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14 A command-line program to download videos from youtube.com and many other [video platforms](supportedsites.md)
16 This is a
[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
18 * [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
19 * [INSTALLATION](#installation)
22 * [DESCRIPTION](#description)
24 * [Network Options](#network-options)
25 * [Geo Restriction](#geo-restriction)
26 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
27 * [Download Options](#download-options)
28 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
29 * [Thumbnail images](#thumbnail-images)
30 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
31 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
32 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
33 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
34 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
35 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
36 * [Adobe Pass Options](#adobe-pass-options)
37 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
38 * [SponSkrub (SponsorBlock) Options](#sponskrub-sponsorblock-options)
39 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
40 * [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
41 * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
42 * [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
43 * [Output template and Windows batch files](#output-template-and-windows-batch-files)
44 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
45 * [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
46 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
47 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
48 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
50 * [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
55 The major new features from the latest release of
[blackjack4494/yt-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) are:
57 * **
[SponSkrub Integration](#sponskrub-sponsorblock-options)**: You can use [SponSkrub](https://github.com/yt-dlp/SponSkrub) to mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the
[SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
59 * **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using
`-S`. This allows for much easier format selection that what is possible by simply using
`--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
61 * **Merged with youtube-dl v2021.03
.25**: You get all the latest features and patches of
[youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) in addition to all the features of
[youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc)
63 * **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from
[animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including
`--get-comments`,
`BiliBiliSearch`,
`BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, Playlist infojson etc. Note that the NicoNico improvements are not available. See
[#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
65 * **Youtube improvements**:
66 * All Youtube Feeds (
`:ytfav`,
`:ytwatchlater`,
`:ytsubs`,
`:ythistory`,
`:ytrec`) works correctly and supports downloading multiple pages of content
67 * Youtube search (
`ytsearch:`,
`ytsearchdate:`) along with Search URLs works correctly
68 * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to
`/video` to preserve the old behaviour
70 * **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using
`--split-chapters`
72 * **Multithreaded fragment downloads**: Fragment downloads can be natively multi-threaded. Use
`--concurrent-fragments` (
`-N`) option to set the number of threads used
74 * **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use aria2c as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats. No more slow ffmpeg/native downloads
76 * **New extractors**: AnimeLab, Philo MSO, Rcs, Gedi, bitwave.tv, mildom, audius, zee5, mtv.it, wimtv, pluto.tv
78 * **Fixed extractors**: archive.org, roosterteeth.com, skyit, instagram, itv, SouthparkDe, spreaker, Vlive, tiktok, akamai, ina, rumble, tennistv, amcnetworks
80 * **Plugin extractors**: Extractors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
82 * **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`)
84 * **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
86 * **Other new options**:
`--parse-metadata`,
`--list-formats-as-table`,
`--write-link`,
`--force-download-archive`,
`--force-overwrites`,
`--break-on-reject` etc
88 * **Improvements**: Multiple
`--postprocessor-args` and
`--external-downloader-args`, Date/time formatting in
`-o`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection) etc
90 * **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using
`yt-dlp -U`
93 See
[changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
96 **PS**: Some of these changes are already in youtube-dlc, but are still unreleased. See [this](Changelog.md#unreleased-changes-in-blackjack4494yt-dlc) for details
98 If you are coming from
[youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl), the amount of changes are very large. Compare
[options](#options) and [supported sites](supportedsites.md) with youtube-dl's to get an idea of the massive number of features/patches [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) has accumulated.
103 You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
104 * Download the binary from the
[latest release](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest) (recommended method)
105 * Use
[PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp):
`python -m pip install --upgrade yt-dlp`
106 * Use pip+git:
`python -m pip install --upgrade git+https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp.git@release`
107 * Install master branch:
`python -m pip install --upgrade git+https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp`
109 UNIX users (Linux, macOS, BSD) can also install the
[latest release](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest) one of the following ways:
112 sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
113 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
117 sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
118 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
122 sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
123 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
127 Starting from version
`2021.02.09`, you can use
`yt-dlp -U` to update if you are using the provided release.
128 If you are using
`pip`, simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program.
