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1 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
2 <div align="center">
4 [](#readme)
6 [](#installation "Installation")
7 [](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp "PyPi")
8 [](Collaborators.md#collaborators "Donate")
9 [](https://matrix.to/#/#yt-dlp:matrix.org "Matrix")
10 [](https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r "Discord")
11 [](supportedsites.md "Supported Sites")
12 [](LICENSE "License")
13 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions "CI Status")
14 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
15 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pulse/monthly "Last activity")
17 </div>
18 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
20 yt-dlp is a [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) fork based on the now inactive [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc). The main focus of this project is adding new features and patches while also keeping up to date with the original project
22 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "USAGE AND OPTIONS" SECTION HERE -->
24 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
25 * [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
26 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
27 * [INSTALLATION](#installation)
28 * [Detailed instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation)
29 * [Update](#update)
30 * [Release Files](#release-files)
31 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
32 * [Compile](#compile)
33 * [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
34 * [General Options](#general-options)
35 * [Network Options](#network-options)
36 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
37 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
38 * [Download Options](#download-options)
39 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
40 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
41 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
42 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
43 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
44 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
45 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
46 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
47 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
48 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
49 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
50 * [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
51 * [Configuration file encoding](#configuration-file-encoding)
52 * [Authentication with netrc](#authentication-with-netrc)
53 * [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
54 * [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
55 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
56 * [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
57 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
58 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
59 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
60 * [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
61 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
62 * [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
63 * [PLUGINS](#plugins)
64 * [Installing Plugins](#installing-plugins)
65 * [Developing Plugins](#developing-plugins)
66 * [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
67 * [Embedding examples](#embedding-examples)
68 * [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
69 * [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
70 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
71 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
72 * [WIKI](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki)
73 * [FAQ](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/FAQ)
74 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
77 # NEW FEATURES
79 * Forked from [**yt-dlc@f9401f2**](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/f9401f2a91987068139c5f757b12fc711d4c0cee) and merged with [**youtube-dl@be008e6**](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/be008e657d79832642e2158557c899249c9e31cd) ([exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21))
81 * **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in YouTube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
83 * **[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))
85 * **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 NicoNico livestreams are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
87 * **YouTube improvements**:
88 * Supports Clips, Stories (`ytstories:<channel UCID>`), Search (including filters)**\***, YouTube Music Search, Channel-specific search, Search prefixes (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`)**\***, Mixes, and Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`, `:ytnotif`)
89 * Fix for [n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326) **\***
90 * Supports some (but not all) age-gated content without cookies
91 * Download livestreams from the start using `--live-from-start` (*experimental*)
92 * Channel URLs download all uploads of the channel, including shorts and live
94 * **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]`
96 * **Download time range**: Videos can be downloaded partially based on either timestamps or chapters using `--download-sections`
98 * **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
100 * **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
102 * **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
104 * **New and fixed extractors**: Many new extractors have been added and a lot of existing ones have been fixed. See the [changelog](Changelog.md) or the [list of supported sites](supportedsites.md)
106 * **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN etc.
108 * **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
110 * **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`)
112 * **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for details
114 * **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`
116 * **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as `--alias`, `--print`, `--concat-playlist`, `--wait-for-video`, `--retry-sleep`, `--sleep-requests`, `--convert-thumbnails`, `--force-download-archive`, `--force-overwrites`, `--break-match-filter` etc
118 * **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in `--format`/`--match-filter`, multiple `--postprocessor-args` and `--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection), merge multi-video/audio, multiple `--config-locations`, `--exec` at different stages, etc
120 * **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
122 * **Self updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`, and downgraded using `--update-to` if required
124 * **Automated builds**: [Nightly/master builds](#update-channels) can be used with `--update-to nightly` and `--update-to master`
126 See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
128 Features marked with a **\*** have been back-ported to youtube-dl
130 ### Differences in default behavior
132 Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
134 * yt-dlp supports only [Python 3.8+](## "Windows 7"), and *may* remove support for more versions as they [become EOL](https://devguide.python.org/versions/#python-release-cycle); while [youtube-dl still supports Python 2.6+ and 3.2+](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/30568#issue-1118238743)
135 * The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
136 * `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
137 * yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
138 * 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`
139 * 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
140 * The default format selector is `bv*+ba/b`. This means that if a combined video + audio format that is better than the best video-only format is found, the former will be preferred. Use `-f bv+ba/b` or `--compat-options format-spec` to revert this
141 * 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
142 * `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
143 * 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
144 * `--add-metadata` attaches the `infojson` to `mkv` files in addition to writing the metadata when used with `--write-info-json`. Use `--no-embed-info-json` or `--compat-options no-attach-info-json` to revert this
145 * Some metadata are embedded into different fields when using `--add-metadata` as compared to youtube-dl. Most notably, `comment` field contains the `webpage_url` and `synopsis` contains the `description`. You can [use `--parse-metadata`](#modifying-metadata) to modify this to your liking or use `--compat-options embed-metadata` to revert this
146 * `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
147 * The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
148 * Live chats (if available) are considered as subtitles. Use `--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use `--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent any live chat/danmaku from downloading
149 * YouTube channel URLs download all uploads of the channel. To download only the videos in a specific tab, pass the tab's URL. If the channel does not show the requested tab, an error will be raised. Also, `/live` URLs raise an error if there are no live videos instead of silently downloading the entire channel. You may use `--compat-options no-youtube-channel-redirect` to revert all these redirections
150 * Unavailable videos are also listed for YouTube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
151 * The upload dates extracted from YouTube are in UTC [when available](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/89e4d86171c7b7c997c77d4714542e0383bf0db0/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L3898-L3900). Use `--compat-options no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date` to prefer the non-UTC upload date.
152 * 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
153 * Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
154 * Some internal metadata such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use `--no-clean-infojson` or `--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
155 * When `--embed-subs` and `--write-subs` are used together, the subtitles are written to disk and also embedded in the media file. You can use just `--embed-subs` to embed the subs and automatically delete the separate file. See [#630 (comment)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/630#issuecomment-893659460) for more info. `--compat-options no-keep-subs` can be used to revert this
156 * `certifi` will be used for SSL root certificates, if installed. If you want to use system certificates (e.g. self-signed), use `--compat-options no-certifi`
157 * yt-dlp's sanitization of invalid characters in filenames is different/smarter than in youtube-dl. You can use `--compat-options filename-sanitization` to revert to youtube-dl's behavior
158 * yt-dlp tries to parse the external downloader outputs into the standard progress output if possible (Currently implemented: [~~aria2c~~](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/5931)). You can use `--compat-options no-external-downloader-progress` to get the downloader output as-is
159 * yt-dlp versions between 2021.09.01 and 2023.01.02 applies `--match-filter` to nested playlists. This was an unintentional side-effect of [8f18ac](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/8f18aca8717bb0dd49054555af8d386e5eda3a88) and is fixed in [d7b460](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/d7b460d0e5fc710950582baed2e3fc616ed98a80). Use `--compat-options playlist-match-filter` to revert this
160 * yt-dlp versions between 2021.11.10 and 2023.06.21 estimated `filesize_approx` values for fragmented/manifest formats. This was added for convenience in [f2fe69](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/f2fe69c7b0d208bdb1f6292b4ae92bc1e1a7444a), but was reverted in [0dff8e](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/0dff8e4d1e6e9fb938f4256ea9af7d81f42fd54f) due to the potentially extreme inaccuracy of the estimated values. Use `--compat-options manifest-filesize-approx` to keep extracting the estimated values
161 * yt-dlp uses modern http client backends such as `requests`. Use `--compat-options prefer-legacy-http-handler` to prefer the legacy http handler (`urllib`) to be used for standard http requests.
162 * The sub-module `swfinterp` is removed.
164 For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
166 * `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
167 * `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams,-playlist-match-filter,-manifest-filesize-approx`
168 * `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect,-playlist-match-filter,-manifest-filesize-approx`
169 * `--compat-options 2021`: Same as `--compat-options 2022,no-certifi,filename-sanitization,no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date`
170 * `--compat-options 2022`: Same as `--compat-options playlist-match-filter,no-external-downloader-progress,prefer-legacy-http-handler,manifest-filesize-approx`. Use this to enable all future compat options
173 # INSTALLATION
175 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
176 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)
177 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
178 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)
179 [](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
180 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
181 [](#release-files)
182 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
183 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
185 You can install yt-dlp using [the binaries](#release-files), [pip](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) or one using a third-party package manager. See [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation) for detailed instructions
188 ## UPDATE
189 You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are using the [release binaries](#release-files)
191 If you [installed with pip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
193 For other third-party package managers, see [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#third-party-package-managers) or refer their documentation
195 <a id="update-channels"/>
197 There are currently three release channels for binaries: `stable`, `nightly` and `master`.
199 * `stable` is the default channel, and many of its changes have been tested by users of the `nightly` and `master` channels.
