3 [](#readme)
5 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest)
6 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions)
7 [](LICENSE)
8 [](Collaborators.md#collaborators)
9 [](supportedsites.md)
10 []
(https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r)
11 []
(https://yt-dlp.readthedocs.io)
12 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits)
13 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits)
14 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest)
15 []
(https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
19 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
21 * [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
22 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
23 * [INSTALLATION](#installation)
25 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
27 * [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
28 * [General Options](#general-options)
29 * [Network Options](#network-options)
30 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
31 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
32 * [Download Options](#download-options)
33 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
34 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
35 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
36 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
37 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
38 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
39 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
40 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
41 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
42 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
43 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
44 * [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
45 * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
46 * [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
47 * [Output template and Windows batch files](#output-template-and-windows-batch-files)
48 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
49 * [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
50 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
51 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
52 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
53 * [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
54 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
55 * [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
57 * [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
63 The major new features from the latest release of
[blackjack4494/yt-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) are:
65 * **
[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
67 * **[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))
69 * **Merged with youtube-dl
[commit/379f52a](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/379f52a4954013767219d25099cce9e0f9401961)**: (v2021.06
.06) You get all the latest features and patches of
[youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) in addition to all the features of
[youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc)
71 * **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.
73 * **Youtube improvements**:
74 * All Feeds (
`:ytfav`,
`:ytwatchlater`,
`:ytsubs`,
`:ythistory`,
`:ytrec`) and private playlists supports downloading multiple pages of content
75 * Search (
`ytsearch:`,
`ytsearchdate:`), search URLs and in-channel search works
76 * Mixes supports downloading multiple pages of content
77 * Most (but not all) age-gated content can be downloaded without cookies
78 * Partial workaround for throttling issue
79 * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to
`/video` to preserve the old behaviour
80 * `255kbps` audio is extracted (if available) from youtube music when premium cookies are given
81 * Youtube music Albums, channels etc can be downloaded (
[except self-uploaded music](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/723))
83 * **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using
`--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[:PROFILE]`
85 * **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using
`--split-chapters`
87 * **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
89 * **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use
`aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
91 * **New extractors**: AnimeLab, Philo MSO, Spectrum MSO, SlingTV MSO, Cablevision MSO, Rcs, Gedi, bitwave.tv, mildom, audius, zee5, mtv.it, wimtv, pluto.tv, niconico users, discoveryplus.in, mediathek, NFHSNetwork, nebula, ukcolumn, whowatch, MxplayerShow, parlview (au), YoutubeWebArchive, fancode, Saitosan, ShemarooMe, telemundo, VootSeries, SonyLIVSeries, HotstarSeries, VidioPremier, VidioLive, RCTIPlus, TBS Live, douyin, pornflip, ParamountPlusSeries, ScienceChannel, Utreon, OpenRec, BandcampMusic, blackboardcollaborate, eroprofile albums, mirrativ, BannedVideo, bilibili categories, Epicon, filmmodu, GabTV, HungamaAlbum, ManotoTV, Niconico search, Patreon User, peloton, ProjectVeritas, radiko, StarTV, tiktok user, Tokentube, voicy, TV2HuSeries, biliintl,
17live, NewgroundsUser, peertube channel/playlist, ZenYandex, CAM4, CGTN, damtomo, gotostage, Koo, Mediaite, Mediaklikk, MuseScore, nzherald, Olympics replay, radlive, SovietsCloset, Streamanity, Theta, Chingari
93 * **Fixed/improved extractors**: archive.org, roosterteeth.com, skyit, instagram, itv, SouthparkDe, spreaker, Vlive, akamai, ina, rumble, tennistv, amcnetworks, la7 podcasts, linuxacadamy, nitter, twitcasting, viu, crackle, curiositystream, mediasite, rmcdecouverte, sonyliv, tubi, tenplay, patreon, videa, yahoo, BravoTV, crunchyroll playlist, RTP, viki, Hotstar, vidio, vimeo, mediaset, Mxplayer, nbcolympics, ParamountPlus, Newgrounds, SAML Verizon login, Hungama, afreecatv, aljazeera, ATV, bitchute, camtube, CDA, eroprofile, facebook, HearThisAtIE, iwara, kakao, Motherless, Nova, peertube, pornhub, reddit, tiktok, TV2, TV2Hu, tv5mondeplus, VH1, Viafree, XHamster,
9Now, AnimalPlanet, Arte, CBC, Chingari, comedycentral, DIYNetwork, niconico, dw, funimation, globo, HiDive, NDR, Nuvid, Oreilly, pbs, plutotv, reddit, redtube, soundcloud, SpankBang, VrtNU
95 * **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
97 * **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`)
99 * **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
101 * **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`
103 * **Other new options**:
`--print`,
`--sleep-requests`,
`--convert-thumbnails`,
`--write-link`,
`--force-download-archive`,
`--force-overwrites`,
`--break-on-reject` etc
105 * **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in
`--match-filter`, multiple
`--postprocessor-args` and
`--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection) etc
107 * **Plugin extractors**: Extractors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
109 * **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using
`yt-dlp -U`
112 See
[changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
115 **PS**: Some of these changes are already in youtube-dlc, but are still unreleased. See [this](Changelog.md#unreleased-changes-in-blackjack4494yt-dlc) for details
117 If you are coming from
[youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl), the amount of changes are very large. Compare
[options](#options) and [supported sites](supportedsites.md) with youtube-dl's to get an idea of the massive number of features/patches [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) has accumulated.
