🆕 What's New

📄 Documents: videofetch.readthedocs.io

🌌 VideoDL Live Status Dashboard (VideoDL有效性实时监测)
_{Auto-updated every day via GitHub Actions, with ~3 randomly sampled preview clips.}

学习收获更多有趣的内容, 欢迎关注微信公众号：Charles的皮卡丘

🆕 What's New

2025-12-28: Released videofetch v0.4.3 - added native API parsing support for iQIYI and 1905.com, introduced a unified video parsing interface, and made a few minor code optimizations.
2025-12-23: Released videofetch v0.4.2 - introduce multiple new parsing endpoints.
2025-12-19: Released videofetch v0.4.1 - added support for two general-purpose video parsing and downloading platforms, as well as one specific platform’s video parsing and downloading, and optimized the parsing and downloading for Xigua videos.
2025-12-17: Released videofetch v0.4.0 - support parsing for more platforms; automatically enable N_m3u8DL-RE acceleration for all m3u8/HLS streams; and fix some bugs.

🚀 Introduction

A fast and lightweight video downloader built entirely in Python! 🚀 If you find this project useful, don't forget to star the repository and help us grow—your support means the world! 🙌

📜 Statement

This repository is created solely for learning purposes (commercial use is prohibited). All APIs used here are sourced from public networks. If you wish to download paid videos, please ensure you have a paid membership on the respective video platform (respect copyright, please!). If any content in this repository causes concerns or infringes on copyright, please reach out to me, and I’ll promptly remove it.

🎥 Supported Video Client

The video platforms currently supported for parsing are,

Category	VideoClient (EN)	VideoClient (CN)	ParseURL	Download	Core Code
Chinese Platforms	AcFunVideoClient	A站	✔️	✔️	acfun.py
	BaiduTiebaVideoClient	百度贴吧	✔️	✔️	baidutieba.py
	BilibiliVideoClient	哔哩哔哩 (B站)	✔️	✔️	bilibili.py
	C56VideoClient	56视频网	✔️	✔️	c56.py
	CCTVVideoClient	央视网	✔️	✔️	cctv.py
	CCtalkVideoClient	CCtalk	✔️	✔️	cctalk.py
	DuxiaoshiVideoClient	度小视 (全民小视频)	✔️	✔️	duxiaoshi.py
	EyepetizerVideoClient	开眼视频	✔️	✔️	eyepetizer.py
	HaokanVideoClient	好看视频	✔️	✔️	haokan.py
	HuyaVideoClient	虎牙视频	✔️	✔️	huya.py
	IQiyiVideoClient	爱奇艺	✔️	✔️	iqiyi.py
	Ku6VideoClient	酷6网	✔️	✔️	ku6.py
	KuaishouVideoClient	快手	✔️	✔️	kuaishou.py
	MeipaiVideoClient	美拍	✔️	✔️	meipai.py
	MGTVVideoClient	芒果TV	✔️	✔️	mgtv.py
	M1905VideoClient	1905电影网	✔️	✔️	m1905.py
	OasisVideoClient	新浪绿洲	✔️	✔️	oasis.py
	Open163VideoClient	网易公开课	✔️	✔️	open163.py
	PearVideoClient	梨视频	✔️	✔️	pear.py
	PipigaoxiaoVideoClient	皮皮搞笑	✔️	✔️	pipigaoxiao.py
	PipixVideoClient	皮皮虾	✔️	✔️	pipix.py
	RednoteVideoClient	小红书	✔️	✔️	rednote.py
	SinaVideoClient	新浪视频	✔️	✔️	sina.py
	SixRoomVideoClient	六间房视频	✔️	✔️	sixroom.py
	SohuVideoClient	搜狐视频	✔️	✔️	sohu.py
	TencentVideoClient	腾讯视频	✔️	✔️	tencent.py
	WeiboVideoClient	微博视频	✔️	✔️	weibo.py
	WeishiVideoClient	微视	✔️	✔️	weishi.py
	WeSingVideoClient	全民K歌	✔️	✔️	wesing.py
	XiguaVideoClient	西瓜视频	✔️	✔️	xigua.py
	XinpianchangVideoClient	新片场	✔️	✔️	xinpianchang.py
	XuexiCNVideoClient	学习强国	✔️	✔️	xuexicn.py
	YoukuVideoClient	优酷视频	✔️	✔️	youku.py
	YinyuetaiVideoClient	音悦台 (关停ing😭)	✔️	✔️	yinyuetai.py
	ZhihuVideoClient	知乎视频	✔️	✔️	zhihu.py
	ZuiyouVideoClient	最右	✔️	✔️	zuiyou.py
Overseas Platforms	ArteTVVideoClient	德法公共电视网	✔️	✔️	artetv.py
	FoxNewsVideoClient	福克斯新闻	✔️	✔️	foxnews.py
	GeniusVideoClient	Rap Genius (嘻哈百科)	✔️	✔️	genius.py
	KakaoVideoClient	KakaoTV	✔️	✔️	kakao.py
	RedditVideoClient	红迪网	✔️	✔️	reddit.py
	TedVideoClient	TED视频	✔️	✔️	ted.py
	UnityVideoClient	Unity	✔️	✔️	unity.py
	WWEVideoClient	世界摔角娱乐	✔️	✔️	wwe.py
	YouTubeVideoClient	油管视频	✔️	✔️	youtube.py

