1 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
4 [](#readme)
6 [](#release-files "Release")
7 [](LICENSE "License")
8 [](Collaborators.md#collaborators "Donate")
9 []
(https://readthedocs.org/projects/yt-dlp/ "Docs")
10 [](supportedsites.md "Supported Sites")
11 []
(https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp "PyPi")
12 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions "CI Status")
13 []
(https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r "Discord")
14 []
(https://matrix.to/#/#yt-dlp:matrix.org "Matrix")
15 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
16 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
19 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
21 yt-dlp is a
[youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) fork based on the now inactive
[youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc). The main focus of this project is adding new features and patches while also keeping up to date with the original project
23 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "USAGE AND OPTIONS" SECTION HERE -->
25 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
26 * [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
27 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
28 * [INSTALLATION](#installation)
30 * [Release Files](#release-files)
31 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
33 * [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
34 * [General Options](#general-options)
35 * [Network Options](#network-options)
36 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
37 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
38 * [Download Options](#download-options)
39 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
40 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
41 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
42 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
43 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
44 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
45 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
46 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
47 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
48 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
49 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
50 * [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
51 * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
52 * [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
53 * [Output template and Windows batch files](#output-template-and-windows-batch-files)
54 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
55 * [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
56 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
57 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
58 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
59 * [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
60 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
61 * [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
63 * [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
64 * [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
65 * [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
66 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
67 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
69 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
74 * Based on **youtube-dl
2021.12.17 [commit/5add3f4](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/5add3f4373287e6346ca3551239edab549284db3)** and **youtube-dlc
2020.11.11-
3 [commit/f9401f2](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/f9401f2a91987068139c5f757b12fc711d4c0cee)**: You get all the features and patches of
[youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) in addition to the latest
[youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl)
76 * **
[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
78 * **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using
`-S`. This allows for much easier format selection than what is possible by simply using
`--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
80 * **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from
[animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including
`--write-comments`,
`BiliBiliSearch`,
`BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that the NicoNico improvements are not available. See
[#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
82 * **Youtube improvements**:
83 * All Feeds (
`:ytfav`,
`:ytwatchlater`,
`:ytsubs`,
`:ythistory`,
`:ytrec`) and private playlists supports downloading multiple pages of content
84 * Search (
`ytsearch:`,
`ytsearchdate:`), search URLs and in-channel search works
85 * Mixes supports downloading multiple pages of content
86 * Some (but not all) age-gated content can be downloaded without cookies
87 * Fix for
[n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326)
88 * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to
`/video` to preserve the old behaviour
89 * `255kbps` audio is extracted (if available) from youtube music when premium cookies are given
90 * Youtube music Albums, channels etc can be downloaded (
[except self-uploaded music](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/723))
91 * Download livestreams from the start using
`--live-from-start` (experimental)
93 * **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using
`--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE]`
95 * **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using
`--split-chapters`
97 * **Multi-threaded fragment downloads**: Download multiple fragments of m3u8/mpd videos in parallel. Use
`--concurrent-fragments` (
`-N`) option to set the number of threads used
99 * **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use
`aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
101 * **New and fixed extractors**: Many new extractors have been added and a lot of existing ones have been fixed. See the [changelog](Changelog.md) or the [list of supported sites](supportedsites.md)
103 * **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN
105 * **Subtitle extraction from manifests**: Subtitles can be extracted from streaming media manifests. See
[commit/be6202f](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/be6202f12b97858b9d716e608394b51065d0419f) for details
107 * **Multiple paths and output templates**: You can give different [output templates](#output-template) and download paths for different types of files. You can also set a temporary path where intermediary files are downloaded to using
`--paths` (
`-P`)
109 * **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
111 * **Output template improvements**: Output templates can now have date-time formatting, numeric offsets, object traversal etc. See [output template](#output-template) for details. Even more advanced operations can also be done with the help of
`--parse-metadata` and
`--replace-in-metadata`
113 * **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as
`--concat-playlist`,
`--print`,
`--wait-for-video`,
`--sleep-requests`,
`--convert-thumbnails`,
`--write-link`,
`--force-download-archive`,
`--force-overwrites`,
`--break-on-reject` etc
115 * **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in
`--match-filter`, multiple
`--postprocessor-args` and
`--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection), merge multi-video/audio, multiple
`--config-locations`,
`--exec` at different stages, etc
117 * **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
119 * **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using
`yt-dlp -U`
121 See
[changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
123 ### Differences in default behavior
125 Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
127 * The options
`--auto-number` (
`-A`),
`--title` (
`-t`) and
`--literal` (
`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
128 * `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to
`ffmpeg`
129 * The default [output template](#output-template) is
`%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`. There is no real reason for this change. This was changed before yt-dlp was ever made public and now there are no plans to change it back to
`%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`. Instead, you may use
`--compat-options filename`
130 * The default [format sorting](#sorting-formats) is different from youtube-dl and prefers higher resolution and better codecs rather than higher bitrates. You can use the
`--format-sort` option to change this to any order you prefer, or use
`--compat-options format-sort` to use youtube-dl's sorting order
131 * The default format selector is
`bv*+ba/b`. This means that if a combined video + audio format that is better than the best video-only format is found, the former will be preferred. Use
`-f bv+ba/b` or
`--compat-options format-spec` to revert this
132 * Unlike youtube-dlc, yt-dlp does not allow merging multiple audio/video streams into one file by default (since this conflicts with the use of