119 ### Differences in default behavior
121 Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc.
123 * The options
`--id`,
`--auto-number` (
`-A`),
`--title` (
`-t`) and
`--literal` (
`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
124 * `avconv` is not supported as as an alternative to
`ffmpeg`
125 * 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`
126 * 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
127 * 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 prefered. Use
`-f bv+ba/b` or
`--compat-options format-spec` to revert this
128 * 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
129 * `--ignore-errors` is enabled by default. Use
`--abort-on-error` or
`--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
130 * 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
131 * `--add-metadata` attaches the
`infojson` to
`mkv` files in addition to writing the metadata when used with
`--write-infojson`. Use
`--compat-options no-attach-info-json` to revert this
132 * `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
133 * The output of
`-F` is listed in a new format. Use
`--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
134 * 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
135 * 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
136 * 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. 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
137 * Unavailable videos are also listed for youtube playlists. Use
`--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
138 * 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
139 * Thumbnail embedding in
`mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use
`--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
140 * 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
141 * 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 seperate 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.
143 For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
144 * `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options
145 * `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as
`--compat-options all,-multistreams`
146 * `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as
`--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
150 yt-dlp is not platform specific. So it should work on your Unix box, on Windows or on macOS
152 You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
153 * Download the binary from the
[latest release](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest)
154 * With Homebrew,
`brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp`
155 * Use
[PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp):
`python3 -m pip install --upgrade yt-dlp`
156 * Use pip+git:
`python3 -m pip install --upgrade git+https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp.git@release`
157 * Install master branch:
`python3 -m pip install --upgrade git+https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp`
159 Note that on some systems, you may need to use
`py` or
`python` instead of
`python3`
161 UNIX users (Linux, macOS, BSD) can also install the
[latest release](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest) one of the following ways:
164 sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
165 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
169 sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
170 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
174 sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
175 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
178 macOS or Linux users that are using Homebrew (formerly known as Linuxbrew for Linux users) can also install it by:
181 brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp
185 You can use
`yt-dlp -U` to update if you are using the provided release.
186 If you are using
`pip`, simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program.
187 If you have installed using Homebrew, run
`brew upgrade yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp`
190 Python versions
3.6+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
192 <!-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=
26999 -->
193 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.
195 While all the other dependancies are optional,
`ffmpeg` and
`ffprobe` are highly recommended
196 * [**ffmpeg** and **ffprobe**](https://www.ffmpeg.org) - Required for
[merging seperate video and audio files](#format-selection) as well as for various [post-processing](#post-processing-options) tasks. Licence [depends on the build](https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html)
197 * [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen) - For embedding thumbnail in certain formats. Licenced under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
198 * [**pycryptodome**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome) - For decrypting AES-
128 HLS streams and various other data. Licenced under
[BSD2](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
199 * [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets) - For downloading over websocket. Licenced under
[BSD3](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
200 * [**keyring**](https://github.com/jaraco/keyring) - For decrypting cookies of chromium-based browsers on Linux. Licenced under
[MIT](https://github.com/jaraco/keyring/blob/main/LICENSE)
201 * [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For embedding thumbnail in mp4/m4a if mutagen is not present. Licenced under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
202 * [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading
`rtmp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licenced under
[GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
203 * [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or
[**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading
`rstp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licenced under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
204 * [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licenced under
[BSD3](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
205 * [**sponskrub**](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) - For using the now **deprecated**
[sponskrub options](#sponskrub-options). Licenced under [GPLv3+](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub/blob/master/LICENCE.md)
206 * Any external downloader that you want to use with
`--downloader`
208 To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
210 The windows releases are already built with the python interpreter, mutagen, pycryptodomex and websockets included.
212 **Note**: There are some regressions in newer ffmpeg versions that causes various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependancy, we provide
[custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds/wiki/Latest#latest-autobuilds) 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 specifc issues solved by these builds
218 To build the Windows executable, you must have pyinstaller (and optionally mutagen, pycryptodomex, websockets)
220 python3 -m pip install --upgrade pyinstaller mutagen pycryptodomex websockets
222 Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, just run
`py pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (
32/
64 bit) as the python used to build it.
