diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 88a9605f7b..bf06c81f06 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 *.spec
 cookies
 *cookies.txt
+.netrc
 
 # Downloaded
 *.srt
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 8ffb20a8c1..a2c1cbd82f 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -695,6 +695,9 @@ ## Authentication Options:
                                      out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
     -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR        Two-factor authentication code
     -n, --netrc                      Use .netrc authentication data
+    --netrc-location PATH            Location of .netrc authentication data;
+                                     either the path or its containing
+                                     directory. Defaults to ~/.netrc
     --video-password PASSWORD        Video password (vimeo, youku)
     --ap-mso MSO                     Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
                                      provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
@@ -923,14 +926,14 @@ # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
 
 ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
 
-You may also want to configure automatic credentials storage for extractors that support authentication (by providing login and password with `--username` and `--password`) in order not to pass credentials as command line arguments on every yt-dlp execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command history. You can achieve this using a [`.netrc` file](https://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on a per extractor basis. For that you will need to create a `.netrc` file in your `$HOME` and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
+You may also want to configure automatic credentials storage for extractors that support authentication (by providing login and password with `--username` and `--password`) in order not to pass credentials as command line arguments on every yt-dlp execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command history. You can achieve this using a [`.netrc` file](https://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on a per extractor basis. For that you will need to create a `.netrc` file in `--netrc-location` and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
 ```
 touch $HOME/.netrc
 chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
 ```
 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
 ```
-machine <extractor> login <login> password <password>
+machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
 ```
 For example:
 ```
@@ -939,10 +942,7 @@ ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
 ```
 To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
 
-On Windows you may also need to setup the `%HOME%` environment variable manually. For example:
-```
-set HOME=%USERPROFILE%
-```
+The default location of the .netrc file is `$HOME` (`~`) in UNIX. On Windows, it is `%HOME%` if present, `%USERPROFILE%` (generally `C:\Users\<user name>`) or `%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
 
 # OUTPUT TEMPLATE
 
diff --git a/yt_dlp/__init__.py b/yt_dlp/__init__.py
index f9a7e2f111..5168ed0f7c 100644
--- a/yt_dlp/__init__.py
+++ b/yt_dlp/__init__.py
@@ -575,6 +575,7 @@ def report_args_compat(arg, name):
 
     ydl_opts = {
         'usenetrc': opts.usenetrc,
+        'netrc_location': opts.netrc_location,
         'username': opts.username,
         'password': opts.password,
         'twofactor': opts.twofactor,
diff --git a/yt_dlp/extractor/common.py b/yt_dlp/extractor/common.py
index 54a9dc2631..e796842312 100644
--- a/yt_dlp/extractor/common.py
+++ b/yt_dlp/extractor/common.py
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
     compat_cookies_SimpleCookie,
     compat_etree_Element,
     compat_etree_fromstring,
+    compat_expanduser,
     compat_getpass,
     compat_http_client,
     compat_os_name,
@@ -1166,7 +1167,10 @@ def _get_netrc_login_info(self, netrc_machine=None):
 
         if self.get_param('usenetrc', False):
             try:
-                info = netrc.netrc().authenticators(netrc_machine)
+                netrc_file = compat_expanduser(self.get_param('netrc_location') or '~')
+                if os.path.isdir(netrc_file):
+                    netrc_file = os.path.join(netrc_file, '.netrc')
+                info = netrc.netrc(file=netrc_file).authenticators(netrc_machine)
                 if info is not None:
                     username = info[0]
                     password = info[2]
diff --git a/yt_dlp/options.py b/yt_dlp/options.py
index 2ff0fbfc11..099b151c65 100644
--- a/yt_dlp/options.py
+++ b/yt_dlp/options.py
@@ -478,6 +478,10 @@ def _dict_from_options_callback(
         '-n', '--netrc',
         action='store_true', dest='usenetrc', default=False,
         help='Use .netrc authentication data')
+    authentication.add_option(
+        '--netrc-location',
+        dest='netrc_location', metavar='PATH',
+        help='Location of .netrc authentication data; either the path or its containing directory. Defaults to ~/.netrc')
     authentication.add_option(
         '--video-password',
         dest='videopassword', metavar='PASSWORD',