`-f bv*+ba`). If needed, this feature must be enabled using
`--audio-multistreams` and
`--video-multistreams`. You can also use
`--compat-options multistreams` to enable both
133 * `--ignore-errors` is enabled by default. Use
`--abort-on-error` or
`--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
134 * When writing metadata files such as thumbnails, description or infojson, the same information (if available) is also written for playlists. Use
`--no-write-playlist-metafiles` or
`--compat-options no-playlist-metafiles` to not write these files
135 * `--add-metadata` attaches the
`infojson` to
`mkv` files in addition to writing the metadata when used with
`--write-info-json`. Use
`--no-embed-info-json` or
`--compat-options no-attach-info-json` to revert this
136 * Some metadata are embedded into different fields when using
`--add-metadata` as compared to youtube-dl. Most notably,
`comment` field contains the
`webpage_url` and
`synopsis` contains the
`description`. You can [use
`--parse-metadata`](#modifying-metadata) to modify this to your liking or use
`--compat-options embed-metadata` to revert this
137 * `playlist_index` behaves differently when used with options like
`--playlist-reverse` and
`--playlist-items`. See
[#302](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/302) for details. You can use
`--compat-options playlist-index` if you want to keep the earlier behavior
138 * The output of
`-F` is listed in a new format. Use
`--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
139 * All *experiences* of a funimation episode are considered as a single video. This behavior breaks existing archives. Use
`--compat-options seperate-video-versions` to extract information from only the default player
140 * Youtube live chat (if available) is considered as a subtitle. Use
`--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use
`--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent live chat from downloading
141 * Youtube channel URLs are automatically redirected to
`/video`. Append a
`/featured` to the URL to download only the videos in the home page. If the channel does not have a videos tab, we try to download the equivalent
`UU` playlist instead. 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
142 * Unavailable videos are also listed for youtube playlists. Use
`--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
143 * If
`ffmpeg` is used as the downloader, the downloading and merging of formats happen in a single step when possible. Use
`--compat-options no-direct-merge` to revert this
144 * Thumbnail embedding in
`mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use
`--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
145 * Some private fields such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use
`--no-clean-infojson` or
`--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
146 * When
`--embed-subs` and
`--write-subs` are used together, the subtitles are written to disk and also embedded in the media file. You can use just
`--embed-subs` to embed the subs and automatically delete the separate file. See
[#630 (comment)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/630#issuecomment-893659460) for more info.
`--compat-options no-keep-subs` can be used to revert this
148 For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
149 * `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options
150 * `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as
`--compat-options all,-multistreams`
151 * `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as
`--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
156 You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
158 ### Using the release binary
160 You can simply download the [correct binary file](#release-files) for your OS
162 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
163 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)
164 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
165 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
166 [](#release-files)
167 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
168 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
170 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)
172 <!-- TODO: Move to Wiki -->
173 In UNIX-like OSes (MacOS, Linux, BSD), you can also install the same in one of the following ways:
176 sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
177 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
181 sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
182 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
186 sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp --dir /usr/local/bin -o yt-dlp
187 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
191 ### With [PIP](https://pypi.org/project/pip)
193 You can install the
[PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) with:
195 python3 -m pip install -U yt-dlp
198 You can install without any of the optional dependencies using:
200 python3 -m pip install --no-deps -U yt-dlp
203 If you want to be on the cutting edge, you can also install the master branch with:
205 python3 -m pip install --force-reinstall https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/archive/master.zip
208 Note that on some systems, you may need to use
`py` or
`python` instead of
`python3`
210 <!-- TODO: Add to Wiki, Remove Taps -->
211 ### With [Homebrew](https://brew.sh)
213 macOS or Linux users that are using Homebrew can also install it by:
216 brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp
220 You can use
`yt-dlp -U` to update if you are [using the provided release](#using-the-release-binary)
222 If you [installed with pip](#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
224 If you [installed using Homebrew](#with-homebrew), run
`brew upgrade yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp`
226 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
233 [yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independant binary. Needs Python (recommended for **UNIX-like systems**)
234 [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**)
240 [yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|MacOS (
10.15+) standalone executable
241 [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
242 [yt-dlp_min.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_min.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary built with
`py2exe`.<br/> Does not contain
`pycryptodomex`, needs VC++
14
243 [yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
244 [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)
250 [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
251 [SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
252 [SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
253 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
256 Python versions
3.6+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
258 <!-- Python
3.5+ uses VC++
14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
259 <!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=
26999 --x>
260 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.
263 While all the other dependencies are optional,
`ffmpeg` and
`ffprobe` are highly recommended
265 * [**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)
266 * [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen) - For embedding thumbnail in certain formats. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
267 * [**pycryptodomex**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome) - For decrypting AES-
128 HLS streams and various other data. Licensed under
[BSD2](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
268 * [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets) - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under
[BSD3](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
269 * [**secretstorage**](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage) - For accessing the Gnome keyring while decrypting cookies of Chromium-based browsers on Linux. Licensed under
[BSD](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage/blob/master/LICENSE)
270 * [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For embedding thumbnail in mp4/m4a if mutagen is not present. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
271 * [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading
`rtmp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
272 * [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or
[**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading
`rstp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
273 * [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licensed under
[BSD3](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
274 * [**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)
275 * Any external downloader that you want to use with
`--downloader`
277 To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
279 The Windows and MacOS standalone release binaries are already built with the python interpreter, mutagen, pycryptodomex and websockets included.
