What is Chat Downloader used for?

Chat Downloader is a Python tool and library that retrieves chat messages from livestreams, videos, clips and past broadcasts without requiring authentication. It is a good fit for archiving chat logs from a stream and collecting chat data for analysis.

Is Chat Downloader open source?

Yes. Chat Downloader is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at xenova/chat-downloader and is written mainly in Python.

Is Chat Downloader free?

Yes. Chat Downloader is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

What are some alternatives to Chat Downloader?

Similar open-source tools in the Developer Tools category include Apprise, Neovim and kitty. SaaS products in the same category include act101, Amicro and Angular Material Blocks.

Is Chat Downloader actively maintained?

The most recent commit to Chat Downloader was on 5 November 2025, and the latest release is v0.2.8, published on 3 September 2023. The project has 1.2k stars on GitHub.

Chat Downloader: open-source developer tools

About Chat Downloader

Chat Downloader is a simple tool for retrieving chat messages from livestreams, videos, clips and past broadcasts. Its documentation stresses that no authentication is needed. It is aimed at researchers, moderators, archivists and developers who want to save or analyze chat logs, and the repository topics point to platforms such as Twitch and YouTube.

It is distributed on PyPI and installed with pip, or from source with git. It can be run from the command line with options for start and end times, message types and groups, retry attempts and timeouts, and it can also be used as a Python module. The documentation includes a reference of chat item fields, general options, a contributing guide and a changelog.

Chat Downloader is written in Python and licensed under MIT. Output formats and supported sites change over time, so check the documentation for the current list before relying on a particular platform.

Key features

Downloads chat from livestreams and past broadcasts
No authentication required
Command-line interface with time filters
Python module for scripting
Message type and group filtering
Retry and timeout controls

Good fit for

→Archiving chat logs from a stream
→Collecting chat data for analysis

Built with: Python
Tags: chat; livestream; twitch; youtube; python; cli; scraper; archiving

Chat Downloader: questions and answers

What is Chat Downloader used for?: Chat Downloader is a Python tool and library that retrieves chat messages from livestreams, videos, clips and past broadcasts without requiring authentication. It is a good fit for archiving chat logs from a stream and collecting chat data for analysis.
Is Chat Downloader open source?: Yes. Chat Downloader is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at xenova/chat-downloader and is written mainly in Python.
Is Chat Downloader free?: Yes. Chat Downloader is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
What are some alternatives to Chat Downloader?: Similar open-source tools in the Developer Tools category include Apprise, Neovim and kitty. SaaS products in the same category include act101, Amicro and Angular Material Blocks.
Is Chat Downloader actively maintained?: The most recent commit to Chat Downloader was on 5 November 2025, and the latest release is v0.2.8, published on 3 September 2023. The project has 1.2k stars on GitHub.