yt-dlp is an updated fork of yt-dl with many extra features. (yt-dl has become inactive)

This app allows you to download youtube videos to .mp3 and .mp4 easily and quickly.

GUI version

A simple GUI version of yt-dlp is available here. The install is easy and the app is easy to use!

If you still want to use the command line version then read further!

How To Download & Install yt-dlp on Windows

The following guide was written by Krimsen on reddit. It is the easiest and most fool-proof way to install Youtube-dlp. This is a cleaned up copy however the original guide can be found here.

  1. Download yt-dlp for Windows ←← This link will point you directly to the latest yt-dlp.exe file.

  2. Create c:\ytdl and put the file you downloaded from above in that directory. Just put it there. There is no installation. The EXE that you downloaded is the program itself.

  3. Download yt-dlp’s custom ffmpeg build ← Download the win64-gpl variant

  4. Download 7Zip (a free, open source alternative to Winzip) - Specifically, under the (currently) topmost heading “Download 7-Zip 21.07 (2021-12-26):”, download the 64-bit Windows x64 EXE file. Note that “Download 7-Zip 21.06 (2021-11-24):” will change as new versions come out. Just always download the latest one.

  5. Install 7Zip (double click the file you downloaded and follow the on-screen instructions)

  6. Once 7Zip is installed, you should be able to double click on the ffmpeg file you downloaded a few steps ago and it will open in 7Zip

  7. Use 7Zip to extract the EXE files to c:\ytdl. The other files in the ZIP are not needed.

  8. Close out of 7Zip

  9. Click your START button > type envir > Click Edit the system environment variables

  10. Click ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES (button at bottom right)

  11. Double click PATH in the top white section

  12. In the window that opens up, add this line: c:\ytdl

  13. Click OK, OK, OK (close all 3 windows)

  14. yt-dlp is now installed. Below are commands for accomplishing some common tasks in yt-dlp.

Run yt-dlp from the Command Line

  1. Click START> type CMD > Click on Command Prompt. DO NOT open as Admin

  2. Type cd \ytdl

  3. Now that you are at the command line, you are ready to download.

  4. Go find a video you want to download.

Examples

Download YouTube video as MP3

yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"

Download YouTube Video (audio + video)

yt-dlp "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"

Comments

Let me know what you think below!