> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Download Options

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

## Concurrent Downloads

<ParamField path="-N, --concurrent-fragments" type="number" default="1">
  Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative video that should be downloaded concurrently

  **Example:**

  ```bash theme={null}
  yt-dlp -N 4 URL
  ```
</ParamField>

## Rate Limiting

<ParamField path="-r, --limit-rate" type="string">
  Maximum download rate in bytes per second

  **Example:**

  ```bash theme={null}
  yt-dlp -r 50K URL
  yt-dlp -r 4.2M URL
  ```
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="--throttled-rate" type="string">
  Minimum download rate in bytes per second below which throttling is assumed and the video data is re-extracted

  **Example:**

  ```bash theme={null}
  yt-dlp --throttled-rate 100K URL
  ```
</ParamField>

## Retry Configuration

<ParamField path="-R, --retries" type="string" default="10">
  Number of retries, or "infinite"

  **Example:**

  ```bash theme={null}
  yt-dlp -R 20 URL
  yt-dlp -R infinite URL
  ```
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="--file-access-retries" type="string" default="3">
  Number of times to retry on file access error, or "infinite"
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="--fragment-retries" type="string" default="10">
  Number of retries for a fragment, or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="--retry-sleep" type="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:**

  ```bash theme={null}
  yt-dlp --retry-sleep linear=1::2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=1:20 URL
  ```
</ParamField>

## Fragment Handling

<ParamField path="--skip-unavailable-fragments" type="flag" default="true">
  Skip unavailable fragments for DASH, hlsnative and ISM downloads

  Alias: `--no-abort-on-unavailable-fragments`
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="--abort-on-unavailable-fragments" type="flag">
  Abort download if a fragment is unavailable

  Alias: `--no-skip-unavailable-fragments`
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="--keep-fragments" type="flag">
  Keep downloaded fragments on disk after downloading is finished
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="--no-keep-fragments" type="flag" default="true">
  Delete downloaded fragments after downloading is finished
</ParamField>

## Buffer Configuration

<ParamField path="--buffer-size" type="string" default="1024">
  Size of download buffer

  **Example:**

  ```bash theme={null}
  yt-dlp --buffer-size 1024 URL
  yt-dlp --buffer-size 16K URL
  ```
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="--resize-buffer" type="flag" default="true">
  The buffer size is automatically resized from an initial value of `--buffer-size`
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="--no-resize-buffer" type="flag">
  Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="--http-chunk-size" type="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:**

  ```bash theme={null}
  yt-dlp --http-chunk-size 10485760 URL
  yt-dlp --http-chunk-size 10M URL
  ```
</ParamField>

## Playlist Options

<ParamField path="--playlist-random" type="flag">
  Download playlist videos in random order
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="--lazy-playlist" type="flag">
  Process entries in the playlist as they are received

  This disables `n_entries`, `--playlist-random` and `--playlist-reverse`
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="--no-lazy-playlist" type="flag" default="true">
  Process videos in the playlist only after the entire playlist is parsed
</ParamField>

## HLS Options

<ParamField path="--hls-use-mpegts" type="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.
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="--no-hls-use-mpegts" type="flag">
  Do not use the mpegts container for HLS videos

  This is default when not downloading live streams.
</ParamField>

## Download Sections

<ParamField path="--download-sections" type="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:**

  ```bash theme={null}
  yt-dlp --download-sections "*10:15-inf" --download-sections "intro" URL
  ```
</ParamField>

## External Downloader

<ParamField path="--downloader" type="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:**

  ```bash theme={null}
  yt-dlp --downloader aria2c URL
  yt-dlp --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" URL
  # Uses aria2c for http/ftp, native for dash/m3u8
  ```
</ParamField>

<ParamField path="--downloader-args" type="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:**

  ```bash theme={null}
  yt-dlp --downloader aria2c --downloader-args "aria2c:-x 16 -k 1M" URL
  ```
</ParamField>