200 * The `nightly` channel has releases scheduled to build every day around midnight UTC, for a snapshot of the project's new patches and changes. This is the **recommended channel for regular users** of yt-dlp. The `nightly` releases are available from [yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds/releases) or as development releases of the `yt-dlp` PyPI package (which can be installed with pip's `--pre` flag).
201 * The `master` channel features releases that are built after each push to the master branch, and these will have the very latest fixes and additions, but may also be more prone to regressions. They are available from [yt-dlp/yt-dlp-master-builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-master-builds/releases).
203 When using `--update`/`-U`, a release binary will only update to its current channel.
204 `--update-to CHANNEL` can be used to switch to a different channel when a newer version is available. `--update-to [CHANNEL@]TAG` can also be used to upgrade or downgrade to specific tags from a channel.
206 You may also use `--update-to <repository>` (`<owner>/<repository>`) to update to a channel on a completely different repository. Be careful with what repository you are updating to though, there is no verification done for binaries from different repositories.
208 Example usage:
209 * `yt-dlp --update-to master` switch to the `master` channel and update to its latest release
210 * `yt-dlp --update-to stable@2023.07.06` upgrade/downgrade to release to `stable` channel tag `2023.07.06`
211 * `yt-dlp --update-to 2023.10.07` upgrade/downgrade to tag `2023.10.07` if it exists on the current channel
212 * `yt-dlp --update-to example/yt-dlp@2023.09.24` upgrade/downgrade to the release from the `example/yt-dlp` repository, tag `2023.09.24`
214 **Important**: Any user experiencing an issue with the `stable` release should install or update to the `nightly` release before submitting a bug report:
215 ```
216 # To update to nightly from stable executable/binary:
217 yt-dlp --update-to nightly
219 # To install nightly with pip:
220 python -m pip install -U --pre yt-dlp
221 ```
223 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
224 ## RELEASE FILES
226 #### Recommended
228 File|Description
229 :---|:---
230 [yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independent [zipimport](https://docs.python.org/3/library/zipimport.html) binary. Needs Python (recommended for **Linux/BSD**)
231 [yt-dlp.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary (recommended for **Windows**)
232 [yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|Universal MacOS (10.15+) standalone executable (recommended for **MacOS**)
234 #### Alternatives
236 File|Description
237 :---|:---
238 [yt-dlp_x86.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_x86.exe)|Windows (Vista SP2+) standalone x86 (32-bit) binary
239 [yt-dlp_min.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_min.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary built with `py2exe`<br/> ([Not recommended](#standalone-py2exe-builds-windows))
240 [yt-dlp_linux](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux)|Linux standalone x64 binary
241 [yt-dlp_linux.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux.zip)|Unpackaged Linux executable (no auto-update)
242 [yt-dlp_linux_armv7l](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_armv7l)|Linux standalone armv7l (32-bit) binary
243 [yt-dlp_linux_aarch64](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_aarch64)|Linux standalone aarch64 (64-bit) binary
244 [yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
245 [yt-dlp_macos.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos.zip)|Unpackaged MacOS (10.15+) executable (no auto-update)
246 [yt-dlp_macos_legacy](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos_legacy)|MacOS (10.9+) standalone x64 executable
248 #### Misc
250 File|Description
251 :---|:---
252 [yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball
253 [SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
254 [SHA2-512SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA512 sums
255 [SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
256 [SHA2-256SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA256 sums
258 The public key that can be used to verify the GPG signatures is [available here](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/public.key)
259 Example usage:
260 ```
261 curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/raw/master/public.key | gpg --import
262 gpg --verify SHA2-256SUMS.sig SHA2-256SUMS
263 gpg --verify SHA2-512SUMS.sig SHA2-512SUMS
264 ```
265 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
267 **Note**: The manpages, shell completion (autocomplete) files etc. are available inside the [source tarball](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
269 ## DEPENDENCIES
270 Python versions 3.8+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
272 <!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
273 <!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
274 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.
275 -->
277 While all the other dependencies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
279 ### Strongly recommended
281 * [**ffmpeg** and **ffprobe**](https://www.ffmpeg.org) - Required for [merging separate video and audio files](#format-selection) as well as for various [post-processing](#post-processing-options) tasks. License [depends on the build](https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html)
283 There are bugs in ffmpeg that causes various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependency, we provide [custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#ffmpeg-static-auto-builds) with patches for some of these issues at [yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds). See [the readme](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#patches-applied) for details on the specific issues solved by these builds
285 **Important**: What you need is ffmpeg *binary*, **NOT** [the python package of the same name](https://pypi.org/project/ffmpeg)
287 ### Networking
288 * [**certifi**](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi)\* - Provides Mozilla's root certificate bundle. Licensed under [MPLv2](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi/blob/master/LICENSE)
289 * [**brotli**](https://github.com/google/brotli)\* or [**brotlicffi**](https://github.com/python-hyper/brotlicffi) - [Brotli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brotli) content encoding support. Both licensed under MIT <sup>[1](https://github.com/google/brotli/blob/master/LICENSE) [2](https://github.com/python-hyper/brotlicffi/blob/master/LICENSE) </sup>
290 * [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
291 * [**requests**](https://github.com/psf/requests)\* - HTTP library. For HTTPS proxy and persistent connections support. Licensed under [Apache-2.0](https://github.com/psf/requests/blob/main/LICENSE)
293 ### Metadata
295 * [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For `--embed-thumbnail` in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
296 * [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For `--embed-thumbnail` in `mp4`/`m4a` files when `mutagen`/`ffmpeg` cannot. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
297 * [**xattr**](https://github.com/xattr/xattr), [**pyxattr**](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr) or [**setfattr**](http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/attr) - For writing xattr metadata (`--xattr`) on **Mac** and **BSD**. Licensed under [MIT](https://github.com/xattr/xattr/blob/master/LICENSE.txt), [LGPL2.1](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr/blob/master/COPYING) and [GPLv2+](http://git.savannah.nongnu.org/cgit/attr.git/tree/doc/COPYING) respectively
299 ### Misc
301 * [**pycryptodomex**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome)\* - For decrypting AES-128 HLS streams and various other data. Licensed under [BSD-2-Clause](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
302 * [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
303 * [**secretstorage**](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage)\* - For `--cookies-from-browser` to access the **Gnome** keyring while decrypting cookies of **Chromium**-based browsers on **Linux**. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage/blob/master/LICENSE)
304 * Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
306 ### Deprecated
308 * [**avconv** and **avprobe**](https://www.libav.org) - Now **deprecated** alternative to ffmpeg. License [depends on the build](https://libav.org/legal)
309 * [**sponskrub**](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) - For using the now **deprecated** [sponskrub options](#sponskrub-options). Licensed under [GPLv3+](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub/blob/master/LICENCE.md)
310 * [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
311 * [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or [**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading `rstp`/`mms` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
313 To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
315 The standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with **\*** included.
317 If you do not have the necessary dependencies for a task you are attempting, yt-dlp will warn you. All the currently available dependencies are visible at the top of the `--verbose` output
320 ## COMPILE
322 ### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
323 To build the standalone executable, you must have Python and `pyinstaller` (plus any of yt-dlp's [optional dependencies](#dependencies) if needed). Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, simply run `pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (x86/ARM, 32/64 bit) as the Python used.
325 python3 -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
326 python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
327 python3 pyinst.py
329 On some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`.
331 `pyinst.py` accepts any arguments that can be passed to `pyinstaller`, such as `--onefile/-F` or `--onedir/-D`, which is further [documented here](https://pyinstaller.org/en/stable/usage.html#what-to-generate).
333 **Note**: Pyinstaller versions below 4.4 [do not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment.
335 **Important**: Running `pyinstaller` directly **without** using `pyinst.py` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
337 ### Platform-independent Binary (UNIX)
338 You will need the build tools `python` (3.8+), `zip`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`\* and `pytest`\*.
340 After installing these, simply run `make`.
342 You can also run `make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files. (The build tools marked with **\*** are not needed for this)
344 ### Standalone Py2Exe Builds (Windows)
346 While we provide the option to build with [py2exe](https://www.py2exe.org), it is recommended to build [using PyInstaller](#standalone-pyinstaller-builds) instead since the py2exe builds **cannot contain `pycryptodomex`/`certifi` and needs VC++14** on the target computer to run.