281 **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
287 To build the Windows executable, you must have pyinstaller (and optionally mutagen, pycryptodomex, websockets). Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, (optionally) build lazy extractors using
`devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py`, and then just run
`pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (
32/
64 bit) as the python used to build it.
289 py -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
290 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
293 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
296 You will need the required build tools:
`python`,
`make` (GNU),
`pandoc`,
`zip`,
`pytest`
297 Then simply run
`make`. You can also run
`make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files
299 **Note**: In either platform,
`devscripts/update-version.py` can be used to automatically update the version number
301 You can also fork the project on github and run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build a release
305 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
306 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
308 `Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
309 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
311 <!-- Auto generated -->
313 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
314 --version Print program version and exit
315 -U, --update Update this program to latest version. Make
316 sure that you have sufficient permissions
317 (run with sudo if needed)
318 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
319 The download will be considered successful
320 even if the postprocessing fails
321 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download
322 errors; e.g. to skip unavailable videos in
324 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
325 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
326 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
327 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
328 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
330 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
332 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
333 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
334 from google videos for the search term
335 "large apple". Use the value "auto" to let
336 yt-dlp guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
337 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
338 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
339 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
340 this is not possible instead of searching
341 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
342 except those given by --config-locations.
343 For backward compatibility, if this option
344 is found inside the system configuration
345 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
347 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
348 (default). When given inside a
349 configuration file, ignore all previous
350 --config-locations defined in the current
352 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
353 either the path to the config or its
354 containing directory. Can be used multiple
355 times and inside other configuration files
356 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
358 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
359 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
360 Currently only supported for YouTube
362 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
364 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
365 available. Pass the minimum number of
366 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
367 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
368 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate).
369 Currently only supported for YouTube
370 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
371 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output
372 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
373 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
374 configurations by reverting some of the
375 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
376 default behavior" for details
379 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy.
380 To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper
382 socks5://user:pass@
127.0.0.1:
1080/. Pass in
383 an empty string (--proxy "") for direct
385 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
386 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
387 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
388 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
391 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
392 some geo-restricted sites. The default
393 proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the
394 option is not present) is used for the
396 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
397 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header (default)
398 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
399 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
400 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
401 explicitly provided two-letter ISO
3166-
2
403 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
404 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR
408 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is
1)
409 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
410 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
411 indices of the videos in the playlist
412 separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
413 1,
2,
5,
8" if you want to download videos
414 indexed
1,
2,
5,
8 in the playlist. You can
415 specify range: "--playlist-items
416 1-
3,
7,
10-
13", it will download the videos
417 at index
1,
2,
3,
7,
10,
11,
12 and
13
418 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
419 SIZE (e.g.
50k or
44.6m)
420 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
422 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
423 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
424 "(now|today)[+-][
0-
9](day|week|month|year)(s)?"
425 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
426 this date. The date formats accepted is the
428 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
429 this date. The date formats accepted is the
431 --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Any field (see
432 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE") can be compared with a
433 number or a string using the operators
434 defined in "Filtering formats". You can
435 also simply specify a field to match if the
436 field is present and "!field" to check if
437 the field is not present. In addition,
438 Python style regular expression matching
439 can be done using "~=", and multiple
440 filters can be checked with "&". Use a "
\"
441 to escape "&" or quotes if needed. Eg:
442 --match-filter "!is_live & like_count>?
100
443 & description~='(?i)
\bcats \& dogs
\b'"
444 matches only videos that are not live, has
445 a like count more than
100 (or the like
446 field is not available), and also has a
447 description that contains the phrase "cats
448 & dogs" (ignoring case)
449 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
450 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
451 to a video and a playlist
452 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
453 a video and a playlist
454 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
456 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
457 archive file. Record the IDs of all
458 downloaded videos in it
459 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
460 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
461 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
462 a file that is in the archive
463 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
464 a file that has been filtered out
465 --break-per-input Make --break-on-existing and --break-on-
466 reject act only on the current input URL
467 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and --break-on-reject
468 terminates the entire download queue
469 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest
470 of the playlist is skipped
473 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
474 video that should be downloaded
475 concurrently (default is
1)
476 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
478 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
479 below which throttling is assumed and the
480 video data is re-extracted (e.g.
100K)
481 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is
10), or
483 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
484 error (default is
10), or "infinite"
485 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
486 is
10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and
488 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
489 hlsnative and ISM (default)
490 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
491 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading if a fragment is unavailable
492 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
493 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
494 downloading is finished
495 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
496 downloading is finished (default)
497 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g.
1024 or
16K)
499 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
500 from an initial value of --buffer-size
502 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
503 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
504 downloading (e.g.
10485760 or
10M) (default
505 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
506 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
508 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
509 --no-playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in default order
511 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
512 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
514 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
515 allowing some players to play the video
516 while downloading, and reducing the chance
517 of file corruption if download is
518 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
520 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
521 videos. This is default when not
522 downloading live streams
523 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
524 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
525 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
526 use it for. Currently supports native,
527 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
528 wget (Recommended: aria2c). You can use
529 this option multiple times to set different
530 downloaders for different protocols. For
531 example, --downloader aria2c --downloader
532 "dash,m3u8:native" will use aria2c for
533 http/ftp downloads, and the native
534 downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads (Alias:
535 --external-downloader)
536 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
537 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
538 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
539 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to
540 different positions using the same syntax
541 as --postprocessor-args. You can use this
542 option multiple times to give different
543 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
544 --external-downloader-args)
546 ## Filesystem Options:
547 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
548 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
549 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
551 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
552 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
553 downloaded. Specify the type of file and
554 the path separated by a colon ":". All the
555 same TYPES as --output are supported.
