Download Options

Control download behavior, concurrent fragments, rate limiting, retries, and external downloaders

Concurrent Downloads

-N, --concurrent-fragments · number · default: "1"

Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative video that should be downloaded concurrently

Example:

yt-dlp -N 4 URL

Rate Limiting

-r, --limit-rate · string

Maximum download rate in bytes per second

Example:

yt-dlp -r 50K URL
yt-dlp -r 4.2M URL

--throttled-rate · string

Minimum download rate in bytes per second below which throttling is assumed and the video data is re-extracted

Example:

yt-dlp --throttled-rate 100K URL

Retry Configuration

-R, --retries · string · default: "10"

Number of retries, or “infinite”

Example:

yt-dlp -R 20 URL
yt-dlp -R infinite URL

--file-access-retries · string · default: "3"

Number of times to retry on file access error, or “infinite”

--fragment-retries · string · default: "10"

Number of retries for a fragment, or “infinite” (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)

--retry-sleep · string

Time to sleep between retries in seconds (optionally) prefixed by the type of retry

Format: [TYPE:]EXPR

Types: http (default), fragment, file_access, extractor

EXPR can be:

• A number
• linear=START[:END[:STEP=1]]
• exp=START[:END[:BASE=2]]

This option can be used multiple times to set the sleep for different retry types.

Example:

yt-dlp --retry-sleep linear=1::2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=1:20 URL

Fragment Handling

--skip-unavailable-fragments · flag · default: "true"

Skip unavailable fragments for DASH, hlsnative and ISM downloads

Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragments

--abort-on-unavailable-fragments · flag

Abort download if a fragment is unavailable

Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments

--keep-fragments · flag

Keep downloaded fragments on disk after downloading is finished

--no-keep-fragments · flag · default: "true"

Delete downloaded fragments after downloading is finished

Buffer Configuration

--buffer-size · string · default: "1024"

Size of download buffer

Example:

yt-dlp --buffer-size 1024 URL
yt-dlp --buffer-size 16K URL

--resize-buffer · flag · default: "true"

The buffer size is automatically resized from an initial value of --buffer-size

--no-resize-buffer · flag

Do not automatically adjust the buffer size

--http-chunk-size · string

Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP downloading

May be useful for bypassing bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver (experimental)

Default is disabled.

Example:

yt-dlp --http-chunk-size 10485760 URL
yt-dlp --http-chunk-size 10M URL

Playlist Options

--playlist-random · flag

Download playlist videos in random order

--lazy-playlist · flag

Process entries in the playlist as they are received

This disables n_entries, --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse

--no-lazy-playlist · flag · default: "true"

Process videos in the playlist only after the entire playlist is parsed

HLS Options

--hls-use-mpegts · flag

Use the mpegts container for HLS videos

Allows some players to play the video while downloading, and reduces the chance of file corruption if download is interrupted.

This is enabled by default for live streams.

--no-hls-use-mpegts · flag

Do not use the mpegts container for HLS videos

This is default when not downloading live streams.

Download Sections

--download-sections · string

Download only chapters that match the regular expression

• A ”*” prefix denotes time-range instead of chapter
• Negative timestamps are calculated from the end
• “*from-url” can be used to download between the “start_time” and “end_time” extracted from the URL

Needs ffmpeg. This option can be used multiple times to download multiple sections.

Example:

yt-dlp --download-sections "*10:15-inf" --download-sections "intro" URL

External Downloader

--downloader · string

Name or path of the external downloader to use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols to use it for

Format: [PROTO:]NAME

Protocols: http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms

Supported downloaders: native, aria2c, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie, wget

You can use this option multiple times to set different downloaders for different protocols.

Alias: --external-downloader

Example:

yt-dlp --downloader aria2c URL
yt-dlp --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" URL
# Uses aria2c for http/ftp, native for dash/m3u8

--downloader-args · string

Give these arguments to the external downloader

Format: NAME:ARGS

Specify the downloader name and the arguments separated by a colon ”:”. For ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different positions using the same syntax as --postprocessor-args.

You can use this option multiple times to give different arguments to different downloaders.

Alias: --external-downloader-args

Example:

yt-dlp --downloader aria2c --downloader-args "aria2c:-x 16 -k 1M" URL