Best for video editors
Default H.264/AAC MP4 imports directly into Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects. Extract WAV 24-bit audio, download SRT/VTT subtitles, or clip a specific section without grabbing the full file.
Download media like a pro. Without the command line.
YT-DLP GUI is a free, open-source desktop app that wraps yt-dlp and ffmpeg in a premium interface — built for editors who need Premiere-ready files, not another sketchy web converter.
MIT License
No ads
Auto-installs yt-dlp + ffmpeg
v1.3.3
Welcome back!
What are we downloading today?
Download Video
Downloads H.264 MP4 format specifically for AE compatibility.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...
Start Download
Downloading...
73%
Overview
What is YT-DLP GUI?
YT-DLP GUI is a free, MIT-licensed desktop application that wraps the yt-dlp downloader and ffmpeg in a graphical interface. It downloads YouTube and Instagram media locally on your computer — no command line, no web converter, and no account required.
YT-DLP GUI vs web downloaders
Web converters send your URL to a third-party server and often cap quality. YT-DLP GUI runs entirely on your machine with full yt-dlp quality control, editor-ready defaults, and zero ads.
YT-DLP GUI vs yt-dlp CLI
The CLI offers maximum scripting flexibility. YT-DLP GUI adds a visual interface, auto-installs dependencies, Premiere-ready presets, a video clipper, Instagram tab, and recents history — without memorizing flags.
Last updated: · Version 1.3.3
The problem
Sound familiar?
If you've ever tried to grab media for editing, you've hit at least one of these walls.
CLI intimidation
You know yt-dlp is powerful. You don't want to memorize flags at 2am.
Web converter roulette
Random sites. Pop-ups. Quality caps. Your URL on someone else's server.
Wrong codec, broken timeline
Downloaded a WebM. Premiere won't touch it. Project stalled.
Full-video waste
You need 45 seconds for a reaction clip. You downloaded 47 minutes.
Subtitle scavenger hunt
Captions live somewhere else. Another tool, another tab, another format.
Dependency hell
yt-dlp updated. ffmpeg missing. Nothing works until you fix PATH.
One desktop app. Every format you need. Zero terminal.
YT-DLP GUI wraps the industry's most reliable downloader in a Shadcn-inspired interface — so content creators, video editors, and power users get high-quality, reliable media downloads without touching a command prompt.
Features
Everything you need. Nothing you don't.
Six dedicated workflows — each one maps to a tab in the app you already know how to use.
Video
Premiere-ready video, up to 4K
Default H.264 MP4 with AAC audio — the format Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects expect. No transcoding step between download and timeline.
- MP4, MKV, and WebM containers
- Quality presets from 360p to 4K
- Real-time progress bar from yt-dlp stdout
Download Video
Downloads H.264 MP4 format specifically for AE compatibility.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
Max Quality: Highest (Up to 4K)
Start Download
Audio
Studio-grade audio extraction
Pull the audio track without downloading the full video. Choose the format that fits your workflow — from portable MP3 to lossless WAV for sound editing.
- MP3 at 320kbps Level 0 VBR
- WAV 24-bit PCM at 48kHz
- FLAC lossless compressed
Download Audio
Extracts best quality audio as MP3, M4A, WAV, or FLAC.
MP3
320kbps VBR
WAV
24-bit PCM
M4A
AAC codec
FLAC
Lossless
Instagram
Reels, posts, and IGTV — one tab
Stop juggling separate tools for YouTube and Instagram. Paste a Reel or post URL and download as MP4 video or extract the audio as MP3.
- Reels, posts, and IGTV support
- MP4 or MP3 output
- Same interface as YouTube downloads
Download Instagram Media
Downloads Reels, Posts, and IGTV videos as MP4 or extracts audio as MP3.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/...
Format: MP4 Video
Subtitles
Captions without the full download
Grab closed captions and standard subtitles in 13 languages. Export as VTT or SRT — ready for your editing software or translation workflow.