556 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
557 (default) and "temp" paths. All
558 intermediary files are first downloaded to
559 the temp path and then the final files are
560 moved over to the home path after download
561 is finished. This option is ignored if
562 --output is an absolute path
563 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
564 TEMPLATE" for details
565 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder value for unavailable meta
566 fields in output filename template
568 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
569 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
571 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
573 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
574 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
575 using Windows (default)
576 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
577 extension) to the specified number of
579 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
580 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files.
581 This option includes --no-continue
582 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
583 related files (default)
584 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
586 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
587 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
588 restart download of the entire file
589 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
590 into output file (default)
591 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
593 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the
594 file modification time (default)
595 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
596 the file modification time
597 --write-description Write video description to a .description
599 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
600 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
601 (this may contain personal information)
602 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
603 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
604 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
605 --write-description etc. (default)
606 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
607 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
608 --clean-infojson Remove some private fields such as
609 filenames from the infojson. Note that it
610 could still contain some personal
611 information (default)
612 --no-clean-infojson Write all fields to the infojson
613 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
614 infojson. The comments are fetched even
615 without this option if the extraction is
616 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
617 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
618 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
620 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
621 (created with the "--write-info-json"
623 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies
624 from and dump cookie jar in
625 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
627 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE]
628 The name of the browser and (optionally)
629 the name/path of the profile to load
630 cookies from, separated by a ":". Currently
631 supported browsers are: brave, chrome,
632 chromium, edge, firefox, opera, safari,
633 vivaldi. By default, the most recently
634 accessed profile is used. The keyring used
635 for decrypting Chromium cookies on Linux
636 can be (optionally) specified after the
637 browser name separated by a "+". Currently
638 supported keyrings are: basictext,
639 gnomekeyring, kwallet
640 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
641 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
642 can store some downloaded information (such
643 as client ids and signatures) permanently.
644 By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/yt-dlp or
646 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
647 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
649 ## Thumbnail Options:
650 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
651 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk
653 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
654 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
655 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
657 ## Internet Shortcut Options:
658 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
659 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
660 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
661 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
662 OS caches the URL based on the file path
663 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
664 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
666 ## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
667 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with
668 --verbose, print the log to stderr
669 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
670 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
672 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
674 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
675 extracting metadata even if the videos are
676 not actually available for download
678 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
679 formats are found (default)
680 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
681 related files (Alias: --no-download)
682 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
683 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
684 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
685 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
686 --use-postprocessor, and "video" (default).
687 Implies --quiet and --simulate (unless
688 --no-simulate is used). This option can be
690 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
691 Append given template to the file. The
692 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as
693 that of --print. FILE uses the same syntax
694 as the output template. This option can be
696 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
697 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
698 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
699 description of available keys
700 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
701 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
702 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
703 a playlist, the whole playlist information
704 is dumped in a single line
705 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be
706 written as far as no errors occur, even if
707 -s or another simulation option is used
708 (Alias: --force-download-archive)
709 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
710 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
711 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
712 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
713 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
714 Template for progress outputs, optionally
715 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
716 "download-title:" (the console title),
717 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
718 The video's fields are accessible under the
719 "info" key and the progress attributes are
720 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.:
721 --console-title --progress-template
722 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
723 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
724 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
725 to debug problems (very verbose)
726 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
727 files in the current directory to debug
729 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
732 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
733 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to
734 servers that do not support RFC
5746 secure
736 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
737 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
738 information about the video (Currently
739 supported only for YouTube)
740 --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
741 --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video
742 access is restricted to one domain
743 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
744 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
745 option multiple times
746 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
747 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
748 or fribidi executable in PATH
749 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
750 during data extraction
751 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
752 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
753 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
754 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
755 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can
756 only be used along with --min-sleep-interval
757 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
760 ## Video Format Options:
761 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
763 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
764 "Sorting Formats" for more details
765 --S-force, --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
766 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
767 Formats" for more details
768 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
769 specified sort order (default), see
770 "Sorting Formats" for more details
771 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
773 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for
774 each output file (default)
775 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
777 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for
778 each output file (default)
779 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
780 over non-free ones of same quality. Use
781 with "-S ext" to strictly prefer free
782 containers irrespective of quality
783 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
785 --check-formats Check that the selected formats are
786 actually downloadable
787 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
788 actually downloadable
789 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
791 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
792 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
793 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
794 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
795 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
796 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
799 --write-subs Write subtitle file
800 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
801 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
802 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
803 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
804 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
805 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
806 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
807 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
808 preference, for example: "srt" or
810 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
811 be regex) or "all" separated by commas.
812 (Eg: --sub-langs "en.*,ja") You can prefix
813 the language code with a "-" to exempt it
814 from the requested languages. (Eg:
815 --sub-langs all,-live_chat) Use --list-subs
816 for a list of available language tags
818 ## Authentication Options:
819 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
820 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
821 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
822 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
823 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
824 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
825 either the path or its containing
826 directory. Defaults to ~/.netrc
827 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
828 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
829 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
830 a list of available MSOs
831 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
832 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
833 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
835 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
838 ## Post-Processing Options:
839 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
840 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
841 --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format to convert the audio
842 to when -x is used. Currently supported
843 formats are: best (default) or one of
844 best|aac|flac|mp3|m4a|opus|vorbis|wav|alac
845 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality, insert a
846 value between
0 (best) and
10 (worst) for
847 VBR or a specific bitrate like
128K
849 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
850 necessary (currently supported: mp4|mkv|flv
851 |webm|mov|avi|mp3|mka|m4a|ogg|opus). If
852 target container does not support the
853 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
854 can specify multiple rules; Eg.
