How to batch download long YouTube playlists automatically (MP3 and video)

If you’ve ever tried to download a playlist of 180 videos or songs using websites—you know, the ones that dominate the top results when you search “download YouTube playlists online” on Google—you’ll know that:

• They crash.
• They have hidden advertising (or malware).
• Or they limit you to 10 files.

The thing is, for an article I’m writing, I needed to listen to a playlist of 174 YouTube videos.

Yes, I already explained how to watch YouTube without ads for free and I could just have played the list, but in this case I preferred to have the files downloaded. Because playlists or their videos can disappear. So I started digging.

After a few tests, for bulk downloads, the best tool I’ve found is yt-dlp. It is free, unlimited, and extremely fast.

Here is its code on GitHub, so you can download it and compile it yourself. But if you prefer the fast route, keep reading, because I’ll explain the step by step in a much easier and faster way.

#1. Initial setup

You only do this the first time and, in reality, you do not need to install anything.

You just have to:

1. Create a folder on your desktop and call it, for example, Descargas_Youtube.
2. Download yt-dlp and save the file yt-dlp.exe inside that folder. To do that, if you don’t like the idea of downloading and compiling it from GitHub, you can:
• Download it from Uptodown.
• Download it from my website.
3. Finally, download a version of FFmpeg (I did it with the 6.1.1_full_build), open the ZIP and copy only the file ffmpeg.exe (which is inside the directory /bin/) to the folder you created (Descargas_Youtube).

Now verify that your folder contains only these two files:

• yt-dlp.exe
• ffmpeg.exe

#2. How to download in MP3 (audio only)

If, like me, what you want is to download the audio at maximum quality:

• Enter the folder.
• Hold Shift and right-click on the white background.
• Select “Open PowerShell window here”.

Paste this command, changing the link to the YouTube playlist you want to download:

.yt-dlp.exe -x --audio-format mp3 --audio-quality 0 --yes-playlist "TU_ENLACE_AQUÍ"

As soon as you press Enter, the program will start downloading every file in the list magically. You can leave the PC working on its own (and without AI agents involved, hey).

Trick: Automatic numbering (001, 002…)

If you want the songs to keep the exact order of the playlist and not get sorted alphabetically on your PC or phone, use the following command, which will add a number before each title:

.yt-dlp.exe -x --audio-format mp3 --audio-quality 0 -o "%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" --yes-playlist "TU_ENLACE_AQUÍ"

#3. How to download in MP4 (full video)

If you prefer to download video and not just the audio, use this command:

.yt-dlp.exe -f "bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best[ext=mp4]/best" -o "%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" --yes-playlist "TU_ENLACE_AQUÍ"

Explanation of the command “tricks”

• %(playlist_index)s: automatically numbers each file according to its position in the playlist.
• -x: extracts only the audio (MP3).
• –yes-playlist: processes the whole list without stopping.
• –audio-quality 0: maximum available quality.

Program update

In case you don’t know, YouTube constantly changes its code to prevent things like this. If the process fails one day, open PowerShell as before and run:

.yt-dlp.exe -U

Then:

• If there is a new version:  the program will connect to GitHub, download the update, and automatically replace the old file with the new one. You’ll see a message that says:  Updating to version XXXX.XX.XX…
• If it is already up to date:  You will see the message:  yt-dlp is up to date.

Important:  Only the download engine (yt-dlp.exe) is updated. The ffmpeg.exe file usually does not need updates, so updating the first one is enough for everything to keep working.

Conclusion

The process is tremendously easy. And I’m telling you, the first time you use it, it feels like magic.

Trust me and save time, forget the tests and, above all, the viruses.

You’ll thank me.