YouTube Downloader

1. YouTube Video download

   • From a video or from a playlist
   • Download caption option available
   • Selectable resolution

2. YouTube Audio download

   • From a video or from a playlist

Installation & Upgrade

1. To install

   • Using pip

     pip install youtube-downloader-cli

   • Using uv

     uv tool install youtube-downloader-cli

   • Using uvx to use this tool directly without install

     uvx youtube-downloader-cli

2. To upgrade

   • Using pip

     pip install --upgrade youtube-downloader-cli

   • Using uv

     uv tool install --upgrade --reinstall youtube-downloader-cli

   • Using uvx

     uvx youtube-downloader-cli@latest

CLI Application

Step 1. Enter YouTube video URL (auto-detect from clipboard)

Step 2. Choose options

Available options:

1. Download audio only 
2. Download video 
3. Download video with caption 
4. Download audios from playlist
5. Download videos from playlist

Step 3. Choose a directory to save file(s)

Step 4. Choose preferred resolution for video downloading

If option 2, 3, or 5 is chosen in Step 2, please select a preferred resolution for video downloading.

Available options:

SD - 480p
HD - 720p
FullHD - 1080p
QHD - 1440p
4K - 2160p
best

Video with highest resolution, but not higher than user's choice (unless 'best' is chosen), will be downloaded.

Step 5. Choose captions to download

If option 3 is chosen in Step 2, please select which caption(s) to be downloaded. User will only be prompted if more than one caption is available for selected video.

Note

If PyTubeFix failed to connect to YouTube, it may need to be upgraded to the newest version.

Using pip: pip install --upgrade pytubefix.

Or using uv: uv install --upgrade --reinstall youtube-downloader-cli.

Tip

When downloading from a playlist (Option 4 & 5), videos/audios will be downloaded in parallel. Maximum number of parallel downloads could be set via environment variable YTDL_WORKERS (default is 4).

Dependencies

1. For CLI Application

   • pyperclip
   • pytubefix
   • questionary
   • rich

2. Of pytubefix NodeJS is used for POTOKEN generation by pytubefix. If NodeJS is not available, POTOKEN will be skipped, may result in YouTube denying pytubefix's requests.

3. FFMPEG

   Progressive stream (both audio & video in one file) in YouTube has lower resolution. If ffmpeg is available, high resolution video & audio will be downloaded separately, then merges using ffmpeg.

   If ffmpeg is not available in $PATH, progressive stream will be downloaded.