855 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to
856 m4a, mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv.
857 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
858 re-encoding is necessary. The syntax and
859 supported formats are the same as --remux-video
860 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
861 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
862 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
863 to give the argument to the specified
864 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
865 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
866 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
867 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
868 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
869 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
870 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
871 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
872 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
873 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
874 specified executable only when being used
875 by the specified postprocessor.
876 Additionally, for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o"
877 can be appended to the prefix optionally
878 followed by a number to pass the argument
879 before the specified input/output file. Eg:
880 --ppa "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can
881 use this option multiple times to give
882 different arguments to different
883 postprocessors. (Alias: --ppa)
884 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
885 after post-processing
886 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
887 post-processing (default)
888 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
889 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
890 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
892 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
893 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
894 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
895 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
896 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
897 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json
898 are used (Alias: --add-metadata)
899 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
900 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
901 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
902 (Alias: --add-chapters)
903 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default)
904 (Alias: --no-add-chapters)
905 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
907 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
909 --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
910 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
912 --replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
913 Replace text in a metadata field using the
914 given regex. This option can be used
916 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
917 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
918 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
919 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
920 (default; only when the videos form a
921 single show). All the video files must have
922 same codecs and number of streams to be
923 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
924 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
925 the output filename for the split files.
926 See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
927 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
928 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
929 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
930 default; fix file if we can, warn
931 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
933 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
934 path to the binary or its containing
936 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
937 when to execute it (after_move if
938 unspecified), separated by a ":". Supported
939 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
940 --use-postprocessor. Same syntax as the
941 output template can be used to pass any
942 field as arguments to the command. After
943 download, an additional field "filepath"
944 that contains the final path of the
945 downloaded file is also available, and if
946 no fields are passed, %(filepath)q is
947 appended to the end of the command. This
948 option can be used multiple times
949 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
950 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
951 (currently supported: srt|vtt|ass|lrc)
952 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
953 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
954 (currently supported: jpg|png)
955 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
956 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix
957 can be used with "--paths" and "--output"
958 to set the output filename for the split
959 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
960 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters
962 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
963 given regular expression. Time ranges
964 prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place
965 of chapters to remove the specified range.
966 Eg: --remove-chapters "*
10:
15-
15:
00"
967 --remove-chapters "intro". This option can
968 be used multiple times
969 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
971 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes around the chapters before
972 removing/splitting them. Requires a
973 re-encode and thus is very slow, but the
974 resulting video may have fewer artifacts
976 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
977 when cutting/splitting (default)
978 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS] The (case sensitive) name of plugin
979 postprocessors to be enabled, and
980 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
981 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
982 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
983 The "when" argument determines when the
984 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
985 "pre_process" (after extraction),
986 "before_dl" (before video download),
987 "post_process" (after video download;
988 default), "after_move" (after moving file
989 to their final locations), "after_video"
990 (after downloading and processing all
991 formats of a video), or "playlist" (end of
992 playlist). This option can be used multiple
993 times to add different postprocessors
995 ## SponsorBlock Options:
996 Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
997 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
998 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1000 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1001 for, separated by commas. Available
1002 categories are all, default(=all), sponsor,
1003 intro, outro, selfpromo, preview, filler,
1004 interaction, music_offtopic, poi_highlight.
1005 You can prefix the category with a "-" to
1006 exempt it. See [
1] for description of the
1007 categories. Eg: --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1008 [
1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1009 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1010 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1011 category is present in both mark and
1012 remove, remove takes precedence. The syntax
1013 and available categories are the same as
1014 for --sponsorblock-mark except that
1015 "default" refers to "all,-filler" and
1016 poi_highlight is not available
1017 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
1018 The title template for SponsorBlock
1019 chapters created by --sponsorblock-mark.
1020 The same syntax as the output template is
1021 used, but the only available fields are
1022 start_time, end_time, category, categories,
1023 name, category_names. Defaults to
1024 "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1025 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1026 --sponsorblock-remove
1027 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1028 https://sponsor.ajay.app
1030 ## Extractor Options:
1031 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor
1032 errors (default is
3), or "infinite"
1033 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1034 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1035 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1036 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1037 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1038 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1039 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1040 formats at discontinuities such as ad
1042 --extractor-args KEY:ARGS Pass these arguments to the extractor. See
1043 "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You can
1044 use this option multiple times to give
1045 arguments for different extractors
1049 You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
1051 1. **Main Configuration**: The file given by
`--config-location`
1052 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.
1053 1. **Home Configuration**:
`yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by
`-P`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
1054 1. **User Configuration**:
1055 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1056 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
1057 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1058 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1060 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
1062 `%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%`
1063 1. **System Configuration**:
`/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
1065 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:
1067 # Lines starting with # are comments
1069 # Always extract audio
1072 # Do not copy the mtime
1076 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1078 # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1079 -o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
1082 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`.
1084 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.
1086 ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
1088 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:
1091 chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
1093 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1095 machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
1099 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1100 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1102 To activate authentication with the
`.netrc` file you should pass
`--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
1104 The default location of the .netrc file is
`$HOME` (
`~`) in UNIX. On Windows, it is
`%HOME%` if present,
`%USERPROFILE%` (generally
`C:\Users\<user name>`) or
`%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
1108 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.
