8/mpd videos in parallel. Use
`--concurrent-fragments` (
`-N`) option to set the number of threads used
98 * **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use
`aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
100 * **New and fixed extractors**: Many new extractors have been added and a lot of existing ones have been fixed. See the [changelog](Changelog.md) or the [list of supported sites](supportedsites.md)
102 * **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN etc.
104 * **Subtitle extraction from manifests**: Subtitles can be extracted from streaming media manifests. See
[commit/be6202f](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/be6202f12b97858b9d716e608394b51065d0419f) for details
106 * **Multiple paths and output templates**: You can give different [output templates](#output-template) and download paths for different types of files. You can also set a temporary path where intermediary files are downloaded to using
`--paths` (
`-P`)
108 * **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
110 * **Output template improvements**: Output templates can now have date-time formatting, numeric offsets, object traversal etc. See [output template](#output-template) for details. Even more advanced operations can also be done with the help of
`--parse-metadata` and
`--replace-in-metadata`
112 * **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as
`--alias`,
`--print`,
`--concat-playlist`,
`--wait-for-video`,
`--retry-sleep`,
`--sleep-requests`,
`--convert-thumbnails`,
`--force-download-archive`,
`--force-overwrites`,
`--break-on-reject` etc
114 * **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in
`--format`/
`--match-filter`, multiple
`--postprocessor-args` and
`--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection), merge multi-video/audio, multiple
`--config-locations`,
`--exec` at different stages, etc
116 * **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
118 * **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using
`yt-dlp -U`
120 See
[changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
122 Features marked with a **\*** have been back-ported to youtube-dl
124 ### Differences in default behavior
126 Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
128 * The options
`--auto-number` (
`-A`),
`--title` (
`-t`) and
`--literal` (
`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
129 * `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to
`ffmpeg`
130 * yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [configuration](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
131 * The default [output template](#output-template) is
`%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`. There is no real reason for this change. This was changed before yt-dlp was ever made public and now there are no plans to change it back to
`%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`. Instead, you may use
`--compat-options filename`
132 * The default [format sorting](#sorting-formats) is different from youtube-dl and prefers higher resolution and better codecs rather than higher bitrates. You can use the
`--format-sort` option to change this to any order you prefer, or use
`--compat-options format-sort` to use youtube-dl's sorting order
133 * The default format selector is
`bv*+ba/b`. This means that if a combined video + audio format that is better than the best video-only format is found, the former will be preferred. Use
`-f bv+ba/b` or
`--compat-options format-spec` to revert this
134 * Unlike youtube-dlc, yt-dlp does not allow merging multiple audio/video streams into one file by default (since this conflicts with the use of
`-f bv*+ba`). If needed, this feature must be enabled using
`--audio-multistreams` and
`--video-multistreams`. You can also use
`--compat-options multistreams` to enable both
135 * `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use
`--abort-on-error` or
`--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
136 * When writing metadata files such as thumbnails, description or infojson, the same information (if available) is also written for playlists. Use
`--no-write-playlist-metafiles` or
`--compat-options no-playlist-metafiles` to not write these files
137 * `--add-metadata` attaches the
`infojson` to
`mkv` files in addition to writing the metadata when used with
`--write-info-json`. Use
`--no-embed-info-json` or
`--compat-options no-attach-info-json` to revert this
138 * Some metadata are embedded into different fields when using
`--add-metadata` as compared to youtube-dl. Most notably,
`comment` field contains the
`webpage_url` and
`synopsis` contains the
`description`. You can [use
`--parse-metadata`](#modifying-metadata) to modify this to your liking or use
`--compat-options embed-metadata` to revert this
139 * `playlist_index` behaves differently when used with options like
`--playlist-reverse` and
`--playlist-items`. See
[#302](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/302) for details. You can use
`--compat-options playlist-index` if you want to keep the earlier behavior
140 * The output of
`-F` is listed in a new format. Use
`--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
141 * 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
142 * 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
143 * Youtube channel URLs are automatically redirected to
`/video`. Append a
`/featured` to the URL to download only the videos in the home page. If the channel does not have a videos tab, we try to download the equivalent
`UU` playlist instead. For all other tabs, if the channel does not show the requested tab, an error will be raised. Also,
`/live` URLs raise an error if there are no live videos instead of silently downloading the entire channel. You may use
`--compat-options no-youtube-channel-redirect` to revert all these redirections
144 * Unavailable videos are also listed for youtube playlists. Use
`--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
145 * 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
146 * Thumbnail embedding in
`mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use
`--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
147 * 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
148 * 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
149 * `certifi` will be used for SSL root certificates, if installed. If you want to use system certificates (e.g. self-signed), use
`--compat-options no-certifi`
150 * youtube-dl tries to remove some superfluous punctuations from filenames. While this can sometimes be helpful, it is often undesirable. So yt-dlp tries to keep the fields in the filenames as close to their original values as possible. You can use
`--compat-options filename-sanitization` to revert to youtube-dl's behavior
152 For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
154 * `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
155 * `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as
`--compat-options all,-multistreams`
156 * `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as
`--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
161 You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
163 ### Using the release binary
165 You can simply download the [correct binary file](#release-files) for your OS
167 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
168 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)
169 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
170 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)
171 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
172 [](#release-files)
173 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
174 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
176 Note: The manpages, shell completion files etc. are available in the
[source tarball](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
178 <!-- TODO: Move to Wiki -->
179 In UNIX-like OSes (MacOS, Linux, BSD), you can also install the same in one of the following ways:
182 sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
183 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
187 sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
188 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
192 sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp --dir /usr/local/bin -o yt-dlp
193 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
