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/8a158a9](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/8a158a936c8b002ef536e9e2b778ded02c09c0fa)**<!--(
[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 only system certificates, 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)|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)|UNIX standalone x64 binary
250 [yt-dlp_linux.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux.zip)|Unpackaged Unix 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 Windows and MacOS 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
418 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
419 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
420 configurations by reverting some of the
421 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
422 default behavior" for details
423 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
424 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
425 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
426 according to the Python string formatting
427 mini-language. Eg: --alias get-audio,-X
428 "-S=aext:{
0},abr -x --audio-format {
0}"
429 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
430 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
431 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
432 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
433 output. Alias options can trigger more
434 aliases; so be careful to avoid defining
435 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
436 alias may be triggered a maximum of
100
437 times. This option can be used multiple times
440 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
441 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme.
442 Eg: socks5://user:pass@
127.0.0.1:
1080/. Pass
443 in an empty string (--proxy "") for direct
445 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
446 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
447 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
448 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
451 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
452 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
453 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
454 is not present) is used for the actual
456 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
457 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header (default)
458 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
459 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
460 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
461 explicitly provided two-letter ISO
3166-
2
463 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
464 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR notation
467 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma separated playlist_index of the videos
468 to download. You can specify a range using
469 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
470 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
471 Use negative indices to count from the right
472 and negative STEP to download in reverse
473 order. Eg: "-I
1:
3,
7,-
5::
2" used on a
474 playlist of size
15 will download the videos
475 at index
1,
2,
3,
7,
11,
13,
15
476 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE
478 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
480 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
481 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
482 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
483 Eg: --date today-
2weeks
484 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
485 this date. The date formats accepted is the
487 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
488 this date. The date formats accepted is the
490 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
491 field can be compared with a number or a
492 string using the operators defined in
493 "Filtering formats". You can also simply
494 specify a field to match if the field is
495 present, use "!field" to check if the field
496 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
497 conditions. Use a "
\" to escape "&" or
498 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
499 the filter matches if atleast one of the
500 conditions are met. Eg: --match-filter
501 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?
100 &
502 description~='(?i)
\bcats \& dogs
\b'" matches
503 only videos that are not live OR those that
504 have a like count more than
100 (or the like
505 field is not available) and also has a
506 description that contains the phrase "cats &
507 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
508 interactively ask whether to download each
510 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
511 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
512 to a video and a playlist
513 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
514 a video and a playlist
515 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
517 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
518 archive file. Record the IDs of all
519 downloaded videos in it
520 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
521 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
522 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
523 a file that is in the archive
524 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
525 a file that has been filtered out
526 --break-per-input Make --break-on-existing, --break-on-reject
527 and --max-downloads act only on the current
529 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
530 terminates the entire download queue
531 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
532 the playlist is skipped
535 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
536 video that should be downloaded concurrently
538 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
540 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
541 below which throttling is assumed and the
542 video data is re-extracted (e.g.
100K)
543 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is
10), or
545 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
546 error (default is
3), or "infinite"
547 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
548 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
549 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR An expression for the time to sleep between
550 retries in seconds (optionally) prefixed by
551 the type of retry (file_access, fragment,
552 http (default)) to apply the sleep to. EXPR
553 can be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=
1]]
554 or exp=START[:END[:BASE=
2]]. This option can
555 be used multiple times to set the sleep for
556 the different retry types. Eg: --retry-sleep
557 linear=
1::
2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=
1:
20
558 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
559 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
560 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
561 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment
562 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
563 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
564 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
565 downloading is finished
566 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
567 downloading is finished (default)
568 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g.
1024 or
16K)
570 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
571 from an initial value of --buffer-size
573 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
574 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
575 downloading (e.g.
10485760 or
10M) (default
576 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
577 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
579 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
580 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
581 received. This disables n_entries,
582 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
583 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
584 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
585 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
587 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
588 allowing some players to play the video
589 while downloading, and reducing the chance
590 of file corruption if download is
591 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
593 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
594 videos. This is default when not downloading
596 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters whose title matches
597 the given regular expression. Time ranges
598 prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place
599 of chapters to download the specified range.
600 Eg: --download-sections "*
10:
15-
15:
00"
601 --download-sections "intro". Needs ffmpeg.
