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Aug 27, 2026
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yt-dlp is a free, open-source command-line downloader for Windows that saves video and audio from YouTube and thousands of other sites, letting you choose the quality, extract audio alone, and fetch subtitles and playlists in one command.
There is no window, no Install button and no menu here - yt-dlp is a single executable you type at, and that is exactly the point of it.
It saves video and audio from YouTube and thousands of other sites, at whatever quality you ask for, with no adverts, no bundled extras and no upper limit on how much you use it.
Two things trip up almost everyone on a first attempt, and both are answered below: which of the six files to take, and why the video came out at 720p.
Which of the Six Files to Take
The download page lists six builds plus a pointer to a graphical front end, and nothing on it explains the difference. There are only two decisions to make.
First, the release channel.
| Channel | Who it is for |
|---|---|
| Stable | Almost everyone. Tested, and new enough - releases land roughly monthly. |
| Nightly | Anyone whose site broke this week. Nightlies carry extractor fixes days before they reach a stable release, and are less tested by definition. |
The nightly is not risky in the way a beta usually is. It is the same program with newer site-specific patches, so if a particular site stopped working, taking the nightly is the correct move rather than a reckless one.
Second, the packaging.
- yt-dlp.exe - the standalone 64-bit build, and the right answer for essentially every modern Windows PC. One file, nothing to install.
- yt-dlp_x86.exe - the 32-bit build, for old hardware or a 32-bit Windows install.
- yt-dlp_win.zip - the same program unpacked into a folder rather than compressed into one file. It starts faster, which is worth having if you run it in scripts or batches.
Put whichever you choose in its own folder rather than in Downloads, because it will write videos into whatever folder it is run from.
Why Your Video Came Out at 720p
This is the most common complaint about yt-dlp anywhere, and the cause is almost never yt-dlp.
Above 720p, YouTube and most large platforms stop serving a single combined file. Video and audio arrive as two separate streams, and something has to join them back together afterwards. yt-dlp does not do that itself - it hands the job to FFmpeg.
If FFmpeg is not present, yt-dlp does not error. It quietly falls back to the best stream that already has audio attached, and on YouTube that is 720p. The download succeeds, the file plays, and the quality is wrong for a reason nothing on screen explains.
The fix is one file in one folder. Download FFmpeg, and put ffmpeg.exe in the same folder as yt-dlp.exe. That is the whole procedure - no installer, no PATH editing, no configuration - and running the same command again brings the 1080p and 4K options back.
FFmpeg is also what does the merging, remuxing and audio conversion behind several of the commands below, so it is worth having in place before you start rather than after something disappoints you.
The Commands Worth Knowing
Open a command prompt in the folder holding the executable, and everything below is a single line. There is no configuration to do first.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| yt-dlp URL | Downloads the best available quality. This is the one you will use most. |
| yt-dlp -F URL | Lists every format the site is offering, with resolution, codec and file size, and does not download anything. |
| yt-dlp -f 137+140 URL | Downloads two specific formats by the ID numbers the previous command printed, and merges them. |
| yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 URL | Throws away the video and keeps the audio, converted to MP3. Swap in m4a or flac as you prefer. |
| yt-dlp --write-subs --sub-langs en URL | Saves the English subtitle track alongside the video as a separate file. |
| yt-dlp -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" URL | Names the output file after the video title instead of the default, which includes the site's ID string. |
| yt-dlp --cookies-from-browser firefox URL | Borrows your browser session, which is how age-restricted and members-only content becomes reachable. |
| yt-dlp -U | Updates the executable in place. Try this before reporting anything as broken. |
Point it at a playlist or a channel URL rather than a single video and it will work through the whole thing, which is the point at which people tend to stop using anything else.
Why It Breaks, and Why That Is Normal
yt-dlp works by understanding how each site delivers its video, and sites change that constantly - sometimes to fix things, sometimes specifically to stop tools like this one.
The scale is worth seeing. The 2026.08.19 release alone repaired TikTok in three separate ways, fixed logged-in Instagram extraction, reworked the Apple extractors, removed two dead Vimeo clients, and made six changes to how it talks to YouTube's player.