197 ### With [PIP](https://pypi.org/project/pip)
199 You can install the
[PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) with:
201 python3 -m pip install -U yt-dlp
204 You can install without any of the optional dependencies using:
206 python3 -m pip install --no-deps -U yt-dlp
209 If you want to be on the cutting edge, you can also install the master branch with:
211 python3 -m pip install --force-reinstall https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/archive/master.tar.gz
214 On some systems, you may need to use
`py` or
`python` instead of
`python3`
216 <!-- TODO: Add to Wiki, Remove Taps -->
217 ### With [Homebrew](https://brew.sh)
219 macOS or Linux users that are using Homebrew can also install it by:
222 brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp
226 You can use
`yt-dlp -U` to update if you are [using the provided release](#using-the-release-binary)
228 If you [installed with pip](#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
230 If you [installed using Homebrew](#with-homebrew), run
`brew upgrade yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp`
232 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
239 [yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independent
[zipimport](https://docs.python.org/3/library/zipimport.html) binary. Needs Python (recommended for **Linux/BSD**)
240 [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**)
241 [yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|Universal MacOS (
10.15+) standalone executable (recommended for **MacOS**)
247 [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
248 [yt-dlp_min.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_min.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary built with
`py2exe`<br/> ([Not recommended](#standalone-py2exe-builds-windows))
249 [yt-dlp_linux](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux)|Linux standalone x64 binary
250 [yt-dlp_linux.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux.zip)|Unpackaged Linux executable (no auto-update)
251 [yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
252 [yt-dlp_macos.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos.zip)|Unpackaged MacOS (
10.15+) executable (no auto-update)
253 [yt-dlp_macos_legacy](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos_legacy)|MacOS (
10.9+) standalone x64 executable
259 [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
260 [SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
261 [SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
262 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
265 Python versions
3.7+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
267 <!-- Python
3.5+ uses VC++
14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
268 <!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=
26999 --x>
269 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.
272 While all the other dependencies are optional,
`ffmpeg` and
`ffprobe` are highly recommended
274 ### Strongly recommended
276 * [**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)
278 <!-- TODO: ffmpeg has merged this patch. Remove this note once there is new release -->
279 **Note**: There are some regressions in newer ffmpeg versions that causes various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependency, we provide
[custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#ffmpeg-static-auto-builds) with patches for these issues at
[yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds). See
[the readme](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#patches-applied) for details on the specific issues solved by these builds
282 * [**certifi**](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi)\* - Provides Mozilla's root certificate bundle. Licensed under
[MPLv2](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi/blob/master/LICENSE)
283 * [**brotli**](https://github.com/google/brotli)\* or
[**brotlicffi**](https://github.com/python-hyper/brotlicffi) -
[Brotli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brotli) content encoding support. Both licensed under MIT <sup>
[1](https://github.com/google/brotli/blob/master/LICENSE) [2](https://github.com/python-hyper/brotlicffi/blob/master/LICENSE) </sup>
284 * [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under
[BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
288 * [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For
`--embed-thumbnail` in certain formats. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
289 * [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For
`--embed-thumbnail` in
`mp4`/
`m4a` files when
`mutagen`/
`ffmpeg` cannot. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
290 * [**xattr**](https://github.com/xattr/xattr),
[**pyxattr**](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr) or
[**setfattr**](http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/attr) - For writing xattr metadata (
`--xattr`) on **Linux**. Licensed under
[MIT](https://github.com/xattr/xattr/blob/master/LICENSE.txt),
[LGPL2.1](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr/blob/master/COPYING) and
[GPLv2+](http://git.savannah.nongnu.org/cgit/attr.git/tree/doc/COPYING) respectively
294 * [**pycryptodomex**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome)\* - For decrypting AES-
128 HLS streams and various other data. Licensed under
[BSD-2-Clause](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
295 * [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licensed under
[BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
296 * [**secretstorage**](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage) - For
`--cookies-from-browser` to access the **Gnome** keyring while decrypting cookies of **Chromium**-based browsers on **Linux**. Licensed under
[BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage/blob/master/LICENSE)
297 * Any external downloader that you want to use with
`--downloader`
301 * [**avconv** and **avprobe**](https://www.libav.org) - Now **deprecated** alternative to ffmpeg. License
[depends on the build](https://libav.org/legal)
302 * [**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)
303 * [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading
`rtmp` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with
`--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
304 * [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or
[**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading
`rstp`/
`mms` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with
`--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
306 To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
308 The standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with **\*** included.
310 If you do not have the necessary dependencies for a task you are attempting, yt-dlp will warn you. All the currently available dependencies are visible at the top of the
`--verbose` output
315 ### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
316 To build the Windows/MacOS executable, you must have Python and
`pyinstaller` (plus any of yt-dlp's [optional dependencies](#dependencies) if needed). Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, simply run
`pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (
32/
64 bit) as the Python used.
318 python3 -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
319 python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
322 On some systems, you may need to use
`py` or
`python` instead of
`python3`.
324 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.
326 **Important**: Running
`pyinstaller` directly **without** using
`pyinst.py` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
328 ### Platform-independent Binary (UNIX)
329 You will need the build tools
`python` (
3.6+),
`zip`,
`make` (GNU),
`pandoc`\* and
`pytest`\*.
331 After installing these, simply run
`make`.
333 You can also run
`make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files. (The dependencies marked with **\*** are not needed for this)
335 ### Standalone Py2Exe Builds (Windows)
337 While we provide the option to build with
[py2exe](https://www.py2exe.org), it is recommended to build [using PyInstaller](#standalone-pyinstaller-builds) instead since the py2exe builds **cannot contain
`pycryptodomex`/
`certifi` and needs VC++
14** on the target computer to run.