224 You can also build the executable without any version info or metadata by using:
226 pyinstaller.exe yt_dlp\__main__.py --onefile --name yt-dlp
228 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
231 You will need the required build tools:
`python`,
`make` (GNU),
`pandoc`,
`zip`,
`pytest`
232 Then simply run
`make`. You can also run
`make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files
234 **Note**: In either platform,
`devscripts\update-version.py` can be used to automatically update the version number
238 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
240 `Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
241 <!-- Auto generated -->
244 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
245 --version Print program version and exit
246 -U, --update Update this program to latest version. Make
247 sure that you have sufficient permissions
248 (run with sudo if needed)
249 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
250 The download will be considered successfull
251 even if the postprocessing fails
252 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download
253 errors; e.g. to skip unavailable videos in
255 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
256 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
257 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
258 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
259 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
261 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
263 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
264 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
265 from google videos for the search term
266 "large apple". Use the value "auto" to let
267 yt-dlp guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
268 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
269 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
270 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
271 this is not possible instead of searching
272 --ignore-config, --no-config Disable loading any configuration files
273 except the one provided by --config-location.
274 When given inside a configuration
275 file, no further configuration files are
276 loaded. Additionally, (for backward
277 compatibility) if this option is found
278 inside the system configuration file, the
279 user configuration is not loaded
280 --config-location PATH Location of the main configuration file;
281 either the path to the config or its
283 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
285 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
286 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (YouTube only)
287 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
288 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output
289 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
290 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
291 configurations by reverting some of the
292 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
293 default behavior" for details
296 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy.
297 To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper
299 socks5://
127.0.0.1:
1080/. Pass in an empty
300 string (--proxy "") for direct connection
301 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
302 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
303 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
304 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
307 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
308 some geo-restricted sites. The default
309 proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the
310 option is not present) is used for the
312 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
313 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
314 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
315 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
316 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
317 explicitly provided two-letter ISO
3166-
2
319 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
320 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR
324 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is
1)
325 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
326 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
327 indices of the videos in the playlist
328 separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
329 1,
2,
5,
8" if you want to download videos
330 indexed
1,
2,
5,
8 in the playlist. You can
331 specify range: "--playlist-items
332 1-
3,
7,
10-
13", it will download the videos
333 at index
1,
2,
3,
7,
10,
11,
12 and
13
334 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
335 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
336 SIZE (e.g.
50k or
44.6m)
337 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
339 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded in this date.
340 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
341 "(now|today)[+-][
0-
9](day|week|month|year)(s)?"
342 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
343 this date. The date formats accepted is the
345 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
346 this date. The date formats accepted is the
348 --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Any field (see
349 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE") can be compared with a
350 number or a string using the operators
351 defined in "Filtering formats". You can
352 also simply specify a field to match if the
353 field is present and "!field" to check if
354 the field is not present. In addition,
355 Python style regular expression matching
356 can be done using "~=", and multiple
357 filters can be checked with "&". Use a "
\"
358 to escape "&" or quotes if needed. Eg:
359 --match-filter "!is_live & like_count>?
100
360 & description~='(?i)
\bcats \& dogs
\b'"
361 matches only videos that are not live, has
362 a like count more than
100 (or the like
363 field is not available), and also has a
364 description that contains the phrase "cats
365 & dogs" (ignoring case)
366 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
367 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
368 to a video and a playlist
369 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
370 a video and a playlist
371 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
373 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
374 archive file. Record the IDs of all
375 downloaded videos in it
376 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
377 a file that is in the archive
378 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
379 a file that has been filtered out
380 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest
381 of the playlist is skipped
382 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
385 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
386 video that should be download concurrently
388 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
390 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
391 below which throttling is assumed and the
392 video data is re-extracted (e.g.
100K)
393 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is
10), or
395 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
396 is
10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and
398 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
399 hlsnative and ISM (default)
400 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
401 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading if a fragment is unavailable
402 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
403 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
404 downloading is finished
405 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
406 downloading is finished (default)
407 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g.
1024 or
16K)
409 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
410 from an initial value of --buffer-size
412 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
413 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
414 downloading (e.g.
10485760 or
10M) (default
415 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
416 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
418 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
419 --no-playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in default order
421 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
422 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
424 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
425 allowing some players to play the video
426 while downloading, and reducing the chance
427 of file corruption if download is
428 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
430 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
431 videos. This is default when not
432 downloading live streams
433 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
434 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
435 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
436 use it for. Currently supports native,
437 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
438 wget (Recommended: aria2c). You can use
439 this option multiple times to set different
440 downloaders for different protocols. For
441 example, --downloader aria2c --downloader
442 "dash,m3u8:native" will use aria2c for
443 http/ftp downloads, and the native
444 downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
445 (Alias: --external-downloader)
446 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
447 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
448 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
449 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to
450 different positions using the same syntax
451 as --postprocessor-args. You can use this
452 option multiple times to give different
453 arguments to different downloaders
454 (Alias: --external-downloader-args)
456 ## Filesystem Options:
457 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-' for
458 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
459 with '#', ';' or ']' are considered as
461 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
462 downloaded. Specify the type of file and
463 the path separated by a colon ":". All the
464 same types as --output are supported.