To make videodl more robust and able to adaptively parse videos from more websites, even when the video URL is not in the supported list above, I also plan to gradually add some general-purpose parsing interfaces. The currently supported generic parsers include,

CommonVideoClient (EN)	CommonVideoClient (CN)	ParseURL	Download	Core Code
BVVideoClient	BestVideo下载器	✔️	✔️	bv.py
BugPkVideoClient	短视频解析工具	✔️	✔️	bugpk.py
CenguiguiVideoClient	聚合去水印	✔️	✔️	cenguigui.py
GVVIPVideoClient	GreenVideoVIP视频解析	✔️	✔️	gvvip.py
IIILabVideoClient	兽音译者	✔️	✔️	iiilab.py
ILoveAPIVideoClient	我爱API	✔️	✔️	iloveapi.py
KedouVideoClient	Kedou视频解析	✔️	✔️	kedou.py
KuKuToolVideoClient	KuKuTool视频解析	✔️	✔️	kukutool.py
LongZhuVideoClient	龙珠API视频解析	✔️	✔️	longzhu.py
NoLogoVideoClient	去水印下载鸭	✔️	✔️	nologo.py
QingtingVideoClient	蜻蜓工具	✔️	✔️	qingting.py
QZXDPToolsVideoClient	全栈工具视频解析	✔️	✔️	qzxdptools.py
SnapAnyVideoClient	SnapAny万能解析	✔️	✔️	snapany.py
SnapWCVideoClient	SnapWC视频解析	✔️	✔️	snapwc.py
VgetVideoClient	Vget视频解析	✔️	✔️	vget.py
VideoFKVideoClient	免费短视频下载器	✔️	✔️	videofk.py
XiazaitoolVideoClient	下载狗	✔️	✔️	xiazaitool.py
XMFlvVideoClient	虾米解析	✔️	✔️	xmflv.py
ZanqianbaVideoClient	考拉解析	✔️	✔️	zanqianba.py

The default parsing order is to first use the parsers in the supported list. If those fail, the generic parsers are then invoked one by one until parsing succeeds.

📦 Install

You have three installation methods to choose from,

# from pip
pip install videofetch
# from github repo method-1
pip install git+https://github.com/CharlesPikachu/videodl.git@master
# from github repo method-2
git clone https://github.com/CharlesPikachu/videodl.git
cd videodl
python setup.py install

Some of the video downloaders supported by videodl rely on additional CLI tools to enable video decryption, stream parsing and downloading, accelerated stream downloading, and other extended features such as resuming interrupted downloads. Specifically, these CLI tools include,