133 To build the Windows executable, you must have pyinstaller (and optionally mutagen and pycryptodome)
135 python -m pip install --upgrade pyinstaller mutagen pycryptodome
137 Once you have all the necessary dependancies installed, just run
`py pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (
32/
64 bit) as the python used to build it. It is strongly reccomended to use python3 although python2.6+ is supported.
139 You can also build the executable without any version info or metadata by using:
141 pyinstaller.exe yt_dlp\__main__.py --onefile --name yt-dlp
144 You will need the required build tools:
`python`,
`make` (GNU),
`pandoc`,
`zip`,
`nosetests`
145 Then simply run
`make`. You can also run
`make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files
147 **Note**: In either platform,
`devscripts\update-version.py` can be used to automatically update the version number
150 **yt-dlp** is a command-line program to download videos from youtube.com many other [video platforms](supportedsites.md). It requires the Python interpreter, version
2.6,
2.7, or
3.2+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on your Unix box, on Windows or on macOS. It is released to the public domain, which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
152 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
156 `Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
157 <!-- Autogenerated -->
160 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
161 --version Print program version and exit
162 -U, --update Update this program to latest version. Make
163 sure that you have sufficient permissions
164 (run with sudo if needed)
165 -i, --ignore-errors Continue on download errors, for example to
166 skip unavailable videos in a playlist
167 (default) (Alias: --no-abort-on-error)
168 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
169 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
170 --dump-user-agent Display the current browser identification
171 --list-extractors List all supported extractors
172 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
174 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
176 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
177 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
178 from google videos for youtube-dl "large
179 apple". Use the value "auto" to let
180 youtube-dl guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
181 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
182 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
183 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
184 this is not possible instead of searching
185 --ignore-config, --no-config Disable loading any configuration files
186 except the one provided by --config-location.
187 When given inside a configuration
188 file, no further configuration files are
189 loaded. Additionally, (for backward
190 compatibility) if this option is found
191 inside the system configuration file, the
192 user configuration is not loaded
193 --config-location PATH Location of the main configuration file;
194 either the path to the config or its
196 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
198 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
199 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (YouTube only)
200 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
201 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output
204 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy.
205 To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper
207 socks5://
127.0.0.1:
1080/. Pass in an empty
208 string (--proxy "") for direct connection
209 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
210 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
211 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
212 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
215 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
216 some geo-restricted sites. The default
217 proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the
218 option is not present) is used for the
220 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
221 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
222 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
223 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
224 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
225 explicitly provided two-letter ISO
3166-
2
227 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
228 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR
232 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is
1)
233 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
234 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
235 indices of the videos in the playlist
236 separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
237 1,
2,
5,
8" if you want to download videos
238 indexed
1,
2,
5,
8 in the playlist. You can
239 specify range: "--playlist-items
240 1-
3,
7,
10-
13", it will download the videos
241 at index
1,
2,
3,
7,
10,
11,
12 and
13
242 --match-title REGEX Download only matching titles (regex or
244 --reject-title REGEX Skip download for matching titles (regex or
246 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
247 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
248 SIZE (e.g.
50k or
44.6m)
249 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
251 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded in this date.
252 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
253 "(now|today)[+-][
0-
9](day|week|month|year)(s)?"
254 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
255 this date. The date formats accepted is the
257 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
258 this date. The date formats accepted is the
260 --min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than
262 --max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than
264 --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Specify any key (see
265 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a list of available
266 keys) to match if the key is present, !key
267 to check if the key is not present,
268 key>NUMBER (like "view_count >
12", also
269 works with >=, <, <=, !=, =) to compare
270 against a number, key = 'LITERAL' (like
271 "uploader = 'Mike Smith'", also works with
272 !=) to match against a string literal and &
273 to require multiple matches. Values which
274 are not known are excluded unless you put a
275 question mark (?) after the operator. For
276 example, to only match videos that have
277 been liked more than
100 times and disliked
278 less than
50 times (or the dislike
279 functionality is not available at the given
280 service), but who also have a description,
281 use --match-filter "like_count >
100 &
282 dislike_count <?