That is one release. It is why updates land almost weekly, why the nightly channel exists, and why yt-dlp -U genuinely is the answer to most reports that something stopped working. A copy from six months ago is not a working copy.
If You Would Rather Not Use a Command Line
That is a reasonable preference and there is a straightforward answer. YTDLP-Interface wraps the same executable in a normal Windows window - paste a URL, pick a format from a list, click.
It is the same program underneath, so the FFmpeg point above still applies, and it still needs updating for the same reasons. If the distinction is new to you, we have written about the difference between a GUI and a command line and why serious tools so often skip the window.
For a single file with nothing installed at all, our browser-based Stream Extractor pulls a direct media URL out of a page, and the Online Audio Converter covers the audio-extraction case without a terminal.
What It Will Not Do
Being clear about the edges saves a lot of wasted evenings.
- It will not open Netflix, Disney+ or anything else DRM-protected. That is encryption rather than a missing feature, and no downloader on any platform gets past it.
- It is not a video converter. It downloads and remuxes; for re-encoding to a different codec or size, HandBrake is the tool.
- It will not get you past a paywall or a subscription. Cookies let it use an account you already have; they do not create one.
- It is not a player. It saves files and stops - what opens them afterwards is a separate question.
On that last point, if what you actually wanted was to watch something rather than keep it, both MPC-HC and VLC Media Player will open a stream URL directly and play it without saving anything.
We have step-by-step versions of both: how to stream videos with MPC-HC, and how to open a stream URL in VLC or send one out yourself.
One honest note on the rules. Downloading from most large platforms is against their terms of service, whatever the law where you live says about personal copies. yt-dlp is a legitimate tool with plenty of uses nobody could object to - archiving your own uploads, saving Creative Commons material, keeping a copy of a lecture - and the responsibility for what you point it at is yours.
Playlists, Channels and What to Do With Them
Once you are downloading whole playlists, the next question is usually organisation rather than acquisition. Our YouTube Playlist to M3U tool turns a playlist into a file your player can open directly, and the Playlist Builder assembles one from files you already have.
If M3U is unfamiliar territory, what an M3U file is covers the format in a couple of minutes, and our roundup of free IPTV players for M3U playlists covers what opens them.
One codec note worth having. YouTube increasingly serves AV1 at higher resolutions, and older hardware decodes it in software, which is slow and hot. If a downloaded file stutters on playback when the same video streamed fine in a browser, the codec is the first thing to check rather than the download.
What It Runs On
- Windows, as a standalone executable - 64-bit and 32-bit builds, no installer and no dependencies to satisfy.
- FFmpeg alongside it, if you want anything above 720p or any audio conversion. Strictly optional, practically essential.
- Stable and nightly channels, both published, both free.
- Open source, no adverts, no paid tier, no account and no telemetry.
Quick questions
Why does my download stop at 720p?
FFmpeg is missing. Above 720p, video and audio arrive as separate streams and FFmpeg does the merging - without it yt-dlp silently falls back to the best already-combined stream. Put ffmpeg.exe in the same folder and run the command again.
Should I take the stable build or the nightly?
Stable, unless a specific site has stopped working for you. Nightlies carry site-specific fixes days ahead of stable releases, which makes them the right choice for exactly that situation.
It worked last month and now it does not. What changed?
The site did, almost certainly. Run yt-dlp -U first - the great majority of breakage reports are fixed by an update that was already published.
Can it download just the audio as MP3?
Yes, with yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 URL. FFmpeg has to be present for the conversion step, which is the same requirement as above.
Will it download from Netflix or Disney+?
No. Those services encrypt their video with DRM, which is a different problem from an awkward page layout, and no downloader gets past it.
Is yt-dlp the same as youtube-dl?
It began as a fork of it, but the two have long since diverged. yt-dlp supports far more sites, releases far more often, and is now the more actively developed of the two by a wide margin.
Is there a version with a normal window?
YTDLP-Interface, which is a separate front end running the same executable underneath. It is linked above and on the download page.
More utilities of this kind are in the rest of Other Tools.
Download yt-dlp and take FFmpeg at the same time if you want anything above 720p, or tell us how you got on - this page has no reviews yet.