465 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
466 (default) and "temp" paths. All
467 intermediary files are first downloaded to
468 the temp path and then the final files are
469 moved over to the home path after download
470 is finished. This option is ignored if
471 --output is an absolute path
472 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
473 TEMPLATE" for details
474 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder value for unavailable meta
475 fields in output filename template
477 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
478 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
480 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
482 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be windows compatible
483 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames windows compatible only if
484 using windows (default)
485 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
486 extension) to the specified number of
488 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
489 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files.
490 This option includes --no-continue
491 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
492 related files (default)
493 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
495 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
496 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
497 restart download of the entire file
498 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
499 into output file (default)
500 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
502 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the
503 file modification time (default)
504 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
505 the file modification time
506 --write-description Write video description to a .description
508 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
509 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
510 (this may contain personal information)
511 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
512 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
513 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
514 --write-description etc. (default)
515 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
516 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
517 --clean-infojson Remove some private fields such as
518 filenames from the infojson. Note that it
519 could still contain some personal
520 information (default)
521 --no-clean-infojson Write all fields to the infojson
522 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
523 infojson. The comments are fetched even
524 without this option if the extraction is
525 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
526 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
527 extraction is known to be quick
528 (Alias: --no-get-comments)
529 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
530 (created with the "--write-info-json"
532 --cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump cookie
534 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
536 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[:PROFILE]
537 Load cookies from a user profile of the
538 given web browser. Currently supported
539 browsers are: brave, chrome, chromium,
540 edge, firefox, opera, safari, vivaldi. You
541 can specify the user profile name or
542 directory using "BROWSER:PROFILE_NAME" or
543 "BROWSER:PROFILE_PATH". If no profile is
544 given, the most recently accessed one is
546 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
547 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
548 can store some downloaded information (such
549 as client ids and signatures) permanently.
550 By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/yt-dlp or
552 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
553 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
555 ## Thumbnail Options:
556 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
557 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk
559 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
560 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
561 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
563 ## Internet Shortcut Options:
564 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
565 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
566 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
567 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
568 OS caches the URL based on the file path
569 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
570 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
572 ## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
573 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with
574 --verbose, print the log to stderr
575 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
576 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
578 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
580 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Usefull
581 for extracting metadata even if the videos
582 are not actually available for download
584 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
585 formats are found (default)
586 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
587 related files (Alias: --no-download)
588 -O, --print TEMPLATE Quiet, but print the given fields for each
589 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
590 used. Either a field name or same syntax as
591 the output template can be used
592 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
593 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
594 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
595 description of available keys
596 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
597 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
598 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
599 a playlist, the whole playlist information
600 is dumped in a single line
601 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be
602 written as far as no errors occur, even if
603 -s or another simulation option is used
604 (Alias: --force-download-archive)
605 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
606 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
607 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
608 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
609 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
610 to debug problems (very verbose)
611 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
612 files in the current directory to debug
614 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
617 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
618 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
619 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
620 information about the video (Currently
621 supported only for YouTube)
622 --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
623 --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video
624 access is restricted to one domain
625 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
626 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
627 option multiple times
628 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
629 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
630 or fribidi executable in PATH
631 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
632 during data extraction
633 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
634 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
635 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
636 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
637 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can
638 only be used along with --min-sleep-interval
639 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
642 ## Video Format Options:
643 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
645 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
646 "Sorting Formats" for more details
647 --S-force, --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
648 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
649 Formats" for more details
650 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
651 specified sort order (default), see
652 "Sorting Formats" for more details
653 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
655 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for
656 each output file (default)
657 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
659 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for
660 each output file (default)
661 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
662 over non-free ones of same quality. Use
663 with "-S ext" to strictly prefer free
664 containers irrespective of quality
665 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
667 --check-formats Check that the formats selected are
668 actually downloadable
669 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats selected are
670 actually downloadable
671 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
672 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
673 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
674 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
675 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
676 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
679 --write-subs Write subtitle file
680 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
681 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
682 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
683 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
684 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
685 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
686 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
687 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
688 preference, for example: "srt" or
690 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
691 be regex) or "all" separated by commas.