348 If you wish to build it anyway, install Python and py2exe, and then simply run `setup.py py2exe`
350 py -m pip install -U py2exe -r requirements.txt
351 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
352 py setup.py py2exe
354 ### Related scripts
356 * **`devscripts/update-version.py`** - Update the version number based on current date.
357 * **`devscripts/set-variant.py`** - Set the build variant of the executable.
358 * **`devscripts/make_changelog.py`** - Create a markdown changelog using short commit messages and update `CONTRIBUTORS` file.
359 * **`devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py`** - Create lazy extractors. Running this before building the binaries (any variant) will improve their startup performance. Set the environment variable `YTDLP_NO_LAZY_EXTRACTORS=1` if you wish to forcefully disable lazy extractor loading.
361 Note: See their `--help` for more info.
363 ### Forking the project
364 If you fork the project on GitHub, you can run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build the selected version(s) as artifacts. Alternatively, you can run the [release workflow](.github/workflows/release.yml) or enable the [nightly workflow](.github/workflows/release-nightly.yml) to create full (pre-)releases.
366 # USAGE AND OPTIONS
368 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
369 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
371 `Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
372 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
374 <!-- Auto generated -->
375 ## General Options:
376 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
377 --version Print program version and exit
378 -U, --update Update this program to the latest version
379 --no-update Do not check for updates (default)
380 --update-to [CHANNEL]@[TAG] Upgrade/downgrade to a specific version.
381 CHANNEL can be a repository as well. CHANNEL
382 and TAG default to "stable" and "latest"
383 respectively if omitted; See "UPDATE" for
384 details. Supported channels: stable,
385 nightly, master
386 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
387 The download will be considered successful
388 even if the postprocessing fails
389 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
390 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
391 playlist (default)
392 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
393 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
394 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
395 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
396 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
397 extractors and exit
398 --use-extractors NAMES Extractor names to use separated by commas.
399 You can also use regexes, "all", "default"
400 and "end" (end URL matching); e.g. --ies
401 "holodex.*,end,youtube". Prefix the name
402 with a "-" to exclude it, e.g. --ies
403 default,-generic. Use --list-extractors for
404 a list of extractor names. (Alias: --ies)
405 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. E.g.
406 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
407 google videos for the search term "python".
408 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
409 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
410 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
411 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
412 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
413 possible instead of searching
414 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
415 except those given by --config-locations.
416 For backward compatibility, if this option
417 is found inside the system configuration
418 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
419 (Alias: --no-config)
420 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
421 (default). When given inside a configuration
422 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
423 defined in the current file
424 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
425 either the path to the config or its
426 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
427 used multiple times and inside other
428 configuration files
429 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
430 only list them
431 --no-flat-playlist Fully extract the videos of a playlist
432 (default)
433 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
434 Currently only supported for YouTube
435 (Experimental)
436 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
437 (default)
438 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
439 available. Pass the minimum number of
440 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
441 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
442 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
443 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
444 --color [STREAM:]POLICY Whether to emit color codes in output,
445 optionally prefixed by the STREAM (stdout or
446 stderr) to apply the setting to. Can be one
447 of "always", "auto" (default), "never", or
448 "no_color" (use non color terminal
449 sequences). Can be used multiple times
450 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
451 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
452 configurations by reverting some of the
453 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
454 default behavior" for details
455 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
456 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
457 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
458 according to the Python string formatting
459 mini-language. E.g. --alias get-audio,-X
460 "-S=aext:{0},abr -x --audio-format {0}"
461 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
462 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
463 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
464 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
465 output. Alias options can trigger more
466 aliases; so be careful to avoid defining
467 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
468 alias may be triggered a maximum of 100
469 times. This option can be used multiple times
471 ## Network Options:
472 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
473 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme,
474 e.g. socks5://user:pass@127.0.0.1:1080/.
475 Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for
476 direct connection
477 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
478 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
479 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
480 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
481 --enable-file-urls Enable file:// URLs. This is disabled by
482 default for security reasons.
484 ## Geo-restriction:
485 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
486 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
487 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
488 is not present) is used for the actual
489 downloading
490 --xff VALUE How to fake X-Forwarded-For HTTP header to
491 try bypassing geographic restriction. One of
492 "default" (only when known to be useful),
493 "never", an IP block in CIDR notation, or a
494 two-letter ISO 3166-2 country code
496 ## Video Selection:
497 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma separated playlist_index of the items
498 to download. You can specify a range using
499 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
500 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
501 Use negative indices to count from the right
502 and negative STEP to download in reverse
503 order. E.g. "-I 1:3,7,-5::2" used on a
504 playlist of size 15 will download the items
505 at index 1,2,3,7,11,13,15
506 --min-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is smaller than
507 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
508 --max-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is larger than
509 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
510 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
511 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
512 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
513 E.g. "--date today-2weeks" downloads only
514 videos uploaded on the same day two weeks ago
515 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
516 this date. The date formats accepted is the
517 same as --date
518 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
519 this date. The date formats accepted is the
520 same as --date
521 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
522 field can be compared with a number or a
523 string using the operators defined in
524 "Filtering Formats". You can also simply
525 specify a field to match if the field is
526 present, use "!field" to check if the field
527 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
528 conditions. Use a "\" to escape "&" or
529 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
530 the filter matches if atleast one of the
531 conditions are met. E.g. --match-filter
532 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?100 &
533 description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'" matches
534 only videos that are not live OR those that
535 have a like count more than 100 (or the like
536 field is not available) and also has a
537 description that contains the phrase "cats &
538 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
539 interactively ask whether to download each
540 video
541 --no-match-filters Do not use any --match-filter (default)
542 --break-match-filters FILTER Same as "--match-filters" but stops the
543 download process when a video is rejected
544 --no-break-match-filters Do not use any --break-match-filters (default)
545 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
546 to a video and a playlist
547 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
548 a video and a playlist
549 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
550 age
551 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
552 archive file. Record the IDs of all
553 downloaded videos in it
554 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
555 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
556 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
557 a file that is in the archive
558 --break-per-input Alters --max-downloads, --break-on-existing,
559 --break-match-filter, and autonumber to
560 reset per input URL
561 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
562 terminates the entire download queue
563 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
564 the playlist is skipped
566 ## Download Options:
567 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
568 video that should be downloaded concurrently
569 (default is 1)
570 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second,
571 e.g. 50K or 4.2M
572 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
573 below which throttling is assumed and the
574 video data is re-extracted, e.g. 100K
575 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
576 "infinite"
577 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
578 error (default is 3), or "infinite"
579 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
580 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
581 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR Time to sleep between retries in seconds
582 (optionally) prefixed by the type of retry
583 (http (default), fragment, file_access,
584 extractor) to apply the sleep to. EXPR can
585 be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=1]] or
586 exp=START[:END[:BASE=2]]. This option can be
587 used multiple times to set the sleep for the
588 different retry types, e.g. --retry-sleep
589 linear=1::2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=1:20
590 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
591 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
592 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragments)
593 --abort-on-unavailable-fragments
594 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
595 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
596 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
597 downloading is finished
598 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
599 downloading is finished (default)
600 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer, e.g. 1024 or 16K
601 (default is 1024)
602 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
603 from an initial value of --buffer-size
604 (default)
605 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
606 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
607 downloading, e.g. 10485760 or 10M (default
608 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
609 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
610 (experimental)
611 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
612 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
613 received. This disables n_entries,
614 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
615 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
616 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
617 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
618 expected file size
619 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
620 allowing some players to play the video
621 while downloading, and reducing the chance
622 of file corruption if download is
623 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
624 live streams
625 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
626 videos. This is default when not downloading
627 live streams
628 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters that match the
629 regular expression. A "*" prefix denotes
630 time-range instead of chapter. Negative
631 timestamps are calculated from the end.
632 "*from-url" can be used to download between
633 the "start_time" and "end_time" extracted
634 from the URL. Needs ffmpeg. This option can
635 be used multiple times to download multiple
636 sections, e.g. --download-sections
637 "*10:15-inf" --download-sections "intro"
638 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
639 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
640 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
641 use it for. Currently supports native,
642 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
643 wget. You can use this option multiple times
644 to set different downloaders for different
645 protocols. E.g. --downloader aria2c
646 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
647 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
648 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
649 (Alias: --external-downloader)
650 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
651 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
652 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
653 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
654 positions using the same syntax as
655 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
656 option multiple times to give different
657 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
658 --external-downloader-args)
660 ## Filesystem Options:
661 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
662 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
663 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
664 comments and ignored
665 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
666 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
667 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
668 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
669 TYPES as --output are supported.
670 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
671 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
672 files are first downloaded to the temp path
673 and then the final files are moved over to
674 the home path after download is finished.