339 If you wish to build it anyway, install Python and py2exe, and then simply run
`setup.py py2exe`
341 py -m pip install -U py2exe -r requirements.txt
342 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
347 * **
`devscripts/update-version.py`** - Update the version number based on current timestamp
348 * **
`devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py`** - Create lazy extractors. Running this before building the binaries (any variant) will improve their startup performance. Set the environment variable
`YTDLP_NO_LAZY_EXTRACTORS=1` if you wish to forcefully disable lazy extractor loading.
350 You can also fork the project on github and run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build a full release
354 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
355 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
357 `Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
358 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
360 <!-- Auto generated -->
362 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
363 --version Print program version and exit
364 -U, --update Update this program to latest version
365 --no-update Do not update (default)
366 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
367 The download will be considered successful
368 even if the postprocessing fails
369 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
370 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
372 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
373 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
374 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
375 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
376 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
378 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic extractor
379 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. Eg:
380 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
381 google videos for the search term "python".
382 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
383 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
384 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
385 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
386 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
387 possible instead of searching
388 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
389 except those given by --config-locations.
390 For backward compatibility, if this option
391 is found inside the system configuration
392 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
394 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
395 (default). When given inside a configuration
396 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
397 defined in the current file
398 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
399 either the path to the config or its
400 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
401 used multiple times and inside other
403 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
405 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
406 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
407 Currently only supported for YouTube
409 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
411 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
412 available. Pass the minimum number of
413 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
414 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
415 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
416 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
417 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output (Alias:
419 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
420 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
421 configurations by reverting some of the
422 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
423 default behavior" for details
424 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
425 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
426 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
427 according to the Python string formatting
428 mini-language. Eg: --alias get-audio,-X
429 "-S=aext:{
0},abr -x --audio-format {
0}"
430 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
431 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
432 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
433 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
434 output. Alias options can trigger more
435 aliases; so be careful to avoid defining
436 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
437 alias may be triggered a maximum of
100
438 times. This option can be used multiple times
441 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
442 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme.
443 Eg: socks5://user:pass@
127.0.0.1:
1080/. Pass
444 in an empty string (--proxy "") for direct
446 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
447 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
448 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
449 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
452 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
453 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
454 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
455 is not present) is used for the actual
457 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
458 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header (default)
459 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
460 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
461 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
462 explicitly provided two-letter ISO
3166-
2
464 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
465 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR notation
468 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma separated playlist_index of the videos
469 to download. You can specify a range using
470 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
471 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
472 Use negative indices to count from the right
473 and negative STEP to download in reverse
474 order. Eg: "-I
1:
3,
7,-
5::
2" used on a
475 playlist of size
15 will download the videos
476 at index
1,
2,
3,
7,
11,
13,
15
477 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE
479 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
481 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
482 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
483 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
484 Eg: --date today-
2weeks
485 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
486 this date. The date formats accepted is the
488 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
489 this date. The date formats accepted is the
491 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
492 field can be compared with a number or a
493 string using the operators defined in
494 "Filtering formats". You can also simply
495 specify a field to match if the field is
496 present, use "!field" to check if the field
497 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
498 conditions. Use a "
\" to escape "&" or
499 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
500 the filter matches if atleast one of the
501 conditions are met. Eg: --match-filter
502 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?
100 &
503 description~='(?i)
\bcats \& dogs
\b'" matches
504 only videos that are not live OR those that
505 have a like count more than
100 (or the like
506 field is not available) and also has a
507 description that contains the phrase "cats &
508 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
509 interactively ask whether to download each
511 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
512 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
513 to a video and a playlist
514 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
515 a video and a playlist
516 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
518 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
519 archive file. Record the IDs of all
520 downloaded videos in it
521 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
522 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
523 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
524 a file that is in the archive
525 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
526 a file that has been filtered out
527 --break-per-input Make --break-on-existing, --break-on-reject
528 and --max-downloads act only on the current
530 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
531 terminates the entire download queue
532 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
533 the playlist is skipped
536 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
537 video that should be downloaded concurrently
539 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
541 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
542 below which throttling is assumed and the
543 video data is re-extracted (e.g.
100K)
544 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is
10), or
546 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
547 error (default is
3), or "infinite"
548 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
549 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
550 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR An expression for the time to sleep between
551 retries in seconds (optionally) prefixed by
552 the type of retry (file_access, fragment,
553 http (default)) to apply the sleep to. EXPR
554 can be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=
1]]
555 or exp=START[:END[:BASE=
2]]. This option can
556 be used multiple times to set the sleep for
557 the different retry types. Eg: --retry-sleep
558 linear=
1::
2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=
1:
20
559 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
560 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
561 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
562 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment
563 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
564 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
565 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
566 downloading is finished
567 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
568 downloading is finished (default)
569 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g.
1024 or
16K)
571 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
572 from an initial value of --buffer-size
574 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
575 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
576 downloading (e.g.
10485760 or
10M) (default
577 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
578 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
580 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
581 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
582 received. This disables n_entries,
583 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
584 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
585 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
586 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
588 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
589 allowing some players to play the video
590 while downloading, and reducing the chance
591 of file corruption if download is
592 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
594 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
595 videos. This is default when not downloading
597 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters whose title matches
598 the given regular expression. Time ranges
599 prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place
600 of chapters to download the specified range.
601 Eg: --download-sections "*
10:
15-
15:
00"
602 --download-sections "intro". Needs ffmpeg.