692 (Eg: --sub-langs en.*,ja) You can prefix
693 the language code with a "-" to exempt it
694 from the requested languages. (Eg: --sub-
695 langs all,-live_chat) Use --list-subs for a
696 list of available language tags
698 ## Authentication Options:
699 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
700 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
701 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
702 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
703 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
704 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
705 either the path or its containing
706 directory. Defaults to ~/.netrc
707 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
708 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
709 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
710 a list of available MSOs
711 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
712 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
713 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
715 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
718 ## Post-Processing Options:
719 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
720 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
721 --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format to convert the audio
722 to when -x is used. Currently supported
723 formats are: best (default) or one of
724 best|aac|flac|mp3|m4a|opus|vorbis|wav
725 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality, insert a
726 value between
0 (better) and
9 (worse) for
727 VBR or a specific bitrate like
128K
729 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
730 necessary (currently supported: mp4|mkv|flv
731 |webm|mov|avi|mp3|mka|m4a|ogg|opus). If
732 target container does not support the
733 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
734 can specify multiple rules; Eg.
735 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to
736 m4a, mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv.
737 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
738 re-encoding is necessary. The syntax and
739 supported formats are the same as --remux-video
740 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
741 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
742 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
743 to give the argument to the specified
744 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
745 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
746 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
747 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
748 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
749 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
750 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
751 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
752 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
753 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
754 specified executable only when being used
755 by the specified postprocessor.
756 Additionally, for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o"
757 can be appended to the prefix optionally
758 followed by a number to pass the argument
759 before the specified input/output file. Eg:
760 --ppa "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can
761 use this option multiple times to give
762 different arguments to different
763 postprocessors. (Alias: --ppa)
764 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
765 after post-processing
766 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
767 post-processing (default)
768 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
769 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
770 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
772 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
773 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
774 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
775 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also adds
776 chapters to file unless --no-add-chapters
777 is used (Alias: --add-metadata)
778 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
779 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
780 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
781 (Alias: --add-chapters)
782 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default)
783 (Alias: --no-add-chapters)
784 --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
785 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
787 --replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
788 Replace text in a metadata field using the
789 given regex. This option can be used
791 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
792 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
793 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
794 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
795 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
796 default; fix file if we can, warn
797 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
799 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
800 path to the binary or its containing
802 --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
803 downloading and post-processing. Same
804 syntax as the output template can be used
805 to pass any field as arguments to the
806 command. An additional field "filepath"
807 that contains the final path of the
808 downloaded file is also available. If no
809 fields are passed, %(filepath)q is appended
810 to the end of the command. This option can
811 be used multiple times
812 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
813 --exec-before-download CMD Execute a command before the actual
814 download. The syntax is the same as --exec
815 but "filepath" is not available. This
816 option can be used multiple times
817 --no-exec-before-download Remove any previously defined
818 --exec-before-download
819 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
820 (currently supported: srt|vtt|ass|lrc)
821 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
822 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
823 (currently supported: jpg|png)
824 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
825 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix
826 can be used with "--paths" and "--output"
827 to set the output filename for the split
828 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
829 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters
831 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
832 given regular expression. This option can
833 be used multiple times
834 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
836 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes around the chapters before
837 removing/splitting them. Requires a
838 reencode and thus is very slow, but the
839 resulting video may have fewer artifacts
841 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
842 when cutting/splitting (default)
843 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS] The (case sensitive) name of plugin
844 postprocessors to be enabled, and
845 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
846 seperated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
847 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
848 The "when" argument determines when the
849 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
850 "pre_process" (after extraction),
851 "before_dl" (before video download),
852 "post_process" (after video download;
853 default) or "after_move" (after moving file
854 to their final locations). This option can
855 be used multiple times to add different
858 ## SponsorBlock Options:
859 Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
860 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
861 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
863 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
864 for, separated by commas. Available
865 categories are all, sponsor, intro, outro,
866 selfpromo, interaction, preview,
867 music_offtopic. You can prefix the category
868 with a "-" to exempt it. See
869 https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/index.php/Segment_Categories
870 for description of the categories. Eg:
871 --sponsorblock-query all,-preview
872 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
873 the video file, separated by commas. If a
874 category is present in both mark and
875 remove, remove takes precedence. The syntax
876 and available categories are the same as
877 for --sponsorblock-mark
878 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
879 The title template for SponsorBlock
880 chapters created by --sponsorblock-mark.
881 The same syntax as the output template is
882 used, but the only available fields are
883 start_time, end_time, category, categories,
884 name, category_names. Defaults to
885 "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
886 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
887 --sponsorblock-remove
888 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
889 https://sponsor.ajay.app
891 ## Extractor Options:
892 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor
893 errors (default is
3), or "infinite"
894 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
895 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
896 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
897 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
898 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
899 discontinuities such as ad breaks
900 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
901 formats at discontinuities such as ad
903 --extractor-args KEY:ARGS Pass these arguments to the extractor. See
904 "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You can
905 use this option multiple times to give
906 arguments for different extractors
910 You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
912 1. **Main Configuration**: The file given by
`--config-location`
913 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.
914 1. **Home Configuration**:
`yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by
`-P "home:<path>"`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
915 1. **User Configuration**:
916 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
917 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
918 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
919 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
921 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
923 `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%` defaults to
`~/.config` if undefined. On windows,
`~` points to %HOME% if present,
`%USERPROFILE%` (generally
`C:\Users\<user name>`) or
`%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`.