602 This option can be used multiple times to
603 download multiple sections
604 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
605 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
606 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
607 use it for. Currently supports native,
608 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
609 wget. You can use this option multiple times
610 to set different downloaders for different
611 protocols. For example, --downloader aria2c
612 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
613 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
614 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
615 (Alias: --external-downloader)
616 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
617 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
618 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
619 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
620 positions using the same syntax as
621 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
622 option multiple times to give different
623 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
624 --external-downloader-args)
626 ## Filesystem Options:
627 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
628 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
629 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
631 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
632 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
633 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
634 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
635 TYPES as --output are supported.
636 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
637 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
638 files are first downloaded to the temp path
639 and then the final files are moved over to
640 the home path after download is finished.
641 This option is ignored if --output is an
643 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
644 TEMPLATE" for details
645 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
646 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" (default: "NA")
647 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
648 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
649 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
651 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
652 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
653 using Windows (default)
654 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
655 extension) to the specified number of
657 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
658 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
659 option includes --no-continue
660 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
661 related files (default)
662 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
664 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
665 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
666 restart download of the entire file
667 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
668 into output file (default)
669 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
671 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
672 modification time (default)
673 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
674 the file modification time
675 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
676 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
677 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
678 (this may contain personal information)
679 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
680 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
681 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
682 --write-description etc. (default)
683 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
684 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
685 --clean-info-json Remove some private fields such as filenames
686 from the infojson. Note that it could still
687 contain some personal information (default)
688 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
689 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
690 infojson. The comments are fetched even
691 without this option if the extraction is
692 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
693 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
694 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
696 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
697 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
698 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
699 and dump cookie jar in
700 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
702 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE]
703 The name of the browser and (optionally) the
704 name/path of the profile to load cookies
705 from, separated by a ":". Currently
706 supported browsers are: brave, chrome,
707 chromium, edge, firefox, opera, safari,
708 vivaldi. By default, the most recently
709 accessed profile is used. The keyring used
710 for decrypting Chromium cookies on Linux can
711 be (optionally) specified after the browser
712 name separated by a "+". Currently supported
713 keyrings are: basictext, gnomekeyring, kwallet
714 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
715 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
716 can store some downloaded information (such
717 as client ids and signatures) permanently.
718 By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/yt-dlp or
720 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
721 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
723 ## Thumbnail Options:
724 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
725 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
726 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
727 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
728 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
730 ## Internet Shortcut Options:
731 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
732 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
733 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
734 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
735 OS caches the URL based on the file path
736 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
737 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
739 ## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
740 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
741 print the log to stderr
742 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
743 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
745 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
747 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
748 extracting metadata even if the videos are
749 not actually available for download
751 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
752 formats are found (default)
753 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
754 related files (Alias: --no-download)
755 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
756 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
757 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
758 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
759 --use-postprocessor, and "video" (default).
760 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
761 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
762 used. This option can be used multiple times
763 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
764 Append given template to the file. The
765 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
766 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
767 output template. This option can be used
769 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
770 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
771 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
772 description of available keys
773 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
774 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
775 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
776 a playlist, the whole playlist information
777 is dumped in a single line
778 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
779 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
780 another simulation option is used (Alias:
781 --force-download-archive)
782 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
783 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
784 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
785 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
786 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
787 Template for progress outputs, optionally
788 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
789 "download-title:" (the console title),
790 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
791 The video's fields are accessible under the
792 "info" key and the progress attributes are
793 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.:
794 --console-title --progress-template
795 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
796 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
797 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
798 to debug problems (very verbose)
799 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
800 in the current directory to debug problems
801 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
804 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
805 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
806 that do not support RFC
5746 secure
808 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
809 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
810 information about the video (Currently
811 supported only for YouTube)
812 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
813 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
814 option multiple times
815 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
816 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
817 or fribidi executable in PATH
818 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
819 during data extraction
820 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
821 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
822 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
823 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
824 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
825 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
826 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
829 ## Video Format Options:
830 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
832 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
833 "Sorting Formats" for more details
834 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
835 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
836 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
837 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
838 specified sort order (default)
839 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
841 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
842 output file (default)
843 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
845 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
846 output file (default)
847 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
848 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
849 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
850 irrespective of quality
851 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
853 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
854 those that are actually downloadable
855 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
856 actually downloadable
857 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
859 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
860 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
861 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
862 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
863 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
864 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
867 --write-subs Write subtitle file
868 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
869 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
870 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
871 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
872 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
873 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
874 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
875 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
876 Eg: "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
877 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
878 be regex) or "all" separated by commas. (Eg:
879 --sub-langs "en.*,ja") You can prefix the
880 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
881 the requested languages. (Eg: --sub-langs
882 all,-live_chat) Use --list-subs for a list
883 of available language tags
885 ## Authentication Options:
886 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
887 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
888 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
889 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
890 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
891 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
892 either the path or its containing directory.