675 This option is ignored if --output is an
676 absolute path
677 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
678 TEMPLATE" for details
679 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
680 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" (default: "NA")
681 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
682 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
683 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
684 filenames (default)
685 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
686 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
687 using Windows (default)
688 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
689 extension) to the specified number of
690 characters
691 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
692 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
693 option includes --no-continue
694 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
695 related files (default)
696 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
697 (default)
698 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
699 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
700 restart download of the entire file
701 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
702 into output file (default)
703 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
704 output file
705 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
706 modification time (default)
707 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
708 the file modification time
709 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
710 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
711 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
712 (this may contain personal information)
713 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
714 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
715 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
716 --write-description etc. (default)
717 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
718 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
719 --clean-info-json Remove some internal metadata such as
720 filenames from the infojson (default)
721 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
722 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
723 infojson. The comments are fetched even
724 without this option if the extraction is
725 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
726 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
727 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
728 --no-get-comments)
729 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
730 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
731 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
732 and dump cookie jar in
733 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
734 (default)
735 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]
736 The name of the browser to load cookies
737 from. Currently supported browsers are:
738 brave, chrome, chromium, edge, firefox,
739 opera, safari, vivaldi. Optionally, the
740 KEYRING used for decrypting Chromium cookies
741 on Linux, the name/path of the PROFILE to
742 load cookies from, and the CONTAINER name
743 (if Firefox) ("none" for no container) can
744 be given with their respective seperators.
745 By default, all containers of the most
746 recently accessed profile are used.
747 Currently supported keyrings are: basictext,
748 gnomekeyring, kwallet, kwallet5, kwallet6
749 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
750 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where yt-dlp can
751 store some downloaded information (such as
752 client ids and signatures) permanently. By
753 default ${XDG_CACHE_HOME}/yt-dlp
754 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
755 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
757 ## Thumbnail Options:
758 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
759 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
760 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
761 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
762 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
764 ## Internet Shortcut Options:
765 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
766 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
767 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
768 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
769 OS caches the URL based on the file path
770 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
771 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
773 ## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
774 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
775 print the log to stderr
776 --no-quiet Deactivate quiet mode. (Default)
777 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
778 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
779 anything to disk
780 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
781 options are used
782 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
783 extracting metadata even if the videos are
784 not actually available for download
785 (experimental)
786 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
787 formats are found (default)
788 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
789 related files (Alias: --no-download)
790 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
791 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
792 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
793 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
794 --use-postprocessor (default: video).
795 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
796 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
797 used. This option can be used multiple times
798 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
799 Append given template to the file. The
800 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
801 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
802 output template. This option can be used
803 multiple times
804 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
805 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
806 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
807 description of available keys
808 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
809 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
810 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
811 a playlist, the whole playlist information
812 is dumped in a single line
813 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
814 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
815 another simulation option is used (Alias:
816 --force-download-archive)
817 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
818 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
819 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
820 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
821 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
822 Template for progress outputs, optionally
823 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
824 "download-title:" (the console title),
825 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
826 The video's fields are accessible under the
827 "info" key and the progress attributes are
828 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.
829 --console-title --progress-template
830 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
831 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
832 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
833 to debug problems (very verbose)
834 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
835 in the current directory to debug problems
836 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
838 ## Workarounds:
839 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
840 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
841 that do not support RFC 5746 secure
842 renegotiation
843 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
844 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
845 information about the video (Currently
846 supported only for YouTube)
847 --add-headers FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
848 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
849 option multiple times
850 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
851 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
852 or fribidi executable in PATH
853 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
854 during data extraction
855 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
856 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
857 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
858 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
859 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
860 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
861 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
862 subtitle download
864 ## Video Format Options:
865 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
866 for more details
867 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
868 "Sorting Formats" for more details
869 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
870 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
871 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
872 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
873 specified sort order (default)
874 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
875 into a single file
876 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
877 output file (default)
878 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
879 into a single file
880 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
881 output file (default)
882 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
883 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
884 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
885 irrespective of quality
886 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
887 containers (default)
888 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
889 those that are actually downloadable
890 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
891 actually downloadable
892 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
893 downloadable
894 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
895 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
896 --merge-output-format FORMAT Containers that may be used when merging
897 formats, separated by "/", e.g. "mp4/mkv".
898 Ignored if no merge is required. (currently
899 supported: avi, flv, mkv, mov, mp4, webm)
901 ## Subtitle Options:
902 --write-subs Write subtitle file
903 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
904 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
905 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
906 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
907 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
908 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
909 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
910 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
911 e.g. "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
912 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
913 be regex) or "all" separated by commas, e.g.
914 --sub-langs "en.*,ja". You can prefix the
915 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
916 the requested languages, e.g. --sub-langs
917 all,-live_chat. Use --list-subs for a list
918 of available language tags
920 ## Authentication Options:
921 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
922 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
923 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
924 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
925 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
926 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
927 either the path or its containing directory.
928 Defaults to ~/.netrc
929 --netrc-cmd NETRC_CMD Command to execute to get the credentials
930 for an extractor.
931 --video-password PASSWORD Video-specific password
932 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
933 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
934 a list of available MSOs
935 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
936 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
937 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
938 interactively
939 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
940 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
941 format. May include the private key
942 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
943 Path to private key file for client
944 certificate
945 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
946 Password for client certificate private key,
947 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
948 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
950 ## Post-Processing Options:
951 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
952 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
953 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
954 used. (currently supported: best (default),
955 aac, alac, flac, m4a, mp3, opus, vorbis,
956 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
957 similar syntax as --remux-video
958 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
959 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
960 between 0 (best) and 10 (worst) for VBR or a
961 specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
962 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
963 necessary (currently supported: avi, flv,
964 gif, mkv, mov, mp4, webm, aac, aiff, alac,
965 flac, m4a, mka, mp3, ogg, opus, vorbis,
966 wav). If target container does not support
967 the video/audio codec, remuxing will fail.
968 You can specify multiple rules; e.g.
969 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
970 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
971 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
972 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
973 are the same as --remux-video
974 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
975 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
976 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
977 to give the argument to the specified
978 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
979 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
980 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
981 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
982 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
983 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
984 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
985 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
986 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
987 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
988 specified executable only when being used by
989 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
990 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
991 appended to the prefix optionally followed
992 by a number to pass the argument before the
993 specified input/output file, e.g. --ppa
994 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
995 this option multiple times to give different
996 arguments to different postprocessors.
997 (Alias: --ppa)
998 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
999 after post-processing
1000 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
1001 post-processing (default)
1002 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
1003 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
1004 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
1005 webm and mkv videos)
1006 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
1007 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
1008 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
1009 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
1010 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
1011 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
1012 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
1013 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
1014 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
1015 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
1016 (Alias: --add-chapters)
1017 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
1018 --no-add-chapters)
1019 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
1020 mkv/mka video files
1021 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
1022 to the video file
1023 --parse-metadata [WHEN:]FROM:TO
1024 Parse additional metadata like title/artist
1025 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
1026 for details. Supported values of "WHEN" are
1027 the same as that of --use-postprocessor
1028 (default: pre_process)
1029 --replace-in-metadata [WHEN:]FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
1030 Replace text in a metadata field using the
1031 given regex. This option can be used
1032 multiple times. Supported values of "WHEN"
1033 are the same as that of --use-postprocessor
1034 (default: pre_process)
1035 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
1036 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
1037 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
1038 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
1039 (default; only when the videos form a single
1040 show). All the video files must have same
1041 codecs and number of streams to be
1042 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
1043 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1044 the output filename for the concatenated
1045 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1046 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
1047 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
1048 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
1049 default; fix file if we can, warn
1050 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
1051 already exists)
1052 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
1053 path to the binary or its containing directory
1054 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
1055 when to execute it, separated by a ":".
