youtube-dl [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
# OPTIONS
- -h, --help print this help text and exit
- --version print program version and exit
- -U, --update update this program to latest version. Make sure that you have sufficient permissions (run with sudo if needed)
- -i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors, for example to skip unavailable videos in a playlist
+ -h, --help Print this help text and exit
+ --version Print program version and exit
+ -U, --update Update this program to latest version. Make sure that you have sufficient permissions (run with sudo if needed)
+ -i, --ignore-errors Continue on download errors, for example to skip unavailable videos in a playlist
--abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos (in the playlist or the command line) if an error occurs
- --dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
+ --dump-user-agent Display the current browser identification
--list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs they would handle
--extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported extractors
- --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos from google videos for youtube-dl "large apple".
+ --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos from google videos for youtube-dl "large apple".
Use the value "auto" to let youtube-dl guess ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
default value "fixup_error" repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if this is not possible instead of searching.
--ignore-config Do not read configuration files. When given in the global configuration file /etc/youtube-dl.conf: Do not read the user configuration
in ~/.config/youtube-dl/config (%APPDATA%/youtube-dl/config.txt on Windows)
--flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist, only list them.
- --no-color Do not emit color codes in output.
+ --no-color Do not emit color codes in output
## Network Options:
--proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy. Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for direct connection
not present) is used for the actual downloading. (experimental)
## Video Selection:
- --playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is 1)
- --playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
- --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC playlist video items to download. Specify indices of the videos in the playlist seperated by commas like: "--playlist-items 1,2,5,8"
+ --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is 1)
+ --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
+ --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify indices of the videos in the playlist seperated by commas like: "--playlist-items 1,2,5,8"
if you want to download videos indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in the playlist. You can specify range: "--playlist-items 1-3,7,10-13", it will
download the videos at index 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13.
- --match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or caseless sub-string)
- --reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or caseless sub-string)
+ --match-title REGEX Download only matching titles (regex or caseless sub-string)
+ --reject-title REGEX Skip download for matching titles (regex or caseless sub-string)
--max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
--min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
--max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
- --date DATE download only videos uploaded in this date
- --datebefore DATE download only videos uploaded on or before this date (i.e. inclusive)
- --dateafter DATE download only videos uploaded on or after this date (i.e. inclusive)
+ --date DATE Download only videos uploaded in this date
+ --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before this date (i.e. inclusive)
+ --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after this date (i.e. inclusive)
--min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than COUNT views
--max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than COUNT views
- --match-filter FILTER (Experimental) Generic video filter. Specify any key (see help for -o for a list of available keys) to match if the key is present,
+ --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter (experimental). Specify any key (see help for -o for a list of available keys) to match if the key is present,
!key to check if the key is not present,key > NUMBER (like "comment_count > 12", also works with >=, <, <=, !=, =) to compare against
a number, and & to require multiple matches. Values which are not known are excluded unless you put a question mark (?) after the
operator.For example, to only match videos that have been liked more than 100 times and disliked less than 50 times (or the dislike
functionality is not available at the given service), but who also have a description, use --match-filter "like_count > 100 &
dislike_count <? 50 & description" .
- --no-playlist If the URL refers to a video and a playlist, download only the video.
- --yes-playlist If the URL refers to a video and a playlist, download the playlist.
- --age-limit YEARS download only videos suitable for the given age
+ --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers to a video and a playlist.
+ --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to a video and a playlist.
+ --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given age
--download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the archive file. Record the IDs of all downloaded videos in it.
--include-ads Download advertisements as well (experimental)
## Download Options:
- -r, --rate-limit LIMIT maximum download rate in bytes per second (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
- -R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is 10), or "infinite".
- --buffer-size SIZE size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K) (default is 1024)
- --no-resize-buffer do not automatically adjust the buffer size. By default, the buffer size is automatically resized from an initial value of SIZE.
+ -r, --rate-limit LIMIT Maximum download rate in bytes per second (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
+ -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or "infinite".
+ --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K) (default is 1024)
+ --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size. By default, the buffer size is automatically resized from an initial value of SIZE.
--playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
- --xattr-set-filesize (experimental) set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with expected filesize
- --hls-prefer-native (experimental) Use the native HLS downloader instead of ffmpeg.
+ --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with expected filesize (experimental)
+ --hls-prefer-native Use the native HLS downloader instead of ffmpeg (experimental)
--external-downloader COMMAND Use the specified external downloader. Currently supports aria2c,curl,wget
- --external-downloader-args ARGS Give these arguments to the external downloader.
