Security News
NVD Quietly Sweeps 100K+ CVEs Into a “Deferred” Black Hole
NVD now marks all pre-2018 CVEs as "Deferred," signaling it will no longer enrich older vulnerabilities, further eroding trust in its data.
By Sarah Gooding - Apr 04, 2025
New Case Study:See how Anthropic automated 95% of dependency reviews with Socket.Learn More →
- Maintainers
- 1
pytube3
Table of Contents
Installation
Download using pip via pypi.
$ pip install pytube3 --upgrade
(Mac/homebrew users may need to use pip3)
Quick start
>>> from pytube import YouTube
>>> YouTube('https://youtu.be/9bZkp7q19f0').streams.get_highest_resolution().download()
>>>
>>> yt = YouTube('http://youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0')
>>> yt.streams
... .filter(progressive=True, file_extension='mp4')
... .order_by('resolution')[-1]
... .download()
A GUI frontend for pytube3 is available at YouTubeDownload
Features
- Support for Both Progressive & DASH Streams
- Support for downloading complete playlist
- Easily Register
on_download_progress&on_download_completecallbacks - Command-line Interfaced Included
- Caption Track Support
- Outputs Caption Tracks to .srt format (SubRip Subtitle)
- Ability to Capture Thumbnail URL.
- Extensively Documented Source Code
- No Third-Party Dependencies
Usage
Let's begin with showing how easy it is to download a video with pytube:
>>> from pytube import YouTube
>>> YouTube('http://youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0').streams[0].download()
This example will download the highest quality progressive download stream available.
Next, let's explore how we would view what video streams are available:
>>> yt = YouTube('http://youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0')
>>> print(yt.streams)
[<Stream: itag="22" mime_type="video/mp4" res="720p" fps="30fps" vcodec="avc1.64001F" acodec="mp4a.40.2">,
<Stream: itag="43" mime_type="video/webm" res="360p" fps="30fps" vcodec="vp8.0" acodec="vorbis">,
<Stream: itag="18" mime_type="video/mp4" res="360p" fps="30fps" vcodec="avc1.42001E" acodec="mp4a.40.2">,
<Stream: itag="36" mime_type="video/3gpp" res="240p" fps="30fps" vcodec="mp4v.20.3" acodec="mp4a.40.2">,
<Stream: itag="17" mime_type="video/3gpp" res="144p" fps="30fps" vcodec="mp4v.20.3" acodec="mp4a.40.2">,
<Stream: itag="137" mime_type="video/mp4" res="1080p" fps="30fps" vcodec="avc1.640028">,
<Stream: itag="248" mime_type="video/webm" res="1080p" fps="30fps" vcodec="vp9">,
<Stream: itag="136" mime_type="video/mp4" res="720p" fps="30fps" vcodec="avc1.4d401f">,
<Stream: itag="247" mime_type="video/webm" res="720p" fps="30fps" vcodec="vp9">,
<Stream: itag="135" mime_type="video/mp4" res="480p" fps="30fps" vcodec="avc1.4d401e">,
<Stream: itag="244" mime_type="video/webm" res="480p" fps="30fps" vcodec="vp9">,
<Stream: itag="134" mime_type="video/mp4" res="360p" fps="30fps" vcodec="avc1.4d401e">,
<Stream: itag="243" mime_type="video/webm" res="360p" fps="30fps" vcodec="vp9">,
<Stream: itag="133" mime_type="video/mp4" res="240p" fps="30fps" vcodec="avc1.4d4015">,
<Stream: itag="242" mime_type="video/webm" res="240p" fps="30fps" vcodec="vp9">,
<Stream: itag="160" mime_type="video/mp4" res="144p" fps="30fps" vcodec="avc1.4d400c">,
<Stream: itag="278" mime_type="video/webm" res="144p" fps="30fps" vcodec="vp9">,
<Stream: itag="140" mime_type="audio/mp4" abr="128kbps" acodec="mp4a.40.2">,
<Stream: itag="171" mime_type="audio/webm" abr="128kbps" acodec="vorbis">,
<Stream: itag="249" mime_type="audio/webm" abr="50kbps" acodec="opus">,
<Stream: itag="250" mime_type="audio/webm" abr="70kbps" acodec="opus">,
<Stream: itag="251" mime_type="audio/webm" abr="160kbps" acodec="opus">]
Selecting an itag
You may notice that some streams listed have both a video codec and audio codec, while others have just video or just audio, this is a result of YouTube supporting a streaming technique called Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH).
In the context of pytube, the implications are for the highest quality streams; you now need to download both the audio and video tracks and then post-process them with software like FFmpeg to merge them.
The legacy streams that contain the audio and video in a single file (referred to as "progressive download") are still available, but only for resolutions 720p and below.