603 This option can be used multiple times to
604 download multiple sections
605 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
606 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
607 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
608 use it for. Currently supports native,
609 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
610 wget. You can use this option multiple times
611 to set different downloaders for different
612 protocols. For example, --downloader aria2c
613 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
614 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
615 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
616 (Alias: --external-downloader)
617 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
618 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
619 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
620 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
621 positions using the same syntax as
622 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
623 option multiple times to give different
624 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
625 --external-downloader-args)
627 ## Filesystem Options:
628 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
629 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
630 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
632 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
633 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
634 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
635 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
636 TYPES as --output are supported.
637 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
638 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
639 files are first downloaded to the temp path
640 and then the final files are moved over to
641 the home path after download is finished.
642 This option is ignored if --output is an
644 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
645 TEMPLATE" for details
646 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
647 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" (default: "NA")
648 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
649 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
650 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
652 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
653 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
654 using Windows (default)
655 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
656 extension) to the specified number of
658 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
659 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
660 option includes --no-continue
661 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
662 related files (default)
663 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
665 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
666 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
667 restart download of the entire file
668 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
669 into output file (default)
670 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
672 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
673 modification time (default)
674 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
675 the file modification time
676 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
677 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
678 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
679 (this may contain personal information)
680 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
681 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
682 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
683 --write-description etc. (default)
684 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
685 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
686 --clean-info-json Remove some private fields such as filenames
687 from the infojson. Note that it could still
688 contain some personal information (default)
689 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
690 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
691 infojson. The comments are fetched even
692 without this option if the extraction is
693 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
694 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
695 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
697 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
698 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
699 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
700 and dump cookie jar in
701 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
703 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE]
704 The name of the browser and (optionally) the
705 name/path of the profile to load cookies
706 from, separated by a ":". Currently
707 supported browsers are: brave, chrome,
708 chromium, edge, firefox, opera, safari,
709 vivaldi. By default, the most recently
710 accessed profile is used. The keyring used
711 for decrypting Chromium cookies on Linux can
712 be (optionally) specified after the browser
713 name separated by a "+". Currently supported
714 keyrings are: basictext, gnomekeyring, kwallet
715 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
716 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
717 can store some downloaded information (such
718 as client ids and signatures) permanently.
719 By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/yt-dlp or
721 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
722 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
724 ## Thumbnail Options:
725 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
726 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
727 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
728 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
729 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
731 ## Internet Shortcut Options:
732 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
733 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
734 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
735 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
736 OS caches the URL based on the file path
737 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
738 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
740 ## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
741 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
742 print the log to stderr
743 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
744 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
746 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
748 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
749 extracting metadata even if the videos are
750 not actually available for download
752 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
753 formats are found (default)
754 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
755 related files (Alias: --no-download)
756 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
757 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
758 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
759 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
760 --use-postprocessor, and "video" (default).
761 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
762 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
763 used. This option can be used multiple times
764 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
765 Append given template to the file. The
766 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
767 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
768 output template. This option can be used
770 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
771 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
772 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
773 description of available keys
774 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
775 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
776 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
777 a playlist, the whole playlist information
778 is dumped in a single line
779 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
780 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
781 another simulation option is used (Alias:
782 --force-download-archive)
783 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
784 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
785 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
786 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
787 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
788 Template for progress outputs, optionally
789 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
790 "download-title:" (the console title),
791 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
792 The video's fields are accessible under the
793 "info" key and the progress attributes are
794 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.:
795 --console-title --progress-template
796 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
797 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
798 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
799 to debug problems (very verbose)
800 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
801 in the current directory to debug problems
802 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
805 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
806 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
807 that do not support RFC
5746 secure
809 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
810 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
811 information about the video (Currently
812 supported only for YouTube)
813 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
814 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
815 option multiple times
816 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
817 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
818 or fribidi executable in PATH
819 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
820 during data extraction
821 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
822 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
823 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
824 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
825 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
826 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
827 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
830 ## Video Format Options:
831 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
833 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
834 "Sorting Formats" for more details
835 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
836 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
837 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
838 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
839 specified sort order (default)
840 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
842 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
843 output file (default)
844 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
846 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
847 output file (default)
848 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
849 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
850 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
851 irrespective of quality
852 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
854 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
855 those that are actually downloadable
856 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
857 actually downloadable
858 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
860 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
861 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
862 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
863 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
864 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
865 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
868 --write-subs Write subtitle file
869 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
870 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
871 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
872 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
873 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
874 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
875 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
876 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
877 Eg: "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
878 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
879 be regex) or "all" separated by commas. (Eg:
880 --sub-langs "en.*,ja") You can prefix the
881 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
882 the requested languages. (Eg: --sub-langs
883 all,-live_chat) Use --list-subs for a list
884 of available language tags
886 ## Authentication Options:
887 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
888 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
889 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
890 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
891 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
892 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
893 either the path or its containing directory.
895 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
896 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
897 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
898 a list of available MSOs
899 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
900 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
901 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
903 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
904 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
905 format. May include the private key
906 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
907 Path to private key file for client
909 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
910 Password for client certificate private key,
911 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
912 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
914 ## Post-Processing Options:
915 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
916 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
917 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
918 used. (currently supported: best (default),
919 mp3, aac, m4a, opus, vorbis, flac, alac,
920 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
921 similar syntax as --remux-video
922 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
923 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
924 between
0 (best) and
10 (worst) for VBR or a
925 specific bitrate like
128K (default
5)
926 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
927 necessary (currently supported: mp4, mkv,
928 flv, webm, mov, avi, mka, ogg, mp3, aac,
929 m4a, opus, vorbis, flac, alac, wav). If
930 target container does not support the
931 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
932 can specify multiple rules; Eg.
933 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
934 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
935 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
936 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
937 are the same as --remux-video
938 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
939 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
940 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
941 to give the argument to the specified
942 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
943 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
944 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
945 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
946 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
947 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
948 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
949 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
950 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
951 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
952 specified executable only when being used by
953 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
954 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
955 appended to the prefix optionally followed
956 by a number to pass the argument before the
957 specified input/output file. Eg: --ppa
958 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
959 this option multiple times to give different
960 arguments to different postprocessors.