894 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
895 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
896 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
897 a list of available MSOs
898 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
899 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
900 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
902 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
903 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
904 format. May include the private key
905 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
906 Path to private key file for client
908 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
909 Password for client certificate private key,
910 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
911 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
913 ## Post-Processing Options:
914 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
915 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
916 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
917 used. (currently supported: best (default),
918 mp3, aac, m4a, opus, vorbis, flac, alac,
919 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
920 similar syntax as --remux-video
921 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
922 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
923 between
0 (best) and
10 (worst) for VBR or a
924 specific bitrate like
128K (default
5)
925 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
926 necessary (currently supported: mp4, mkv,
927 flv, webm, mov, avi, mka, ogg, mp3, aac,
928 m4a, opus, vorbis, flac, alac, wav). If
929 target container does not support the
930 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
931 can specify multiple rules; Eg.
932 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
933 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
934 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
935 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
936 are the same as --remux-video
937 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
938 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
939 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
940 to give the argument to the specified
941 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
942 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
943 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
944 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
945 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
946 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
947 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
948 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
949 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
950 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
951 specified executable only when being used by
952 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
953 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
954 appended to the prefix optionally followed
955 by a number to pass the argument before the
956 specified input/output file. Eg: --ppa
957 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
958 this option multiple times to give different
959 arguments to different postprocessors.
961 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
962 after post-processing
963 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
964 post-processing (default)
965 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
966 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
967 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
969 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
970 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
971 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
972 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
973 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
974 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
975 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
976 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
977 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
978 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
979 (Alias: --add-chapters)
980 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
982 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
984 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
986 --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
987 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
989 --replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
990 Replace text in a metadata field using the
991 given regex. This option can be used
993 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
994 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
995 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
996 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
997 (default; only when the videos form a single
998 show). All the video files must have same
999 codecs and number of streams to be
1000 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
1001 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1002 the output filename for the concatenated
1003 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1004 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
1005 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
1006 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
1007 default; fix file if we can, warn
1008 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
1010 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
1011 path to the binary or its containing directory
1012 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
1013 when to execute it (after_move if
1014 unspecified), separated by a ":". Supported
1015 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
1016 --use-postprocessor. Same syntax as the
1017 output template can be used to pass any
1018 field as arguments to the command. After
1019 download, an additional field "filepath"
1020 that contains the final path of the
1021 downloaded file is also available, and if no
1022 fields are passed, %(filepath)q is appended
1023 to the end of the command. This option can
1024 be used multiple times
1025 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
1026 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
1027 (currently supported: srt, vtt, ass, lrc)
1028 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
1029 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
1030 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
1031 can specify multiple rules using similar
1032 syntax as --remux-video
1033 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
1034 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
1035 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1036 the output filename for the split files. See
1037 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1038 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
1039 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
1040 given regular expression. The syntax is the
1041 same as --download-sections. This option can
1042 be used multiple times
1043 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1045 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
1046 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
1047 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1048 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1050 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1051 when cutting/splitting (default)
1052 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1053 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1054 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1055 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1056 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1057 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1058 The "when" argument determines when the
1059 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1060 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1061 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
1062 "before_dl" (before each video download),
1063 "post_process" (after each video download;
1064 default), "after_move" (after moving video
1065 file to it's final locations), "after_video"
1066 (after downloading and processing all
1067 formats of a video), or "playlist" (at end
1068 of playlist). This option can be used
1069 multiple times to add different postprocessors
1071 ## SponsorBlock Options:
1072 Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1073 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
1074 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1076 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1077 for, separated by commas. Available
1078 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1079 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
1080 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, all and
1081 default (=all). You can prefix the category
1082 with a "-" to exclude it. See [
1] for
1083 description of the categories. Eg:
1084 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1085 [
1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1086 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1087 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1088 category is present in both mark and remove,
1089 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1090 available categories are the same as for
1091 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
1092 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight is
1094 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
1095 An output template for the title of the
1096 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1097 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1098 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1099 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1100 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1101 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1102 --sponsorblock-remove
1103 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1104 https://sponsor.ajay.app
1106 ## Extractor Options:
1107 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1108 (default is
3), or "infinite"
1109 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1110 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1111 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1112 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1113 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1114 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1115 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1116 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1118 --extractor-args KEY:ARGS Pass these arguments to the extractor. See
1119 "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You can
1120 use this option multiple times to give
1121 arguments for different extractors
1125 You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
1127 1. **Main Configuration**: The file given by
`--config-location`
1128 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.