1056 Supported values of "WHEN" are the same as
1057 that of --use-postprocessor (default:
1058 after_move). Same syntax as the output
1059 template can be used to pass any field as
1060 arguments to the command. If no fields are
1061 passed, %(filepath,_filename|)q is appended
1062 to the end of the command. This option can
1063 be used multiple times
1064 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
1065 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
1066 (currently supported: ass, lrc, srt, vtt)
1067 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
1068 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
1069 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
1070 can specify multiple rules using similar
1071 syntax as --remux-video
1072 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
1073 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
1074 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1075 the output filename for the split files. See
1076 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1077 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
1078 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
1079 given regular expression. The syntax is the
1080 same as --download-sections. This option can
1081 be used multiple times
1082 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1083 (default)
1084 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
1085 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
1086 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1087 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1088 around the cuts
1089 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1090 when cutting/splitting (default)
1091 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1092 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1093 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1094 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1095 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1096 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1097 The "when" argument determines when the
1098 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1099 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1100 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
1101 "video" (after --format; before
1102 --print/--output), "before_dl" (before each
1103 video download), "post_process" (after each
1104 video download; default), "after_move"
1105 (after moving video file to it's final
1106 locations), "after_video" (after downloading
1107 and processing all formats of a video), or
1108 "playlist" (at end of playlist). This option
1109 can be used multiple times to add different
1110 postprocessors
1112 ## SponsorBlock Options:
1113 Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1114 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
1115 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1117 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1118 for, separated by commas. Available
1119 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1120 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
1121 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, chapter, all
1122 and default (=all). You can prefix the
1123 category with a "-" to exclude it. See [1]
1124 for description of the categories. E.g.
1125 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1126 [1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1127 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1128 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1129 category is present in both mark and remove,
1130 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1131 available categories are the same as for
1132 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
1133 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight,
1134 chapter are not available
1135 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
1136 An output template for the title of the
1137 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1138 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1139 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1140 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1141 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1142 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1143 --sponsorblock-remove
1144 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1145 https://sponsor.ajay.app
1147 ## Extractor Options:
1148 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1149 (default is 3), or "infinite"
1150 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1151 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1152 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1153 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1154 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1155 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1156 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1157 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1158 (default)
1159 --extractor-args IE_KEY:ARGS Pass ARGS arguments to the IE_KEY extractor.
1160 See "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You
1161 can use this option multiple times to give
1162 arguments for different extractors
1164 # CONFIGURATION
1166 You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
1168 1. **Main Configuration**:
1169 * The file given by `--config-location`
1170 1. **Portable Configuration**: (Recommended for portable installations)
1171 * If using a binary, `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the binary
1172 * If running from source-code, `yt-dlp.conf` in the parent directory of `yt_dlp`
1173 1. **Home Configuration**:
1174 * `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by `-P`
1175 * If `-P` is not given, the current directory is searched
1176 1. **User Configuration**:
1177 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp.conf`
1178 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1179 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1180 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp.conf`
1181 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1182 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1183 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
1184 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
1185 * `~/.yt-dlp/config`
1186 * `~/.yt-dlp/config.txt`
1188 See also: [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
1189 1. **System Configuration**:
1190 * `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
1191 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config`
1192 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1194 E.g. 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:
1195 ```
1196 # Lines starting with # are comments
1198 # Always extract audio
1199 -x
1201 # Do not copy the mtime
1202 --no-mtime
1204 # Use this proxy
1205 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1207 # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1208 -o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
1209 ```
1211 **Note**: 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`. They must also be quoted when necessary as-if it were a UNIX shell.
1213 You can use `--ignore-config` if you want to disable all configuration files for a particular yt-dlp run. If `--ignore-config` is found inside any configuration file, no further configuration will be loaded. For example, having the option in the portable configuration file prevents loading of home, user, and system configurations. Additionally, (for backward compatibility) if `--ignore-config` is found inside the system configuration file, the user configuration is not loaded.
1215 ### Configuration file encoding
1217 The configuration files are decoded according to the UTF BOM if present, and in the encoding from system locale otherwise.
1219 If you want your file to be decoded differently, add `# coding: ENCODING` to the beginning of the file (e.g. `# coding: shift-jis`). There must be no characters before that, even spaces or BOM.
1221 ### Authentication with netrc
1223 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:
1224 ```
1225 touch ${HOME}/.netrc
1226 chmod a-rwx,u+rw ${HOME}/.netrc
1227 ```
1228 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1229 ```
1230 machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
1231 ```
1232 E.g.
1233 ```
1234 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1235 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1236 ```
1237 To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
1239 The default location of the .netrc file is `~` (see below).
1241 As an alternative to using the `.netrc` file, which has the disadvantage of keeping your passwords in a plain text file, you can configure a custom shell command to provide the credentials for an extractor. This is done by providing the `--netrc-cmd` parameter, it shall output the credentials in the netrc format and return `0` on success, other values will be treated as an error. `{}` in the command will be replaced by the name of the extractor to make it possible to select the credentials for the right extractor.
1243 E.g. To use an encrypted `.netrc` file stored as `.authinfo.gpg`
1244 ```
1245 yt-dlp --netrc-cmd 'gpg --decrypt ~/.authinfo.gpg' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc
1246 ```
1249 ### Notes about environment variables
1250 * Environment variables are normally specified as `${VARIABLE}`/`$VARIABLE` on UNIX and `%VARIABLE%` on Windows; but is always shown as `${VARIABLE}` in this documentation
1251 * yt-dlp also allow using UNIX-style variables on Windows for path-like options; e.g. `--output`, `--config-location`
1252 * If unset, `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}` defaults to `~/.config` and `${XDG_CACHE_HOME}` to `~/.cache`
1253 * On Windows, `~` points to `${HOME}` if present; or, `${USERPROFILE}` or `${HOMEDRIVE}${HOMEPATH}` otherwise
1254 * On Windows, `${USERPROFILE}` generally points to `C:\Users\<user name>` and `${APPDATA}` to `${USERPROFILE}\AppData\Roaming`
1256 # OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1258 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.
1260 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1261 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
1262 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1264 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).
1266 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), e.g. `%(NAME)s` or `%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.
1268 The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
1270 1. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a dot `.` separator; e.g. `%(tags.0)s`, `%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s`. You can do Python slicing with colon `:`; E.g. `%(id.3:7:-1)s`, `%(formats.:.format_id)s`. Curly braces `{}` can be used to build dictionaries with only specific keys; e.g. `%(formats.:.{format_id,height})#j`. An empty field name `%()s` refers to the entire infodict; e.g. `%(.{id,title})s`. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use `-j` to see such fields
1272 1. **Arithmetic**: Simple arithmetic can be done on numeric fields using `+`, `-` and `*`. E.g. `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
1274 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 `>`. E.g. `%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`, `%(upload_date>%Y-%m-%d)s`, `%(epoch-3600>%H-%M-%S)s`
1276 1. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a `,`. E.g. `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
1278 1. **Replacement**: A replacement value can be specified using a `&` separator according to the [`str.format` mini-language](https://docs.python.org/3/library/string.html#format-specification-mini-language). If the field is *not* empty, this replacement value will be used instead of the actual field content. This is done after alternate fields are considered; thus the replacement is used if *any* of the alternative fields is *not* empty. E.g. `%(chapters&has chapters|no chapters)s`, `%(title&TITLE={:>20}|NO TITLE)s`
1280 1. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a `|` separator. This overrides `--output-na-placeholder`. E.g. `%(uploader|Unknown)s`
1282 1. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types `diouxXeEfFgGcrs`, yt-dlp additionally supports converting to `B` = **B**ytes, `j` = **j**son (flag `#` for pretty-printing, `+` for Unicode), `h` = HTML escaping, `l` = a comma separated **l**ist (flag `#` for `\n` newline-separated), `q` = a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag `#` to split a list into different arguments), `D` = add **D**ecimal suffixes (e.g. 10M) (flag `#` to use 1024 as factor), and `S` = **S**anitize as filename (flag `#` for restricted)
1284 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. E.g. `%(title)+.100U` is NFKC
1286 To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1287 ```
1288 %(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
1289 ```
1291 Additionally, you can set different output templates for the various metadata files separately from the general output template by specifying the type of file followed by the template separated by a colon `:`. The different file types supported are `subtitle`, `thumbnail`, `description`, `annotation` (deprecated), `infojson`, `link`, `pl_thumbnail`, `pl_description`, `pl_infojson`, `chapter`, `pl_video`. E.g. `-o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s"` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video. If any of the templates is empty, that type of file will not be written. E.g. `--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for video.
1293 <a id="outtmpl-postprocess-note"/>
1295 **Note**: Due to post-processing (i.e. merging etc.), the actual output filename might differ. Use `--print after_move:filepath` to get the name after all post-processing is complete.
