Get Your Free yt-dlp Download and Setup Guide

What yt-dlp Is and How It Works

yt-dlp is a command-line tool that lets you save videos from YouTube and thousands of other websites to your computer. It's a free program that people use when they want to watch videos offline, create backups of content they own, or work with video files for projects. The tool is based on an older program called youtube-dl, but yt-dlp adds newer features and gets updated more often.

Get Your Free Mobile Storage Guide →

The program works by connecting to video hosting websites, reading the video information, and saving the actual video file to your hard drive. When you run yt-dlp, you give it a web address (URL) of the video you want to save, and it does the work of finding the right video quality, downloading it, and putting it in a folder on your computer. You can choose to save just the video, just the audio, or both together.

yt-dlp supports over 1,400 different websites, including YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, Twitter, and many others. This makes it useful for people who work with videos from different platforms. The program runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux computers, so most people can use it regardless of what operating system they have.

One important thing to know is that yt-dlp is a neutral tool. Like a video recorder or a computer hard drive, the program itself doesn't know what you're using it for. However, using it may violate terms of service on some websites, and downloading certain videos without permission may violate copyright laws. You should only use yt-dlp to save videos that you have the right to save, such as videos you created yourself, videos released under creative commons licenses, or videos where the owner has said it's okay to save them.

Practical Takeaway: Before using yt-dlp, check whether you have the right to save the specific video you want. Read the website's terms of service and respect copyright notices.

System Requirements and Preparation

Before you set up yt-dlp, you need to make sure your computer meets basic requirements. The good news is that yt-dlp doesn't need much. It works on Windows 7 and newer, macOS 10.12 and newer, or any modern Linux system. You need at least a few hundred megabytes of free space on your hard drive, though the actual amount depends on the video sizes you plan to save.

Free Guide to Child Custody Laws and Procedures →

yt-dlp runs through a command-line interface, which means you type text commands instead of clicking buttons. This might sound intimidating if you've never used a command line before, but the actual commands are straightforward. On Windows, you use the Command Prompt or PowerShell. On Mac and Linux, you use the Terminal application.

One important thing yt-dlp needs is something called Python, which is a programming language that yt-dlp is written in. You'll need Python version 3.8 or newer installed on your computer. Python is free and open source, and many computers have it already. If you're not sure whether you have Python, you can check by opening your command line and typing python --version. If you get a version number, you're all set. If you get an error message, you'll need to install Python first from python.org.

You should also have an internet connection that can handle video file sizes. A standard video file might be 100 megabytes to 1 gigabyte in size, so you'll want reasonably fast internet. If you're on a slow connection or have limited data, you can set yt-dlp to save videos in lower quality, which creates smaller files.

Finally, make a folder on your computer where you want yt-dlp to save your videos. Choose a location with plenty of free space, like your Documents folder or a USB drive. You can organize it however makes sense for you—for example, one folder per website or one folder per project.

Practical Takeaway: Check your Python version before starting. If you don't have Python 3.8 or newer, go to python.org and install it. Create a dedicated folder where yt-dlp will save your videos.

Installing yt-dlp on Your Computer

There are several ways to get yt-dlp on your computer, ranging from very simple to more hands-on. The method you choose depends on how comfortable you are with your computer and what operating system you use.

Get Your Free New Jersey Real Estate License Guide →

The simplest method on Windows is to use a package manager called Scoop or Chocolatey. These are small programs that manage other programs for you. If you have Scoop installed, you just open your command line and type scoop install yt-dlp. The Scoop website has clear instructions for installing Scoop itself if you don't have it yet. This method is nice because Scoop can also update yt-dlp for you automatically.

On Mac, you can use a package manager called Homebrew, which works similarly to Scoop on Windows. If you have Homebrew, typing brew install yt-dlp in your Terminal will install yt-dlp. Like Scoop, Homebrew makes updating simple.

Another option that works on Windows, Mac, and Linux is to use pip, which is Python's built-in package manager. Since you already have Python installed, you should have pip as well. You open your command line and type pip install yt-dlp. This tells pip to go find yt-dlp online, install it, and set it up so you can run it from anywhere on your computer.

If you prefer not to use package managers, you can go to the yt-dlp GitHub page directly and see a list of pre-built programs for different computers. For Windows, you can just grab a program file and put it on your computer. You can then run it by typing its name in your command line.

After installation, test whether yt-dlp works by opening your command line and typing yt-dlp --version. You should see a version number like "2024.01.15". If you see this, yt-dlp is ready to use.

Practical Takeaway: Use pip to install yt-dlp—it's simple and works everywhere. After installing, verify it works by checking the version number from your command line.

Basic Commands and How to Use yt-dlp

Once yt-dlp is installed, you're ready to save your first video. The basic command is very simple: open your command line, navigate to your videos folder, and type a command with the video's web address. For example, yt-dlp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID will save that YouTube video to your folder. Replace VIDEO_ID with the actual video ID from the URL.

Learn About Getting Started With Knitting →

yt-dlp has many options you can add to customize how it saves videos. If you want to save just the audio (useful for music videos), you add -x to your command, which tells yt-dlp to extract only the sound. You can also specify the audio format you want, like mp3 or m4a. For example, yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID will save just the audio as an mp3 file.

If you want to choose the video quality before saving, you can list all available options with yt-dlp -F https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID. This shows you a table with different quality levels—like 1080p, 720p, 480p—and file sizes for each. Then you can pick the one you want and tell yt-dlp which one to use. Lower quality videos are smaller files that save faster.

Another useful feature is the ability to save multiple videos at once. Create a simple text file with one video URL on each line, then run yt-dlp -a list.txt, where list.txt is your file. yt-dlp will go through the list and save all those videos one after another. This is helpful if you want to save an entire playlist or channel.