YouTube Subtitle Downloader — yt-dlp Command Generator

Build a yt-dlp command that saves subtitles as .srt without downloading the video.

Video, playlist or channel URL

Optional. Leave it empty and the command ends with URL for you to fill in.

Your command

yt-dlp --write-subs --convert-subs srt --sub-langs en --write-auto-subs --no-playlist -s 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ'

Basics

What do you want

Video Audio only

Audio-only extracts the soundtrack and drops the video stream.

Video and quality

Maximum quality -f

Caps the height. yt-dlp still picks the best stream at or below it.

Container --merge-output-format needs ffmpeg

The file type separate video and audio streams are merged into.

Advanced options (3)

Custom format selector -f

Overrides the quality dropdown. For people who already know the format syntax.

Remux into --remux-video needs ffmpeg

Repackages the streams without re-encoding. Fast and lossless.

Re-encode into --recode-video needs ffmpeg

Re-encodes the video. Slow and lossy — only when remuxing will not do.

Audio

Audio format --audio-format needs ffmpeg

The file the audio is converted to.

Audio quality --audio-quality needs ffmpeg

VBR gives the best size-to-quality ratio; fixed bitrates are more predictable.

Subtitles

Embedding puts them inside the video; saving writes a separate .srt next to it.

Subtitle languages --sub-langs

Comma separated. Use all for every available language.

Auto-generated subtitles --write-auto-subs Include machine-generated captions when no human ones exist.

Playlists and channels

Playlist handling

What to do when the URL belongs to both a video and a playlist.

Which items -I

Ranges and lists both work, for example 1-10,15 or -5::2 for every second item from the end.

Advanced options (1)

Archive file --download-archive

Records what has been downloaded so re-running skips it. The way to keep a channel in sync.

Sections and chapters

Advanced options (2)

Download only part of it --download-sections needs ffmpeg

A time range like *00:01:30-00:03:00, or a chapter name. The leading asterisk means it is a timestamp.

Split into chapters --split-chapters needs ffmpeg Writes one file per chapter instead of a single long one.

Metadata and artwork

Embed thumbnail --embed-thumbnail needs ffmpeg Uses the video thumbnail as cover art.

Embed metadata --embed-metadata needs ffmpeg Writes title, uploader and date into the file itself.

Embed chapters --embed-chapters needs ffmpeg Adds chapter markers your player can jump between.

Advanced options (3)

Save thumbnail file --write-thumbnail Writes the cover image next to the video.

Save description --write-description Writes the description to a .description file.

Save metadata JSON --write-info-json Writes everything yt-dlp knows about the video to a .info.json file.

SponsorBlock

Remove segments --sponsorblock-remove needs ffmpeg

Cuts community-marked segments out of the file using SponsorBlock data.

Advanced options (1)

Mark segments as chapters --sponsorblock-mark

Keeps the segments but marks them, so you can skip them yourself.

Files and folders

File name template -o

Field names go in %(...)s. Slashes create folders.

Safe (ASCII) file names --restrict-filenames Strips accents, spaces and anything a stubborn filesystem might reject.

Overwrite existing files --force-overwrites Replaces files that are already there.

Resume partial downloads -c Picks up where an interrupted download stopped.

Advanced options (4)

Download folder -P

Where files are written. Combine with the template above for subfolders.

Windows-safe names --windows-filenames Removes characters Windows refuses even when running elsewhere.

Trim names to --trim-filenames

Maximum file name length in characters.

Never overwrite -w Skips anything already downloaded.

Filters

Advanced options (5)

Uploaded after --dateafter

YYYYMMDD, or a relative date like now-1month.

Uploaded before --datebefore

YYYYMMDD, or a relative date.

Minimum size --min-filesize

Skips anything smaller. Accepts 5M, 500K and similar.

Maximum size --max-filesize

Skips anything larger.

Stop after --max-downloads

Number of files to download before stopping.

Network

Speed limit -r

For example 2M or 500K. Useful when you need the rest of your bandwidth.

