Format Selection

Master yt-dlp’s powerful format selection system to download exactly the quality and format you need

By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality. This is generally equivalent to using -f bestvideo*+bestaudio/best. However, you have granular control over which formats to download.

Basic Format Selection

The general syntax for format selection is -f FORMAT (or --format FORMAT) where FORMAT is a selector expression.

Simple Format Codes

The simplest case is requesting a specific format by its code:

# Download format with code 22
yt-dlp -f 22 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID

# List all available formats for a video
yt-dlp -F https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID

Format codes are extractor-specific and may vary between different video sites.

File Extension Selection

You can download by file extension to get the best quality format of that type:

# Download best quality WebM format
yt-dlp -f webm https://example.com/video

# Download best quality MP4 format
yt-dlp -f mp4 https://example.com/video

Supported extensions: 3gp, aac, flv, m4a, mp3, mp4, ogg, wav, webm

Special Format Selectors

yt-dlp provides special names to select particular formats:

Best Quality

• b, best - Best quality format with both video and audio
• bv, bestvideo - Best video-only format
• ba, bestaudio - Best audio-only format
• b*, best* - Best format that contains either video or audio
• bv*, bestvideo* - Best format that contains video (may include audio)
• ba*, bestaudio* - Best format that contains audio (may include video)

# Download and merge best video + best audio
yt-dlp -f "bestvideo+bestaudio" URL

# Download best combined format
yt-dlp -f "best" URL

Worst Quality

• w, worst - Worst quality format with both video and audio
• wv, worstvideo - Worst video-only format
• wa, worstaudio - Worst audio-only format
• w*, worst* - Worst format that contains either video or audio

Instead of using worst, consider using -S +size,+br,+res,+fps to get the smallest filesize while maintaining better control over quality.

All Formats

• all - Select all formats separately
• mergeall - Select and merge all formats (requires --audio-multistreams and/or --video-multistreams)

# Download all available formats
yt-dlp -f all URL

Format Selection by Preference

Specify multiple formats in order of preference using slashes:

# Try format 22, then 17, then 18
yt-dlp -f 22/17/18 URL

# Try best mp4, otherwise best format
yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b" URL

Downloading Multiple Formats

Use commas to download several formats of the same video:

# Download formats 22, 17, and 18
yt-dlp -f 22,17,18 URL

# Download best video and best audio separately
yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s" URL

Merging Formats

Merge video and audio using the + operator (requires ffmpeg):

# Merge best video-only and best audio-only formats
yt-dlp -f "bestvideo+bestaudio" URL

# Merge specific formats
yt-dlp -f "136+140" URL

Filtering Formats

Filter formats by putting conditions in brackets:

Numeric Filters

Available numeric fields with comparisons <, <=, >, >=, =, !=:

• filesize - Number of bytes (if known)
• filesize_approx - Estimated number of bytes
• width - Video width
• height - Video height
• tbr - Total bitrate in kbps
• abr - Audio bitrate in kbps
• vbr - Video bitrate in kbps
• fps - Frame rate
• audio_channels - Number of audio channels

Example: Height Filter

# Download best format with max 720p height
yt-dlp -f "best[height<=720]" URL

The ? after an operator includes formats where the value is unknown. For example, [height<=?720] includes videos up to 720p AND videos where height is not known.

String Filters

Available string fields with comparisons =, ^= (starts with), $= (ends with), *= (contains), ~= (regex):

• ext - File extension
• acodec - Audio codec name
• vcodec - Video codec name
• container - Container format
• protocol - Download protocol
• language - Language code
• format_id - Format identifier

Example: Codec Filter

# Download h264 or h265 video
yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)" URL

Combining Filters

Use parentheses to group filters:

# Complex filter example
yt-dlp -f "((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba" URL

Sorting Formats

Change quality criteria using -S (--format-sort):

Available Sort Fields

• quality - Quality of the format
• res - Video resolution (smallest dimension)
• fps - Frame rate
• hdr - Dynamic range (DV > HDR12 > HDR10+ > HDR10 > HLG > SDR)
• codec - Video/audio codec preference
• size - Filesize (exact or approximate)
• br - Bitrate (total/video/audio)
• asr - Audio sample rate
• proto - Protocol preference
• ext - File extension preference
• lang - Language preference

Resolution

# Download with smallest resolution
yt-dlp -S "+res" URL

# Prefer <= 720p, but no larger
yt-dlp -S "res:720" URL

# Prefer closest to 480p
yt-dlp -S "res~480" URL

Filesize

# Download smallest file
yt-dlp -S "+size,+br" URL

# Prefer closest to 50MB
yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M" URL

# Largest file under 50MB
yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M" URL

Codec

# Prefer h264 video codec
yt-dlp -S "codec:h264" URL

# Prefer h264 video and m4a audio
yt-dlp -S "+codec:avc:m4a" URL

# Best extension (mp4 > mov > webm...)
yt-dlp -S "ext" URL

Protocol

# Prefer HTTPS over other protocols
yt-dlp -S "proto" URL

# Combined sort: resolution, then fps, then codec
yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps,codec" URL

Sort Order

• Fields are sorted in descending order by default
• Prefix with + to reverse to ascending order
• Suffix with :VALUE to prefer values up to that limit
• Suffix with ~VALUE to prefer values closest to that limit

# Prefer larger videos but no bigger than 720p
yt-dlp -S "res:720" URL

# Prefer smallest resolution
yt-dlp -S "+res" URL

Practical Examples

Best Quality Download

# Download and merge best video + best audio
yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b" URL

# Or simply (default behavior)
yt-dlp URL

Interactive Selection

Use -f - to interactively choose the format for each video:

yt-dlp -f - URL

Common Patterns

YouTube Best Quality

# Default (recommended)
yt-dlp URL

# Explicit format selection
yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b" URL

Save Bandwidth

# 480p or lower
yt-dlp -S "res:480" URL

# Smallest possible file
yt-dlp -S "+size" URL

Archive Quality

# Best available, prefer free formats
yt-dlp --prefer-free-formats -S "ext" URL

# Best with specific codec
yt-dlp -S "vcodec:h265,acodec:opus" URL