962 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
963 after post-processing
964 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
965 post-processing (default)
966 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
967 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
968 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
970 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
971 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
972 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
973 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
974 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
975 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
976 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
977 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
978 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
979 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
980 (Alias: --add-chapters)
981 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
983 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
985 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
987 --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
988 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
990 --replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
991 Replace text in a metadata field using the
992 given regex. This option can be used
994 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
995 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
996 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
997 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
998 (default; only when the videos form a single
999 show). All the video files must have same
1000 codecs and number of streams to be
1001 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
1002 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1003 the output filename for the concatenated
1004 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1005 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
1006 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
1007 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
1008 default; fix file if we can, warn
1009 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
1011 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
1012 path to the binary or its containing directory
1013 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
1014 when to execute it (after_move if
1015 unspecified), separated by a ":". Supported
1016 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
1017 --use-postprocessor. Same syntax as the
1018 output template can be used to pass any
1019 field as arguments to the command. After
1020 download, an additional field "filepath"
1021 that contains the final path of the
1022 downloaded file is also available, and if no
1023 fields are passed, %(filepath)q is appended
1024 to the end of the command. This option can
1025 be used multiple times
1026 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
1027 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
1028 (currently supported: srt, vtt, ass, lrc)
1029 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
1030 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
1031 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
1032 can specify multiple rules using similar
1033 syntax as --remux-video
1034 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
1035 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
1036 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1037 the output filename for the split files. See
1038 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1039 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
1040 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
1041 given regular expression. The syntax is the
1042 same as --download-sections. This option can
1043 be used multiple times
1044 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1046 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
1047 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
1048 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1049 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1051 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1052 when cutting/splitting (default)
1053 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1054 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1055 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1056 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1057 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1058 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1059 The "when" argument determines when the
1060 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1061 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1062 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
1063 "before_dl" (before each video download),
1064 "post_process" (after each video download;
1065 default), "after_move" (after moving video
1066 file to it's final locations), "after_video"
1067 (after downloading and processing all
1068 formats of a video), or "playlist" (at end
1069 of playlist). This option can be used
1070 multiple times to add different postprocessors
1072 ## SponsorBlock Options:
1073 Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1074 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
1075 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1077 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1078 for, separated by commas. Available
1079 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1080 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
1081 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, all and
1082 default (=all). You can prefix the category
1083 with a "-" to exclude it. See [
1] for
1084 description of the categories. Eg:
1085 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1086 [
1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1087 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1088 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1089 category is present in both mark and remove,
1090 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1091 available categories are the same as for
1092 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
1093 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight is
1095 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
1096 An output template for the title of the
1097 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1098 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1099 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1100 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1101 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1102 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1103 --sponsorblock-remove
1104 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1105 https://sponsor.ajay.app
1107 ## Extractor Options:
1108 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1109 (default is
3), or "infinite"
1110 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1111 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1112 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1113 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1114 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1115 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1116 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1117 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1119 --extractor-args KEY:ARGS Pass these arguments to the extractor. See
1120 "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You can
1121 use this option multiple times to give
1122 arguments for different extractors
1126 You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
1128 1. **Main Configuration**: The file given by
`--config-location`
1129 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.
1130 1. **Home Configuration**:
`yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by
`-P`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
1131 1. **User Configuration**:
1132 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1133 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
1134 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1135 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1137 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
1139 `%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%`
1141 1. **System Configuration**:
`/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
1143 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:
1145 # Lines starting with # are comments
1147 # Always extract audio
1150 # Do not copy the mtime
1154 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1156 # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1157 -o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
1160 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`.
1162 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.
1164 ### Specifying encoding of config files
1166 By default, config files are read in the encoding from system locale.
1167 If you saved your config file in a different encoding than that, you may write
`# coding: ENCODING` to the beginning of the file. (e.g.
`# coding: shift-jis`)
1169 There must not be any characters before that, including spaces.
1171 If you have BOM enabled, it will be used instead.
1173 ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
1175 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:
1178 chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
1180 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1182 machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
1186 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1187 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1189 To activate authentication with the
`.netrc` file you should pass
`--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
1191 The default location of the .netrc file is
`$HOME` (
`~`) in UNIX. On Windows, it is
`%HOME%` if present,
`%USERPROFILE%` (generally
`C:\Users\<user name>`) or
`%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
1195 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.
1197 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1198 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
1199 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1201 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).
1203 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.
1205 The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
1207 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
1209 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`
1211 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`
1213 1. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a
`,`. Eg:
`%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
1215 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.
1217 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`
1219 1. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types
`diouxXeEfFgGcrs`, yt-dlp additionally supports converting to
`B` = **B**ytes,
`j` = **j**son (flag
`#` for pretty-printing),
`h` = HTML escaping,
`l` = a comma separated **l**ist (flag
`#` for
`\n` newline-separated),
`q` = a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag
`#` to split a list into different arguments),
`D` = add **D**ecimal suffixes (Eg:
10M) (flag
`#` to use
1024 as factor), and
`S` = **S**anitize as filename (flag
`#` for restricted)
1221 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
1223 To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1225 %(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
1228 Additionally, you can set different output templates for the various metadata files separately from the general output template by specifying the type of file followed by the template separated by a colon
`:`. The different file types supported are
`subtitle`,
`thumbnail`,
`description`,
`annotation` (deprecated),
`infojson`,
`link`,
`pl_thumbnail`,
`pl_description`,
`pl_infojson`,
`chapter`,
`pl_video`. For example,
`-o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s"` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video. If any of the templates is empty, that type of file will not be written. Eg:
`--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for video.