1110 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1111 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
1112 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1114 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).
1116 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.
1118 The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
1119 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
1121 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`
1123 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`
1125 1. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a
`,`. Eg:
`%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
1127 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.
1129 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`
1131 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
1133 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
1135 To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1137 %(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
1140 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.
1142 The available fields are:
1144 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1145 - `title` (string): Video title
1146 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
1147 - `url` (string): Video URL
1148 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1149 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
1150 - `description` (string): The description of the video
1151 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1152 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1153 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1154 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
1155 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
1156 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
1157 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
1158 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
1159 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
1160 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified
1161 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1162 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1163 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
1164 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
1165 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1166 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
1167 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
1168 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1169 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1170 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1171 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1172 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
1173 - `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)
1174 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
1175 - `live_status` (string): One of "is_live", "was_live", "is_upcoming", "not_live"
1176 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
1177 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
1178 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
1179 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
1180 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1181 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
1182 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
1183 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by
`--format`
1184 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
1185 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
1186 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
1187 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
1188 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1189 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1190 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
1191 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1192 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1193 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
1194 - `dynamic_range` (string): The dynamic range of the video
1195 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
1196 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
1197 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
1198 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
1199 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
1200 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1201 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
1202 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
1203 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at
`--autonumber-start`
1204 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
1205 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
1206 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1207 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1208 - `playlist` (string):
`playlist_id` or
`playlist_title`
1209 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
1210 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1211 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
1212 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1213 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
1214 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
1215 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1216 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
1217 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as
`webpage_url` for playlist entries)
1219 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1221 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1222 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1223 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1225 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1227 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1228 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1229 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1230 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1231 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1232 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1233 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1235 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1237 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1238 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1239 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1240 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1241 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1242 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1243 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1244 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1245 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1246 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1248 Available for
`chapter:` prefix when using
`--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
1250 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1251 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1252 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1253 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1255 Available only when used in
`--print`:
1257 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1258 - `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
1259 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by
`--list-formats`
1260 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by
`--list-thumbnails`
1261 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by
`--list-subs`
1262 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by
`--list-subs`
1265 Available only in
`--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1267 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1268 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1269 - `categories` (list): The SponsorBlock categories the chapter belongs to
1270 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1271 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1272 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1274 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.
1276 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).
1278 **Tip**: Look at the
`-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
1280 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`.
1282 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.
1284 To use percent literals in an output template use
`%%`. To output to stdout use
`-o -`.
1286 The current default template is
`%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
1288 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.
1290 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1291 #### Output template and Windows batch files
1293 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"`.
1294 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1296 #### Output template examples
1299 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1300 test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1302 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1303 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
1305 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
1306 youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
1308 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
1309 $ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1311 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
1312 $ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1314 # Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
1315 $ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist_index|)s%(playlist_index& - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1317 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
1318 $ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1320 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
1321 $ 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"
1323 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
1324 $ 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"
1326 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1327 # and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1328 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1330 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1331 $ 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
1333 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
1334 $ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
1339 By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1340 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`.
1342 **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.
1344 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.
1346 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1347 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1348 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1350 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.
1352 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.
1354 You can use
`-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1356 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1358 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1359 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with
`--audio-multistreams`,
`--video-multistreams` or both)
1360 - `b*`,
`best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio
1361 - `b`,
`best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1362 - `bv`,
`bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec=none]`
1363 - `bv*`,
`bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none]`
1364 - `ba`,
`bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec=none]`
1365 - `ba*`,
`bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that **contains audio**. It may also contain video. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec!=none]`
1366 - `w*`,
`worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
1367 - `w`,
`worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1368 - `wv`,
`worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to
`worst*[acodec=none]`
1369 - `wv*`,
`worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec!=none]`
1370 - `wa`,
`worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec=none]`
1371 - `wa*`,
`worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to
`worst*[acodec!=none]`
1373 For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use
`-f worstvideo`. It is however recommended not to use
`worst` and related options. When your format selector is
`worst`, the format which is worst in all respects is selected. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use
`-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps` instead of
`-f worst`. See [sorting formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
1375 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.
1377 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.
1379 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`.
1381 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.
1383 **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
1385 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`.
1387 ## Filtering Formats
1389 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in
`-f "best[height=720]"` (or
`-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
1391 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons
`<`,
`<=`,
`>`,
`>=`,
`=` (equals),
`!=` (not equals):
1393 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1394 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1395 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
1396 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1397 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1398 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1399 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1402 Also filtering work for comparisons
`=` (equals),
`^=` (starts with),
`$=` (ends with),
`*=` (contains) and following string meta fields:
1404 - `ext`: File extension
1405 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1406 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1407 - `container`: Name of the container format
1408 - `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`)
1409 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
1410 - `language`: Language code
1412 Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation
`!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g.
`!*=` (does not contain).
1414 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.
1416 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.
1418 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]"`.
1422 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...`.
1424 The available fields are:
1426 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1427 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
1428 - `ie_pref`: The format preference
1429 - `lang`: The language preference
1430 - `quality`: The quality of the format
1431 - `source`: The preference of the source
1432 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (
`https`/
`ftps` >
`http`/
`ftp` >
`m3u8_native`/
`m3u8` >
`http_dash_segments`>
`websocket_frag` >
`mms`/
`rtsp` >
`f4f`/
`f4m`)
1433 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (
`av01` >
`vp9.2` >
`vp9` >
`h265` >
`h264` >
`vp8` >
`h263` >
`theora` > other)
1434 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (
`flac`/
`alac` >
`wav`/
`aiff` >
`opus` >
`vorbis` >
`aac` >
`mp4a` >
`mp3` >
`eac3` >
`ac3` >
`dts` > other)
1435 - `codec`: Equivalent to
`vcodec,acodec`
1436 - `vext`: Video Extension (
`mp4` >
`webm` >
`flv` > other). If
`--prefer-free-formats` is used,
`webm` is preferred.
