Sign in to confirm you’re not a bot: why yt-dlp gets blocked

YouTube asks some sessions to sign in before it serves a video. What the yt-dlp error means, the documented request limits.

ERROR: [youtube] VIDEO_ID: Sign in to confirm you’re not a bot. Use --cookies-from-browser or --cookies for the authentication.

Short answer

YouTube asks some sessions to sign in before it serves a video. What the yt-dlp error means, the documented request limits, and what the maintainers say helps and what does not.

Diagnosis checked 2026-11-11; sources below.

Why it happens

YouTube refused to play the video for this session and asked for a signed-in account; yt-dlp passes the message on. Its maintainers point to downloading too much too fast and to data-center IPs, which are more likely to be blocked. Source: yt-dlp issue #10128.

Do this now

If the data is yours or your use fits the official terms, switch to the official route: YouTube Data API v3 (Public API). No per-call fee is published; the constraint is the daily quota. Extra quota is not self-serve.
For video files and metadata at volume, run a hosted route instead of patching your own requests: YouTube Video, Playlist & Channel Downloader with Metadata. The request below runs it with its published example input through the Apify API (your token, billed at the Store price).
Compare every route, with fields and prices, on the YouTube page.

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>")
run_input = {
    "mode": "metadata",
    "videoUrls": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw"
    ],
    "playlistUrls": [],
    "channelUrls": [],
    "searchQueries": [],
    "videoQuality": "360p",
    "container": "auto",
    "audioOnly": False,
    "audioFormat": "m4a",
    "downloadSubtitles": False,
    "subtitleLanguages": [
        "en"
    ],
    "subtitleFormat": "vtt",
    "includeTranscript": False,
    "maxVideos": 1,
    "maxMinutes": 30,
    "maxMB": 100,
    "allow4K": False,
    "storage": "ephemeral_kvs",
    "storageRetentionDays": 7,
    "s3Prefix": "youtube-downloader",
    "s3Region": "auto",
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": True
    }
}

run = client.actor("nimbryxo-studio/youtube-video-playlist-and-channel-downloader").call(run_input=run_input)
if run is None:
    raise RuntimeError("The Actor run was not found.")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

pip install apify-client

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from "apify-client";

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: "<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>" });
const input = {
    "mode": "metadata",
    "videoUrls": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw"
    ],
    "playlistUrls": [],
    "channelUrls": [],
    "searchQueries": [],
    "videoQuality": "360p",
    "container": "auto",
    "audioOnly": false,
    "audioFormat": "m4a",
    "downloadSubtitles": false,
    "subtitleLanguages": [
        "en"
    ],
    "subtitleFormat": "vtt",
    "includeTranscript": false,
    "maxVideos": 1,
    "maxMinutes": 30,
    "maxMB": 100,
    "allow4K": false,
    "storage": "ephemeral_kvs",
    "storageRetentionDays": 7,
    "s3Prefix": "youtube-downloader",
    "s3Region": "auto",
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true
    }
};

const run = await client.actor("nimbryxo-studio/youtube-video-playlist-and-channel-downloader").call(input);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

npm install apify-client

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/nimbryxo-studio~youtube-video-playlist-and-channel-downloader/run-sync-get-dataset-items"   -H "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN"   -H "Content-Type: application/json"   -d '{"mode":"metadata","videoUrls":["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw"],"playlistUrls":[],"channelUrls":[],"searchQueries":[],"videoQuality":"360p","container":"auto","audioOnly":false,"audioFormat":"m4a","downloadSubtitles":false,"subtitleLanguages":["en"],"subtitleFormat":"vtt","includeTranscript":false,"maxVideos":1,"maxMinutes":30,"maxMB":100,"allow4K":false,"storage":"ephemeral_kvs","storageRetentionDays":7,"s3Prefix":"youtube-downloader","s3Region":"auto","proxyConfiguration":{"useApifyProxy":true}}'

Waits for the run and returns the dataset items (runs over 300 seconds return HTTP 408; start an async run instead).

MCP (AI agents)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=nimbryxo-studio/youtube-video-playlist-and-channel-downloader",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Adds this Actor as a tool in an MCP client that takes a remote server URL (Cursor, VS Code, Claude Code) through Apify's hosted MCP server. OAuth sign-in also works without the header. Clients that only start local servers can wrap the URL with npx mcp-remote.

Open YouTube Video, Playlist & Channel Downloader with Metadata in Apify Store

Routes that work for YouTube data

The official route first, then the catalogue Actors that fit this problem (video files and metadata), by their published fields. Store figures are the publisher's public numbers.

Routes for YouTube data
Route	Core fields	Price / 1K	Success, 30 days	Link
Public APIYouTube Data API v3	not compared	below		Official docs
YouTube Video, Playlist & Channel Downloader with Metadata	4/8	$0.99	96% of 24 runs	Open in Apify Store
YouTube Video Metadata & Chapter Extractor	7/8	$0.99	16 runs, too few to rate	Open in Apify Store
YouTube Caption & Whisper AI Transcript Extractor	6/8	$0.99	92% of 26 runs	Open in Apify Store

Official price: No per-call fee is published; the constraint is the daily quota. Extra quota is not self-serve. Compare all 25 YouTube routes.

The facts behind the error

Fact	Value
What it means	YouTube refused to play the video for this session and asked for a signed-in account; yt-dlp passes the message on and adds a cookies hint
Documented cause	yt-dlp maintainers point to downloading too much too fast and to data-center IPs, which are more likely to be blocked
Documented request limits	About 300 videos an hour for guest sessions and about 2,000 an hour for accounts; the wiki suggests a 5-10 second delay between downloads
PO Token support	The po_token extractor argument shipped in yt-dlp 2024.09.27 (pull request #10648)
JavaScript runtime	Since yt-dlp 2025.11.12 an external JavaScript runtime (Deno recommended) is required for full YouTube support
Account risk	The yt-dlp wiki warns that an account used with yt-dlp can be banned, temporarily or permanently
Tracking issue	Issue #10128 opened June 7, 2024 and was closed November 21, 2024 as outside yt-dlp's control