FFmpeg: All video downloaders that need to handle HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) streams depend on FFmpeg. ❗ Therefore, we recommend that all videodl users install FFmpeg. ❗ Specifically, you need to ensure that, after installation, FFmpeg can be invoked directly from your system environment (i.e., it is on your PATH). A quick way to verify this is to open a terminal (or Command Prompt on Windows) and run,
```
ffmpeg -version
```
If the installation is correct, you should see detailed version information instead of a "command not found" or "'ffmpeg' is not recognized" error.
N_m3u8DL-RE: FFmpeg is a general-purpose media tool that can download standard HLS/m3u8 streams, but it assumes that the playlist and segment URLs strictly follow the protocol. N_m3u8DL-RE is a specialized m3u8 downloader that adds extensive logic for handling encryption, anti-leech headers, redirects, and malformed playlists, so it can capture many ‘protected’ or non-standard videos that FFmpeg fails on. In many cases it’s also faster, because N_m3u8DL-RE can download HLS segments in parallel with optimized retries/merging, while FFmpeg typically pulls segments sequentially by default. ❗ Therefore, we recommend that all videodl users install N_m3u8DL-RE to ensure videodl delivers the best possible performance. ❗ Of course, you can choose not to install it, but in that case you may not be able to use videodl to parse the following platforms,
```
CCTVVideoClient, FoxNewsVideoClient, TencentVideoClient, GVVIPVideoClient, 
SnapAnyVideoClient, VgetVideoClient, ArteTVVideoClient, XMFlvVideoClient, 
RedditVideoClient, IIILabVideoClient, WWEVideoClient, IQiyiVideoClient,
```
and downloads from many other sites that provide m3u8/HLS streams may also be significantly limited. As with FFmpeg, after installation you should make sure this tool can be run directly from the command line, i.e., its location is included in your system PATH. A quick way to check whether N_m3u8DL-RE has been installed successfully is to open a terminal (or Command Prompt on Windows) and run,
```
N_m3u8DL-RE --version
```
If N_m3u8DL-RE is installed correctly, N_m3u8DL-RE --version will print the N_m3u8DL-RE version (e.g., 0.5.1+c1f6db5639397dde362c31b31eebd88c796c90da). If you see a similar command not found / not recognized error, N_m3u8DL-RE is not installed correctly or not available on your PATH.
CBox: CBox is an optional dependency for CCTVVideoClient. It helps prevent garbled output when downloading HD streams, which can happen when the m3u8 playlist is encrypted. To enable it, download CBox from the GitHub release above and add the CBox folder to your system PATH. If you intend to use CCTVVideoClient, you should also install FFmpeg and N_m3u8DL-RE and ensure they are available on your PATH as well. If you’re not using CCTVVideoClient for HD downloads, you can skip the CBox setup entirely. To verify your setup, these commands should print the full executable paths (instead of returning nothing),
```
python -c "import shutil; print(shutil.which('cbox'))"
python -c "import shutil; print(shutil.which('N_m3u8DL-RE'))"
python -c "import shutil; print(shutil.which('ffmpeg'))"
```
Node.js: Currently, Node.js is only used in YouTubeVideoClient to execute certain JavaScript code for video parsing. Therefore, if you don’t need to use YouTubeVideoClient, you can safely skip installing this CLI tool. A quick way to check whether Node.js has been installed successfully is to open a terminal (or Command Prompt on Windows) and run,
```
node -v (npm -v)
```
If Node.js is installed correctly, node -v will print the Node.js version (e.g., v22.11.0), and npm -v will print the npm version. If you see a similar command not found / not recognized error, Node.js is not installed correctly or not available on your PATH.
aria2c: videodl now also supports manually integrating aria2c to accelerate downloads (for example, MP4 files) and to enable resuming interrupted video downloads, etc. Before using this feature, you must ensure that aria2c is available on the system PATH in your runtime environment. You can verify this by opening a terminal and running aria2c --version (or aria2c -v); if the command returns version information instead of a “command not found” error, then aria2c is correctly installed and detectable. On Linux/macOS you can also run which aria2c, and on Windows where aria2c, to confirm that the executable can be found. To enable aria2c during video downloading, please refer to the Quick Start section.

⚡ Quick Start

After a successful installation, you can run the snippet below,

from videodl import videodl

video_client = videodl.VideoClient()
video_client.startparseurlcmdui()

Or just run videodl -i "URL" (maybe videodl --help to show usage information) from the terminal.

Usage: videodl [OPTIONS]

Options:
  --version                       Show the version and exit.
  -i, --index-url, --index_url TEXT
                                  URL of the video to download. If not
                                  specified, videodl will start in terminal
                                  mode.
  -a, --allowed-video-sources, --allowed_video_sources TEXT
                                  Platforms to search. Separate multiple
                                  platforms with "," (e.g.,
                                  "AcFunVideoClient,PipixVideoClient"). If not
                                  specified, videodl will search all supported
                                  platforms globally and use the first one
                                  that can download the video url.
  -c, --init-video-clients-cfg, --init_video_clients_cfg TEXT
                                  Config such as `work_dir` for each video
                                  client as a JSON string.
  -r, --requests-overrides, --requests_overrides TEXT
                                  Requests.get kwargs such as `headers` and
                                  `proxies` for each video client as a JSON
                                  string.
  -t, --clients-threadings, --clients_threadings TEXT
                                  Number of threads used for each video client
                                  as a JSON string.
  -g, --apply-common-video-clients-only, --apply_common_video_clients_only
                                  Only apply common video clients.
  --help                          Show this message and exit.