1437 - `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`.
1438 - `ext`: Equivalent to
`vext,aext`
1439 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
1440 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1441 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
1442 - `height`: Height of video
1443 - `width`: Width of video
1444 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1445 - `fps`: Framerate of video
1446 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (
`DV` >
`HDR12` >
`HDR10+` >
`HDR10` >
`HLG` >
`SDR`)
1447 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1448 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1449 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1450 - `br`: Equivalent to using
`tbr,vbr,abr`
1451 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
1453 **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.
1455 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.
1457 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.
1459 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.
1461 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`.
1463 **Tip**: You can use the
`-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1465 ## Format Selection examples
1468 # Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
1469 # or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
1470 $ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
1472 # Download best format that contains video,
1473 # and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
1474 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
1479 # Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1480 # For this case, an output template should be used since
1481 # by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
1482 $ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
1484 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1485 # and all audio-only formats into one file
1486 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
1488 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1489 # and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1490 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
1493 # The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
1494 # and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
1496 # Download the worst video available (old method)
1497 $ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
1499 # Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
1502 # Download the smallest video available
1503 $ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
1507 # Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
1508 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
1510 # Download the best video with the best extension
1511 # (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
1516 # Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1517 # or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
1518 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
1520 # Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1521 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1522 $ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
1524 # Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1525 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1526 # Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1527 # So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
1528 $ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
1532 # Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1533 # or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1534 $ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
1536 # Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1537 # or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1538 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
1540 # Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
1541 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
1545 # Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1546 # or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
1547 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
1549 # Download best video available via the best protocol
1550 # (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
1555 # Download the best video with h264 codec, or the best video if there is no such video
1556 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec^=avc1]+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
1558 # Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1559 # or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
1560 $ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
1562 # Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1563 # or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
1564 $ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
1568 # More complex examples
1570 # Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1571 # or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
1572 $ yt-dlp -f "((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)"
1574 # Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
1575 # or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
1576 # preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
1577 $ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
1581 # Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1582 # or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
1583 # preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
1584 $ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
1587 # MODIFYING METADATA
1589 The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using
`--parse-metadata` and
`--replace-in-metadata`
1591 `--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.
1593 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.
1595 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`.
1597 This option also has a few special uses:
1598 * 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
1599 * 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.
1601 For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1603 Metadata fields|From
1605 `title`|
`track` or
`title`
1606 `date`|
`upload_date`
1607 `description`,
`synopsis`|
`description`
1608 `purl`,
`comment`|
`webpage_url`
1609 `track`|
`track_number`
1610 `artist`|
`artist`,
`creator`,
`uploader` or
`uploader_id`
1613 `album_artist`|
`album_artist`
1614 `disc`|
`disc_number`
1616 `season_number`|
`season_number`
1617 `episode_id`|
`episode` or
`episode_id`
1618 `episode_sort`|
`episode_number`
1619 `language` of each stream|From the format's
`language`
1620 **Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1623 ## Modifying metadata examples
1626 # Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
1627 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
1630 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
1632 # Set title as "Series name S01E05"
1633 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
1635 # Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url
1636 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --add-metadata
1638 # Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
1639 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<formats>)" -j
1641 # Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
1642 $ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
1646 # EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1648 Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using
`--extractor-args KEY:ARGS`.
`ARGS` is a
`;` (semicolon) separated string of
`ARG=VAL1,VAL2`. Eg:
`--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_agegate,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
1650 The following extractors use this feature:
1653 * `skip`:
`hls` or
`dash` (or both) to skip download of the respective manifests
1654 * `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are
`web`,
`android`,
`ios`,
`mweb`. These also have
`_music`,
`_embedded`,
`_agegate`, and
`_creator` variants (Eg:
`web_embedded`) (
`mweb` has only
`_agegate`). By default,
`android,web` is used, but the agegate and creator variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly the music variants are added for
`music.youtube.com` urls. You can also use
`all` to use all the clients, and
`default` for the default clients.
1655 * `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
1656 * `include_live_dash`: Include live dash formats even without
`--live-from-start` (These formats don't download properly)
1657 * `comment_sort`:
`top` or
`new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
1658 * `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`.
1659 * 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.
1660 * `max_comment_depth` Maximum depth for nested comments. YouTube supports depths
1 or
2 (default)
1661 * **Deprecated**: Set
`max-replies` to
`0` or
`all` in
`max_comments` instead (e.g.
