yt-dlp
Command line program that's a youtube-dl fork that downloads videos from YouTube and over 1000 sites. The main focus of this project is adding new features and patches while also keeping up to date with the original project.
Cost / License
- Free
- Open Source
Application types
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
- Termux
Features
Properties
- Lightweight
- Privacy focused
Features
- Video Download
- Command line interface
- YouTube Downloader
- FFMPEG support
- Download YouTube Playlist
- No registration required
- Ad-free
- Convert YouTube videos to Mp3
- MP3 Downloader
- Portable
- No Tracking
SponsorBlock Integration- SoundCloud Downloader
- Support for 4K
- Convert YouTube videos to Mp4
Youtube integration- Download videos from Instagram
- Offline documentation
- Download videos from Facebook
Tags
- Reddit Downloader
- Download Videos from Twitter
- Bluesky Downloader
- vk-downloader
- bilibili-downloader
- youtube-playlist-downloader
- tumblr-downloader
- youtube-video-downloader
- HD Video Downloader
- Vimeo Downloader
- convert-youtube-videos-to-mp3
- Download videos from Dailymotion
- built-in-updater
- 4K Video Downloader
- tiktok-video-downloader
- youtube-converter
- Sponsorblock
- playlist-downloader
- youtube-video-to-mp3
- Twitch Downloader
yt-dlp News & Activities
Recent News
Recent activities
franklinjobs617 added yt-dlp as alternative to YTShortsDL
TheEmperorArt added yt-dlp as alternative to Donemax Video Downloader
TheEmperorArt added yt-dlp as alternative to EaseUs Video Downloader- jpeq liked yt-dlp
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What is yt-dlp?
Command line program that's a 
youtube-dl fork that downloads videos from YouTube and over 1000 sites. The main focus of this project is adding new features and patches while also keeping up to date with the original project.
The major new features from the latest release are:
-
SponSkrub Integration: You can use SponSkrub to mark/remove sponsor sections in YouTube videos by utilizing the
SponsorBlock API -
Format Sorting: 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)
-
Merged with youtube-dl commit/379f52a: (v2021.06.06) You get all the latest features and patches of youtube-dl in addition to all the features of youtube-dlc
-
Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl: You get most of the features and improvements from animelover1984/youtube-dl including --write-comments, BiliBiliSearch, BilibiliChannel, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that the NicoNico improvements are not available. See #31 for details.
-
YouTube improvements:
-
All Feeds (:ytfav, :ytwatchlater, :ytsubs, :ythistory, :ytrec) and private playlists supports downloading multiple pages of content
-
Search (ytsearch:, ytsearchdate:), search URLs and in-channel search works
-
Mixes supports downloading multiple pages of content
-
Most (but not all) age-gated content can be downloaded without cookies
-
Partial workaround for throttling issue
-
Redirect channel's home URL automatically to /video to preserve the old behaviour
-
255kbps audio is extracted from YouTube music if premium cookies are given
-
YouTube music Albums, channels etc. can be downloaded
yt-dlp information
Developed by
UnknownLicensing
Open Source (Unlicense) and Free product.Written in
Rating
Average rating of 4.8Alternatives
252 alternatives listedSupported Languages
- English
AlternativeTo Categories
Audio & Music, Video & Movies, File Sharing, OS & UtilitiesGitHub repository
- 139,760 Stars
- 11,305 Forks
- 2228 Open Issues
- Updated
Comments and Reviews
Extend support for Youtube-DL. It's great and it does exactly what I expect from it.
Brilliant youtube-dl fork. I don't use it much, but not had any issues during usage.
Hard work by the open-source community to keep up with Google's ongoing attempts to hinder video downloads.
It's a command-line app only. But you can get a GUI anywhere, or ask an AI agent to tell you how to use it for your specific needs.
It has a bit of a learning curve (and can be scary for we people that arent use to command lines), but it more than makes up for it on terms of sheer speed, lightweight-ness and options. Besides from having an impossible number of commands (which is good and bad), it does allow for non-youtube video download. I personally recommend to use it with AutoHotKey, after some setup its easy peasy to use.
As of March 2025, it works pretty well. I'm not sure if there is a GUI, but the command line works if you put the right ffmpeg.exe (~125 MB) in the folder. There are an almost infinite number of parameters you can control if you want to.
YT-DLG it's a Front-end that used to use the CLI Back-end "Youtube-DL" but now uses YT-DLP, although you're able to select which one to use, check it out if you're not into CLI, worth noting using a GUI may limit some functionality...
If you may want to simplify the usage without the CLI, maybe creating a .Bat file or files might do the trick as well.
Necessary and very powerful, but some simple tasks such as "Download this video in the highest possible quality with both audio and video" are more complex than on freemium alternatives
"Download this video in the highest possible quality with both audio and video" is literally the default download mode.
More features in yt-dlp than in youtube-dl !