1297 The available fields are:
1299 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1300 - `title` (string): Video title
1301 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
1302 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1303 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
1304 - `description` (string): The description of the video
1305 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1306 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1307 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1308 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
1309 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
1310 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
1311 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
1312 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
1313 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the video or album was released
1314 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
1315 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
1316 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1317 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1318 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
1319 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
1320 - `channel_is_verified` (boolean): Whether the channel is verified on the platform
1321 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1322 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
1323 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
1324 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1325 - `concurrent_view_count` (numeric): How many users are currently watching the video on the platform.
1326 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1327 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1328 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1329 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
1330 - `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)
1331 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
1332 - `live_status` (string): One of "not_live", "is_live", "is_upcoming", "was_live", "post_live" (was live, but VOD is not yet processed)
1333 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
1334 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
1335 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
1336 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
1337 - `media_type` (string): The type of media as classified by the site, e.g. "episode", "clip", "trailer"
1338 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1339 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
1340 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1341 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
1342 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
1343 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`, padded with leading zeros to 5 digits
1344 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
1345 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
1346 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1347 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1348 - `playlist` (string): `playlist_id` or `playlist_title`
1349 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
1350 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1351 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
1352 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1353 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
1354 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
1355 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1356 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
1357 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
1359 All the fields in [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats) can also be used
1361 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1363 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1364 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1365 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1367 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1369 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1370 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1371 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1372 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1373 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1374 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1375 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1377 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1379 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1380 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1381 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1382 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1383 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1384 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1385 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1386 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1387 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1389 Available only when using `--download-sections` and for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
1391 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1392 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1393 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1394 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1396 Available only when used in `--print`:
1398 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1399 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the [actual filename may differ](#outtmpl-postprocess-note)
1400 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by `--list-formats`
1401 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by `--list-thumbnails`
1402 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1403 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1405 Available only after the video is downloaded (`post_process`/`after_move`):
1407 - `filepath`: Actual path of downloaded video file
1409 Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1411 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1412 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1413 - `categories` (list): The [SponsorBlock categories](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Category) the chapter belongs to
1414 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1415 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1416 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1417 - `type` (string): The [SponsorBlock action type](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Action_Type) of the chapter
1419 Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. E.g. 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.
1421 **Note**: 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).
1423 **Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
1425 For numeric sequences you can use [numeric related formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting); e.g. `%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in `00042`.
1427 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.
1429 To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1431 The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
1433 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.
1435 #### Output template examples
1437 ```bash
1438 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1439 test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1441 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1442 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
1444 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
1445 youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
1447 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
1448 $ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1450 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
1451 $ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1453 # Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
1454 $ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist_index&{} - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1456 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
1457 $ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1459 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
1460 $ 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"
1462 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
1463 $ 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"
1465 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1466 # and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1467 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1469 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1470 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "subtitle:%(uploader)s/subs/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --write-subs
1472 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
1473 $ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
1474 ```
1476 # FORMAT SELECTION
1478 By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1479 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`.
1481 **Deprecation warning**: Latest versions of yt-dlp can stream multiple formats to the stdout simultaneously using ffmpeg. So, in future versions, the default for this will be set to `-f bv*+ba/b` similar to normal downloads. If you want to preserve the `-f b/bv+ba` setting, it is recommended to explicitly specify it in the configuration options.
1483 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.
1485 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1486 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1487 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1489 The simplest case is requesting a specific format; e.g. 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.
1491 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.
1493 You can use `-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1495 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1497 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1498 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
1499 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio or both (ie; `vcodec!=none or acodec!=none`)
1500 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1501 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1502 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1503 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
1504 - `ba*`, `bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that **contains audio**. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `best*[acodec!=none]` ([Do not use!](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/979#issuecomment-919629354))
1505 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
1506 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1507 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
1508 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
1509 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
1510 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
1512 For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use `-f worstvideo`. It is however recommended not to use `worst` and related options. When your format selector is `worst`, the format which is worst in all respects is selected. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use `-S +size` or more rigorously, `-S +size,+br,+res,+fps` instead of `-f worst`. See [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
1514 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.
1516 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; e.g. `-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.
1518 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`.
1520 You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using `-f <format1>+<format2>+...` (requires ffmpeg installed); e.g. `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg.
1522 **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
1524 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. E.g. `-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 only `best` while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore `best` and download only `bestaudio`.
1526 ## Filtering Formats
1528 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"` since filters without a selector are interpreted as `best`).
1530 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1532 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1533 - `filesize_approx`: An estimate for the number of bytes
1534 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1535 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
1536 - `aspect_ratio`: Aspect ratio of the video, if known
1537 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1538 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1539 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1540 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1541 - `fps`: Frame rate
1542 - `audio_channels`: The number of audio channels
1543 - `stretched_ratio`: `width:height` of the video's pixels, if not square
1545 Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains), `~=` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
1547 - `url`: Video URL
1548 - `ext`: File extension
1549 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1550 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1551 - `container`: Name of the container format
1552 - `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`)
1553 - `language`: Language code
1554 - `dynamic_range`: The dynamic range of the video
1555 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
1556 - `format`: A human-readable description of the format
1557 - `format_note`: Additional info about the format
1558 - `resolution`: Textual description of width and height
1560 Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation `!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. `!*=` (does not contain). The comparand of a string comparison needs to be quoted with either double or single quotes if it contains spaces or special characters other than `._-`.
1562 **Note**: 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.
1564 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 "bv[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, e.g. `-f "all[vcodec=none]"` selects all audio-only formats.
1566 Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses; e.g. `-f "(mp4,webm)[height<480]"` will download the best pre-merged mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480.
1568 ## Sorting Formats
1570 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...`.
1572 The available fields are:
1574 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that have a video stream
1575 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that have an audio stream
1576 - `ie_pref`: The format preference
1577 - `lang`: The language preference
1578 - `quality`: The quality of the format
1579 - `source`: The preference of the source
1580 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > `mms`/`rtsp` > `f4f`/`f4m`)
1581 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other)
1582 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`flac`/`alac` > `wav`/`aiff` > `opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `ac4` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other)
1583 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
1584 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `mov` > `webm` > `flv` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is preferred.
1585 - `aext`: Audio Extension (`m4a` > `aac` > `mp3` > `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > `mp3` > `m4a` > `aac`
1586 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
1587 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
1588 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize
1589 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
1590 - `height`: Height of video
1591 - `width`: Width of video
1592 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1593 - `fps`: Framerate of video
1594 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
1595 - `channels`: The number of audio channels
1596 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1597 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1598 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1599 - `br`: Average bitrate in KBit/s, `tbr`/`vbr`/`abr`
1600 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
1602 **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.
1604 All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in descending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+`. E.g. `+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a preferred value for the fields, separated by a `:`. E.g. `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. E.g. `+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. E.g. `filesize~1G` prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.
1606 The fields `hasvid` and `ie_pref` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using `--format-sort-force`. Apart from these, the default order used is: `lang,quality,res,fps,hdr:12,vcodec:vp9.2,channels,acodec,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. The extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
1608 Note that the default has `vcodec:vp9.2`; i.e. `av1` is not preferred. Similarly, the default for hdr is `hdr:12`; i.e. dolby vision is not preferred. These choices are made since DV and AV1 formats are not yet fully compatible with most devices. This may be changed in the future as more devices become capable of smoothly playing back these formats.
1610 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`.
1612 **Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1614 ## Format Selection examples
1616 ```bash
1617 # Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
1618 # or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
1619 $ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
1621 # Download best format that contains video,
1622 # and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
1623 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
1625 # Same as above
1626 $ yt-dlp
1628 # Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1629 # For this case, an output template should be used since
1630 # by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
1631 $ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
1633 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1634 # and all audio-only formats into one file
1635 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
1637 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1638 # and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1639 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
1642 # The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
1643 # and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
1645 # Download the worst video available (old method)
1646 $ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
1648 # Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
1649 $ yt-dlp -S "+res"
1651 # Download the smallest video available
1652 $ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
1656 # Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
1657 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
1659 # Download the best video with the best extension
1660 # (For video, mp4 > mov > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
1661 $ yt-dlp -S "ext"
1665 # Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1666 # or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
1667 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
1669 # Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1670 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1671 $ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
1673 # Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1674 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1675 # Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1676 # So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
1677 $ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
1681 # Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1682 # or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1683 $ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
1685 # Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1686 # or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1687 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
1689 # Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
1690 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
1694 # Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1695 # or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
1696 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
1698 # Download best video available via the best protocol
1699 # (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
1700 $ yt-dlp -S "proto"
1704 # Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1705 # or the best video if there is no such video
1706 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
1708 # Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1709 # or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
1710 $ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
1712 # Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1713 # or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
1714 $ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
1718 # More complex examples
1720 # Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1721 # or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
1722 $ yt-dlp -f "((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)"
1724 # Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
1725 # or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
1726 # preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
1727 $ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
1731 # Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1732 # or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
1733 # preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
1734 $ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
1735 ```
1737 # MODIFYING METADATA
1739 The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
1741 `--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.