924 1. **System Configuration**:
`/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
926 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:
928 # Lines starting with # are comments
930 # Always extract audio
933 # Do not copy the mtime
937 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
939 # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
940 -o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
943 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`.
945 You can use
`--ignore-config` if you want to disable all configuration files for a particular yt-dlp run. If
`--ignore-config` is found inside any configuration file, no further configuration will be loaded. For example, having the option in the portable configuration file prevents loading of user and system configurations. Additionally, (for backward compatibility) if
`--ignore-config` is found inside the system configuration file, the user configuration is not loaded.
947 ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
949 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:
952 chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
954 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
956 machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
960 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
961 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
963 To activate authentication with the
`.netrc` file you should pass
`--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
965 The default location of the .netrc file is
`$HOME` (
`~`) in UNIX. On Windows, it is
`%HOME%` if present,
`%USERPROFILE%` (generally
`C:\Users\<user name>`) or
`%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
969 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.
971 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
973 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).
975 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.
977 The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
978 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
979 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`
980 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`
981 1. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified seperated with a
`,`. Eg:
`%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
982 1. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a
`|` seperator. This overrides
`--output-na-template`. Eg:
`%(uploader|Unknown)s`
983 1. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types
`diouxXeEfFgGcrs`,
`B`,
`j`,
`l`,
`q` can be used for converting to **B**ytes, **j**son, a comma seperated **l**ist (alternate form flag
`#` makes it new line
`\n` seperated) and a string **q**uoted for the terminal, respectively
984 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
986 To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
988 %(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
991 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`,
`pl_thumbnail`,
`pl_description`,
`pl_infojson`,
`chapter`. For example,
`-o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' -o 'thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s'` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video. If any of the templates (except default) 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.
993 The available fields are:
995 - `id` (string): Video identifier
996 - `title` (string): Video title
997 - `url` (string): Video URL
998 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
999 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
1000 - `description` (string): The description of the video
1001 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1002 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1003 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1004 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
1005 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
1006 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
1007 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
1008 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
1009 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1010 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1011 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
1012 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1013 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
1014 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
1015 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1016 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1017 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1018 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1019 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
1020 - `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)
1021 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
1022 - `live_status` (string): One of 'is_live', 'was_live', 'is_upcoming', 'not_live'
1023 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
1024 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
1025 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
1026 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is 'private', 'premium_only', 'subscriber_only', 'needs_auth', 'unlisted' or 'public'
1027 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1028 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
1029 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
1030 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by
`--format`
1031 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
1032 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
1033 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
1034 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
1035 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1036 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1037 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
1038 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1039 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1040 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
1041 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
1042 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
1043 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
1044 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
1045 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
1046 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1047 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
1048 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch when creating the file
1049 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at
`--autonumber-start`
1050 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
1051 - `playlist` (string): Name or id of the playlist that contains the video
1052 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1053 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
1054 - `playlist_id` (string): Playlist identifier
1055 - `playlist_title` (string): Playlist title
1056 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1057 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
1058 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
1059 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as
`webpage_url` for playlist entries)
1061 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1063 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1064 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1065 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1067 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1069 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1070 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1071 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1072 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1073 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1074 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1075 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1077 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1079 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1080 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1081 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1082 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1083 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1084 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1085 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1086 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1087 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1088 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1090 Available for
`chapter:` prefix when using
`--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
1092 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1093 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1094 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1095 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1097 Available only when used in
`--print`:
1099 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1100 - `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
1102 Available only in
`--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1104 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1105 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1106 - `categories` (list): The SponsorBlock categories the chapter belongs to
1107 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1108 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1109 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1111 Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. Note that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with placeholder value provided with
`--output-na-placeholder` (
`NA` by default).
1113 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.
1115 For numeric sequences you can use numeric related formatting, for example,
`%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to
5 characters, like in
`00042`.
1117 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.
1119 To use percent literals in an output template use
`%%`. To output to stdout use
`-o -`.
1121 The current default template is
`%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
1123 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:
1125 #### Output template and Windows batch files
1127 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"`.
1129 #### Output template examples
1131 Note that on Windows you need to use double quotes instead of single.
1134 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
1135 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
1137 $ yt-dlp --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
1138 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
1140 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
1141 $ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
1143 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
1144 $ yt-dlp -o '%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
1146 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
1147 $ yt-dlp -o '%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists
1149 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
1150 $ 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/
1152 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
1153 $ 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
1155 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
1156 $ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
1161 By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1162 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`.
1164 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.
1166 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1168 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.
1170 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.