+ --external-downloader-args ARGS Give these arguments to the external downloader
## Filesystem Options:
- -a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
- --id use only video ID in file name
- -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(title)s to get the title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name, %(uploader_id)s for the uploader
+ -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
+ --id Use only video ID in file name
+ -o, --output TEMPLATE Output filename template. Use %(title)s to get the title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name, %(uploader_id)s for the uploader
nickname if different, %(autonumber)s to get an automatically incremented number, %(ext)s for the filename extension, %(format)s for
- the format description (like "22 - 1280x720" or "HD"), %(format_id)s for the unique id of the format (like Youtube's itags: "137"),
+ the format description (like "22 - 1280x720" or "HD"), %(format_id)s for the unique id of the format (like YouTube's itags: "137"),
%(upload_date)s for the upload date (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the video id,
%(playlist_title)s, %(playlist_id)s, or %(playlist)s (=title if present, ID otherwise) for the playlist the video is in,
%(playlist_index)s for the position in the playlist. %(height)s and %(width)s for the width and height of the video format.
%(resolution)s for a textual description of the resolution of the video format. %% for a literal percent. Use - to output to stdout.
Can also be used to download to a different directory, for example with -o '/my/downloads/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
- --autonumber-size NUMBER Specifies the number of digits in %(autonumber)s when it is present in output filename template or --auto-number option is given
+ --autonumber-size NUMBER Specify the number of digits in %(autonumber)s when it is present in output filename template or --auto-number option is given
--restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
- -A, --auto-number [deprecated; use -o "%(autonumber)s-%(title)s.%(ext)s" ] number downloaded files starting from 00000
- -t, --title [deprecated] use title in file name (default)
- -l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
- -w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
- -c, --continue force resume of partially downloaded files. By default, youtube-dl will resume downloads if possible.
- --no-continue do not resume partially downloaded files (restart from beginning)
- --no-part do not use .part files - write directly into output file
- --no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set the file modification time
- --write-description write video description to a .description file
- --write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
- --write-annotations write video annotations to a .annotation file
- --load-info FILE json file containing the video information (created with the "--write-json" option)
- --cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
+ -A, --auto-number [deprecated; use -o "%(autonumber)s-%(title)s.%(ext)s" ] Number downloaded files starting from 00000
+ -t, --title [deprecated] Use title in file name (default)
+ -l, --literal [deprecated] Alias of --title
+ -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite files
+ -c, --continue Force resume of partially downloaded files. By default, youtube-dl will resume downloads if possible.
+ --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded files (restart from beginning)
+ --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into output file
+ --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set the file modification time
+ --write-description Write video description to a .description file
+ --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
+ --write-annotations Write video annotations to a .annotation file
+ --load-info FILE JSON file containing the video information (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
+ --cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
--cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl can store some downloaded information permanently. By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl
or ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the moment, only YouTube player files (for videos with obfuscated signatures) are cached, but that may
change.
--rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
## Thumbnail images:
- --write-thumbnail write thumbnail image to disk
- --write-all-thumbnails write all thumbnail image formats to disk
+ --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
+ --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
--list-thumbnails Simulate and list all available thumbnail formats
## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
- -q, --quiet activates quiet mode
+ -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode
--no-warnings Ignore warnings
- -s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write anything to disk
- --skip-download do not download the video
- -g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
- -e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
- --get-id simulate, quiet but print id
- --get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
- --get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
- --get-duration simulate, quiet but print video length
- --get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
- --get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
- -j, --dump-json simulate, quiet but print JSON information. See --output for a description of available keys.
- -J, --dump-single-json simulate, quiet but print JSON information for each command-line argument. If the URL refers to a playlist, dump the whole playlist
+ -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write anything to disk
+ --skip-download Do not download the video
+ -g, --get-url Simulate, quiet but print URL
+ -e, --get-title Simulate, quiet but print title
+ --get-id Simulate, quiet but print id
+ --get-thumbnail Simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
+ --get-description Simulate, quiet but print video description
+ --get-duration Simulate, quiet but print video length
+ --get-filename Simulate, quiet but print output filename
+ --get-format Simulate, quiet but print output format
+ -j, --dump-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information. See --output for a description of available keys.
+ -J, --dump-single-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information for each command-line argument. If the URL refers to a playlist, dump the whole playlist
information in a single line.
--print-json Be quiet and print the video information as JSON (video is still being downloaded).
- --newline output progress bar as new lines
- --no-progress do not print progress bar
- --console-title display progress in console titlebar
- -v, --verbose print various debugging information
- --dump-pages print downloaded pages to debug problems (very verbose)
+ --newline Output progress bar as new lines
+ --no-progress Do not print progress bar
+ --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
+ -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
+ --dump-pages Print downloaded pages to debug problems (very verbose)
--write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files in the current directory to debug problems
--print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
- -C, --call-home Contact the youtube-dl server for debugging.
- --no-call-home Do NOT contact the youtube-dl server for debugging.