1743 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, a single field name, 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.
1745 Note that these options preserve their relative order, allowing replacements to be made in parsed fields and viceversa. Also, any field thus created can be used in the [output template](#output-template) and will also affect the media file's metadata added when using `--embed-metadata`.
1747 This option also has a few special uses:
1749 * 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. E.g. `--parse-metadata "description:(?P<additional_urls>https?://www\.vimeo\.com/\d+)"` will download the first vimeo video found in the description
1751 * 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 - you can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis". To modify the metadata of individual streams, use the `meta<n>_` prefix (e.g. `meta1_language`). Any value set to the `meta_` field will overwrite all default values.
1753 **Note**: Metadata modification happens before format selection, post-extraction and other post-processing operations. Some fields may be added or changed during these steps, overriding your changes.
1755 For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1757 Metadata fields | From
1758 :--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1759 `title` | `track` or `title`
1760 `date` | `upload_date`
1761 `description`, `synopsis` | `description`
1762 `purl`, `comment` | `webpage_url`
1763 `track` | `track_number`
1764 `artist` | `artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1765 `genre` | `genre`
1766 `album` | `album`
1767 `album_artist` | `album_artist`
1768 `disc` | `disc_number`
1769 `show` | `series`
1770 `season_number` | `season_number`
1771 `episode_id` | `episode` or `episode_id`
1772 `episode_sort` | `episode_number`
1773 `language` of each stream | the format's `language`
1775 **Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1778 ## Modifying metadata examples
1780 ```bash
1781 # Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
1782 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
1784 # Regex example
1785 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
1787 # Set title as "Series name S01E05"
1788 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
1790 # Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
1791 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --embed-metadata
1793 # Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1794 # handling multiple lines correctly
1795 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --embed-metadata
1797 # Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
1798 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
1800 # Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
1801 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "video::(?P<formats>)" --write-info-json
1803 # Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
1804 $ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
1806 ```
1808 # EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1810 Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS`. `ARGS` is a `;` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2`. E.g. `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_embedded,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
1812 Note: In CLI, `ARG` can use `-` instead of `_`; e.g. `youtube:player-client"` becomes `youtube:player_client"`
1814 The following extractors use this feature:
1816 #### youtube
1817 * `lang`: Prefer translated metadata (`title`, `description` etc) of this language code (case-sensitive). By default, the video primary language metadata is preferred, with a fallback to `en` translated. See [youtube.py](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/c26f9b991a0681fd3ea548d535919cec1fbbd430/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L381-L390) for list of supported content language codes
1818 * `skip`: One or more of `hls`, `dash` or `translated_subs` to skip extraction of the m3u8 manifests, dash manifests and [auto-translated subtitles](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/4090#issuecomment-1158102032) respectively
1819 * `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web`, `android` and `ios` with variants `_music`, `_embedded`, `_embedscreen`, `_creator` (e.g. `web_embedded`); and `mweb`, `mweb_embedscreen` and `tv_embedded` (agegate bypass) with no variants. By default, `ios,android,web` is used, but `tv_embedded` and `creator` variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly, the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com` urls. You can use `all` to use all the clients, and `default` for the default clients.
1820 * `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
1821 * `player_params`: YouTube player parameters to use for player requests. Will overwrite any default ones set by yt-dlp.
1822 * `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
1823 * `max_comments`: Limit the amount of comments to gather. Comma-separated list of integers representing `max-comments,max-parents,max-replies,max-replies-per-thread`. Default is `all,all,all,all`
1824 * E.g. `all,all,1000,10` will get a maximum of 1000 replies total, with up to 10 replies per thread. `1000,all,100` will get a maximum of 1000 comments, with a maximum of 100 replies total
1825 * `formats`: Change the types of formats to return. `dashy` (convert HTTP to DASH), `duplicate` (identical content but different URLs or protocol; includes `dashy`), `incomplete` (cannot be downloaded completely - live dash and post-live m3u8)
1826 * `innertube_host`: Innertube API host to use for all API requests; e.g. `studio.youtube.com`, `youtubei.googleapis.com`. Note that cookies exported from one subdomain will not work on others
1827 * `innertube_key`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
1828 * `raise_incomplete_data`: `Incomplete Data Received` raises an error instead of reporting a warning
1830 #### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1831 * `skip`: One or more of `webpage` (skip initial webpage download), `authcheck` (allow the download of playlists requiring authentication when no initial webpage is downloaded. This may cause unwanted behavior, see [#1122](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/1122) for more details)
1832 * `approximate_date`: Extract approximate `upload_date` and `timestamp` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
1834 #### generic
1835 * `fragment_query`: Passthrough any query in mpd/m3u8 manifest URLs to their fragments if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `fragment_query=VALUE`. Does not apply to ffmpeg
1836 * `variant_query`: Passthrough the master m3u8 URL query to its variant playlist URLs if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `variant_query=VALUE`
1837 * `hls_key`: An HLS AES-128 key URI *or* key (as hex), and optionally the IV (as hex), in the form of `(URI|KEY)[,IV]`; e.g. `generic:hls_key=ABCDEF1234567980,0xFEDCBA0987654321`. Passing any of these values will force usage of the native HLS downloader and override the corresponding values found in the m3u8 playlist
1838 * `is_live`: Bypass live HLS detection and manually set `live_status` - a value of `false` will set `not_live`, any other value (or no value) will set `is_live`
1840 #### funimation
1841 * `language`: Audio languages to extract, e.g. `funimation:language=english,japanese`
1842 * `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1844 #### crunchyrollbeta (Crunchyroll)
1845 * `format`: Which stream type(s) to extract (default: `adaptive_hls`). Potentially useful values include `adaptive_hls`, `adaptive_dash`, `vo_adaptive_hls`, `vo_adaptive_dash`, `download_hls`, `download_dash`, `multitrack_adaptive_hls_v2`
1846 * `hardsub`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract, or `all` (default: `None` = no hardsubs), e.g. `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None`
1848 #### vikichannel
1849 * `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
1851 #### niconico
1852 * `segment_duration`: Segment duration in milliseconds for HLS-DMC formats. Use it at your own risk since this feature **may result in your account termination.**
1854 #### youtubewebarchive
1855 * `check_all`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails`, `captures`
1857 #### gamejolt
1858 * `comment_sort`: `hot` (default), `you` (cookies needed), `top`, `new` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1860 #### hotstar
1861 * `res`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd`, `hd`, `fhd`
1862 * `vcodec`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264`, `h265`, `dvh265`
1863 * `dr`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr`, `hdr10`, `dv`
1865 #### niconicochannelplus
1866 * `max_comments`: Maximum number of comments to extract - default is `120`
1868 #### tiktok
1869 * `api_hostname`: Hostname to use for mobile API requests, e.g. `api-h2.tiktokv.com`
1870 * `app_version`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version`, e.g. `20.2.1`
1871 * `manifest_app_version`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with, e.g. `221`
1873 #### rokfinchannel
1874 * `tab`: Which tab to download - one of `new`, `top`, `videos`, `podcasts`, `streams`, `stacks`
1876 #### twitter
1877 * `api`: Select one of `graphql` (default), `legacy` or `syndication` as the API for tweet extraction. Has no effect if logged in
1879 #### stacommu, wrestleuniverse
1880 * `device_id`: UUID value assigned by the website and used to enforce device limits for paid livestream content. Can be found in browser local storage
1882 #### twitch
1883 * `client_id`: Client ID value to be sent with GraphQL requests, e.g. `twitch:client_id=kimne78kx3ncx6brgo4mv6wki5h1ko`
1885 #### nhkradirulive (NHK らじる★らじる LIVE)
1886 * `area`: Which regional variation to extract. Valid areas are: `sapporo`, `sendai`, `tokyo`, `nagoya`, `osaka`, `hiroshima`, `matsuyama`, `fukuoka`. Defaults to `tokyo`
1888 #### nflplusreplay
1889 * `type`: Type(s) of game replays to extract. Valid types are: `full_game`, `full_game_spanish`, `condensed_game` and `all_22`. You can use `all` to extract all available replay types, which is the default
1891 **Note**: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
1893 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1896 # PLUGINS
1898 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!**
1900 Plugins can be of `<type>`s `extractor` or `postprocessor`.
1901 - Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it.
1902 - Extractor plugins take priority over builtin extractors.
1903 - Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME`.
