# pytube/pytube

Lightweight, dependency-free Python library and CLI for downloading YouTube videos, playlists, and captions.

Repository: https://github.com/pytube/pytube
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/pytube
Homepage: https://pytube.io
Language: Python
License: Unlicense
License Family: permissive
Topics: python, youtube, youtube-downloader
Last push: 2024-08-15T06:51:20+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5281, "days_push": 748, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 13169, forks 2489 (observed 2026-08-28T04:11:02.410197+00:00)

## What it is
pytube is a lightweight, dependency-free Python library and command-line utility for downloading YouTube videos, playlists, and caption tracks. It supports progressive and DASH streams, progress/complete callbacks, and exports captions to SRT format.

## Use cases
- download a youtube video from a python script
- save youtube playlists locally
- extract youtube captions as srt files
- cli tool to download youtube videos
- get youtube video thumbnail urls
- script bulk youtube downloads with progress callbacks

## When to choose
- you need a pure-Python YouTube downloader with no third-party dependencies
- you want programmatic access to streams, captions, and metadata
- you prefer a simple CLI for quick downloads

## When to avoid
- you need guaranteed reliability against frequent YouTube API changes, since pytube often breaks and requires updates
- you need features like format conversion, metadata tagging, or sponsorblock support that yt-dlp provides
- you need long-term maintenance guarantees

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: maintenance
- function: video-processing, http-client, cli
- domain: media, developer-tools
- platform: python, cli, cross-platform
- tags: youtube-downloader, youtube, video-download, captions, playlists, no-dependencies, video, automation

## Member repositories
- pytube/pytube (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:02.410197+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:13:28.622028+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/pytube/pytube (fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:02.410197+00:00, sha e54a9bc936ed)
  - homepage: https://pytube.io (fetched 2026-08-29T08:08:46.542554+00:00, sha 5a737271f831)
  - registry_pypi: https://pypi.org/pypi/pytube/json (fetched 2026-08-29T08:08:46.545735+00:00, sha 1f817c709dfd)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.