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Youtube-dl format code cheatsheet

Table of contents
1. Video formats
   1. AVC only
   2. VP9 only
   3. AV1 only
   4. 4320p only
   5. 2160p only
   6. 1440p only
   7. 1080p only
   8. 720p only
   9. 480p only
   10. 360p only
   11. 240p only
   12. 144p only
   13. 60fps only
   14. 30fps only
2. Audio formats
3. Combined formats

Here are all the youtube format codes I'm aware of. Please let me know if there are more, or if something here is outdated. contact@voussoir.net

You can pass them to youtube-dl as --format a+b/c+d/e, where a+b is your preferred video+audio pair, c+d is your second-best preference, and e is your last resort. Don't forget the magic words like "bestvideo", "bestaudio" to round out your selection.

See https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/blob/master/README.md#format-selection

There are more formats listed in youtube-dl's source code, but some of them seem to be obsolete and are no longer returned by -F even when using the example video IDs listed there. I will only include codes for which I have an example.

Video formats (§)

AVC only (§)

VP9 only (§)

AV1 only (§)

4320p only (§)

2160p only (§)

1440p only (§)

1080p only (§)

720p only (§)

480p only (§)

360p only (§)

240p only (§)

144p only (§)

60fps only (§)

30fps only (§)

Audio formats (§)

Combined formats (§)

This document is generated programmatically.

sqlite3 :memory: ".read youtubedl_formats.sql" > youtubedl_formats.md

View this document's history

• 2022-03-25 Add resolution and fps tables.
• 2020-11-06 Add audio bitrates to 18, 22 quality column.
• 2020-10-01 Add more formats, examples, and auto-generate the md table aligners.
• 2020-09-30 Add youtubedl_formats.md.

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