yt-dlp
Command-line tool for downloading video and audio from YouTube and many other sites.
HN commenters recommend it as a dependable video and audio downloader1234 and as a building block for scripts, transcription pipelines and music libraries.5678 The most common complaint is that YouTube changes break it or block heavy use,91011 so it needs frequent updates to keep working.1213
Why people recommend it
Pipeline building block · 3
Commenters build wrappers, GUIs and transcription or media pipelines on top of it.
“a little CLI wrapper around yt-dlp for my most common use cases”
“I download the raw audio track with yt-dlp”
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“I used yt-dlp to rip bodycam videos from youtube”
Audio and music · 3
Used to pull audio tracks and specific songs for music libraries and audio systems.
“If I want something new I use yt-dlp and get specific songs.”
“I've built myself a yt-dlp-based system to pipe audio into my multiroom audio system”
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“if I need a good song I use yt-dlp on youtube and get it these days”
Reliability · 3
Users say it does its job well and works on most things they try.
“yt-dlp feels so perfect for what it was designed to do.”
“It’s worked on pretty much everything I’ve tried it on so far.”
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“It's been working great by itself for the most part since the beginning of the year”
Archiving and offline · 2
Used to keep videos offline and archive ones that later disappear from the site.
“I use yt-dlp (and back then youtube-dl) all the time to archive my liked videos.”
“I found the best downloader out there: yt-dlp.”
Site coverage · 2
Works on a wide range of video sites beyond YouTube.
“works on a surprising number of video sites”
“It’s worked on pretty much everything I’ve tried it on so far.”
Fast downloads · 1
Splits downloads across parallel pieces to fetch slow-loading videos quickly.
“at least yt-dlp will shard out multiple piece-downloaders, and I can get the video in a few seconds or minutes”
Caveats and dissent
YouTube breakage · 2
Downloads from YouTube can stop working until fixes land.
“YT downloads (using the source git folder and running it using "python -m yt_dlp $OPTIONS $URL"”
Constant updates · 2
Keeping it current is necessary, and packaged versions sometimes lag or break.
“Keeping yt-dlp up2date (and therefore) working is not that easy”
“YT downloads (using the source git folder and running it using "python -m yt_dlp $OPTIONS $URL"”
Rate limits, bans · 2
Bulk downloads can trigger 429 errors or an IP ban from YouTube.
“Now, used only for infrequently downloading single clips, yt-dlp works again fine.”
“It's been working great by itself for the most part since the beginning of the year”
Workarounds needed · 1
Server use may require cookies, po_tokens or switching clients.
“It's been working great by itself for the most part since the beginning of the year”
JS engine dependency · 1
It needs a JavaScript engine such as Deno, which one user found heavy to build.
“I use Deno since yt-dlp required a JS engine and recommended it.”
Command-line only · 2
Terminal use is less seamless than an in-page button or GUI.
“It’s worked on pretty much everything I’ve tried it on so far.”
“I've been using yt-dlp and ffmpeg extensively for a while now”
Often compared with
Who recommends it in their own words
Threads where it came up
- Ask HN: Anyone set up ways to easily obtain and read transcripts from Ted, YT? 2 mentions
- Reviving a 15-year-old netbook with Arch Linux 2 mentions
- Ask HN: What software feels exceptionally polished? 2 mentions
- Yt-dlp: External JavaScript runtime now required for full YouTube support 2 mentions
- Download YouTube Videos, Playlists and Channels Easily with Python Copy 1 mention
- Cloudflare Turnstile solver library (no headless browser required) 1 mention
Data: yt-dlp.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 37
“How does this compare to https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp ?”
“Now, used only for infrequently downloading single clips, yt-dlp works again fine.”
“supporting ingesting music using yt-dlp and libtorrent”
“I download the raw audio track with yt-dlp”
https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44381640
“use yt-dlp, BPC, userscripts.”
“I found the best downloader out there: yt-dlp.”
“I have a janky pipeline built on top of yt-dlp”
“For web media I use streamlink and yt-dlp.”
“MPV+yt-dlp for videos”
“I've built myself a yt-dlp-based system to pipe audio into my multiroom audio system”
“It works, then doesn't anymore.”
“at least yt-dlp will shard out multiple piece-downloaders, and I can get the video in a few seconds or minutes”
“Video downloader: Yt-dlp”
“It is a well simplified wrapper around the hot mess that is needed to convince YouTube that you're actually using using a web browser.”
“yt-dlp feels so perfect for what it was designed to do.”
“a little CLI wrapper around yt-dlp for my most common use cases”
“works on a surprising number of video sites”
“downloading videos with yt-dlp instead of paying for YT Premium”
“I use Deno since yt-dlp required a JS engine and recommended it.”
“I used yt-dlp to rip bodycam videos from youtube”
“if I need a good song I use yt-dlp on youtube and get it these days”
“tools such as yt-dlp and patreon-dl to grab Latin-language audio content”
“I've been using yt-dlp and ffmpeg extensively for a while now”
“it runs yt-dlp via Pyodide and ffmpeg.wasm entirely in the browser”
“Keeping yt-dlp up2date (and therefore) working is not that easy”
“get the URL to pass to yt-dlp”
“tools such as yt-dlp and patreon-dl to grab Latin-language audio content”
“anti burn-in videos downloaded with yt-dlp”
“YT downloads (using the source git folder and running it using "python -m yt_dlp $OPTIONS $URL"”
“I used ffmpeg and yt-dlp to make an animated GIF of a kākāpō”
“If I want something new I use yt-dlp and get specific songs.”
“It's been working great by itself for the most part since the beginning of the year”
“I use yt-dlp (and back then youtube-dl) all the time to archive my liked videos.”
“yt-dlp thankfully works”
“It’s worked on pretty much everything I’ve tried it on so far.”
“I pulled the quote by using yt-dlp to grab the MP4”