Network Options

Configure network settings, proxies, IP binding, and impersonation for yt-dlp

Proxy Configuration

--proxy · string

Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy

To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme, e.g. socks5://user:pass@127.0.0.1:1080/

Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for direct connection

Example:

yt-dlp --proxy "socks5://127.0.0.1:1080" URL
yt-dlp --proxy "http://proxy.example.com:8080" URL

Connection Settings

--socket-timeout · number

Time to wait before giving up, in seconds

Example:

yt-dlp --socket-timeout 30 URL

--source-address · string

Client-side IP address to bind to

Example:

yt-dlp --source-address 192.168.1.100 URL

Impersonation

--impersonate · string

Client to impersonate for requests

Format: CLIENT[:OS]

Pass --impersonate="" to impersonate any client.

Note: Forcing impersonation for all requests may have a detrimental impact on download speed and stability

Example:

yt-dlp --impersonate chrome URL
yt-dlp --impersonate chrome-110 URL
yt-dlp --impersonate chrome:windows-10 URL

--list-impersonate-targets · flag

List available clients to impersonate

IP Version

-4, --force-ipv4 · flag

Make all connections via IPv4

-6, --force-ipv6 · flag

Make all connections via IPv6

File URLs

--enable-file-urls · flag

Enable file:// URLs

This is disabled by default for security reasons

Geo-restriction

--geo-verification-proxy · string

Use this proxy to verify the IP address for some geo-restricted sites

The default proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the option is not present) is used for the actual downloading

Example:

yt-dlp --geo-verification-proxy "socks5://127.0.0.1:1080" URL

--xff · string

How to fake X-Forwarded-For HTTP header to try bypassing geographic restriction

Values:

• default - Only when known to be useful
• never - Never fake the header
• IP block in CIDR notation (e.g., 1.2.3.4/24)
• Two-letter ISO 3166-2 country code (e.g., US)

Example:

yt-dlp --xff "US" URL
yt-dlp --xff "1.2.3.4/24" URL