The demonstration is as follows,

Recommended parsing and downloading commands for some widely used video platforms are as follows,

# IQIYI / YOUKU / TENCENT (爱奇艺, 优酷, 腾讯视频)
videodl -i "IQIYI/YOUKU/TENCENT VIDEO URL" -g -a XMFlvVideoClient
# MIGU (咪咕视频)
videodl -i "MIGU VIDEO URL" -g -a KedouVideoClient
# DOUYIN / TIKTOK / KUAISHOU / XIAOHONGSHU (抖音, 抖音海外, 快手, 小红书等短视频)
videodl -i "DOUYIN/TIKTOK/KUAISHOU/XIAOHONGSHU VIDEO URL" -g -a SnapWCVideoClient
videodl -i "DOUYIN/TIKTOK/KUAISHOU/XIAOHONGSHU VIDEO URL" -g -a VideoFKVideoClient
videodl -i "DOUYIN/TIKTOK/KUAISHOU/XIAOHONGSHU VIDEO URL" -g -a KedouVideoClient
videodl -i "DOUYIN/TIKTOK/KUAISHOU/XIAOHONGSHU VIDEO URL" -g -a KuKuToolVideoClient
videodl -i "DOUYIN/TIKTOK/KUAISHOU/XIAOHONGSHU VIDEO URL" -g -a NoLogoVideoClient
videodl -i "DOUYIN/TIKTOK/KUAISHOU/XIAOHONGSHU VIDEO URL" -g -a IIILabVideoClient
...
# CCTV (央视网)
videodl -i "CCTV VIDEO URL" -a CCTVVideoClient
# YOUTUBE (油管)
videodl -i "YOUTUBE VIDEO URL" -a YouTubeVideoClient
videodl -i "YOUTUBE VIDEO URL" -g -a VideoFKVideoClient
# BILIBILI (B站)
videodl -i "BILIBILI VIDEO URL" -a BilibiliVideoClient

In fact, the general-purpose video parsers in the support list can be used to parse and download videos from most widely used platforms. The main difference is usually the resolution/quality of the downloaded video. If you care about video quality, you can try different general-purpose parsers, compare the results yourself, and you’re also welcome to share your findings in the repo’s Discussions section.

If you just want to parse a video link and retrieve information about the video, you can do it like this,

from videodl import videodl

video_client = videodl.VideoClient()
video_infos = video_client.parsefromurl("https://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDUxOTc1NDg4MA==.html?spm=a2hkl.14919748_WEBHOME_HOME.scg_scroll_3.d_2_play&s=faab858435f24d5bb6d3&scm=20140719.rcmd.feed.show_faab858435f24d5bb6d3&alginfo=-1reqId-249a939e8%203783%204341%2099d9%20974d2b07ad23%231764142230027-1seqId-20IX2riz0CjZG971l-1abId-2468080-1sceneId-246595&scg_id=22896555")
print(video_infos)

The output of this code looks like,

[
  {
    "source": "YoukuVideoClient",
    "raw_data": {
      "cost": 0.020000001,
      ...
    },
    "download_url": "http://pl-ali.youku.com/playlist/m3u8?vid=XNDUxOTc1NDg4MA%3D%3D&type=mp4hd2v3&ups_client_netip=725c13f7&utid=dJytIY%2Bx4WYCAXJcE%2Few6YTM&ccode=0564&psid=2fb1945e5c8cc1b213f831c70ace818841346&duration=2205&expire=18000&drm_type=1&drm_device=0&drm_default=1&dyt=0&ups_ts=1764142708&onOff=0&encr=0&ups_key=f30ad69f9025369053e0932bfe1d2276&ckt=3&m_onoff=0&pn=&drm_type_value=default&v=v1&bkp=0",
    "title": "史家绝唱",
    "file_path": "videodl_outputs\\YoukuVideoClient\\史家绝唱.m3u",
    "ext": "m3u",
    "download_with_ffmpeg": true,
    "err_msg": "NULL",
    "identifier": "XNDUxOTc1NDg4MA==",
    "guess_video_ext_result": {
      "ext": "m3u",
      "sniffer": "requests.head",
      "ok": true
    }
  }
]

Then you can also call the video downloading function to download the video parsed by videodl. The code is as follows,

from videodl import videodl

video_client = videodl.VideoClient()
video_infos = video_client.parsefromurl("https://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDUxOTc1NDg4MA==.html?spm=a2hkl.14919748_WEBHOME_HOME.scg_scroll_3.d_2_play&s=faab858435f24d5bb6d3&scm=20140719.rcmd.feed.show_faab858435f24d5bb6d3&alginfo=-1reqId-249a939e8%203783%204341%2099d9%20974d2b07ad23%231764142230027-1seqId-20IX2riz0CjZG971l-1abId-2468080-1sceneId-246595&scg_id=22896555")
video_client.download(video_infos=video_infos)

