How to use a proxy with yt-dlp

Which proxy to use

Unlimited Datacenter is billed for time, not for gigabytes, which suits large downloads. Its IP addresses are in the United States.

• Unlimited Datacenterfrom $0.24 per hour
• Residentialfrom $2.64 per GB

What to enter

A PiratProxies plan gives you four things: a host, a port, a username and a password. These are the values for Unlimited Datacenter; the username and password are on your plan page.

As one address:

http://USERNAME-country-us:PASSWORD@dc.piratproxies.com:777

The country and the session are chosen in the username, not in a separate setting. The generator on your plan page writes the username for you, and Targeting and sessions explains each part.

Steps

1. Add --proxy with the proxy address.
2. Use --geo-verification-proxy instead if you only want the proxy for the location check and the download itself to go direct.

Example

HTTP

yt-dlp --proxy "http://USERNAME-country-us:PASSWORD@dc.piratproxies.com:777" "VIDEO_URL"

SOCKS5

yt-dlp --proxy "socks5://USERNAME-country-us:PASSWORD@dc.piratproxies.com:666" "VIDEO_URL"

Replace USERNAME and PASSWORD with the login from your plan page. The example asks an IP-check address, so the output is the address your request left from.

Rotating or sticky

If yt-dlp is acting as one visitor through several steps, use a sticky session so the IP address stays the same throughout. If each run is independent, leave the session out and every run starts from a new address.

A sticky username looks like this:

USERNAME-country-us-time-600-session-a1b2c3d4

If it does not work

• Video is heavy. One hour of high-definition video can be several gigabytes, so a time-based Unlimited Datacenter plan is usually the sensible choice.
• Keep the address in quotes, so the shell does not trip over characters in it.
• A 407 error means the username or password was not accepted. Copy both again from your plan page, and check that nothing added a space or cut the username short.
• If the IP address is in the wrong country, look at the username: the country code is part of it. More fixes.

Questions

yt-dlp is a product of its own makers. PiratProxies is not affiliated with it; the name is used here only to say what this guide is about. Use it within the rules of the sites you work with and our acceptable use policy.