+ -C, --call-home Contact the youtube-dl server for debugging
+ --no-call-home Do NOT contact the youtube-dl server for debugging
## Workarounds:
--encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
- --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation.
+ --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
--prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve information about the video. (Currently supported only for YouTube)
- --user-agent UA specify a custom user agent
- --referer URL specify a custom referer, use if the video access is restricted to one domain
- --add-header FIELD:VALUE specify a custom HTTP header and its value, separated by a colon ':'. You can use this option multiple times
+ --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
+ --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video access is restricted to one domain
+ --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value, separated by a colon ':'. You can use this option multiple times
--bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv or fribidi executable in PATH
--sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each download.
## Video Format Options:
- -f, --format FORMAT video format code, specify the order of preference using slashes, as in -f 22/17/18 . Instead of format codes, you can select by
+ -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, specify the order of preference using slashes, as in -f 22/17/18 . Instead of format codes, you can select by
extension for the extensions aac, m4a, mp3, mp4, ogg, wav, webm. You can also use the special names "best", "bestvideo", "bestaudio",
"worst". You can filter the video results by putting a condition in brackets, as in -f "best[height=720]" (or -f "[filesize>10M]").
This works for filesize, height, width, tbr, abr, vbr, asr, and fps and the comparisons <, <=, >, >=, =, != and for ext, acodec,
Use commas to download multiple audio formats, such as -f 136/137/mp4/bestvideo,140/m4a/bestaudio. You can merge the video and audio
of two formats into a single file using -f <video-format>+<audio-format> (requires ffmpeg or avconv), for example -f
bestvideo+bestaudio.
- --all-formats download all available video formats
- --prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific one is requested
- --max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
- -F, --list-formats list all available formats
+ --all-formats Download all available video formats
+ --prefer-free-formats Prefer free video formats unless a specific one is requested
+ --max-quality FORMAT Highest quality format to download
+ -F, --list-formats List all available formats
--youtube-skip-dash-manifest Do not download the DASH manifest on YouTube videos
--merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g. bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg, webm, flv.Ignored if no
merge is required
## Subtitle Options:
- --write-sub write subtitle file
- --write-auto-sub write automatic subtitle file (youtube only)
- --all-subs downloads all the available subtitles of the video
- --list-subs lists all available subtitles for the video
- --sub-format FORMAT subtitle format, accepts formats preference, for example: "ass/srt/best"
- --sub-lang LANGS languages of the subtitles to download (optional) separated by commas, use IETF language tags like 'en,pt'
+ --write-sub Write subtitle file
+ --write-auto-sub Write automatic subtitle file (YouTube only)
+ --all-subs Download all the available subtitles of the video
+ --list-subs List all available subtitles for the video
+ --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats preference, for example: "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
+ --sub-lang LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (optional) separated by commas, use IETF language tags like 'en,pt'
## Authentication Options:
- -u, --username USERNAME login with this account ID
- -p, --password PASSWORD account password. If this option is left out, youtube-dl will ask interactively.
- -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR two-factor auth code
- -n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
- --video-password PASSWORD video password (vimeo, smotri)
+ -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
+ -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left out, youtube-dl will ask interactively.
+ -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor auth code
+ -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
+ --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, smotri)
## Post-processing Options:
- -x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files (requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
- --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", or "wav"; "best" by default
- --audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification, insert a value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for VBR or a specific bitrate like 128K
- (default 5)
+ -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files (requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
+ --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format: "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", or "wav"; "best" by default
+ --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg/avconv audio quality, insert a value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for VBR or a specific bitrate like 128K (default
+ 5)
--recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if necessary (currently supported: mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv)
- -k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the post-processing; the video is erased by default
- --no-post-overwrites do not overwrite post-processed files; the post-processed files are overwritten by default
- --embed-subs embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4 videos)
- --embed-thumbnail embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
- --add-metadata write metadata to the video file
- --metadata-from-title FORMAT parse additional metadata like song title / artist from the video title. The format syntax is the same as --output, the parsed
+ -k, --keep-video Keep the video file on disk after the post-processing; the video is erased by default
+ --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files; the post-processed files are overwritten by default
+ --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4 videos)
+ --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
+ --add-metadata Write metadata to the video file
+ --metadata-from-title FORMAT Parse additional metadata like song title / artist from the video title. The format syntax is the same as --output, the parsed
parameters replace existing values. Additional templates: %(album), %(artist). Example: --metadata-from-title "%(artist)s -
%(title)s" matches a title like "Coldplay - Paradise"
- --xattrs write metadata to the video file's xattrs (using dublin core and xdg standards)
+ --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs (using dublin core and xdg standards)
--fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only emit a warning), detect_or_warn(the default;
fix file if we can, warn otherwise)
--prefer-avconv Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the postprocessors (default)
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