`max_comments=all,all,0` to get no replies)
1663 #### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1664 * `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)
1667 * `language`: Languages to extract. Eg:
`funimation:language=english,japanese`
1668 * `version`: The video version to extract -
`uncut` or
`simulcast`
1671 * `language`: Languages to extract. Eg:
`crunchyroll:language=jaJp`
1672 * `hardsub`: Which hard-sub versions to extract. Eg:
`crunchyroll:hardsub=None,enUS`
1674 #### crunchyroll:beta
1675 * `format`: Which stream type(s) to extract. Default is
`adaptive_hls` Eg:
`crunchyrollbeta:format=vo_adaptive_hls`
1676 * Potentially useful values include
`adaptive_hls`,
`adaptive_dash`,
`vo_adaptive_hls`,
`vo_adaptive_dash`,
`download_hls`,
`trailer_hls`,
`trailer_dash`
1677 * `hardsub`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract. Default is
`None` (no hardsubs). Eg:
`crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None`
1680 * `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of
`episodes`,
`movies`,
`clips`,
`trailers`
1682 #### youtubewebarchive
1683 * `check_all`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of
`thumbnails`,
`captures`
1686 * `comment_sort`:
`hot` (default),
`you` (cookies needed),
`top`,
`new` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1689 * `res`: resolution to ignore - one or more of
`sd`,
`hd`,
`fhd`
1690 * `vcodec`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of
`h264`,
`h265`,
`dvh265`
1691 * `dr`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of
`sdr`,
`hdr10`,
`dv`
1694 * `app_version`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with
`manifest_app_version`. (e.g.
`20.2.1`)
1695 * `manifest_app_version`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with. (e.g.
`221`)
1697 NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
1699 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1704 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
1706 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`.
1708 See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example plugins.
1710 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
1712 If you are a plugin author, add
[ytdlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/ytdlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability
1718 yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1720 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.
1722 From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1725 from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
1727 ydl_opts = {'format': 'bestaudio'}
1728 with YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1729 ydl.download(['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
1732 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#L191).
1734 Here's a more complete example demonstrating various functionality:
1742 def debug(self, msg):
1743 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
1744 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
1745 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
1750 def info(self, msg):
1753 def warning(self, msg):
1756 def error(self, msg):
1760 # ℹ️ See the docstring of yt_dlp.postprocessor.common.PostProcessor
1761 class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
1762 # ℹ️ See docstring of yt_dlp.postprocessor.common.PostProcessor.run
1763 def run(self, info):
1764 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
1768 # ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in the docstring of yt_dlp.YoutubeDL
1770 if d['status'] == 'finished':
1771 print('Done downloading, now converting ...')
1774 def format_selector(ctx):
1775 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
1776 This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
1778 # formats are already sorted worst to best
1779 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
1781 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
1782 best_video = next(f for f in formats
1783 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
1785 # find compatible audio extension
1786 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
1787 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
1788 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
1789 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
1792 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
1793 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
1794 'ext': best_video['ext'],
1795 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
1796 # Must be + separated list of protocols
1797 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
1801 # ℹ️ See docstring of yt_dlp.YoutubeDL for a description of the options
1803 'format': format_selector,
1804 'postprocessors': [{
1805 # Embed metadata in video using ffmpeg.
1806 # ℹ️ See yt_dlp.postprocessor.FFmpegMetadataPP for the arguments it accepts
1807 'key': 'FFmpegMetadata',
1808 'add_chapters': True,
1809 'add_metadata': True,
1811 'logger': MyLogger(),
1812 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
1816 # Add custom headers
1817 yt_dlp.utils.std_headers.update({'Referer': 'https://www.google.com'})
1819 # ℹ️ See the public functions in yt_dlp.YoutubeDL for for other available functions.
1820 # Eg: "ydl.download", "ydl.download_with_info_file"
1821 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1822 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP())
1823 info = ydl.extract_info('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc')
1825 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
1826 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1829 **Tip**: If you are porting your code from youtube-dl to yt-dlp, one important point to look out for is that we do not guarantee the return value of
`YoutubeDL.extract_info` to be json serializable, or even be a dictionary. It will be dictionary-like, but if you want to ensure it is a serializable dictionary, pass it through
`YoutubeDL.sanitize_info` as shown in the example above
1832 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
1834 # DEPRECATED OPTIONS
1836 These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
1838 #### Almost redundant options
1839 While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
1841 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
1842 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
1843 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
1844 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
1846 #### Redundant options
1847 While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
1849 --get-description --print description
1850 --get-duration --print duration_string
1851 --get-filename --print filename
1852 --get-format --print format
1854 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
1855 -e, --get-title --print title
1856 -g, --get-url --print urls
1857 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
1858 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
1859 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
1860 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
1863 #### Not recommended
1864 While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
1866 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
1867 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
1868 --all-formats -f all
1869 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
1870 --print-json -j --no-simulate
1871 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)
03d
1872 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
1873 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1874 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
1875 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
1876 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
1877 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
1878 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
1879 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
1880 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
1881 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
1882 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
1885 #### Developer options
1886 These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
1888 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
1889 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
1890 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
1891 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
1895 These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
1897 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
1898 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
1899 --dump-headers --print-traffic
1900 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
1901 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
1902 --load-info --load-info-json
1903 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
1904 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
1905 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
1906 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
1907 --split-tracks --split-chapters
1908 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
1909 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
1910 --write-srt --write-subs
1911 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
1913 #### Sponskrub Options
1914 Support for
[SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the
`--sponsorblock` options
1916 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
1917 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
1918 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
1919 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
1920 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
1921 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
1922 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
1923 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
1925 #### No longer supported
1926 These options may no longer work as intended
1928 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
1929 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
1930 -C, --call-home Not implemented
1931 --no-call-home Default
1932 --include-ads No longer supported
1933 --no-include-ads Default
1934 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
1935 --no-write-annotations Default
1938 These options were deprecated since
2014 and have now been entirely removed
1940 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1941 -t, --title -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1942 -l, --literal -o accepts literal names
1945 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)
1948 For FAQ see the
[youtube-dl README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)
projects / yt-dlp.git / blob