1129 1. **Home Configuration**:
`yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by
`-P`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
1130 1. **User Configuration**:
1131 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1132 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
1133 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1134 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1136 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
1138 `%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%`
1140 1. **System Configuration**:
`/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
1142 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:
1144 # Lines starting with # are comments
1146 # Always extract audio
1149 # Do not copy the mtime
1153 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1155 # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1156 -o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
1159 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`.
1161 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.
1163 ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
1165 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:
1168 chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
1170 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1172 machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
1176 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1177 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1179 To activate authentication with the
`.netrc` file you should pass
`--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
1181 The default location of the .netrc file is
`$HOME` (
`~`) in UNIX. On Windows, it is
`%HOME%` if present,
`%USERPROFILE%` (generally
`C:\Users\<user name>`) or
`%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
1185 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.
1187 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1188 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
1189 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1191 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).
1193 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.
1195 The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
1197 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
1199 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`
1201 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`
1203 1. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a
`,`. Eg:
`%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
1205 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.
1207 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`
1209 1. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types
`diouxXeEfFgGcrs`,
`B`,
`j`,
`l`,
`q`,
`D`,
`S` can be used for converting to **B**ytes, **j**son (flag
`#` for pretty-printing), a comma separated **l**ist (flag
`#` for
`\n` newline-separated), a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag
`#` to split a list into different arguments), to add **D**ecimal suffixes (Eg:
10M) (flag
`#` to use
1024 as factor), and to **S**anitize as filename (flag
`#` for restricted), respectively
1211 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
1213 To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1215 %(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
1218 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.
1220 The available fields are:
1222 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1223 - `title` (string): Video title
1224 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
1225 - `url` (string): Video URL
1226 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1227 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
1228 - `description` (string): The description of the video
1229 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1230 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1231 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1232 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
1233 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
1234 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
1235 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
1236 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
1237 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
1238 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
1239 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1240 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1241 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
1242 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
1243 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1244 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
1245 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
1246 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1247 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1248 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1249 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1250 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
1251 - `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)
1252 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
1253 - `live_status` (string): One of "is_live", "was_live", "is_upcoming", "not_live"
1254 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
1255 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
1256 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
1257 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
1258 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1259 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
1260 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
1261 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by
`--format`
1262 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
1263 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
1264 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
1265 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
1266 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1267 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1268 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
1269 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1270 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1271 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
1272 - `dynamic_range` (string): The dynamic range of the video
1273 - `stretched_ratio` (float):
`width:height` of the video's pixels, if not square
1274 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
1275 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
1276 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
1277 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
1278 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
1279 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1280 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
1281 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
1282 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at
`--autonumber-start`
1283 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
1284 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
1285 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1286 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1287 - `playlist` (string):
`playlist_id` or
`playlist_title`
1288 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
1289 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1290 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
1291 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1292 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
1293 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
1294 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1295 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
1296 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as
`webpage_url` for playlist entries)
1298 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1300 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1301 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1302 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1304 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1306 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1307 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1308 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1309 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1310 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1311 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1312 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1314 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1316 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1317 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1318 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1319 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1320 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1321 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1322 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1323 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1324 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1325 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1327 Available only when using
`--download-sections` and for
`chapter:` prefix when using
`--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
1329 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1330 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1331 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1332 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1334 Available only when used in
`--print`:
1336 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1337 - `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
1338 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by
`--list-formats`
1339 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by
`--list-thumbnails`
1340 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by
`--list-subs`
1341 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by
`--list-subs`
1344 Available only in
`--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1346 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1347 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1348 - `categories` (list): The SponsorBlock categories the chapter belongs to
1349 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1350 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1351 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1353 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.
1355 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).
1357 **Tip**: Look at the
`-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
1359 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`.
1361 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.
