yt-dlp command builder
Choose what you want; the command updates as you go. Nothing is sent anywhere — this page has no server side, and the URL carries your settings so you can bookmark or share the result.
yt-dlp --no-playlist <URL>
Worth knowing
What the builder is doing
Nothing you could not type yourself — that is the point. It knows the shape of a correct yt-dlp command and the handful of places where the obvious choice is the wrong one, so the output is something you can read, adapt and learn from rather than a black box.
Three decisions it makes on your behalf:
-
Format fallbacks. Picking "up to 1080p" emits
bv*[height<=1080]+ba/b[height<=1080], notbestvideo[height<=1080]+bestaudio. Thebv*accepts a combined stream as well as a video-only one, and the/bafter the slash is a second attempt if the first matches nothing. That pair is the difference between a download and Requested format is not available. -
Quoting. Values are quoted only when the shell would otherwise mangle
them. An output template full of
%(title)sis quoted; a plain URL is not. - Order. Flags come out grouped the way you would explain them: what to get, what to attach, how much, who you are, where it lands. yt-dlp does not care, but you will when you come back to edit it.
Running it on Windows
The command works as-is in PowerShell and in Windows Terminal. The one thing to watch is
line continuations: PowerShell 7 accepts the backslashes shown above, but the old
cmd.exe does not — either paste the command as a single line, or replace each
trailing backslash with a caret. If yt-dlp is not recognised as a command at
all, that is a PATH problem and the
Windows install guide covers it.
Frequently asked
Does this download the video?
Why does the command have a backslash at the end of some lines?
Can I share the command I built?
The builder does not have the option I need.
Related
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- yt-dlp Format Selection: -f, -S and Getting Exactly What You Want Format selection is the one yt-dlp concept worth learning properly — it decides resolution, codec, file size a...
- yt-dlp flag reference Every yt-dlp command-line option in one searchable table, grouped by what it does, with the ones worth knowing...