You Get

You-Get is a free, open-source command-line downloader that scrapes media (videos, audios, and images) from hundreds of websites, including YouTube, Youku, Niconico, and many more.

What is You-Get?

You-Get is a tiny command-line utility written in Python that downloads media content from the web. It takes a URL as input and outputs the media file to your local machine. It runs on any platform with Python 3.7.4 or above and FFmpeg 1.0 or above. The project is maintained by soimort and over 226 contributors on GitHub.

Key Features

• Wide site support — over 50 websites including YouTube, Bilibili, Twitter, Instagram, Niconico, Youku, and more (see the full list).
• Format selection — use --info/-i to list all available qualities and codecs; choose with --itag.
• Stream without ads — use --player vlc to stream videos directly in your media player, bypassing web ads and browsers.
• Resume downloads — interrupt with Ctrl+C and resume later; uses .download temporary files.
• Proxy support — specify HTTP proxy via --http-proxy or disable system proxy with --no-proxy.
• Cookie loading — use --cookies to pass browser cookies (from Firefox or Chrome) for private or region-restricted videos.
• Search integration — if a non-URL argument is given, You-Get searches Google Videos and downloads the most relevant result.
• Subtitle download — for YouTube, closed captions are downloaded automatically in SubRip (.srt) format.

Who is it for?

• Casual users who want to download videos or music from popular sites for offline viewing without complicated tools.
• Privacy-conscious users who wish to avoid web browsers and ads by streaming directly in their preferred media player.
• Open-source enthusiasts who want to inspect, customize, or contribute to the code — the project is fully open under the MIT license.
• Developers who need a scriptable downloader for batch operations, using options like --output-dir and --output-filename.

What can you do with You-Get?

• Download videos from YouTube — run you-get 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...' to get the best available quality with subtitles if available.
• Extract images from Tumblr or Pinterest — You-Get scrapes pages and automatically downloads all images found.
• Download music from SoundCloud or Bandcamp — audio files are saved in their original format (e.g., MP3, FLAC).
• Stream live or archived video — use --player mpv to play videos directly in your player without downloading.
• Batch download with scripts — combine --output-dir and --output-filename to organize downloads programmatically.

How does it work?

Install via pip: pip install you-get. Then run you-get <URL>. You-Get analyzes the web page, extracts media URLs, and downloads them using Python. For multi-part videos from sites like Youku, FFmpeg merges the parts automatically. The tool supports resuming partial downloads and can be configured with many options.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Free and open source (MIT license).
• Supports a vast number of sites, including many Chinese platforms.
• Active development with regular releases (latest: v0.4.1743).
• No registration or API keys required. Cons:
• Requires external dependencies (Python 3.7+, FFmpeg).
• Command-line only; no graphical user interface.
• Some sites may break due to changes in their web structure; a known bugs page is maintained.

FAQ

Is You-Get free?

Yes, You-Get is completely free and open source under the MIT license.

What sites does You-Get support?

Over 50 sites, including YouTube, Bilibili, Twitter, Instagram, Niconico, Youku, and more. The full list is in the repository.

How do I install You-Get?

The recommended method is via pip: pip install you-get. Other options include Homebrew (Mac), pkg (FreeBSD), flox (Mac/Linux/WSL), and cloning from GitHub.

Can I resume interrupted downloads?

Yes, press Ctrl+C to stop; run the same command again to resume from where it left off using a .download temporary file.

Does You-Get require FFmpeg?

Yes, FFmpeg 1.0 or above is required for downloading and joining multi-part videos (e.g., from Youku) and for high-resolution YouTube videos.