1906 Plugins are loaded from the namespace packages `yt_dlp_plugins.extractor` and `yt_dlp_plugins.postprocessor`.
1908 In other words, the file structure on the disk looks something like:
1910 yt_dlp_plugins/
1911 extractor/
1912 myplugin.py
1913 postprocessor/
1914 myplugin.py
1916 yt-dlp looks for these `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folders in many locations (see below) and loads in plugins from **all** of them.
1918 See the [wiki for some known plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugins)
1920 ## Installing Plugins
1922 Plugins can be installed using various methods and locations.
1924 1. **Configuration directories**:
1925 Plugin packages (containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder) can be dropped into the following standard [configuration locations](#configuration):
1926 * **User Plugins**
1927 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1928 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1929 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Windows)
1930 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1931 * `~/.yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1932 * `~/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1933 * **System Plugins**
1934 * `/etc/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1935 * `/etc/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1936 2. **Executable location**: Plugin packages can similarly be installed in a `yt-dlp-plugins` directory under the executable location (recommended for portable installations):
1937 * Binary: where `<root-dir>/yt-dlp.exe`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1938 * Source: where `<root-dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1940 3. **pip and other locations in `PYTHONPATH`**
1941 * Plugin packages can be installed and managed using `pip`. See [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) for an example.
1942 * Note: plugin files between plugin packages installed with pip must have unique filenames.
1943 * Any path in `PYTHONPATH` is searched in for the `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder.
1944 * Note: This does not apply for Pyinstaller/py2exe builds.
1947 `.zip`, `.egg` and `.whl` archives containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder in their root are also supported as plugin packages.
1948 * e.g. `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/mypluginpkg.zip` where `mypluginpkg.zip` contains `yt_dlp_plugins/<type>/myplugin.py`
1950 Run yt-dlp with `--verbose` to check if the plugin has been loaded.
1952 ## Developing Plugins
1954 See the [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) repo for a template plugin package and the [Plugin Development](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugin-Development) section of the wiki for a plugin development guide.
1956 All public classes with a name ending in `IE`/`PP` are imported from each file for extractors and postprocessors repectively. This respects underscore prefix (e.g. `_MyBasePluginIE` is private) and `__all__`. Modules can similarly be excluded by prefixing the module name with an underscore (e.g. `_myplugin.py`).
1958 To replace an existing extractor with a subclass of one, set the `plugin_name` class keyword argument (e.g. `class MyPluginIE(ABuiltInIE, plugin_name='myplugin')` will replace `ABuiltInIE` with `MyPluginIE`). Since the extractor replaces the parent, you should exclude the subclass extractor from being imported separately by making it private using one of the methods described above.
1960 If you are a plugin author, add [yt-dlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/yt-dlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability.
1962 See the [Developer Instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions) on how to write and test an extractor.
1964 # EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1966 yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1968 Your program should avoid parsing the normal stdout since they may change in future versions. Instead they should use options such as `-J`, `--print`, `--progress-template`, `--exec` etc to create console output that you can reliably reproduce and parse.
1970 From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1972 ```python
1973 from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
1975 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1976 with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1977 ydl.download(URLS)
1978 ```
1980 Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of options available, have a look at [`yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py`](yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py#L183) or `help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)` in a Python shell. If you are already familiar with the CLI, you can use [`devscripts/cli_to_api.py`](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/devscripts/cli_to_api.py) to translate any CLI switches to `YoutubeDL` params.
1982 **Tip**: If you are porting your code from youtube-dl to yt-dlp, one important point to look out for is that we do not guarantee the return value of `YoutubeDL.extract_info` to be json serializable, or even be a dictionary. It will be dictionary-like, but if you want to ensure it is a serializable dictionary, pass it through `YoutubeDL.sanitize_info` as shown in the [example below](#extracting-information)
1984 ## Embedding examples
1986 #### Extracting information
1988 ```python
1989 import json
1990 import yt_dlp
1992 URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1994 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
1995 ydl_opts = {}
1996 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1997 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
1999 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
2000 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
2001 ```
2002 #### Download using an info-json
2004 ```python
2005 import yt_dlp
2007 INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
2009 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
2010 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
2012 print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
2013 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
2014 ```
2016 #### Extract audio
2018 ```python
2019 import yt_dlp
2021 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2023 ydl_opts = {
2024 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
2025 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
2026 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
2027 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
2028 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
2029 }]
2030 }
2032 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2033 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
2034 ```
2036 #### Filter videos
2038 ```python
2039 import yt_dlp
2041 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2043 def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
2044 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
2045 duration = info.get('duration')
2046 if duration and duration < 60:
2047 return 'The video is too short'
2049 ydl_opts = {
2050 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
2051 }
2053 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2054 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
2055 ```
2057 #### Adding logger and progress hook
2059 ```python
2060 import yt_dlp
2062 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2064 class MyLogger:
2065 def debug(self, msg):
2066 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
2067 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
2068 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
2069 pass
2070 else:
2071 self.info(msg)
2073 def info(self, msg):
2074 pass
2076 def warning(self, msg):
2077 pass
2079 def error(self, msg):
2080 print(msg)
2083 # ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
2084 def my_hook(d):
2085 if d['status'] == 'finished':
2086 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
2089 ydl_opts = {
2090 'logger': MyLogger(),
2091 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
2092 }
2094 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2095 ydl.download(URLS)
2096 ```
2098 #### Add a custom PostProcessor
2100 ```python
2101 import yt_dlp
2103 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2105 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
2106 class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
2107 def run(self, info):
2108 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
2109 return [], info
2112 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
2113 # ℹ️ "when" can take any value in yt_dlp.utils.POSTPROCESS_WHEN
2114 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP(), when='pre_process')
2115 ydl.download(URLS)
2116 ```
2119 #### Use a custom format selector
2121 ```python
2122 import yt_dlp
2124 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2126 def format_selector(ctx):
2127 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
2128 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
2130 # formats are already sorted worst to best
2131 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
2133 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
2134 best_video = next(f for f in formats
2135 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
2137 # find compatible audio extension
2138 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
2139 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
2140 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
2141 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
2143 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
2144 yield {
2145 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
2146 'ext': best_video['ext'],
2147 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
2148 # Must be + separated list of protocols
2149 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
2150 }
2153 ydl_opts = {
2154 'format': format_selector,
2155 }
2157 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2158 ydl.download(URLS)
2159 ```
2161 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
2163 # DEPRECATED OPTIONS
2165 These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
2167 #### Almost redundant options
2168 While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
2170 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
2171 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
2172 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
2173 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
2175 #### Redundant options
2176 While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
2178 --get-description --print description
2179 --get-duration --print duration_string
2180 --get-filename --print filename
2181 --get-format --print format
2182 --get-id --print id
2183 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
2184 -e, --get-title --print title
2185 -g, --get-url --print urls
2186 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
2187 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2188 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2189 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
2190 --break-on-reject Use --break-match-filter
2191 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2192 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
2193 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2194 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2195 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2196 --no-playlist-reverse Default
2197 --no-colors --color no_color
2200 #### Not recommended
2201 While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2203 --force-generic-extractor --ies generic,default
2204 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2205 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
2206 --all-formats -f all
2207 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
2208 --print-json -j --no-simulate
2209 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting, e.g. %(autonumber)03d
2210 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
2211 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2212 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
2213 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2214 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
2215 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2216 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
2217 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2218 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2219 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2220 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
2221 --geo-bypass --xff "default"
2222 --no-geo-bypass --xff "never"
2223 --geo-bypass-country CODE --xff CODE
2224 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK --xff IP_BLOCK
2227 #### Developer options
2228 These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2230 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
2231 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
2232 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
2233 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2234 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
2237 #### Old aliases
2238 These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2240 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
2241 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
2242 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2243 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2244 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2245 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2246 --load-info --load-info-json
2247 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
2248 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
2249 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
2250 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2251 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
2252 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2253 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
2254 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
2255 --write-srt --write-subs
2256 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
2258 #### Sponskrub Options
2259 Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock` options
2261 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2262 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2263 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2264 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2265 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2266 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2267 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2268 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2270 #### No longer supported
2271 These options may no longer work as intended
2273 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2274 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2275 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2276 --no-call-home Default
2277 --include-ads No longer supported
2278 --no-include-ads Default
2279 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2280 --no-write-annotations Default
2281 --compat-options seperate-video-versions No longer needed
2283 #### Removed
2284 These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2286 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2287 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2289 # CONTRIBUTING
2290 See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp) for instructions on [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue) and [Contributing code to the project](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
2292 # WIKI
2293 See the [Wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki) for more information