50 & description"
283 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
284 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
285 to a video and a playlist
286 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
287 a video and a playlist
288 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
290 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
291 archive file. Record the IDs of all
292 downloaded videos in it
293 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
294 a file that is in the archive
295 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
296 a file that has been filtered out
297 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
298 --include-ads Download advertisements as well
300 --no-include-ads Do not download advertisements (default)
303 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments to download
304 concurrently (default is
1)
305 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
307 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is
10), or
309 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
310 is
10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and
312 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
313 hlsnative and ISM (default)
314 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
315 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading if a fragment is unavailable
316 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
317 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
318 downloading is finished
319 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
320 downloading is finished (default)
321 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g.
1024 or
16K)
323 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
324 from an initial value of --buffer-size
326 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
327 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
328 downloading (e.g.
10485760 or
10M) (default
329 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
330 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
332 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
333 --no-playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in default order
335 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
336 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
338 --hls-prefer-native Use the native HLS downloader instead of
340 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg Use ffmpeg instead of the native HLS
342 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
343 allowing some players to play the video
344 while downloading, and reducing the chance
345 of file corruption if download is
346 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
348 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
349 videos. This is default when not
350 downloading live streams
351 --external-downloader NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
352 use. Currently supports aria2c, avconv,
353 axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie, wget
354 (Recommended: aria2c)
355 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
356 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
357 the arguments separated by a colon ":". You
358 can use this option multiple times
359 (Alias: --external-downloader-args)
361 ## Filesystem Options:
362 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-' for
363 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
364 with '#', ';' or ']' are considered as
366 -P, --paths TYPE:PATH The paths where the files should be
367 downloaded. Specify the type of file and
368 the path separated by a colon ":". All the
369 same types as --output are supported.
370 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
371 and "temp" paths. All intermediary files
372 are first downloaded to the temp path and
373 then the final files are moved over to the
374 home path after download is finished. This
375 option is ignored if --output is an
377 -o, --output [TYPE:]TEMPLATE Output filename template, see "OUTPUT
378 TEMPLATE" for details
379 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder value for unavailable meta
380 fields in output filename template
382 --autonumber-start NUMBER Specify the start value for %(autonumber)s
384 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
385 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
387 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
389 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be windows compatible
390 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames windows compatible only if
391 using windows (default)
392 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
393 extension) to the specified number of
395 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
396 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files.
397 This option includes --no-continue
398 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
399 related files (default)
400 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
402 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
403 fragments. If the file is unfragmented,
404 restart download of the entire file
405 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
406 into output file (default)
407 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
409 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the
410 file modification time (default)
411 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
412 the file modification time
413 --write-description Write video description to a .description
415 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
416 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
417 (this may contain personal information)
418 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
419 --write-annotations Write video annotations to a
420 .annotations.xml file
421 --no-write-annotations Do not write video annotations (default)
422 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
423 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
424 --write-description etc. (default)
425 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
426 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
427 --clean-infojson Remove some private fields such as
428 filenames from the infojson. Note that it
429 could still contain some personal
430 information (default)
431 --no-clean-infojson Write all fields to the infojson
432 --get-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
433 .info.json file. The comments are fetched
434 even without this option if the extraction
436 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
437 (created with the "--write-info-json"
439 --cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump cookie
441 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies (default)
442 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
443 can store some downloaded information
444 permanently. By default
445 $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or
446 ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the moment, only
447 YouTube player files (for videos with
448 obfuscated signatures) are cached, but that
450 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
451 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
454 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
455 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk
457 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
458 --list-thumbnails Simulate and list all available thumbnail
461 ## Internet Shortcut Options:
462 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
463 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
464 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
465 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
466 OS caches the URL based on the file path
467 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
468 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
470 ## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
471 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode
472 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
473 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
475 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
476 related files (Alias: --no-download)
477 -g, --get-url Simulate, quiet but print URL
478 -e, --get-title Simulate, quiet but print title
479 --get-id Simulate, quiet but print id
480 --get-thumbnail Simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
481 --get-description Simulate, quiet but print video description
482 --get-duration Simulate, quiet but print video length
483 --get-filename Simulate, quiet but print output filename
484 --get-format Simulate, quiet but print output format
485 -j, --dump-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information.