Advanced options (5)

Parallel fragments -N

Speeds up fragmented streams. Four is a sensible starting point.

Retries -R

How many times to retry a failed piece. infinite is allowed.

Proxy --proxy

HTTP, HTTPS or SOCKS proxy URL.

Bypass geo-restriction --geo-bypass Fakes the request origin. Works on some sites, not all.

Impersonate a browser --impersonate

Makes requests look like a real browser. The usual fix for sudden 403 errors.

Cookies from browser --cookies-from-browser

Reads your logged-in session directly. Needed for private, age-restricted or members-only content.

Advanced options (1)

Cookies file --cookies

A Netscape-format cookies.txt exported from your browser.

Live streams

Advanced options (2)

Record from the start --live-from-start Starts a live stream from the beginning instead of the current moment.

Wait for the stream --wait-for-video

Polls until a scheduled stream begins. MIN-MAX seconds between checks.

Workarounds

Advanced options (3)

User agent --user-agent deprecated

Deprecated in favour of --add-headers. Kept because plenty of older guides still use it.

Referer --referer deprecated

Deprecated in favour of --add-headers.

Extractor arguments --extractor-args

Site-specific switches, for example youtube:player_client=web.

Output and debugging

List formats only -F Prints the available formats and exits without downloading.

Advanced options (2)

Keep going on errors -i Skips items that fail instead of stopping. Essential for large playlists.

Simulate -s Does everything except write the file.

Reset

The options that matter here

Subtitles Embedding puts them inside the video; saving writes a separate .srt next to it.
Subtitle languages --sub-langs Comma separated. Use all for every available language.
Auto-generated subtitles --write-auto-subs Include machine-generated captions when no human ones exist.
Simulate -s Does everything except write the file.

Subtitles without the video

Simulate mode does everything except write the video file, so you keep the subtitles and skip the download. Converting to SRT needs ffmpeg.

If nothing appears, the video most likely has no human-written subtitles — auto-generated captions are a separate switch, and without it yt-dlp finds nothing and says nothing.

Simulate mode is the load-bearing switch on this page: without it, yt-dlp downloads the whole video and merely also saves the subtitles, which on a film-length file is a lot of transfer for a text track. With it, the run fetches the metadata, writes the subtitle files, and never touches the video. The cost is that simulate mode also skips the thumbnail and description writing you may be used to — those are video-run artifacts, not subtitle ones.

Language selection is where subtitle downloads get fiddly. --sub-langs en takes exactly the track tagged "en"; en-orig is YouTube's name for the auto-generated one, and en.* as a pattern catches both plus the regional variants. Multiple languages take a comma-separated list. If a video has both human and auto tracks for the same language, they are two separate entries, and downloading both is a legitimate outcome, not a bug.

Formats matter when the subtitle file is going into an editor: SRT is the safe interchange, VTT carries styling the web player shows, and YouTube's own JSON3/_SRV formats are meant for machines. The convert-to-srt switch handles the common case, needs ffmpeg, and loses the styling on purpose — editors want text, not markup. If the output looks empty, check the file exists before assuming conversion failed: a zero-byte SRT means the track itself was empty.

Auto-generated captions deserve a warning: they are machine transcription, with everything that implies — wrong homophones, no punctuation, mangled names. For a video in a language you read, they are a search index; for anything you will quote, the human track (when it exists) is the one worth keeping. Live streams get auto-captions live, saved only after the stream ends — the live-recording options on this site are for the picture, and the captions for a finished stream download with the normal subtitle options.

Frequently asked questions

› How do I download subtitles without the video?

Choose the .srt option and turn on simulate, which skips writing the video file while still saving the subtitles.

› Why did no subtitle file appear?

The video probably has no human subtitles. Turn on auto-generated subtitles to get the machine-made ones.

› How do I pick subtitle languages?

Comma-separate them, for example en,vi. Use all for everything available, or a pattern like en.* for every English variant.

› Can I get SRT instead of VTT?

Yes — the .srt option converts them, which needs ffmpeg.