1172 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1174 - `all`: Select all formats
1175 - `mergeall`: Select and merge all formats (Must be used with
`--audio-multistreams`,
`--video-multistreams` or both)
1176 - `b*`,
`best*`: Select the best quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio
1177 - `w*`,
`worst*`: Select the worst quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio
1178 - `b`,
`best`: Select the best quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1179 - `w`,
`worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1180 - `bv`,
`bestvideo`: Select the best quality video-only format. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec=none]`
1181 - `wv`,
`worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to
`worst*[acodec=none]`
1182 - `bv*`,
`bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none]`
1183 - `wv*`,
`worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec!=none]`
1184 - `ba`,
`bestaudio`: Select the best quality audio-only format. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec=none]`
1185 - `wa`,
`worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec=none]`
1186 - `ba*`,
`bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec!=none]`
1187 - `wa*`,
`worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to
`worst*[acodec!=none]`
1189 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.
1191 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.
1193 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.
1195 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`.
1197 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.
1199 **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
1201 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`.
1203 ## Filtering Formats
1205 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in
`-f "best[height=720]"` (or
`-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
1207 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons
`<`,
`<=`,
`>`,
`>=`,
`=` (equals),
`!=` (not equals):
1209 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1210 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1211 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
1212 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1213 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1214 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1215 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1218 Also filtering work for comparisons
`=` (equals),
`^=` (starts with),
`$=` (ends with),
`*=` (contains) and following string meta fields:
1220 - `ext`: File extension
1221 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1222 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1223 - `container`: Name of the container format
1224 - `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`)
1225 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
1226 - `language`: Language code
1228 Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation
`!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g.
`!*=` (does not contain).
1230 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.
1232 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.
1234 Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if you want to download the best mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than
480 you can use
`-f '(mp4,webm)[height<480]'`.
1238 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...`.
1240 The available fields are:
1242 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1243 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
1244 - `ie_pref`: The format preference as given by the extractor
1245 - `lang`: Language preference as given by the extractor
1246 - `quality`: The quality of the format as given by the extractor
1247 - `source`: Preference of the source as given by the extractor
1248 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (
`https`/
`ftps` >
`http`/
`ftp` >
`m3u8_native`/
`m3u8` >
`http_dash_segments`>
`websocket_frag` > other >
`mms`/
`rtsp` > unknown >
`f4f`/
`f4m`)
1249 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (
`av01` >
`vp9.2` >
`vp9` >
`h265` >
`h264` >
`vp8` >
`h263` >
`theora` > other > unknown)
1250 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (
`opus` >
`vorbis` >
`aac` >
`mp4a` >
`mp3` >
`ac3` >
`dts` > other > unknown)
1251 - `codec`: Equivalent to
`vcodec,acodec`
1252 - `vext`: Video Extension (
`mp4` >
`webm` >
`flv` > other > unknown). If
`--prefer-free-formats` is used,
`webm` is prefered.
1253 - `aext`: Audio Extension (
`m4a` >
`aac` >
`mp3` >
`ogg` >
`opus` >
`webm` > other > unknown). If
`--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to
`opus` >
`ogg` >
`webm` >
`m4a` >
`mp3` >
`aac`.
1254 - `ext`: Equivalent to
`vext,aext`
1255 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if know in advance. This will be unavailable for mu38 and DASH formats.
1256 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1257 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
1258 - `height`: Height of video
1259 - `width`: Width of video
1260 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1261 - `fps`: Framerate of video
1262 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1263 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1264 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1265 - `br`: Equivalent to using
`tbr,vbr,abr`
1266 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
1268 **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.
1270 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.
1272 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,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.
1274 Note that the default has
`codec:vp9.2`; i.e.
`av1` is not prefered
1276 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`.
1278 **Tip**: You can use the
`-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1280 ## Format Selection examples
1282 Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
1285 # Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
1286 # or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
1287 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv+ba/b'
1289 # Download best format that contains video,
1290 # and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
1291 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba/b'
1296 # Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1297 # For this case, an output template should be used since
1298 # by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
1299 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv,ba' -o '%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s'
1301 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1302 # and all audio-only formats into one file
1303 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]' --audio-multistreams
1305 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1306 # and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1307 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba+ba.2' --audio-multistreams
1310 # The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
1311 # and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
1313 # Download the worst video available (old method)
1314 $ yt-dlp -f 'wv*+wa/w'
1316 # Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
1319 # Download the smallest video available
1320 $ yt-dlp -S '+size,+br'
1324 # Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
1325 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b'
1327 # Download the best video with the best extension
1328 # (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
1333 # Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1334 # or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
1335 $ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w'
1337 # Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1338 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1339 $ yt-dlp -S 'height:480'
1341 # Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1342 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1343 # Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1344 # So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
1345 $ yt-dlp -S 'res:480'
1349 # Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1350 # or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1351 $ yt-dlp -f 'b[filesize<50M] / w'
1353 # Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1354 # or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1355 $ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize:50M'
1357 # Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
1358 $ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize~50M'
1362 # Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1363 # or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
1364 $ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)'
1366 # Download best video available via the best protocol
1367 # (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
1372 # Download the best video with h264 codec, or the best video if there is no such video
1373 $ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[vcodec^=avc1] / (bv*+ba/b)'
1375 # Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1376 # or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
1377 $ yt-dlp -S 'codec:h264'
1379 # Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1380 # or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
1381 $ yt-dlp -S '+codec:h264'
1385 # More complex examples
1387 # Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1388 # or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
1389 $ yt-dlp -f '((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)'
1391 # Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
1392 # or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
1393 # preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
1394 $ yt-dlp -S 'res:720,fps'
1398 # Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1399 # or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
1400 # preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
1401 $ yt-dlp -S '+res:480,codec,br'
1404 # MODIFYING METADATA
1406 The metadata obtained the the extractors can be modified by using
`--parse-metadata` and
`--replace-in-metadata`
1408 `--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.