486 See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a description of
488 -J, --dump-single-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information
489 for each command-line argument. If the URL
490 refers to a playlist, dump the whole
491 playlist information in a single line
492 --print-json Be quiet and print the video information as
493 JSON (video is still being downloaded)
494 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be
495 written as far as no errors occur,even if
496 -s or another simulation switch is used
497 (Alias: --force-download-archive)
498 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
499 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
500 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
501 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
502 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
503 to debug problems (very verbose)
504 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
505 files in the current directory to debug
507 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
510 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
511 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
512 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
513 information about the video (Currently
514 supported only for YouTube)
515 --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
516 --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video
517 access is restricted to one domain
518 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
519 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
520 option multiple times
521 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
522 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
523 or fribidi executable in PATH
524 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
525 during data extraction
526 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
527 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
528 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
529 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
530 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can
531 only be used along with --min-sleep-interval
532 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
535 ## Video Format Options:
536 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
538 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
539 "Sorting Formats" for more details
540 --S-force, --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
541 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
542 Formats" for more details
543 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
544 specified sort order (default), see
545 "Sorting Formats" for more details
546 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
548 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for
549 each output file (default)
550 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
552 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for
553 each output file (default)
554 --all-formats Download all available video formats
555 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
556 over non-free ones of same quality. Use
557 with "-S ext" to strictly prefer free
558 containers irrespective of quality
559 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
561 -F, --list-formats List all available formats of requested
563 --list-formats-as-table Present the output of -F in tabular form
565 --list-formats-old Present the output of -F in the old form
566 (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
567 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
568 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
569 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
570 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
571 --allow-unplayable-formats Allow unplayable formats to be listed and
572 downloaded. All video postprocessing will
574 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Do not allow unplayable formats to be
575 listed or downloaded (default)
578 --write-subs Write subtitle file
579 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
580 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
581 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
582 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
583 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
584 --all-subs Download all the available subtitles of the
586 --list-subs List all available subtitles for the video
587 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
588 preference, for example: "srt" or
590 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download
591 (optional) separated by commas, use --list-
592 subs for available language tags
594 ## Authentication Options:
595 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
596 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
597 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
598 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
599 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
600 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
602 ## Adobe Pass Options:
603 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
604 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
605 a list of available MSOs
606 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
607 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
608 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
610 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
613 ## Post-Processing Options:
614 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
615 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
616 --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format: "best", "aac",
617 "flac", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", "vorbis", or
618 "wav"; "best" by default; No effect without
620 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality, insert a
621 value between
0 (better) and
9 (worse) for
622 VBR or a specific bitrate like
128K
624 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
625 necessary (currently supported: mp4|mkv|flv
626 |webm|mov|avi|mp3|mka|m4a|ogg|opus). If
627 target container does not support the
628 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
629 can specify multiple rules; eg.
630 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to
631 m4a, mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv.
632 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
633 re-encoding is necessary. The supported
634 formats are the same as --remux-video
635 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
636 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
637 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
638 to give the argument to the specified
639 postprocessor/executable. Supported
640 postprocessors are: SponSkrub,
641 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
642 EmbedSubtitle, Metadata, Merger,
643 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
644 SubtitlesConvertor, EmbedThumbnail and
645 SplitChapters. The supported executables
646 are: SponSkrub, FFmpeg, FFprobe, and
647 AtomicParsley. You can also specify
648 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
649 specified executable only when being used
650 by the specified postprocessor.
651 Additionally, for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o"
652 can be appended to the prefix optionally
653 followed by a number to pass the argument
654 before the specified input/output file. Eg:
655 --ppa "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can
656 use this option multiple times to give
657 different arguments to different
658 postprocessors. (Alias: --ppa)
659 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
660 after post-processing
661 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
662 post-processing (default)
663 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
664 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
665 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
667 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
668 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
669 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
670 --add-metadata Write metadata to the video file
671 --no-add-metadata Do not write metadata (default)
672 --parse-metadata FIELD:FORMAT Parse additional metadata like title/artist
673 from other fields. Give a template or field
674 name to extract data from and the format to
675 interpret it as, seperated by a ":". Either
676 regular expression with named capture
677 groups or a similar syntax to the output
678 template can be used for the FORMAT.
