youtube-dl is a command-line program for downloading video and audio from YouTube and other supported websites. It accepts individual URLs and lists of URLs, making it suitable for one-off downloads and scripted workflows.
Options control which media to retrieve, how files are named, and what processing follows a download. Some operations, including merging separate audio and video streams or converting media, require ffmpeg or avconv.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- List available media formats and select downloads by format, resolution, or other stream attributes.
- Download entire playlists or select particular playlist items and ranges.
- Read batches of URLs from a text file.
- Filter items using criteria such as title, upload date, duration, and file size.
- Maintain a download archive to avoid retrieving the same content again.
- Resume incomplete downloads and configure retry behaviour and transfer-rate limits.
- Build filenames and directory structures using metadata-based output templates.
- Download subtitles, automatically generated captions, thumbnails, and metadata where available.
- Extract audio and convert it to a chosen format using an external media processor.
- Support authentication options, cookie files, proxies, and site-specific credentials.
- Print media information or structured JSON without downloading the content.
- Load reusable options from configuration files.
- Cross-platform support – runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows.
Website: ytdl-org.github.io
Support:
Developer: youtube-dl contributors
License: The Unlicense
youtube-dl is written in Python. Learn Python with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| YouTube Tools | |
|---|---|
| FreeTube | Privacy-based YouTube app |
| Media Downloader | Frontend for youtube-dl, gallery-dl, Lux, you-get, ... |
| OmniGet | Download media and files from a broad range of online sources |
| pipe-viewer | Lightweight YouTube client without requiring an API key |
| Piped | Uses NewPipe Extractor, a library for extracting |
| Open Video Downloader | Easy-to-use graphical frontend for downloading online videos |
| Tartube | Video downloader and browser built around yt-dlp |
| AudioTube | Qt-based music streamer |
| Videomass | Download, convert and processing media |
| ClipGrab | Downloader for YouTube and other sites |
| Minitube | Application for watching YouTube without using Flash |
| Materialious | Fontend for YouTube and Invidious |
| youtube-local | Browser-based YouTube client |
| SMTube | Search, play and download YouTube videos |
| Pipeline | Watch YouTube and PeerTube videos |
| MellowPlayer | Multi-platform cloud music integration |
| ytdl-gui | Graphical interface for yt-dlp |
| Youwee | Built with Tauri and React |
| PlasmaTube | Designed to be integrated with KDE Plasma |
| PsTube | Flutter-based video client |
| Video Downloader | Download videos from YouTube and other websites |
| VacuumTube | Unofficial wrapper of YouTube Leanback |
| NeoDLP | Feature-rich video/audio downloader based on yt-dlp |
| Mixtapes | Modern, Linux-first YouTube Music player |
| GDownloader | GUI for downloading videos, audio and galleries |
| Sunder | Built with Tauri v2 and Rust |
| SpMp | YouTube music client with a focus on customization |
| Pulsar | yt-dlp GUI |
| NouTube | YouTube and YouTube Music in a single app |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
| Console-Based YouTube Tools | |
|---|---|
| yt-dlp | Fork of youtube-dl offering new features |
| You-Get | Downloader that scrapes the web |
| Lux | Download library and CLI tool |
| yewtube | Terminal based YouTube player and downloader |
| YouTube TUI | Lightweight and user friendly TUI for browsing YouTube |
| Tizonia | Cloud music player for the Linux terminal |
| pipe-viewer | Lightweight YouTube client with CLI and GUI |
| yt-x | Browse YouTube from the terminal |
| pytubefix | Library and CLI for downloading YouTube videos |
| ytsurf | Clean and distraction-free |
| YTerMusic | Aims to be as fast and simple as possible |
| xytz | TUI frontend for yt-dlp |
| ytm-player | Terminal-based client for YouTube Music |
| tuitube | TUI to download videos |
| GopherTube | Terminal YouTube client for searching and watching videos |
| youtube-dl | Download videos from YouTube and many other sites. Extremely versatile |
| ytcc | Keep track of your favorite playlists on YouTube |
| Rataplay | TUI to search, play and download videos |
| MPS-YouTube | Terminal based YouTube player and downloader |
| GoMusic | Download and stream music from YouTube |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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