yt-dlp Web UI

A beautiful, self-hosted web application for downloading YouTube (and 1000+ other sites) videos — powered by yt-dlp.

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Features

• Paste any YouTube (or supported site) URL and fetch video info instantly
• View thumbnail, title, uploader, duration, views, likes, and upload date
• Select from all available formats grouped by quality (Video+Audio, Video only, Audio only)
• Highest quality format pre-selected automatically
• Live download progress with percentage, speed, and ETA
• Cancel download at any time
• Clean dark UI with animated progress bar

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Quick Start with Docker

Pull and run from Docker Hub

docker pull samive/yt-dlp-web:latest
docker run -d -p 8000:8000 --name yt-dlp-web samive/yt-dlp-web:latest

Then open http://localhost:8000 in your browser.

Persist downloads to your machine

docker run -d \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  -v $(pwd)/downloads:/app/web/backend/downloads \
  --name yt-dlp-web \
  samive/yt-dlp-web:latest

Stop / remove the container

docker stop yt-dlp-web
docker rm yt-dlp-web

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Build from Source

Prerequisites

• Docker installed

Build the image

git clone https://github.com/samive/yt-dlp-web.git
cd yt-dlp-web
docker build -t yt-dlp-web .

Run the image

docker run -d -p 8000:8000 --name yt-dlp-web yt-dlp-web

Open http://localhost:8000.

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Run without Docker (Development)

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+
• ffmpeg installed and on PATH (download)

Setup

# Install dependencies
pip install yt-dlp fastapi "uvicorn[standard]" httpx

# Start the server
python -m uvicorn web.backend.main:app --reload --port 8000

Open http://localhost:8000.

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Usage Guide

1. Paste a URL — Paste any YouTube or supported site link into the input field and click Fetch
2. Review video info — Thumbnail, title, uploader, duration, views, likes, and upload date are shown
3. Select a format — Choose from the dropdown (highest quality is pre-selected)
4. Download — Click the Download button and watch the live progress bar
5. Cancel — Click Cancel at any time to stop the download

YouTube authentication (optional)

Some videos require sign-in. Export your cookies using the Get cookies.txt LOCALLY browser extension and mount them:

docker run -d \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  -v $(pwd)/cookies.txt:/app/web/backend/cookies.txt:ro \
  --name yt-dlp-web \
  samive/yt-dlp-web:latest

Note: Using cookies with Chrome on Windows may cause issues due to DPAPI encryption. Firefox or Edge cookies work more reliably.

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Tech Stack

• Backend — Python, FastAPI, yt-dlp
• Frontend — Vanilla HTML/CSS/JS (no framework)
• Container — Docker with ffmpeg

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License

This project uses yt-dlp which is licensed under The Unlicense.