679 Similarly, the syntax for output template
680 can be used for FIELD to parse the data
681 from multiple fields. The parsed parameters
682 replace any existing values and can be used
683 in output templates. This option can be
684 used multiple times. Example: --parse-
685 metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
686 matches a title like "Coldplay - Paradise".
687 Example: --parse-metadata "%(series)s
688 %(episode_number)s:%(title)s" sets the
689 title using series and episode number.
690 Example (regex): --parse-metadata
691 "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+?)"
692 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
693 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
694 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
695 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
696 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
697 default; fix file if we can, warn
699 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
700 path to the binary or its containing
702 --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
703 downloading and post-processing, similar to
704 find's -exec syntax. Example: --exec 'adb
705 push {} /sdcard/Music/ && rm {}'
706 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
707 (currently supported: srt|ass|vtt|lrc)
708 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
709 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
710 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix
711 can be used with "--paths" and "--output"
712 to set the output filename for the split
713 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
714 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters
717 ## SponSkrub (SponsorBlock) Options:
718 [SponSkrub](https://github.com/yt-dlp/SponSkrub) is a utility to
719 mark/remove sponsor segments from downloaded YouTube videos using
720 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
722 --sponskrub Use sponskrub to mark sponsored sections.
723 This is enabled by default if the sponskrub
724 binary exists (Youtube only)
725 --no-sponskrub Do not use sponskrub
726 --sponskrub-cut Cut out the sponsor sections instead of
728 --no-sponskrub-cut Simply mark the sponsor sections, not cut
730 --sponskrub-force Run sponskrub even if the video was already
732 --no-sponskrub-force Do not cut out the sponsor sections if the
733 video was already downloaded (default)
734 --sponskrub-location PATH Location of the sponskrub binary; either
735 the path to the binary or its containing
738 ## Extractor Options:
739 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor
740 errors (default is
3), or "infinite"
741 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
742 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
743 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
744 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
745 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
746 discontinuities such as ad breaks
747 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
748 formats at discontinuities such as ad
750 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Download the DASH manifests and related
751 data on YouTube videos (default)
752 (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
753 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest Do not download the DASH manifests and
754 related data on YouTube videos
755 (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
756 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Download the HLS manifests and related data
757 on YouTube videos (default)
758 (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
759 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest Do not download the HLS manifests and
760 related data on YouTube videos
761 (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
765 You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
767 1. **Main Configuration**: The file given by
`--config-location`
768 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.
769 1. **Home Configuration**:
`yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by
`-P "home:<path>"`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
770 1. **User Configuration**:
771 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
772 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
773 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
774 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
776 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
778 Note that
`~` points to
`C:\Users\<user name>` on windows. Also,
`%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%` defaults to
`~/.config` if undefined
779 1. **System Configuration**:
`/etc/yt-dlp.conf` or
`/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
781 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:
783 # Lines starting with # are comments
785 # Always extract audio
788 # Do not copy the mtime
792 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
794 # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
795 -o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
798 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`.
800 You can use
`--ignore-config` if you want to disable all configuration files for a particular yt-dlp run. If
`--ignore-config` is found inside any configuration file, no further configuration will be loaded. For example, having the option in the portable configuration file prevents loading of user and system configurations. Additionally, (for backward compatibility) if
`--ignore-config` is found inside the system configuration file, the user configuration is not loaded.
802 ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
804 You may also want to configure automatic credentials storage for extractors that support authentication (by providing login and password with
`--username` and
`--password`) in order not to pass credentials as command line arguments on every yt-dlp execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command history. You can achieve this using a
[`.netrc` file](https://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on a per extractor basis. For that you will need to create a
`.netrc` file in your
`$HOME` and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
807 chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
809 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
811 machine <extractor> login <login> password <password>
815 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
816 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
818 To activate authentication with the
`.netrc` file you should pass
`--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
820 On Windows you may also need to setup the
`%HOME%` environment variable manually. For example:
822 set HOME=%USERPROFILE%
827 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.
