streamlink
Streamlink is a command-line utility that extracts streams from various services and pipes them into a video player of choice.
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes. Streamlink is actively maintained, has low install friction, carries no known vulnerabilities, and uses a permissive license. It solves a real problem—lightweight stream extraction—and is well-suited for both command-line and programmatic use. Install if you regularly watch or record streams from online services.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires Python >=3.10.
- A video player (VLC by default) must be installed and in PATH for playback; alternatively, output can be redirected to a file.
- Low friction: pure Python wheel with 13 runtime dependencies including standard HTTP and cryptography libraries.
License · maintenance · safety
BSD-2-Clause (permissive) — BSD-2-Clause is permissive; you can use, modify, and distribute Streamlink with minimal restrictions, provided you retain the license notice.
last release 2026-08-01 (13 days) · last repo commit 2026-08-12 · 11,689 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 217,968 downloads/mo, #9,347 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install streamlink
streamlink "https://example.com/stream" best- Whether all 13 runtime dependencies are always required or if some are optional for specific plugins or use cases.
- Which specific streaming services are currently supported beyond the general mention of Twitch and YouTube.
- Performance characteristics when handling high-bitrate or long-duration streams.
What it is and what it does
Streamlink is a command-line tool and Python library that extracts video streams from online services and sends them directly to a video player or file. It was forked from the abandoned Livestreamer project in 2016 and uses a plugin system to support many popular streaming platforms. Rather than loading resource-heavy website interfaces, Streamlink retrieves the underlying stream URL and plays it in your choice of player—VLC by default, but with options to write to disk, read metadata, or integrate into Python code.
The package depends on 13 runtime libraries covering HTTP requests, cryptography, XML parsing, and async I/O (trio and trio-websocket). It supports Python 3.10 through 3.14 and runs on Windows, macOS, and POSIX systems. The library is actively maintained, with a recent release and ongoing commits, making it suitable for both CLI use and programmatic integration into Python applications.
Use it for
- Watch Twitch or YouTube streams without loading the website's player or ads in a browser.
- Record live streams to disk by redirecting Streamlink output to a file instead of playing in VLC.
- Automate stream monitoring or archival by calling Streamlink's Python API from a script.
- Extract stream metadata (resolution, bitrate, codec) for analysis or logging without playback.
- Integrate stream extraction into a custom media application using Streamlink as a library.
- Access streams from services that require authentication or have region restrictions via plugin configuration.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes.
Streamlink is actively maintained, has low install friction, carries no known vulnerabilities, and uses a permissive license. It solves a real problem—lightweight stream extraction—and is well-suited for both command-line and programmatic use. Install if you regularly watch or record streams from online services.
Install
streamlink on PyPI
Before you install
Low friction: pure Python wheel with 13 runtime dependencies including standard HTTP and cryptography libraries. Active maintenance with a release 13 days ago and 11689 GitHub stars; last commit 2026-08-12 signals ongoing development.
Requires Python >=3.10. A video player (VLC by default) must be installed and in PATH for playback; alternatively, output can be redirected to a file.
License in practice
BSD-2-Clause is permissive; you can use, modify, and distribute Streamlink with minimal restrictions, provided you retain the license notice.
Quickstart
pip install streamlink
streamlink "https://example.com/stream" bestVerify before relying
- Whether all 13 runtime dependencies are always required or if some are optional for specific plugins or use cases.
- Which specific streaming services are currently supported beyond the general mention of Twitch and YouTube.
- Performance characteristics when handling high-bitrate or long-duration streams.
Package facts
| License | BSD-2-Clause permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.10 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 13 packagescertifiexceptiongroupisodatelxmlpycountrypycryptodomePySocksrequeststriotrio-websockettyping-extensionsurllib3websocket-client |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 13 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 217,968 / month, #9,347 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Development Status :: 5 - Production/StableEnvironment :: ConsoleIntended Audience :: End Users/DesktopOperating System :: MacOSOperating System :: Microsoft :: WindowsOperating System :: POSIXProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3 :: OnlyProgramming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13Programming Language :: Python :: 3.14Topic :: Internet :: WWW/HTTPTopic :: Multimedia :: Sound/AudioTopic :: Multimedia :: VideoTopic :: Utilities |
Evidence: streamlink-8.5.0-py3-none-any.whl
Tags
Let your AI agent find packages like this
Example. Real query, live index.
You found this page by searching. An agent finds it by wishing: SkillFed indexes 14,416 PyPI packages by what they can do, searchable in plain language.
wish › “stream extraction from websites”
- streamlinkStreamlink extracts video streams from various online services and…
- spider-clientPython SDK for the Spider Cloud API that enables website scraping,…
- recipe-scrapersExtracts structured recipe data (ingredients, instructions, cooking…
Give your agent the search over MCP, or paste the wish link into any chat.
More WWW/HTTP packages
urllib3 is an HTTP client library that provides thread-safe connection pooling, SSL/TLS verification, multipart file uploads, request retries, compression support, and proxy handling for Python applications.
Requests is a Python HTTP library that simplifies sending HTTP/1.1 requests with automatic handling of headers, authentication, cookies, and response parsing.
h11 is a pure-Python HTTP/1.1 protocol implementation that handles parsing and serializing HTTP messages without any built-in I/O, letting you integrate it with any network layer you choose.
HTTPX is a fully featured HTTP client library for Python that provides both sync and async APIs, with support for HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2, plus an integrated command-line client.
Install it if you are building new projects or modernizing existing ones that rely on HTTP.
A minimal low-level HTTP client library that sends HTTP requests with thread-safe and task-safe connection pooling, supporting HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2, proxies, and both sync and async interfaces.
aiohttp is an async HTTP client and server framework built on asyncio, supporting both WebSockets and middleware-based routing for building concurrent web applications.
Install it if you need async HTTP client or server capabilities in asyncio-based applications.
See also pytube · youtube_dl · pytubefix · ffmpeg-python · sentence-stream · nominal-streaming · python-vlc · m3u8 · quixstreams · mux-python