1363 To use percent literals in an output template use
`%%`. To output to stdout use
`-o -`.
1365 The current default template is
`%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
1367 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.
1369 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1370 #### Output template and Windows batch files
1372 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"`.
1373 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1375 #### Output template examples
1378 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1379 test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1381 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1382 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
1384 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
1385 youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
1387 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
1388 $ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1390 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
1391 $ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1393 # Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
1394 $ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist_index|)s%(playlist_index& - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1396 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
1397 $ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1399 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
1400 $ 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"
1402 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
1403 $ 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"
1405 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1406 # and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1407 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1409 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1410 $ 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
1412 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
1413 $ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
1418 By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1419 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`.
1421 **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.
1423 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.
1425 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1426 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1427 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1429 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.
1431 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.
1433 You can use
`-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1435 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1437 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1438 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with
`--audio-multistreams`,
`--video-multistreams` or both)
1439 - `b*`,
`best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio
1440 - `b`,
`best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1441 - `bv`,
`bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec=none]`
1442 - `bv*`,
`bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none]`
1443 - `ba`,
`bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec=none]`
1444 - `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))
1445 - `w*
`, `worst*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
1446 - `w
`, `worst
`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]
`
1447 - `wv
`, `worstvideo
`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]
`
1448 - `wv*
`, `worstvideo*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]
`
1449 - `wa
`, `worstaudio
`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]
`
1450 - `wa*
`, `worstaudio*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]
`
1452 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.
1454 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.
1456 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.
1458 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
`.
1460 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.
1462 **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
1464 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
`.
1466 ## Filtering Formats
1468 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=
720]"
` (or `-f "[filesize>
10M]"
`).
1470 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<
`, `<=
`, `>
`, `>=
`, `=
` (equals), `!=
` (not equals):
1472 - `filesize
`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1473 - `width
`: Width of the video, if known
1474 - `height
`: Height of the video, if known
1475 - `tbr
`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1476 - `abr
`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1477 - `vbr
`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1478 - `asr
`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1481 Also filtering work for comparisons `=
` (equals), `^=
` (starts with), `$=
` (ends with), `*=
` (contains), `~=
` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
1483 - `ext
`: File extension
1484 - `acodec
`: Name of the audio codec in use
1485 - `vcodec
`: Name of the video codec in use
1486 - `container
`: Name of the container format
1487 - `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
`)
1488 - `format_id
`: A short description of the format
1489 - `language
`: Language code
1491 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 `._-
`.
1493 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.
1495 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.
1497 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]"
`.
1501 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...
`.
1503 The available fields are:
1505 - `hasvid
`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1506 - `hasaud
`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
1507 - `ie_pref
`: The format preference
1508 - `lang
`: The language preference
1509 - `quality
`: The quality of the format
1510 - `source
`: The preference of the source
1511 - `proto
`: Protocol used for download (`https
`/`ftps
` > `http
`/`ftp
` > `m3u8_native
`/`m3u8
` > `http_dash_segments
`> `websocket_frag
` > `mms
`/`rtsp
` > `f4f
`/`f4m
`)
1512 - `vcodec
`: Video Codec (`av01
` > `vp9.2
` > `vp9
` > `h265
` > `h264
` > `vp8
` > `h263
` > `theora
` > other)
1513 - `acodec
`: Audio Codec (`flac
`/`alac
` > `wav
`/`aiff
` > `opus
` > `vorbis
` > `aac
` > `mp4a
` > `mp3
` > `eac3
` > `ac3
` > `dts
` > other)
1514 - `codec
`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec
`
1515 - `vext
`: Video Extension (`mp4
` > `webm
` > `flv
` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats
` is used, `webm
` is preferred.
1516 - `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
`.
1517 - `ext
`: Equivalent to `vext,aext
`
1518 - `filesize
`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
1519 - `fs_approx
`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1520 - `size
`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
1521 - `height
`: Height of video
1522 - `width
`: Width of video
1523 - `res
`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1524 - `fps
`: Framerate of video
1525 - `hdr
`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV
` > `HDR12
` > `HDR10+
` > `HDR10
` > `HLG
` > `SDR
`)
1526 - `tbr
`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1527 - `vbr
`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1528 - `abr
`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1529 - `br
`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr
`
1530 - `asr
`: Audio sample rate in Hz
1532 **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.
1534 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.
1536 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.
1538 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.