1230 The available fields are:
1232 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1233 - `title` (string): Video title
1234 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
1235 - `url` (string): Video URL
1236 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1237 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
1238 - `description` (string): The description of the video
1239 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1240 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1241 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1242 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
1243 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
1244 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
1245 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
1246 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
1247 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
1248 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
1249 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1250 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1251 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
1252 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
1253 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1254 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
1255 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
1256 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1257 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1258 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1259 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1260 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
1261 - `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)
1262 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
1263 - `live_status` (string): One of "is_live", "was_live", "is_upcoming", "not_live"
1264 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
1265 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
1266 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
1267 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
1268 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1269 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
1270 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
1271 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by
`--format`
1272 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
1273 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
1274 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
1275 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
1276 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1277 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1278 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
1279 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1280 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1281 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
1282 - `dynamic_range` (string): The dynamic range of the video
1283 - `stretched_ratio` (float):
`width:height` of the video's pixels, if not square
1284 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
1285 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
1286 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
1287 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
1288 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
1289 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1290 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
1291 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
1292 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at
`--autonumber-start`
1293 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
1294 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
1295 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1296 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1297 - `playlist` (string):
`playlist_id` or
`playlist_title`
1298 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
1299 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1300 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
1301 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1302 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
1303 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
1304 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1305 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
1306 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as
`webpage_url` for playlist entries)
1308 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1310 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1311 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1312 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1314 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1316 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1317 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1318 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1319 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1320 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1321 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1322 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1324 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1326 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1327 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1328 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1329 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1330 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1331 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1332 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1333 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1334 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1335 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1337 Available only when using
`--download-sections` and for
`chapter:` prefix when using
`--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
1339 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1340 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1341 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1342 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1344 Available only when used in
`--print`:
1346 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1347 - `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
1348 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by
`--list-formats`
1349 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by
`--list-thumbnails`
1350 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by
`--list-subs`
1351 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by
`--list-subs`
1354 Available only in
`--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1356 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1357 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1358 - `categories` (list): The SponsorBlock categories the chapter belongs to
1359 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1360 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1361 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1363 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.
1365 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).
1367 **Tip**: Look at the
`-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
1369 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`.
1371 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.
1373 To use percent literals in an output template use
`%%`. To output to stdout use
`-o -`.
1375 The current default template is
`%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
1377 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.
1379 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1380 #### Output template and Windows batch files
1382 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"`.
1383 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1385 #### Output template examples
1388 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1389 test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1391 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1392 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
1394 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
1395 youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
1397 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
1398 $ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1400 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
1401 $ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1403 # Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
1404 $ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist_index|)s%(playlist_index& - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1406 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
1407 $ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1409 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
1410 $ 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"
1412 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
1413 $ 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"
1415 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1416 # and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1417 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1419 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1420 $ 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
1422 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
1423 $ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
1428 By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1429 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`.
1431 **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.
1433 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.
1435 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1436 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1437 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1439 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.
1441 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.
1443 You can use
`-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1445 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1447 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1448 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with
`--audio-multistreams`,
`--video-multistreams` or both)
1449 - `b*`,
`best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio
1450 - `b`,
`best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1451 - `bv`,
`bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec=none]`
1452 - `bv*`,
`bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none]`
1453 - `ba`,
`bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec=none]`
1454 - `ba*`,
`bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that **contains audio**. It may also contain video. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec!=none]` ([Do not use!](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/979#issuecomment-919629354))
1455 - `w*
`, `worst*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
1456 - `w
`, `worst
`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]
`
1457 - `wv
`, `worstvideo
`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]
`
1458 - `wv*
`, `worstvideo*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]
`
1459 - `wa
`, `worstaudio
`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]
`
1460 - `wa*
`, `worstaudio*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]
`
1462 For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use `-f worstvideo
`. It is however recommended not to use `worst
` and related options. When your format selector is `worst
`, the format which is worst in all respects is selected. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use `-S +size
` or more rigorously, `-S +size,+br,+res,+fps
` instead of `-f worst
`. See [sorting formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
1464 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.
1466 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.
1468 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
`.
1470 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.
1472 **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
1474 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
`.
1476 ## Filtering Formats
1478 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=
720]"
` (or `-f "[filesize>
10M]"
`).
1480 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<
`, `<=
`, `>
`, `>=
`, `=
` (equals), `!=
` (not equals):
1482 - `filesize
`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1483 - `width
`: Width of the video, if known
1484 - `height
`: Height of the video, if known
1485 - `tbr
`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1486 - `abr
`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1487 - `vbr
`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1488 - `asr
`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1491 Also filtering work for comparisons `=
` (equals), `^=
` (starts with), `$=
` (ends with), `*=
` (contains), `~=
` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
1493 - `ext
`: File extension
1494 - `acodec
`: Name of the audio codec in use
1495 - `vcodec
`: Name of the video codec in use
1496 - `container
`: Name of the container format
1497 - `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
`)
1498 - `format_id
`: A short description of the format
1499 - `language
`: Language code
1501 Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation `!
` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. `!*=
` (does not contain). The comparand of a string comparison needs to be quoted with either double or single quotes if it contains spaces or special characters other than `._-
`.
1503 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.
1505 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.
1507 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]"
`.
1511 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...
`.
