4 youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
9 youtube-dl OPTIONS URL [URL...]
14 youtube-dl is a small command-line program to download videos from
15 YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter,
16 version 2.6, 2.7, or 3.3+, and it is not platform specific. It should
17 work on your Unix box, on Windows or on Mac OS X. It is released to the
18 public domain, which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it
24 -h, --help print this help text and exit
25 --version print program version and exit
26 -U, --update update this program to latest version. Make sure
27 that you have sufficient permissions (run with
29 -i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors, for example to to
30 skip unavailable videos in a playlist
31 --dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
32 --user-agent UA specify a custom user agent
33 --referer REF specify a custom referer, use if the video access
34 is restricted to one domain
35 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs they
37 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported extractors
38 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy
39 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation.
40 --cache-dir None Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl can
41 store downloaded information permanently. By
42 default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or ~/.cache
44 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
49 --playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is 1)
50 --playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
51 --match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or caseless
53 --reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or
55 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
56 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE
58 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE (e.g.
60 --date DATE download only videos uploaded in this date
61 --datebefore DATE download only videos uploaded before this date
62 --dateafter DATE download only videos uploaded after this date
63 --no-playlist download only the currently playing video
68 -r, --rate-limit LIMIT maximum download rate (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
69 -R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is 10)
70 --buffer-size SIZE size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16k)
72 --no-resize-buffer do not automatically adjust the buffer size. By
73 default, the buffer size is automatically resized
74 from an initial value of SIZE.
79 -t, --title use title in file name (default)
80 --id use only video ID in file name
81 -l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
82 -A, --auto-number number downloaded files starting from 00000
83 -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(title)s to get
84 the title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name,
85 %(uploader_id)s for the uploader nickname if
86 different, %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
87 incremented number, %(ext)s for the filename
88 extension, %(upload_date)s for the upload date
89 (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
90 (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the video id
91 , %(playlist)s for the playlist the video is in,
92 %(playlist_index)s for the position in the
93 playlist and %% for a literal percent. Use - to
94 output to stdout. Can also be used to download to
95 a different directory, for example with -o '/my/d
96 ownloads/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
97 --autonumber-size NUMBER Specifies the number of digits in %(autonumber)s
98 when it is present in output filename template or
99 --autonumber option is given
100 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters, and
101 avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
102 -a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
103 -w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
104 -c, --continue resume partially downloaded files
105 --no-continue do not resume partially downloaded files (restart
107 --cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
108 --no-part do not use .part files
109 --no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set the
110 file modification time
111 --write-description write video description to a .description file
112 --write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
113 --write-thumbnail write thumbnail image to disk
115 Verbosity / Simulation Options:
116 -------------------------------
118 -q, --quiet activates quiet mode
119 -s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write
121 --skip-download do not download the video
122 -g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
123 -e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
124 --get-id simulate, quiet but print id
125 --get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
126 --get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
127 --get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
128 --get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
129 --newline output progress bar as new lines
130 --no-progress do not print progress bar
131 --console-title display progress in console titlebar
132 -v, --verbose print various debugging information
133 --dump-intermediate-pages print downloaded pages to debug problems(very
136 Video Format Options:
137 ---------------------
139 -f, --format FORMAT video format code, specifiy the order of
140 preference using slashes: "-f 22/17/18". "-f mp4"
141 and "-f flv" are also supported
142 --all-formats download all available video formats
143 --prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific one
145 --max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
146 -F, --list-formats list all available formats (currently youtube
152 --write-sub write subtitle file
153 --write-auto-sub write automatic subtitle file (youtube only)
154 --all-subs downloads all the available subtitles of the
156 --list-subs lists all available subtitles for the video
157 --sub-format FORMAT subtitle format (default=srt) ([sbv/vtt] youtube
159 --sub-lang LANGS languages of the subtitles to download (optional)
160 separated by commas, use IETF language tags like
163 Authentication Options:
164 -----------------------
166 -u, --username USERNAME account username
167 -p, --password PASSWORD account password
168 -n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
169 --video-password PASSWORD video password (vimeo only)
171 Post-processing Options:
172 ------------------------
174 -x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files (requires
175 ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
176 --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", or
177 "wav"; best by default
178 --audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification, insert
179 a value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for VBR
180 or a specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
181 --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if necessary
182 (currently supported: mp4|flv|ogg|webm)
183 -k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the post-
184 processing; the video is erased by default
185 --no-post-overwrites do not overwrite post-processed files; the post-
186 processed files are overwritten by default
187 --embed-subs embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4
193 You can configure youtube-dl by placing default arguments (such as
194 --extract-audio --no-mtime to always extract the audio and not copy the
195 mtime) into /etc/youtube-dl.conf and/or ~/.config/youtube-dl.conf.