To only view these progressive download streams:
>>> yt.streams.filter(progressive=True)
[<Stream: itag="22" mime_type="video/mp4" res="720p" fps="30fps" vcodec="avc1.64001F" acodec="mp4a.40.2">,
<Stream: itag="43" mime_type="video/webm" res="360p" fps="30fps" vcodec="vp8.0" acodec="vorbis">,
<Stream: itag="18" mime_type="video/mp4" res="360p" fps="30fps" vcodec="avc1.42001E" acodec="mp4a.40.2">,
<Stream: itag="36" mime_type="video/3gpp" res="240p" fps="30fps" vcodec="mp4v.20.3" acodec="mp4a.40.2">,
<Stream: itag="17" mime_type="video/3gpp" res="144p" fps="30fps" vcodec="mp4v.20.3" acodec="mp4a.40.2">]
Conversely, if you only want to see the DASH streams (also referred to as "adaptive") you can do:
>>> yt.streams.filter(adaptive=True)
[<Stream: itag="137" mime_type="video/mp4" res="1080p" fps="30fps" vcodec="avc1.640028">,
<Stream: itag="248" mime_type="video/webm" res="1080p" fps="30fps" vcodec="vp9">,
<Stream: itag="136" mime_type="video/mp4" res="720p" fps="30fps" vcodec="avc1.4d401f">,
<Stream: itag="247" mime_type="video/webm" res="720p" fps="30fps" vcodec="vp9">,
<Stream: itag="135" mime_type="video/mp4" res="480p" fps="30fps" vcodec="avc1.4d401e">,
<Stream: itag="244" mime_type="video/webm" res="480p" fps="30fps" vcodec="vp9">,
<Stream: itag="134" mime_type="video/mp4" res="360p" fps="30fps" vcodec="avc1.4d401e">,
<Stream: itag="243" mime_type="video/webm" res="360p" fps="30fps" vcodec="vp9">,
<Stream: itag="133" mime_type="video/mp4" res="240p" fps="30fps" vcodec="avc1.4d4015">,
<Stream: itag="242" mime_type="video/webm" res="240p" fps="30fps" vcodec="vp9">,
<Stream: itag="160" mime_type="video/mp4" res="144p" fps="30fps" vcodec="avc1.4d400c">,
<Stream: itag="278" mime_type="video/webm" res="144p" fps="30fps" vcodec="vp9">,
<Stream: itag="140" mime_type="audio/mp4" abr="128kbps" acodec="mp4a.40.2">,
<Stream: itag="171" mime_type="audio/webm" abr="128kbps" acodec="vorbis">,
<Stream: itag="249" mime_type="audio/webm" abr="50kbps" acodec="opus">,
<Stream: itag="250" mime_type="audio/webm" abr="70kbps" acodec="opus">,
<Stream: itag="251" mime_type="audio/webm" abr="160kbps" acodec="opus">]
Playlists
You can also download a complete Youtube playlist:
>>> from pytube import Playlist
>>> playlist = Playlist("https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLynhp4cZEpTbRs_PYISQ8v_uwO0_mDg_X")
>>> for video in playlist:
>>> video.streams.get_highest_resolution().download()
This will download the highest progressive stream available (generally 720p) from the given playlist.
Filtering
Pytube allows you to filter on every property available (see the documentation for the complete list), let's take a look at some of the most useful ones.
To list the audio only streams:
>>> yt.streams.filter(only_audio=True)
[<Stream: itag="140" mime_type="audio/mp4" abr="128kbps" acodec="mp4a.40.2">,
<Stream: itag="171" mime_type="audio/webm" abr="128kbps" acodec="vorbis">,
<Stream: itag="249" mime_type="audio/webm" abr="50kbps" acodec="opus">,
<Stream: itag="250" mime_type="audio/webm" abr="70kbps" acodec="opus">,
<Stream: itag="251" mime_type="audio/webm" abr="160kbps" acodec="opus">]
To list only mp4 streams:
>>> yt.streams.filter(subtype='mp4')
[<Stream: itag="22" mime_type="video/mp4" res="720p" fps="30fps" vcodec="avc1.64001F" acodec="mp4a.40.2">,
<Stream: itag="18" mime_type="video/mp4" res="360p" fps="30fps" vcodec="avc1.42001E" acodec="mp4a.40.2">,
<Stream: itag="137" mime_type="video/mp4" res="1080p" fps="30fps" vcodec="avc1.640028">,
<Stream: itag="136" mime_type="video/mp4" res="720p" fps="30fps" vcodec="avc1.4d401f">,
<Stream: itag="135" mime_type="video/mp4" res="480p" fps="30fps" vcodec="avc1.4d401e">,
<Stream: itag="134" mime_type="video/mp4" res="360p" fps="30fps" vcodec="avc1.4d401e">,
<Stream: itag="133" mime_type="video/mp4" res="240p" fps="30fps" vcodec="avc1.4d4015">,
<Stream: itag="160" mime_type="video/mp4" res="144p" fps="30fps" vcodec="avc1.4d400c">,
<Stream: itag="140" mime_type="audio/mp4" abr="128kbps" acodec="mp4a.40.2">]
Multiple filters can also be specified:
>>> yt.streams.filter(subtype='mp4', progressive=True)
>>> # this can also be expressed as:
>>> yt.streams.filter(subtype='mp4').filter(progressive=True)
[<Stream: itag="22" mime_type="video/mp4" res="720p" fps="30fps" vcodec="avc1.64001F" acodec="mp4a.40.2">,
<Stream: itag="18" mime_type="video/mp4" res="360p" fps="30fps" vcodec="avc1.42001E" acodec="mp4a.40.2">]
You also have an interface to select streams by their itag, without needing to filter:
>>> yt.streams.get_by_itag(22)
<Stream: itag="22" mime_type="video/mp4" res="720p" fps="30fps" vcodec="avc1.64001F" acodec="mp4a.40.2">
If you need to optimize for a specific feature, such as the "highest resolution" or "lowest average bitrate":
>>> yt.streams.filter(progressive=True).order_by('resolution').desc()
Note: Using order_by on a given attribute will filter out all streams missing that attribute.