829 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
831 The basic usage of
`-o` is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in
`yt-dlp -o funny_video.flv "https://some/video"` (hard-coding file extension like this is not recommended). However, it may contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according to
[python string formatting operations](https://docs.python.org/2/library/stdtypes.html#string-formatting). For example,
`%(NAME)s` or
`%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations. Date/time fields can also be formatted according to
[strftime formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes) by specifying it inside the parantheses seperated from the field name using a
`>`. For example,
`%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`.
833 Additionally, you can set different output templates for the various metadata files seperately from the general output template by specifying the type of file followed by the template seperated by a colon ":". The different filetypes supported are
`subtitle`,
`thumbnail`,
`description`,
`annotation`,
`infojson`,
`pl_description`,
`pl_infojson`,
`chapter`. For example,
`-o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' -o 'thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s'` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video.
835 The available fields are:
837 - `id` (string): Video identifier
838 - `title` (string): Video title
839 - `url` (string): Video URL
840 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
841 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
842 - `description` (string): The description of the video
843 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
844 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
845 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
846 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
847 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
848 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
849 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
850 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
851 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
852 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
853 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
854 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
855 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH-mm-ss)
856 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
857 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
858 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
859 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
860 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
861 - `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)
862 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
863 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
864 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
865 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
866 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is 'private', 'premium_only', 'subscriber_only', 'needs_auth', 'unlisted' or 'public'
867 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
868 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
869 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
870 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by
`--format`
871 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
872 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
873 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
874 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
875 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
876 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
877 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
878 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
879 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
880 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
881 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
882 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
883 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
884 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
885 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
886 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
887 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
888 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch when creating the file
889 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at
`--autonumber-start`
890 - `playlist` (string): Name or id of the playlist that contains the video
891 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
892 - `playlist_id` (string): Playlist identifier
893 - `playlist_title` (string): Playlist title
894 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
895 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
897 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
899 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
900 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
901 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
903 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
905 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
906 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
907 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
908 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
909 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
910 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
911 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
913 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
915 - `track` (string): Title of the track
916 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
917 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
918 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
919 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
920 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
921 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
922 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
923 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
924 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
926 Available when using
`--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
928 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
929 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
930 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
931 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
933 Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. Note that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with placeholder value provided with
`--output-na-placeholder` (
`NA` by default).
935 For example for
`-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title
`yt-dlp test video` and id
`BaW_jenozKcj`, this will result in a
`yt-dlp test video-BaW_jenozKcj.mp4` file created in the current directory.
937 For numeric sequences you can use numeric related formatting, for example,
`%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to
5 characters, like in
`00042`.
939 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.
941 To use percent literals in an output template use
`%%`. To output to stdout use
`-o -`.
943 The current default template is
`%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
945 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:
947 #### Output template and Windows batch files
949 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"`.
951 #### Output template examples
953 Note that on Windows you need to use double quotes instead of single.
956 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
957 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
959 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
960 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
962 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
963 $ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
965 # Download YouTube playlist videos in seperate directories according to their uploaded year
966 $ yt-dlp -o '%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
968 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
969 $ yt-dlp -o '%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists
971 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
972 $ 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/
974 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
975 $ 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
977 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
978 $ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
983 By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
984 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`.
986 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.
988 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
990 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.
992 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.
994 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
996 - `all`: Select all formats
997 - `b*`,
`best*`: Select the best quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio.
998 - `w*`,
`worst*`: Select the worst quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio.
999 - `b`,
`best`: Select the best quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1000 - `w`,
`worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1001 - `bv`,
`bestvideo`: Select the best quality video-only format. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec=none]`
1002 - `wv`,
`worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to
`worst*[acodec=none]`
1003 - `bv*`,
`bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none]`
1004 - `wv*`,
`worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec!=none]`
1005 - `ba`,
`bestaudio`: Select the best quality audio-only format. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec=none]`
1006 - `wa`,
`worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec=none]`
1007 - `ba*`,
`bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec!=none]`
1008 - `wa*`,
`worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to
`worst*[acodec!=none]`
1010 For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use
`-f worstvideo`. It is however recomended to never actually use
`worst` and related options. When your format selector is
`worst`, the format which is worst in all respects is selected. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use
`-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps` instead of
`-f worst`. See [sorting formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
1012 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.
