Youtube Format IDs

youtube_formats.md

Last updated: December 2020

Also known as itag or format codes and way back they could be specified with the fmt parameter (e.g. &fmt=22). Depending on the age and/or popularity of the video, not all formats will be available.

DASH video

Resolution	AV1 HFR	AV1	VP9.2 HDR HFR	VP9 HFR	VP9	H.264 HFR	H.264
	MP4	MP4	WebM	WebM	WebM	MP4	MP4
4320p	402, 571			272			138
2160p	401		337	315	(313)	(305)	(266)
1440p	400		336	308	(271)	(304)	(264)
1080p	399		335	303	(248)	299	(137)
720p	398		334	302	247	298	136
480p		397	333		244		135
360p		396	332		243		134
240p		395	331		242		133
144p		394	330		278		160

• Non-HFR variants are limited to 30 FPS, HFR to 60 FPS
• Non-HFR H.264 and VP9 variants in 1080p+ are not provided for HFR videos anymore
• Same IDs are reused for 360° videos
• H.264 variants in 1440p+ only exist for 360° videos anymore
• At the moment, AV1 variants only exist for very popular videos
• All AV1 variants can be HDR (no separate non-HDR AV1 variants are offered)
• Regarding 4320p AV1: Sometimes both formats exist for the same video. 571 has roughly 50% higher bitrate than 402

DASH audio

Code	Container	Audio Codec	Audio Bitrate	Channels	Still offered?
139	MP4	AAC (HE v1)	48 Kbps	Stereo (2)	Rarely, YT Music
140	MP4	AAC (LC)	128 Kbps	Stereo (2)	Yes, YT Music
(141)	MP4	AAC (LC)	256 Kbps	Stereo (2)	No, YT Music*
171	WebM	Vorbis	128 Kbps	Stereo (2)	No
172	WebM	Vorbis	256 Kbps	Stereo (2)	No
249	WebM	Opus	(VBR) ~50 Kbps	Stereo (2)	Yes
250	WebM	Opus	(VBR) ~70 Kbps	Stereo (2)	Yes
251	WebM	Opus	(VBR) <=160 Kbps	Stereo (2)	Yes
256	MP4	AAC (HE v1)	192 Kbps	Surround (5.1)	Rarely
258	MP4	AAC (LC)	384 Kbps	Surround (5.1)	Rarely

• Surround audio can be found on some demo videos
• YT Music: These formats are offered on Youtube Music. Format 141 is only available to Premium users with High Quality option

Legacy (non-DASH)

Code	Container	Video Codec	Video Res.	Audio Codec	Audio Bitrate	Channels	Still offered?
18	MP4	H.264 (Baseline, L3.0)	360p	AAC (LC)	96 Kbps	Stereo (2)	Yes, GDrive
(59)	MP4	H.264 (Main, L3.1)	480p	AAC (LC)	128 Kbps	Stereo (2)	No, GDrive
22	MP4	H.264 (High, L3.1)	720p	AAC (LC)	192 Kbps	Stereo (2)	Mostly*, GDrive
(37)	MP4	H.264 (High, L4.0)	1080p	AAC (LC)	128 Kbps	Stereo (2)	No, GDrive
43	WebM	VP8	360p	Vorbis	128 Kbps	Stereo (2)	No

• Always limited to 30 FPS
• GDrive: These formats are offered for Google Drive video previews. Note that the video player on GDrive displays incorrect codecs on rightclick -> stats
• Format 22: Available for most videos, except music and music videos (not limited to official music channels!)

Livestreams (non-DASH)

Code	Container	Video Codec	Video Res.	Audio Codec	Audio Bitrate	Still offered?
91	MPEG-TS (HLS)	H.264 (Baseline, L1.1)	144p	AAC (HE v1)	48 Kbps	Yes
92	MPEG-TS (HLS)	H.264 (Main, L2.1)	240p	AAC (HE v1)	48 Kbps	Yes
93	MPEG-TS (HLS)	H.264 (Main, L3.0)	360p	AAC (LC)	128 Kbps	Yes
94	MPEG-TS (HLS)	H.264 (Main, L3.1)	480p	AAC (LC)	128 Kbps	Yes
95	MPEG-TS (HLS)	H.264 (Main, L3.1)	720p	AAC (LC)	256 Kbps	Yes
96	MPEG-TS (HLS)	H.264 (High, L4.0)	1080p	AAC (LC)	256 Kbps	Yes
300	MPEG-TS (HLS)	H.264 (Main, L3.2)	HFR 720p	AAC (LC)	128 Kbps	Yes
301	MPEG-TS (HLS)	H.264 (High, L4.2)	HFR 1080p	AAC (LC)	128 Kbps	Yes

• Non-HFR variants are limited to 30 FPS, HFR to 60 FPS
• Non-HFR variants for 720p and 1080p may not be offered if HFR is available
• Livestreams are also offered through DASH video (H.264) and DASH audio (AAC) streams

Template youtube-dl formats

For archiving videos, will only choose combinations that fit either WebM (VP8/VP9+Vorbis/Opus) or MP4 (H.264+AAC)

bestvideo[ext=webm]+251/bestvideo[ext=mp4]+(258/256/140)/bestvideo[ext=webm]+(250/249)/best

For archiving audio, will choose any format that's best

AAC Surround 384 / Opus 160 / AAC 192 / AAC Surround 192 / AAC 128 / Opus 70 / AAC 96 / Opus 50 / AAC 48

258/251/22/256/140/250/18/249/139

For streaming videos, allows non-MP4/WebM combinations

bestvideo+bestaudio/best

youtube-dl usage example

Archive videos

youtube-dl --download-archive youtube-dl.list --ignore-errors --write-info-json --add-metadata --write-sub --sub-lang en,de,ja --write-thumbnail --embed-subs -f "<format>" "<URL>"

Archive audio

youtube-dl --download-archive youtube-dl.list --ignore-errors --write-info-json --add-metadata --write-sub --sub-lang en,de,ja --write-thumbnail --embed-thumbnail --extract-audio -f "<format>" "<URL>"