Callbacks
If your application requires post-processing logic, pytube allows you to specify an "on download complete" callback function:
>>> def convert_to_aac(stream, file_handler):
return # do work
>>> yt.register_on_complete_callback(convert_to_aac)
Similarly, if your application requires on-download progress logic, pytube exposes a callback for this as well:
>>> def show_progress_bar(stream, chunk, file_handler, bytes_remaining):
return # do work
>>> yt.register_on_progress_callback(show_progress_bar)
Command-line interface
pytube3 ships with a simple CLI interface for downloading videos, playlists, and captions.
Let's start with downloading:
$ pytube3 http://youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0 --itag=18
To view available streams:
$ pytube3 http://youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0 --list
The complete set of flags are:
usage: pytube3 [-h] [--version] [--itag ITAG] [-r RESOLUTION] [-l] [-v]
[--build-playback-report] [-c [CAPTION_CODE]] [-t TARGET]
[-a [AUDIO]] [-f [FFMPEG]]
[url]
Command line application to download youtube videos.
positional arguments:
url The YouTube /watch or /playlist url
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--version show program's version number and exit
--itag ITAG The itag for the desired stream
-r RESOLUTION, --resolution RESOLUTION
The resolution for the desired stream
-l, --list The list option causes pytube cli to return a list of
streams available to download
-v, --verbose Verbosity level, use up to 4 to increase logging -vvvv
--build-playback-report
Save the html and js to disk
-c [CAPTION_CODE], --caption-code [CAPTION_CODE]
Download srt captions for given language code. Prints
available language codes if no argument given
-t TARGET, --target TARGET
The output directory for the downloaded stream.
Default is current working directory
-a [AUDIO], --audio [AUDIO]
Download the audio for a given URL at the highest
bitrate availableDefaults to mp4 format if none is
specified
-f [FFMPEG], --ffmpeg [FFMPEG]
Downloads the audio and video stream for resolution
providedIf no resolution is provided, downloads the
best resolutionRuns the command line program ffmpeg to
combine the audio and video
Development
Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.
To run code checking before a PR use make test
Virtual environment
Virtual environment is setup with pipenv and can be automatically activated with direnv
Code Formatting
This project is linted with pyflakes, formatted with black, and typed with mypy
Code of Conduct
Treat other people with helpfulness, gratitude, and consideration! See the Python Community Code of Conduct.
GUIs and other libraries
- YouTubeDownload - Featured GUI frontend for pytube3
- Pytube-GUI - Simple GUI frontend for pytube3
- StackOverflow questions
- PySlackers - Python Slack group
FAQs
Python 3 library for downloading YouTube Videos.
We found that pytube3 demonstrated a healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released less than a year ago. It has 1 open source maintainer collaborating on the project.
Did you know?
Socket for GitHub automatically highlights issues in each pull request and monitors the health of all your open source dependencies. Discover the contents of your packages and block harmful activity before you install or update your dependencies.
Related posts
Research
Security News
Lazarus Expands Malicious npm Campaign: 11 New Packages Add Malware Loaders and Bitbucket Payloads
Lazarus-linked threat actors expand their npm malware campaign with new RAT loaders, hex obfuscation, and over 5,600 downloads across 11 packages.
By Kirill Boychenko - Apr 04, 2025
Security News
Safari 18.4 Ships 3 New JavaScript Features from the TC39 Pipeline
Safari 18.4 adds support for Iterator Helpers and two other TC39 JavaScript features, bringing full cross-browser coverage to key parts of the ECMAScript spec.
By Sarah Gooding - Apr 03, 2025