1014 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`.
1016 You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using
`-f <format1>+<format2>+...` (requires ffmpeg installed), for example
`-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg. If
`--no-video-multistreams` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, if
`--no-audio-multistreams` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. For example,
`-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio` will download and merge all
3 given formats. The resulting file will have
2 video streams and
2 audio streams. But
`-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --no-video-multistreams` will download and merge only
`bestvideo` and
`bestaudio`.
`best` is ignored since another format containing a video stream (
`bestvideo`) has already been selected. The order of the formats is therefore important.
`-f best+bestaudio --no-audio-multistreams` will download and merge both formats while
`-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore
`best` and download only
`bestaudio`.
1018 ## Filtering Formats
1020 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in
`-f "best[height=720]"` (or
`-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
1022 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons
`<`,
`<=`,
`>`,
`>=`,
`=` (equals),
`!=` (not equals):
1024 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1025 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1026 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
1027 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1028 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1029 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1030 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1033 Also filtering work for comparisons
`=` (equals),
`^=` (starts with),
`$=` (ends with),
`*=` (contains) and following string meta fields:
1035 - `ext`: File extension
1036 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1037 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1038 - `container`: Name of the container format
1039 - `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`)
1040 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
1041 - `language`: Language code
1043 Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation
`!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g.
`!*=` (does not contain).
1045 Note that none of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by the video hoster. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
1047 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.
1049 Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if you want to download the best mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than
480 you can use
`-f '(mp4,webm)[height<480]'`.
1053 You can change the criteria for being considered the
`best` by using
`-S` (
`--format-sort`). The general format for this is
`--format-sort field1,field2...`. The available fields are:
1055 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1056 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
1057 - `ie_pref`: The format preference as given by the extractor
1058 - `lang`: Language preference as given by the extractor
1059 - `quality`: The quality of the format as given by the extractor
1060 - `source`: Preference of the source as given by the extractor
1061 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (
`https`/
`ftps` >
`http`/
`ftp` >
`m3u8-native` >
`m3u8` >
`http-dash-segments` > other >
`mms`/
`rtsp` > unknown >
`f4f`/
`f4m`)
1062 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (
`av01` >
`vp9.2` >
`vp9` >
`h265` >
`h264` >
`vp8` >
`h263` >
`theora` > other > unknown)
1063 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (
`opus` >
`vorbis` >
`aac` >
`mp4a` >
`mp3` >
`ac3` >
`dts` > other > unknown)
1064 - `codec`: Equivalent to
`vcodec,acodec`
1065 - `vext`: Video Extension (
`mp4` >
`webm` >
`flv` > other > unknown). If
`--prefer-free-formats` is used,
`webm` is prefered.
1066 - `aext`: Audio Extension (
`m4a` >
`aac` >
`mp3` >
`ogg` >
`opus` >
`webm` > other > unknown). If
`--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to
`opus` >
`ogg` >
`webm` >
`m4a` >
`mp3` >
`aac`.
1067 - `ext`: Equivalent to
`vext,aext`
1068 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if know in advance. This will be unavailable for mu38 and DASH formats.
1069 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1070 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
1071 - `height`: Height of video
1072 - `width`: Width of video
1073 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1074 - `fps`: Framerate of video
1075 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1076 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1077 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1078 - `br`: Equivalent to using
`tbr,vbr,abr`
1079 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
1081 Note that any other **numerical** field made available by the extractor can also be used. All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in decending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a
`+`. Eg:
`+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a prefered value for the fields, seperated by a
`:`. Eg:
`res:720` prefers larger videos, but no larger than
720p and the smallest video if there are no videos less than
720p. For
`codec` and
`ext`, you can provide two prefered values, the first for video and the second for audio. Eg:
`+codec:avc:m4a` (equivalent to
`+vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a`) sets the video codec preference to
`h264` >
`h265` >
`vp9` >
`vp9.2` >
`av01` >
`vp8` >
`h263` >
`theora` and audio codec preference to
`mp4a` >
`aac` >
`vorbis` >
`opus` >
`mp3` >
`ac3` >
`dts`. You can also make the sorting prefer the nearest values to the provided by using
`~` as the delimiter. Eg:
