Video Selection

Filter and select which videos to download from playlists and channels

Playlist Item Selection

-I, --playlist-items · string

Comma-separated playlist_index of the items to download

You can specify a range using [START]:[STOP][:STEP]. For backward compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.

Use negative indices to count from the right and negative STEP to download in reverse order.

Example:

yt-dlp -I 1:3,7,-5::2 URL
# On a playlist of size 15, downloads items at index 1,2,3,7,11,13,15

File Size Filters

--min-filesize · string

Abort download if filesize is smaller than SIZE

Example:

yt-dlp --min-filesize 50k URL
yt-dlp --min-filesize 44.6M URL

--max-filesize · string

Abort download if filesize is larger than SIZE

Example:

yt-dlp --max-filesize 100M URL

Date Filters

--date · string

Download only videos uploaded on this date

The date can be “YYYYMMDD” or in the format [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]]

Example:

yt-dlp --date 20230101 URL
yt-dlp --date today-2weeks URL

--datebefore · string

Download only videos uploaded on or before this date

The date formats accepted are the same as --date

Example:

yt-dlp --datebefore 20230601 URL

--dateafter · string

Download only videos uploaded on or after this date

The date formats accepted are the same as --date

Example:

yt-dlp --dateafter 20230101 URL

Advanced Filters

--match-filters · string

Generic video filter. Any “OUTPUT TEMPLATE” field can be compared with a number or a string using the operators defined in “Filtering Formats”

You can:

• Specify a field to match if the field is present
• Use !field to check if the field is not present
• Use & to check multiple conditions
• Use \ to escape & or quotes if needed

If used multiple times, the filter matches if at least one of the conditions is met.

Use --match-filters - to interactively ask whether to download each video.

Example:

yt-dlp --match-filters !is_live URL
yt-dlp --match-filters "like_count>?100 & description~='(?i)\\bcats \\& dogs\\b'" URL
# Matches videos that are not live OR have like count > 100 and contain "cats & dogs"

--no-match-filters · flag · default: "true"

Do not use any --match-filters

--break-match-filters · string

Same as --match-filters but stops the download process when a video is rejected

--no-break-match-filters · flag · default: "true"

Do not use any --break-match-filters

Playlist Handling

--no-playlist · flag

Download only the video, if the URL refers to a video and a playlist

--yes-playlist · flag

Download the playlist, if the URL refers to a video and a playlist

Age Restriction

--age-limit · number

Download only videos suitable for the given age

Example:

yt-dlp --age-limit 18 URL

Archive

--download-archive · string

Download only videos not listed in the archive file. Record the IDs of all downloaded videos in it

Example:

yt-dlp --download-archive downloaded.txt URL

--no-download-archive · flag · default: "true"

Do not use archive file

Download Limits

--max-downloads · number

Abort after downloading NUMBER files

Example:

yt-dlp --max-downloads 10 URL

--break-on-existing · flag

Stop the download process when encountering a file that is in the archive supplied with the --download-archive option

--no-break-on-existing · flag · default: "true"

Do not stop the download process when encountering a file that is in the archive

--break-per-input · flag

Alters --max-downloads, --break-on-existing, --break-match-filters, and autonumber to reset per input URL

--no-break-per-input · flag

--break-on-existing and similar options terminates the entire download queue

--skip-playlist-after-errors · number

Number of allowed failures until the rest of the playlist is skipped

Example:

yt-dlp --skip-playlist-after-errors 3 URL