- Download single language or all available
- VTT and SRT formats
- No video file required
Download Subtitles
Extract closed captions without downloading the video.
00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:04.000
Welcome to the tutorial.
00:00:04.500 --> 00:00:08.000
Today we'll cover the basics.
Welcome to the tutorial.
00:00:04.500 --> 00:00:08.000
Today we'll cover the basics.
Video Clipper
Download only the part you need
Preview the stream, set in and out markers, and download just that section. No more grabbing a 47-minute file when you need 45 seconds.
- In-browser video preview
- Drag handles for start/end points
- Powered by yt-dlp --download-sections
Drag the handles to set your clip
In 0:45
Clip: 0:45
Out 1:30
Total 3:33
Recents & Settings
Your workflow, remembered
Thumbnail history with one-click folder reveal. Custom save paths, six accent themes, completion chimes, and auto-open on finish — all persisted locally.
- Recents with YouTube thumbnails
- Custom download folders
- 6 curated accent themes
Recent Downloads
Your past downloading activity.
-
Never Gonna Give You Up -
PSY - GANGNAM STYLE -
Despacito · Luis Fonsi
Settings
Customize your download experience.
~/Downloads/YT-DLP GUI
Notification Sound
Chime on successful download
Auto-Open File Location
Reveal file in Explorer when done
Built for you
One app, three workflows
Whether you edit in Premiere, post to Instagram, or live in the terminal — YT-DLP GUI meets you where you are.
For video editors: From URL to timeline in minutes
H.264 MP4 drops straight into Premiere Pro and After Effects. Clip only what you need. Pull lossless WAV for sound design. No codec roulette, no transcoding detour.
For creators: YouTube and Instagram. One app.
Download reference clips, save Reels for inspiration, and keep everything organized in Recents with thumbnails. Quality presets mean you never over-download.
For power users: yt-dlp strength. GUI sanity.
Full terminal output visible while downloading. Concurrent download lockout prevents corruption. yt-dlp and ffmpeg auto-installed on first launch. Read the source — it's all there.
Open source
Open source. Inspect everything.
No black boxes. No accounts. No upload step. Your downloads run locally on your machine — and the code is yours to read, fork, and improve.
MIT License
Use, modify, and distribute freely — for personal projects or commercial work. No subscription, no paywall, no ads.
Full source on GitHub
Every line of the Electron app is public. Issues, pull requests, and forks welcome. Built on yt-dlp and ffmpeg — industry-standard tools, not proprietary backends.
Privacy by design
Downloads never leave your machine. No cloud upload step. No account required. Your URLs stay on your desktop.
Community-driven
Built in the open with semantic versioning, a public changelog, and GitHub Actions for reproducible builds. You can verify every release.
Secure Architecture
Renderer — HTML/CSS Dashboard
↕ secure API calls
Preload — contextBridge (isolated)
↕ IPC channels
Main Process — Node.js
yt-dlp child_process
local
ffmpeg child_process
Context isolation keeps Node.js out of the renderer. Only safe IPC methods are exposed.
Compare
Why not just use a website?
Honest comparison across the three options most people try first.
| Capability | Web converters | yt-dlp CLI | YT-DLP GUI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ease of use | Easy | Steep | Easy |
| Quality control | Limited | Full | Full |
| Premiere-ready defaults | Rare | Manual flags | Built-in |
| Video clipper | No | Flags required | Visual UI |
| Instagram support | Varies | Yes | Dedicated tab |
| Subtitle extraction | Rare | Yes | Dedicated tab |
| Privacy (local download) | URL sent to server | Local | Local |
| Cost | Free + ads | Free | Free (MIT) |
| Open source | No | Yes | Yes |
| Auto dependency setup | N/A | Manual | First-launch installer |
| Scripting / automation | No | Excellent | GUI-focused |
Formats
Pick the right format. Not guesswork.