1540 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
`.
1542 **Tip**: You can use the `-v -F
` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1544 ## Format Selection examples
1547 # Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
1548 # or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
1549 $ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
1551 # Download best format that contains video,
1552 # and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
1553 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
1558 # Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1559 # For this case, an output template should be used since
1560 # by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
1561 $ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
1563 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1564 # and all audio-only formats into one file
1565 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
1567 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1568 # and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1569 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
1572 # The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
1573 # and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
1575 # Download the worst video available (old method)
1576 $ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
1578 # Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
1581 # Download the smallest video available
1582 $ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
1586 # Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
1587 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
1589 # Download the best video with the best extension
1590 # (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
1595 # Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1596 # or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
1597 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
1599 # Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1600 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1601 $ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
1603 # Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1604 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1605 # Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1606 # So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
1607 $ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
1611 # Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1612 # or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1613 $ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
1615 # Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1616 # or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1617 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
1619 # Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
1620 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
1624 # Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1625 # or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
1626 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
1628 # Download best video available via the best protocol
1629 # (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
1634 # Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1635 # or the best video if there is no such video
1636 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
1638 # Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1639 # or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
1640 $ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
1642 # Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1643 # or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
1644 $ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
1648 # More complex examples
1650 # Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1651 # or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
1652 $ yt-dlp -f "((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)"
1654 # Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
1655 # or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
1656 # preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
1657 $ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
1661 # Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1662 # or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
1663 # preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
1664 $ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
1667 # MODIFYING METADATA
1669 The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata
` and `--replace-in-metadata
`
1671 `--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.
1673 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.
1675 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
`.
1677 This option also has a few special uses:
1679 * 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
1681 * 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.
1683 **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.
1685 For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1687 Metadata fields | From
1688 :--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1689 `title
` | `track
` or `title
`
1690 `date
` | `upload_date
`
1691 `description
`, `synopsis
` | `description
`
1692 `purl
`, `comment
` | `webpage_url
`
1693 `track
` | `track_number
`
1694 `artist
` | `artist
`, `creator
`, `uploader
` or `uploader_id
`
1697 `album_artist
` | `album_artist
`
1698 `disc
` | `disc_number
`
1700 `season_number
` | `season_number
`
1701 `episode_id
` | `episode
` or `episode_id
`
1702 `episode_sort
` | `episode_number
`
1703 `language
` of each stream | the format's `language
`
1705 **Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1708 ## Modifying metadata examples
1711 # Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
1712 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
1715 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
1717 # Set title as "Series name S01E05"
1718 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
1720 # Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
1721 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --add-metadata
1723 # Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1724 # handling multiple lines correctly
1725 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --add-metadata
1727 # Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
1728 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
1730 # Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
1731 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<formats>)" -j
1733 # Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
1734 $ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
1738 # EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1740 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"
`
1742 The following extractors use this feature:
1745 * `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
1746 * `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.
1747 * `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
1748 * `include_live_dash
`: Include live dash formats even without `--live-from-start
` (These formats don't download properly)
1749 * `comment_sort
`: `top
` or `new
` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
1750 * `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
`
1751 * 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
1752 * `innertube_host
`: Innertube API host to use for all API requests
1753 * e.g. `studio.youtube.com
`, `youtubei.googleapis.com
`
1754 * Note: Cookies exported from `www.youtube.com
` will not work with hosts other than `*.youtube.com
`
1755 * `innertube_key
`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
1757 #### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1758 * `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)
1759 * `approximate_date
`: Extract approximate `upload_date
` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
1762 * `language
`: Languages to extract. Eg: `funimation:language=english,japanese
`
1763 * `version
`: The video version to extract - `uncut
` or `simulcast
`
1766 * `language
`: Languages to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:language=jaJp
`
1767 * `hardsub
`: Which hard-sub versions to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:hardsub=None,enUS
`
1769 #### crunchyrollbeta
1770 * `format
`: Which stream type(s) to extract. Default is `adaptive_hls
` Eg: `crunchyrollbeta:format=vo_adaptive_hls
`
1771 * Potentially useful values include `adaptive_hls
`, `adaptive_dash
`, `vo_adaptive_hls
`, `vo_adaptive_dash
`, `download_hls
`, `trailer_hls
`, `trailer_dash
`
1772 * `hardsub
`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract. Default is `None
` (no hardsubs). Eg: `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None
`
1775 * `video_types
`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes
`, `movies
`, `clips
`, `trailers
`
1778 * `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.**
1780 #### youtubewebarchive
1781 * `check_all
`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails
`, `captures
`
1784 * `comment_sort
`: `hot
` (default), `you
` (cookies needed), `top
`, `new
` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1787 * `res
`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd
`, `hd
`, `fhd
`
1788 * `vcodec
`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264
`, `h265
`, `dvh265
`
1789 * `dr
`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr
`, `hdr10
`, `dv
`
1792 * `app_version
`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version
`. (e.g. `20.2.1`)
1793 * `manifest_app_version
`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with. (e.g. `221`)
1796 * `tab
`: Which tab to download. One of `new
`, `top
`, `videos
`, `podcasts
`, `streams
`, `stacks
`. (E.g. `rokfinchannel:tab=streams
`)
1799 NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
1801 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1806 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
1808 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
`.