1513 The available fields are:
1515 - `hasvid
`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1516 - `hasaud
`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
1517 - `ie_pref
`: The format preference
1518 - `lang
`: The language preference
1519 - `quality
`: The quality of the format
1520 - `source
`: The preference of the source
1521 - `proto
`: Protocol used for download (`https
`/`ftps
` > `http
`/`ftp
` > `m3u8_native
`/`m3u8
` > `http_dash_segments
`> `websocket_frag
` > `mms
`/`rtsp
` > `f4f
`/`f4m
`)
1522 - `vcodec
`: Video Codec (`av01
` > `vp9.2
` > `vp9
` > `h265
` > `h264
` > `vp8
` > `h263
` > `theora
` > other)
1523 - `acodec
`: Audio Codec (`flac
`/`alac
` > `wav
`/`aiff
` > `opus
` > `vorbis
` > `aac
` > `mp4a
` > `mp3
` > `eac3
` > `ac3
` > `dts
` > other)
1524 - `codec
`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec
`
1525 - `vext
`: Video Extension (`mp4
` > `webm
` > `flv
` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats
` is used, `webm
` is preferred.
1526 - `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
`.
1527 - `ext
`: Equivalent to `vext,aext
`
1528 - `filesize
`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
1529 - `fs_approx
`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1530 - `size
`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
1531 - `height
`: Height of video
1532 - `width
`: Width of video
1533 - `res
`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1534 - `fps
`: Framerate of video
1535 - `hdr
`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV
` > `HDR12
` > `HDR10+
` > `HDR10
` > `HLG
` > `SDR
`)
1536 - `tbr
`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1537 - `vbr
`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1538 - `abr
`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1539 - `br
`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr
`
1540 - `asr
`: Audio sample rate in Hz
1542 **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.
1544 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.
1546 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.
1548 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.
1550 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
`.
1552 **Tip**: You can use the `-v -F
` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1554 ## Format Selection examples
1557 # Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
1558 # or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
1559 $ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
1561 # Download best format that contains video,
1562 # and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
1563 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
1568 # Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1569 # For this case, an output template should be used since
1570 # by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
1571 $ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
1573 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1574 # and all audio-only formats into one file
1575 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
1577 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1578 # and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1579 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
1582 # The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
1583 # and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
1585 # Download the worst video available (old method)
1586 $ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
1588 # Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
1591 # Download the smallest video available
1592 $ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
1596 # Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
1597 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
1599 # Download the best video with the best extension
1600 # (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
1605 # Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1606 # or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
1607 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
1609 # Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1610 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1611 $ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
1613 # Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1614 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1615 # Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1616 # So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
1617 $ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
1621 # Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1622 # or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1623 $ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
1625 # Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1626 # or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1627 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
1629 # Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
1630 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
1634 # Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1635 # or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
1636 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
1638 # Download best video available via the best protocol
1639 # (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
1644 # Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1645 # or the best video if there is no such video
1646 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
1648 # Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1649 # or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
1650 $ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
1652 # Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1653 # or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
1654 $ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
1658 # More complex examples
1660 # Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1661 # or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
1662 $ yt-dlp -f "((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)"
1664 # Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
1665 # or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
1666 # preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
1667 $ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
1671 # Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1672 # or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
1673 # preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
1674 $ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
1677 # MODIFYING METADATA
1679 The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata
` and `--replace-in-metadata
`
1681 `--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.
1683 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.
1685 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
`.
1687 This option also has a few special uses:
1689 * 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
1691 * 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.
1693 **Note**: Metadata modification happens before format selection, post-extraction and other post-processing operations. Some fields may be added or changed during these steps, overriding your changes.
1695 For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1697 Metadata fields | From
1698 :--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1699 `title
` | `track
` or `title
`
1700 `date
` | `upload_date
`
1701 `description
`, `synopsis
` | `description
`
1702 `purl
`, `comment
` | `webpage_url
`
1703 `track
` | `track_number
`
1704 `artist
` | `artist
`, `creator
`, `uploader
` or `uploader_id
`
1707 `album_artist
` | `album_artist
`
1708 `disc
` | `disc_number
`
1710 `season_number
` | `season_number
`
1711 `episode_id
` | `episode
` or `episode_id
`
1712 `episode_sort
` | `episode_number
`
1713 `language
` of each stream | the format's `language
`
1715 **Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1718 ## Modifying metadata examples
1721 # Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
1722 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
1725 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
1727 # Set title as "Series name S01E05"
1728 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
1730 # Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
1731 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --add-metadata
1733 # Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1734 # handling multiple lines correctly
1735 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --add-metadata
1737 # Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
1738 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
1740 # Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
1741 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<formats>)" -j
1743 # Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
1744 $ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
1748 # EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1750 Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS
`. `ARGS
` is a `;
` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2
`. Eg: `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_embedded,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"
`
1752 The following extractors use this feature:
1755 * `skip
`: One or more of `hls
`, `dash
` or `translated_subs
` to skip extraction of the m3u8 manifests, dash manifests and [auto-translated subtitles](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/4090#issuecomment-1158102032) respectively
1756 * `player_client
`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web
`, `android
` and `ios
` with variants `_music
`, `_embedded
`, `_embedscreen
`, `_creator
` (Eg: `web_embedded
`); and `mweb
` and `tv_embedded
` (agegate bypass) with no variants. By default, `android,web
` is used, but `tv_embedded
` and `creator
` variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com
` urls. You can use `all
` to use all the clients, and `default
` for the default clients.