Every output format is pre-configured with a clear use case — so you never download a WebM when Premiere needs MP4.
| Format | Type | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
MP4 |
Video | H.264 / AAC — instant import in Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects |
MKV |
Video | High-quality archiving with rich subtitle layers and multiple audio streams |
WebM |
Video | VP9/AV1 + Opus — high compression for web delivery |
MP3 |
Audio | 320kbps Level 0 VBR — maximum compatibility |
M4A |
Audio | AAC codec — efficient web-standard audio |
WAV |
Audio | 24-bit PCM uncompressed — studio-grade sound editing |
FLAC |
Audio | Lossless compressed — high fidelity, smaller file size |
Themes
Six accents. Your vibe.
Re-theme the entire app instantly — and try it right here. Same palettes available in Settings.
How it works
Three steps. You're downloading.
From install to finished file — no terminal, no dependency hunting.
1
Download & launch
Grab the Windows installer from GitHub Releases. On first launch, the app auto-downloads and configures yt-dlp and ffmpeg for you.
2
Paste URL, pick format
Choose your tab — video, audio, subtitles, clipper, or Instagram. Paste the URL, select quality and format, hit download.
3
File lands where you want
Track progress in real time. Optionally auto-open the folder when done. Find it again anytime in Recents.
Terminal Output
Info: Verifying yt-dlp... OK (2024.12.13)
Info: Verifying ffmpeg... OK
Download: [youtube] Extracting URL...
Download: [download] 73.2% of 142.50MiB at 8.42MiB/s
Success: Download complete. File saved.
For developers
Built on solid foundations
Electron with strict process separation — the same architecture pattern used by VS Code and Slack.
Context isolation
The renderer never gets direct Node.js access. Only whitelisted IPC methods pass through the preload bridge.
Local child processes
yt-dlp and ffmpeg run as local child processes. stdout streams back to the UI for real-time progress parsing.
Cross-platform deps
Auto-installer supports Windows, macOS, and Linux using official GitHub and ffbinaries static builds.
FAQ
Common questions
Everything you need to know before your first download.
YT-DLP GUI is a tool. How you use it is your responsibility. Only download content you have the right to access — respect copyright, creator rights, and each platform's terms of service.
Yes. The dependency installer supports Windows, macOS, and Linux. Pre-built Windows installers are available on GitHub Releases. Mac and Linux users can clone the repo and run
npm install && npm start.No. On first launch, the app automatically downloads and configures both yt-dlp and ffmpeg in your user data directory. If you already have them in your system PATH, the app detects and uses those instead.
YT-DLP GUI is built on yt-dlp — the actively maintained fork of youtube-dl with broader site support and faster updates. This app adds a GUI, editor-ready defaults, clipper, Instagram tab, and auto dependency management on top.
Yes. MIT licensed — free for personal and commercial use. No subscription, no in-app purchases, no ads.
Absolutely. Fork the repo, open issues, submit pull requests. The full source is on GitHub.
Web converters send your URL to a third-party server, often cap quality, inject ads, and give you formats editors can't use. YT-DLP GUI runs locally — your URLs stay on your machine, and you get full quality control with Premiere-ready defaults.
Yes. The default MP4 output uses H.264 video and AAC audio — the format Premiere Pro and After Effects expect. No transcoding step needed.
The app intentionally locks concurrent downloads to prevent yt-dlp IP throttling and file corruption. Wait for the current download to finish before starting another — it's a feature, not a limitation.
By default, files go to your OS Downloads folder. You can set a custom base save location in Settings, with separate folders for videos and audio. Enable auto-open to jump straight to the file when a download completes.
No telemetry or analytics. Recents history is stored locally in your browser's localStorage. The optional weather widget uses Open-Meteo and ipapi.co for location — only if you configure it in onboarding or Settings.
Ready to ditch the command line?
Free, open-source, and built for editors who care about quality. Download YT-DLP GUI and get your first Premiere-ready file in minutes.
git clone https://github.com/birol-dev/YT-DLP-GUI-.git && npm install && npm start