1810 See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example plugins.
1812 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
1814 If you are a plugin author, add [ytdlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/ytdlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability
1820 yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1822 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.
1824 From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1827 from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
1829 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1830 with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1834 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).
1836 **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)
1838 ## Embedding examples
1840 #### Extracting information
1846 URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1848 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
1850 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1851 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
1853 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
1854 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1856 #### Download using an info-json
1861 INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
1863 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1864 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
1866 print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
1867 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
1875 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1878 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
1879 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
1880 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
1881 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
1882 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
1886 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1887 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1895 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1897 def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
1898 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
1899 duration = info.get('duration')
1900 if duration and duration < 60:
1901 return 'The video is too short'
1904 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
1907 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1908 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1911 #### Adding logger and progress hook
1916 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1919 def debug(self, msg):
1920 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
1921 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
1922 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
1927 def info(self, msg):
1930 def warning(self, msg):
1933 def error(self, msg):
1937 # ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
1939 if d['status'] == 'finished':
1940 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
1944 'logger': MyLogger(),
1945 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
1948 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1952 #### Add a custom PostProcessor
1957 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1959 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
1960 class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
1961 def run(self, info):
1962 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
1966 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1967 # ℹ️ "when" can take any value in yt_dlp.utils.POSTPROCESS_WHEN
1968 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP(), when='pre_process')
1973 #### Use a custom format selector
1978 URL = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1980 def format_selector(ctx):
1981 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
1982 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
1984 # formats are already sorted worst to best
1985 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
1987 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
1988 best_video = next(f for f in formats
1989 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
1991 # find compatible audio extension
1992 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
1993 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
1994 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
1995 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
1997 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
1999 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
2000 'ext': best_video['ext'],
2001 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
2002 # Must be + separated list of protocols
2003 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
2008 'format': format_selector,
2011 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2015 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
2017 # DEPRECATED OPTIONS
2019 These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
2021 #### Almost redundant options
2022 While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
2024 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
2025 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
2026 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
2027 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
2029 #### Redundant options
2030 While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
2032 --get-description --print description
2033 --get-duration --print duration_string
2034 --get-filename --print filename
2035 --get-format --print format
2037 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
2038 -e, --get-title --print title
2039 -g, --get-url --print urls
2040 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
2041 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2042 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2043 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
2044 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2045 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
2046 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2047 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2048 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2049 --no-playlist-reverse Default
2052 #### Not recommended
2053 While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2055 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2056 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
2057 --all-formats -f all
2058 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
2059 --print-json -j --no-simulate
2060 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)03d
2061 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
2062 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2063 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
2064 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2065 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
2066 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2067 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
2068 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2069 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2070 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2071 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
2074 #### Developer options
2075 These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2077 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
2078 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
2079 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
2080 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2081 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
2085 These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2087 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
2088 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
2089 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2090 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2091 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2092 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2093 --load-info --load-info-json
2094 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
2095 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
2096 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
2097 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2098 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
2099 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2100 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
2101 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
2102 --write-srt --write-subs
2103 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
2105 #### Sponskrub Options
2106 Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock
` options
2108 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2109 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2110 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2111 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2112 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2113 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2114 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2115 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2117 #### No longer supported
2118 These options may no longer work as intended
2120 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2121 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2122 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2123 --no-call-home Default
2124 --include-ads No longer supported
2125 --no-include-ads Default
2126 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2127 --no-write-annotations Default
2130 These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2132 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2133 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2136 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)
2139 For FAQ see the [youtube-dl README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)
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