youtube-dl Command Examples

Download videos from YouTube and other websites. See also: yt-dlp, ytfzf, you-get. More information: https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/.

• Download a video or playlist:

youtube-dl '{{https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0}}'

• List all formats that a video or playlist is available in:

youtube-dl {{[-F|--list-formats]}} '{{https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwa0_nE9H7A}}'

• Download a video or playlist at a specific quality:

youtube-dl {{[-f|--format]}} "{{best[height<=480]}}" '{{https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0}}'

• Download the audio from a video and convert it to an MP3:

youtube-dl {{[-x|--extract-audio]}} --audio-format {{mp3}} '{{url}}'

• Download the best quality audio and video and merge them:

youtube-dl {{[-f|--format]}} bestvideo+bestaudio '{{url}}'

• Download video(s) as MP4 files with custom filenames:

youtube-dl {{[-f|--format]}} {{mp4}} {{[-o|--output]}} "{{%(playlist_index)s-%(title)s by %(uploader)s on %(upload_date)s in %(playlist)s.%(ext)s}}" '{{url}}'

• Download a particular language's subtitles along with the video:

youtube-dl --sub-lang {{en}} --write-sub '{{https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwa0_nE9H7A}}'

• Download a playlist and extract MP3s from it:

youtube-dl {{[-f|--format]}} "bestaudio" {{[-c|--continue]}} {{[-w|--no-overwrites]}} {{[-i|--ignore-errors]}} {{[-x|--extract-audio]}} --audio-format mp3 {{[-o|--output]}} "%(title)s.%(ext)s" '{{url_to_playlist}}'