Basic Usage
Download video from URL
$yt-dlp <URL>Custom output filename
$yt-dlp -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" <URL>Download to specific folder
$yt-dlp -P <path> <URL>Format Selection
List all available formats
$yt-dlp -F <URL>Download specific format
$yt-dlp -f <format> <URL>Download best quality
$yt-dlp -f "best" <URL>Best video + audio merge
$yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b" <URL>Audio Extraction
Extract audio only
$yt-dlp -x <URL>Convert to MP3
$yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 <URL>Best audio quality
$yt-dlp -x --audio-quality 0 <URL>Subtitles
Download subtitles
$yt-dlp --write-subs <URL>Download auto-generated subtitles
$yt-dlp --write-auto-subs <URL>Download English subtitles
$yt-dlp --sub-lang en <URL>Playlist
Download full playlist
$yt-dlp <playlist_url>Start from item 5
$yt-dlp --playlist-start 5 <URL>End at item 10
$yt-dlp --playlist-end 10 <URL>Download Control
Limit download speed
$yt-dlp -r 1M <URL>Retry failed downloads
$yt-dlp --retries 10 <URL>Retry fragments
$yt-dlp --fragment-retries 10 <URL>Authentication
Login with credentials
$yt-dlp -u <user> -p <pass> <URL>Use cookies file
$yt-dlp --cookies <file> <URL>Metadata & Thumbnails
Download thumbnail
$yt-dlp --write-thumbnail <URL>Embed thumbnail
$yt-dlp --embed-thumbnail <URL>Add metadata to file
$yt-dlp --add-metadata <URL>Search
Search YouTube
$yt-dlp "ytsearch:query"Download top 10 results
$yt-dlp "ytsearch10:query"Advanced
Use proxy
$yt-dlp --proxy <url> <URL>Bypass geo restrictions
$yt-dlp --geo-bypass <URL>Run command after download
$yt-dlp --exec "<cmd>" <URL>Use custom config file
$yt-dlp --config-location <path>