README

yt-dlp is a feature-rich command-line audio/video downloader with support for thousands of sites. The project is a fork of youtube-dl based on the now inactive youtube-dlc.




 INSTALLATION
     Detailed instructions
     Release Files
     Update
     Dependencies
     Compile
 USAGE AND OPTIONS
     General Options
     Network Options
     Geo-restriction
     Video Selection
     Download Options
     Filesystem Options
     Thumbnail Options
     Internet Shortcut Options
     Verbosity and Simulation Options
     Workarounds
     Video Format Options
     Subtitle Options
     Authentication Options
     Post-processing Options
     SponsorBlock Options
     Extractor Options
     Preset Aliases
 CONFIGURATION
     Configuration file encoding
     Authentication with netrc
     Notes about environment variables
 OUTPUT TEMPLATE
     Output template examples
 FORMAT SELECTION
     Filtering Formats
     Sorting Formats
     Format Selection examples
 MODIFYING METADATA
     Modifying metadata examples
 EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
 PLUGINS
     Installing Plugins
     Developing Plugins
 EMBEDDING YT-DLP
     Embedding examples
 CHANGES FROM YOUTUBE-DL
     New features
     Differences in default behavior
     Deprecated options
 CONTRIBUTING
     Opening an Issue
     Developer Instructions
 WIKI
     FAQ



 INSTALLATION











You can install yt-dlp using the binaries, pip or one using a third-party package manager. See the wiki for detailed instructions



 RELEASE FILES

 Recommended

File|Description
:---|:---
yt-dlp|Platform-independent zipimport binary. Needs Python (recommended for Linux/BSD)
yt-dlp.exe|Windows (Win10+) standalone x64 binary (recommended for Windows)
yt-dlp_macos|Universal MacOS (10.15+) standalone executable (recommended for MacOS)

 Alternatives

File|Description
:---|:---
yt-dlp_linux|Linux (glibc 2.17+) standalone x86_64 binary
yt-dlp_linux.zip|Unpackaged Linux (glibc 2.17+) x86_64 executable (no auto-update)
yt-dlp_linux_aarch64|Linux (glibc 2.17+) standalone aarch64 binary
yt-dlp_linux_aarch64.zip|Unpackaged Linux (glibc 2.17+) aarch64 executable (no auto-update)
yt-dlp_linux_armv7l.zip|Unpackaged Linux (glibc 2.31+) armv7l executable (no auto-update)
yt-dlp_musllinux|Linux (musl 1.2+) standalone x86_64 binary
yt-dlp_musllinux.zip|Unpackaged Linux (musl 1.2+) x86_64 executable (no auto-update)
yt-dlp_musllinux_aarch64|Linux (musl 1.2+) standalone aarch64 binary
yt-dlp_musllinux_aarch64.zip|Unpackaged Linux (musl 1.2+) aarch64 executable (no auto-update)
yt-dlp_x86.exe|Windows (Win10+) standalone x86 (32-bit) binary
yt-dlp_win_x86.zip|Unpackaged Windows (Win10+) x86 (32-bit) executable (no auto-update)
yt-dlp_arm64.exe|Windows (Win10+) standalone ARM64 binary
yt-dlp_win_arm64.zip|Unpackaged Windows (Win10+) ARM64 executable (no auto-update)
yt-dlp_win.zip|Unpackaged Windows (Win10+) x64 executable (no auto-update)
yt-dlp_macos.zip|Unpackaged MacOS (10.15+) executable (no auto-update)

 Misc

File|Description
:---|

Top issues

Latest release

A description of the various files is in the README

The zipimport Unix executable and release tarball contain code licensed under ISC and MIT. The PyInstaller-bundled executables are subject to these and other licenses, all of which are compiled in THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES.txt

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 Important changes
- The minimum required Python version has been raised to 3.11
    - Python 3.10 has reached its end-of-life as of October 2026, and yt-dlp has now removed support for it. Read more
- The official Windows release binaries now require Windows 10 or later. Read more
- Security: The recent brotli and ce