1757 * `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
1758 * `include_live_dash
`: Include live dash formats even without `--live-from-start
` (These formats don't download properly)
1759 * `comment_sort
`: `top
` or `new
` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
1760 * `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
`
1761 * 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
1762 * `innertube_host
`: Innertube API host to use for all API requests
1763 * e.g. `studio.youtube.com
`, `youtubei.googleapis.com
`
1764 * Note: Cookies exported from `www.youtube.com
` will not work with hosts other than `*.youtube.com
`
1765 * `innertube_key
`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
1767 #### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1768 * `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)
1769 * `approximate_date
`: Extract approximate `upload_date
` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
1772 * `language
`: Languages to extract. Eg: `funimation:language=english,japanese
`
1773 * `version
`: The video version to extract - `uncut
` or `simulcast
`
1776 * `language
`: Languages to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:language=jaJp
`
1777 * `hardsub
`: Which hard-sub versions to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:hardsub=None,enUS
`
1779 #### crunchyrollbeta
1780 * `format
`: Which stream type(s) to extract. Default is `adaptive_hls
` Eg: `crunchyrollbeta:format=vo_adaptive_hls
`
1781 * Potentially useful values include `adaptive_hls
`, `adaptive_dash
`, `vo_adaptive_hls
`, `vo_adaptive_dash
`, `download_hls
`, `trailer_hls
`, `trailer_dash
`
1782 * `hardsub
`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract. Default is `None
` (no hardsubs). Eg: `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None
`
1785 * `video_types
`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes
`, `movies
`, `clips
`, `trailers
`
1788 * `segment_duration
`: Segment duration in milliseconds for HLS-DMC formats. Use it at your own risk since this feature **may result in your account termination.**
1790 #### youtubewebarchive
1791 * `check_all
`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails
`, `captures
`
1794 * `comment_sort
`: `hot
` (default), `you
` (cookies needed), `top
`, `new
` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1797 * `res
`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd
`, `hd
`, `fhd
`
1798 * `vcodec
`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264
`, `h265
`, `dvh265
`
1799 * `dr
`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr
`, `hdr10
`, `dv
`
1802 * `app_version
`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version
`. (e.g. `20.2.1`)
1803 * `manifest_app_version
`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with. (e.g. `221`)
1806 * `tab
`: Which tab to download. One of `new
`, `top
`, `videos
`, `podcasts
`, `streams
`, `stacks
`. (E.g. `rokfinchannel:tab=streams
`)
1809 NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
1811 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1816 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
1818 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
`.
1820 See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example plugins.
1822 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
1824 If you are a plugin author, add [ytdlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/ytdlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability
1830 yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1832 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.
1834 From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1837 from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
1839 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1840 with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1844 Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of options available, have a look at [`yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py
`](yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py#L180).
1846 **Tip**: If you are porting your code from youtube-dl to yt-dlp, one important point to look out for is that we do not guarantee the return value of `YoutubeDL.extract_info
` to be json serializable, or even be a dictionary. It will be dictionary-like, but if you want to ensure it is a serializable dictionary, pass it through `YoutubeDL.sanitize_info
` as shown in the [example below](#extracting-information)
1848 ## Embedding examples
1850 #### Extracting information
1856 URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1858 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
1860 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1861 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
1863 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
1864 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1866 #### Download using an info-json
1871 INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
1873 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1874 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
1876 print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
1877 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
1885 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1888 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
1889 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
1890 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
1891 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
1892 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
1896 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1897 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1905 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1907 def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
1908 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
1909 duration = info.get('duration')
1910 if duration and duration < 60:
1911 return 'The video is too short'
1914 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
1917 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1918 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1921 #### Adding logger and progress hook
1926 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1929 def debug(self, msg):
1930 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
1931 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
1932 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
1937 def info(self, msg):
1940 def warning(self, msg):
1943 def error(self, msg):
1947 # ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
1949 if d['status'] == 'finished':
1950 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
1954 'logger': MyLogger(),
1955 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
1958 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1962 #### Add a custom PostProcessor
1967 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1969 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
1970 class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
1971 def run(self, info):
1972 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
1976 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1977 # ℹ️ "when" can take any value in yt_dlp.utils.POSTPROCESS_WHEN
1978 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP(), when='pre_process')
1983 #### Use a custom format selector
1988 URL = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1990 def format_selector(ctx):
1991 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
1992 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
1994 # formats are already sorted worst to best
1995 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
1997 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
1998 best_video = next(f for f in formats
1999 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
2001 # find compatible audio extension
2002 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
2003 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
2004 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
2005 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
2007 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
2009 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
2010 'ext': best_video['ext'],
2011 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
2012 # Must be + separated list of protocols
2013 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
2018 'format': format_selector,
2021 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2025 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
2027 # DEPRECATED OPTIONS
2029 These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
2031 #### Almost redundant options
2032 While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
2034 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
2035 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
2036 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
2037 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
2039 #### Redundant options
2040 While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
2042 --get-description --print description
2043 --get-duration --print duration_string
2044 --get-filename --print filename
2045 --get-format --print format
2047 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
2048 -e, --get-title --print title
2049 -g, --get-url --print urls
2050 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
2051 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2052 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2053 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
2054 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2055 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
2056 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2057 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2058 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2059 --no-playlist-reverse Default
2062 #### Not recommended
2063 While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2065 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2066 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
2067 --all-formats -f all
2068 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
2069 --print-json -j --no-simulate
2070 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)03d
2071 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
2072 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2073 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
2074 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2075 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
2076 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2077 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
2078 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2079 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2080 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2081 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
2084 #### Developer options
2085 These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2087 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
2088 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
2089 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
2090 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2091 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
2095 These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2097 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
2098 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
2099 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2100 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2101 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2102 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2103 --load-info --load-info-json
2104 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
2105 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
2106 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
2107 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2108 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
2109 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2110 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
2111 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
2112 --write-srt --write-subs
2113 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
2115 #### Sponskrub Options
2116 Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock
` options
2118 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2119 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2120 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2121 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2122 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2123 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2124 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2125 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2127 #### No longer supported
2128 These options may no longer work as intended
2130 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2131 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2132 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2133 --no-call-home Default
2134 --include-ads No longer supported
2135 --no-include-ads Default
2136 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2137 --no-write-annotations Default
2140 These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2142 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2143 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2146 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)
2149 For FAQ see the [youtube-dl README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)
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