`filesize~1G` prefers the format with filesize closest to
1 GiB.
1083 The fields
`hasvid`,
`ie_pref`,
`lang` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using
`--force-format-sort`. Apart from these, the default order used is:
`quality,res,fps,codec:vp9.2,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. Note that the extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
1085 If your format selector is
`worst`, the last item is selected after sorting. This means it will select the format that is worst in all repects. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use
`-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps`.
1087 **Tip**: You can use the
`-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1089 ## Format Selection examples
1091 Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
1094 # Download and merge the best best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
1095 # or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
1096 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv+ba/b'
1098 # Download best format that contains video,
1099 # and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
1100 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba/b'
1105 # Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1106 # For this case, an output template should be used since
1107 # by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
1108 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv,ba' -o '%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s'
1112 # The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
1113 # and how to use -S to achieve a similar but better result
1115 # Download the worst video available (old method)
1116 $ yt-dlp -f 'wv*+wa/w'
1118 # Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
1121 # Download the smallest video available
1122 $ yt-dlp -S '+size,+br'
1126 # Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
1127 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b'
1129 # Download the best video with the best extension
1130 # (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
1135 # Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1136 # or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
1137 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w'
1139 # Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1140 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1141 $ yt-dlp -S 'height:480'
1143 # Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1144 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1145 # Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1146 # So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
1147 $ yt-dlp -S 'res:480'
1151 # Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1152 # or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1153 $ yt-dlp -f 'b[filesize<50M] / w'
1155 # Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1156 # or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1157 $ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize:50M'
1159 # Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
1160 $ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize~50M'
1164 # Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1165 # or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
1166 $ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)'
1168 # Download best video available via the best protocol
1169 # (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
1174 # Download the best video with h264 codec, or the best video if there is no such video
1175 $ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[vcodec^=avc1] / (bv*+ba/b)'
1177 # Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1178 # or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
1179 $ yt-dlp -S 'codec:h264'
1181 # Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1182 # or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
1183 $ yt-dlp -S '+codec:h264'
1187 # More complex examples
1189 # Download the best video no better than 720p prefering framerate greater than 30,
1190 # or the worst video (still prefering framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
1191 $ yt-dlp -f '((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)'
1193 # Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
1194 # or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
1195 # prefering larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
1196 $ yt-dlp -S 'res:720,fps'
1200 # Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1201 # or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
1202 # prefering better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
1203 $ yt-dlp -S '+res:480,codec,br'
1208 Plugins are loaded from
`<root-dir>/ytdlp_plugins/<type>/__init__.py`. Currently only
`extractor` plugins are supported. Support for
`downloader` and
`postprocessor` plugins may be added in the future. See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example.
1210 **Note**:
`<root-dir>` is the directory of the binary (
`<root-dir>/yt-dlp`), or the root directory of the module if you are running directly from source-code (
`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`)
1212 # DEPRECATED OPTIONS
1214 These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
1216 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
1217 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1218 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1219 -t, --title -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1220 -l, --literal -o accepts literal names
1221 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)
03d
1222 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "title:FORMAT"
1223 --prefer-avconv avconv is no longer officially supported (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
1224 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
1225 --avconv-location avconv is no longer officially supported
1226 -C, --call-home Not implemented
1227 --no-call-home Default
1228 --write-srt --write-subs
1229 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
1230 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
1231 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
1232 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
1233 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
1234 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
1235 --dump-headers --print-traffic
1236 --youtube-print-sig-code No longer supported
1237 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
1238 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
1239 --load-info --load-info-json
1240 --split-tracks --split-chapters
1241 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
1242 --sponskrub-args ARGS --ppa "sponskrub:ARGS"
1243 --test Only used for testing extractors
1247 For FAQ, Developer Instructions etc., see the
[original README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)