gallery-dl
Freeyt-dlp for images — an entire gallery in one command
A command-line batch image downloader supporting hundreds of image hosts and social platforms. Give it a gallery, user page or tag URL and it downloads every image at original quality, organizing directories and filenames by configurable rules while saving metadata alongside.
Why we picked it
Saving images from the web by hand means right-click and save, one at a time — impossible for a gallery of several hundred. Most browser extensions only capture what is visible on the current page, and frequently grab thumbnails rather than originals.
gallery-dl is the general answer, built on the same premise as yt-dlp: one command, one link, the whole set at original quality. 19,209 stars, GPL-2.0, written in Python.
Basic usage:
gallery-dl <gallery url>
It supports hundreds of sites across image communities, illustration platforms, social networks and assorted image hosts. The URL can be a single image, a gallery, everything by one user, or a tag.
What makes it useful:
- Original files. It resolves site APIs to find the highest-resolution source rather than the compressed version displayed on the page.
- Configurable paths and names, such as
artist/work/index.jpg, so thousands of files stay organized. - Metadata capture: title, author, tags, source URL and publication time saved as JSON alongside, valuable for later archival search.
- Incremental downloads that skip what you already have and fetch only new items, suited to periodically syncing artists you follow.
- Authenticated access by passing cookies for content requiring a login — used only for material your own account is entitled to see.
To be clear about:
- It is a command-line tool with no GUI. The flags are simple, but typing is required. Configuration lives in a JSON file, set up once and reused.
- It needs Python (or one of the packaged standalone executables).
pip install gallery-dlis the easiest route. - Sites change and the tool must be updated. As with yt-dlp, a site redesign breaks extraction until a new version lands, so keep it current.
- Copyright and terms of service are your responsibility. The tool only downloads; downloading copyrighted work for redistribution or commercial use is infringement. Respect creators, note that many platforms' terms prohibit bulk scraping, be clear about your purpose, and throttle your requests so you do not burden someone's server.
Who it suits: people archiving reference material, collecting research images, backing up their own published work, or keeping a local copy in case a platform shuts down.