1410 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.
1412 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`.
1414 This option also has a few special uses:
1415 * 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
1416 * 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"
1418 For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1420 Metadata fields|From
1422 `title`|
`track` or
`title`
1423 `date`|
`upload_date`
1424 `description`,
`synopsis`|
`description`
1425 `purl`,
`comment`|
`webpage_url`
1426 `track`|
`track_number`
1427 `artist`|
`artist`,
`creator`,
`uploader` or
`uploader_id`
1430 `album_artist`|
`album_artist`
1431 `disc`|
`disc_number`
1433 `season_number`|
`season_number`
1434 `episode_id`|
`episode` or
`episode_id`
1435 `episode_sort`|
`episode_number`
1436 `language` of each stream|From the format's
`language`
1437 **Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1440 ## Modifying metadata examples
1442 Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
1445 # Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
1446 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'title:%(artist)s - %(title)s'
1449 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)'
1451 # Set title as "Series name S01E05"
1452 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata '%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s'
1454 # Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url
1455 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)' --add-metadata
1457 # Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
1458 $ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata 'title,uploader' '[ _]' '-'
1462 # EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1464 Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using
`--extractor-args KEY:ARGS`.
`ARGS` is a
`;` (semicolon) seperated string of
`ARG=VAL1,VAL2`. Eg:
`--extractor-args "youtube:player_client=android_agegate,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
1466 The following extractors use this feature:
1468 * `skip`:
`hls` or
`dash` (or both) to skip download of the respective manifests
1469 * `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
1470 * `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
1471 * `include_live_dash`: Include live dash formats (These formats don't download properly)
1472 * `comment_sort`:
`top` or
`new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side).
1473 * `max_comments`: Maximum amount of comments to download (default all).
1474 * `max_comment_depth`: Maximum depth for nested comments. YouTube supports depths
1 or
2 (default).
1477 * `language`: Languages to extract. Eg:
`funimation:language=english,japanese`
1478 * `version`: The video version to extract -
`uncut` or
`simulcast`
1481 * `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of
`episodes`,
`movies`,
`clips`,
`trailers`
1483 NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
1488 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
1490 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`.
1492 See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example plugins.
1494 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
1496 If you are a plugin author, add
[ytdlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/ytdlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability
1499 # DEPRECATED OPTIONS
1501 These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
1503 #### Redundant options
1504 While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
1506 --get-description --print description
1507 --get-duration --print duration_string
1508 --get-filename --print filename
1509 --get-format --print format
1511 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
1512 -e, --get-title --print title
1513 -g, --get-url --print urls
1514 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
1515 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
1516 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
1517 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
1518 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
1521 #### Not recommended
1522 While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
1524 --all-formats -f all
1525 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
1526 --print-json -j --no-simulate
1527 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)
03d
1528 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
1529 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
1530 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
1531 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
1532 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
1533 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
1534 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
1535 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
1536 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
1537 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
1540 #### Developer options
1541 These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
1543 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
1544 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
1545 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
1546 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
1550 These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
1552 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
1553 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
1554 --dump-headers --print-traffic
1555 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
1556 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
1557 --load-info --load-info-json
1558 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
1559 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
1560 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
1561 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
1562 --split-tracks --split-chapters
1563 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
1564 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
1565 --write-srt --write-subs
1566 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
1568 #### Sponskrub Options
1569 Support for
[SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of
`--sponsorblock`
1571 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
1572 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
1573 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
1574 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
1575 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
1576 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
1577 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
1578 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
1580 #### No longer supported
1581 These options may no longer work as intended
1583 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
1584 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
1585 -C, --call-home Not implemented
1586 --no-call-home Default
1587 --include-ads No longer supported
1588 --no-include-ads Default
1589 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
1590 --no-write-annotations Default
1593 These options were deprecated since
2014 and have now been entirely removed
1595 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1596 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1597 -t, --title -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1598 -l, --literal -o accepts literal names
1602 For FAQ, Developer Instructions etc., see the
[original README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)
projects / yt-dlp.git / blob