200 The -o option allows users to indicate a template for the output file
201 names. The basic usage is not to set any template arguments when
202 downloading a single file, like in
203 youtube-dl -o funny_video.flv "http://some/video". However, it may
204 contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each
205 video. The special sequences have the format %(NAME)s. To clarify, that
206 is a percent symbol followed by a name in parenthesis, followed by a
207 lowercase S. Allowed names are:
209 - id: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
210 - url: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
211 - uploader: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the
212 person who uploaded the video.
213 - upload_date: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in
215 - title: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
216 - ext: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension
218 - epoch: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating
220 - autonumber: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number
221 that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
222 - playlist: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the
224 - playlist_index: The index of the video in the playlist, a five-digit
227 The current default template is %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s.
229 In some cases, you don't want special characters such as 中, spaces, or
230 &, such as when transferring the downloaded filename to a Windows system
231 or the filename through an 8bit-unsafe channel. In these cases, add the
232 --restrict-filenames flag to get a shorter title:
234 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
235 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
236 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
237 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
242 Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options --date,
243 --datebefore or --dateafter, they accept dates in two formats:
245 - Absolute dates: Dates in the format YYYYMMDD.
246 - Relative dates: Dates in the format
247 (now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?
251 $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months #will only download the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
252 $ youtube-dl --date 19700101 #will only download the videos uploaded in January 1, 1970
253 $ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20100101 #will only download the videos uploaded between 2000 and 2010
258 Can you please put the -b option back?
260 Most people asking this question are not aware that youtube-dl now
261 defaults to downloading the highest available quality as reported by
262 YouTube, which will be 1080p or 720p in some cases, so you no longer
263 need the -b option. For some specific videos, maybe YouTube does not
264 report them to be available in a specific high quality format you're
265 interested in. In that case, simply request it with the -f option and
266 youtube-dl will try to download it.
268 I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
270 Apparently YouTube requires you to pass a CAPTCHA test if you download
271 too much. We're considering to provide a way to let you solve the
272 CAPTCHA, but at the moment, your best course of action is pointing a
273 webbrowser to the youtube URL, solving the CAPTCHA, and restart
276 I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
278 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as vlc or
281 The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
283 The URLs youtube-dl outputs require the downloader to have the correct
284 cookies. Use the --cookies option to write the required cookies into a
285 file, and advise your downloader to read cookies from that file. Some
286 sites also require a common user agent to be used, use --dump-user-agent
287 to see the one in use by youtube-dl.
289 ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
291 youtube has switched to a new video info format in July 2011 which is
292 not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl
293 with sudo youtube-dl --update.
295 ERROR: unable to download video
297 youtube requires an additional signature since September 2012 which is
298 not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl
299 with sudo youtube-dl --update.
301 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character
305 File "youtube-dl", line 2
306 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
308 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to
311 What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
313 Since June 2012 (#342) youtube-dl is packed as an executable zipfile,
314 simply unzip it (might need renaming to youtube-dl.zip first on some
315 systems) or clone the git repository, as laid out above. If you modify
316 the code, you can run it by executing the __main__.py file. To recompile
317 the executable, run make youtube-dl.
319 The exe throws a Runtime error from Visual C++
321 To run the exe you need to install first the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008
322 Redistributable Package.
327 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
329 This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton
330 (https://github.com/dbbolton) and is likewise released into the public
336 Bugs and suggestions should be reported at:
337 https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues
341 - Your exact command line, like
342 youtube-dl -t "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHlDtZ6Oc3s&feature=channel_video_title".
343 A common mistake is not to escape the &. Putting URLs in quotes
344 should solve this problem.
345 - If possible re-run the command with --verbose, and include the full
346 output, it is really helpful to us.
347 - The output of youtube-dl --version
348 - The output of python --version
349 - The name and version of your Operating System ("Ubuntu 11.04 x64" or
350 "Windows 7 x64" is usually enough).
352 For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.