If you want to use aria2c to accelerate the download of non-HLS/m3u8 streams, such as mp4 files, you can do the following,

from videodl import videodl

video_client = videodl.VideoClient()
video_infos = video_client.parsefromurl("https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1KZgHzJEs6/?spm_id_from=333.337.search-card.all.click")
for v in video_infos: v['download_with_aria2c'] = True
video_client.download(video_infos=video_infos)

If you want to use N_m3u8DL-RE to speed up the download of HLS/m3u8 streams, you can do the following (starting from videofetch 0.4.0, as long as the environment variables include N_m3u8DL-RE, the program will automatically invoke N_m3u8DL-RE to accelerate video downloads.),

from videodl import videodl

video_client = videodl.VideoClient()
video_infos = video_client.parsefromurl("https://www.acfun.cn/v/ac36491489")
for v in video_infos: v['enable_nm3u8dlre'] = True
video_client.download(video_infos=video_infos)

If you know that the video you want to parse is definitely not in the supported list and you want to use the generic parser directly, you can set apply_common_video_clients_only to True, e.g., just run videodl -i "URL" -g from the terminal, or coding as following,

from videodl import videodl

video_client = videodl.VideoClient(apply_common_video_clients_only=True)
video_client.startparseurlcmdui()

If you’re a VIP member of a video platform, such as Tencent Video, you can try the following code to improve the quality of the videos you download,

from videodl import videodl

your_vip_cookies_with_str_or_dict_format = ""
init_video_clients_cfg = dict()
init_video_clients_cfg['TencentVideoClient'] = {'default_parse_cookies': your_vip_cookies_with_str_or_dict_format, 'default_download_cookies': your_vip_cookies_with_str_or_dict_format}
video_client = videodl.VideoClient(init_video_clients_cfg=init_video_clients_cfg)
video_client.startparseurlcmdui()

Alternatively, you can run the following command directly in the terminal,

videodl -i "URL" -c "{'TencentVideoClient': {'default_parse_cookies': your_vip_cookies_with_str_or_dict_format, 'default_download_cookies': your_vip_cookies_with_str_or_dict_format}}"

Of course, you can also choose a general-purpose parser that supports VIP video parsing to achieve video extraction, for example,

videodl -i "IQIYI/YOUKU/TENCENT VIDEO URL" -g -a XMFlvVideoClient

If you want to speed up the parsing, you can try specifying the parser used for the video you’re downloading. For example, when downloading a Douyin / TikTok video, you can run the command like this,

videodl -i "https://www.douyin.com/jingxuan?modal_id=7578412593719577899" -g -a "KedouVideoClient"
videodl -i "https://www.douyin.com/jingxuan?modal_id=7580605435187596559" -g -a "SnapWCVideoClient"
videodl -i "https://www.tiktok.com/@mustsharenews/video/7581408863128161552?lang=en" -g -a "SnapWCVideoClient"

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📚 Citation

If you use this project in your research, please cite the repository.

@misc{videodl2021,
    author = {Zhenchao Jin},
    title = {Videodl: A lightweight video downloader written in pure python},
    year = {2021},
    publisher = {GitHub},
    journal = {GitHub repository},
    howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/CharlesPikachu/videodl/}},
}

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☕ Appreciation (赞赏 / 打赏)

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📱 WeChat Official Account (微信公众号)

Charles的皮卡丘 (Charles_pikachu)

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 299 Commits
.github		.github
daily_test_results		daily_test_results
docs		docs
mcp		mcp
scripts		scripts
videodl		videodl
.gitignore		.gitignore
.readthedocs.yaml		.readthedocs.yaml
CITATION.cff		CITATION.cff
LICENSE		LICENSE
MANIFEST.in		MANIFEST.in
Makefile		Makefile
README.md		README.md
index.html		index.html
requirements.txt		requirements.txt
setup.py		setup.py

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🆕 What's New

🚀 Introduction

📜 Statement

🎥 Supported Video Client

📦 Install

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CharlesPikachu/videodl

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🆕 What's New

🚀 Introduction

📜 Statement

🎥 Supported Video Client

📦 Install

⚡ Quick Start

💡 Recommended Projects

📚 Citation

🌟 Star History

☕ Appreciation (赞赏 / 打赏)

📱 WeChat Official Account (微信公众号)

About

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License

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Releases 1

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