diff --git a/yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py b/yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py
index f9670429a..38ecd276f 100644
--- a/yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py
+++ b/yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py
@@ -312,7 +312,7 @@ class YoutubeDL:
                        has been filtered out.
     break_per_url:     Whether break_on_reject and break_on_existing
                        should act on each input URL as opposed to for the entire queue
-    cookiefile:        File name where cookies should be read from and dumped to
+    cookiefile:        File name or text stream from where cookies should be read and dumped to
     cookiesfrombrowser:  A tuple containing the name of the browser, the profile
                        name/pathfrom where cookies are loaded, and the name of the
                        keyring. Eg: ('chrome', ) or ('vivaldi', 'default', 'BASICTEXT')
diff --git a/yt_dlp/cookies.py b/yt_dlp/cookies.py
index b06edfc5d..c6edaebe4 100644
--- a/yt_dlp/cookies.py
+++ b/yt_dlp/cookies.py
@@ -83,9 +83,12 @@ def load_cookies(cookie_file, browser_specification, ydl):
         cookie_jars.append(extract_cookies_from_browser(browser_name, profile, YDLLogger(ydl), keyring=keyring))
 
     if cookie_file is not None:
-        cookie_file = expand_path(cookie_file)
+        is_filename = YoutubeDLCookieJar.is_path(cookie_file)
+        if is_filename:
+            cookie_file = expand_path(cookie_file)
+
         jar = YoutubeDLCookieJar(cookie_file)
-        if os.access(cookie_file, os.R_OK):
+        if not is_filename or os.access(cookie_file, os.R_OK):
             jar.load(ignore_discard=True, ignore_expires=True)
         cookie_jars.append(jar)
 
diff --git a/yt_dlp/utils.py b/yt_dlp/utils.py
index c9589537f..e683eaaf1 100644
--- a/yt_dlp/utils.py
+++ b/yt_dlp/utils.py
@@ -1439,6 +1439,26 @@ class YoutubeDLCookieJar(compat_cookiejar.MozillaCookieJar):
         'CookieFileEntry',
         ('domain_name', 'include_subdomains', 'path', 'https_only', 'expires_at', 'name', 'value'))
 
+    def __init__(self, filename=None, *args, **kwargs):
+        super().__init__(None, *args, **kwargs)
+        if self.is_path(filename):
+            filename = os.fspath(filename)
+        self.filename = filename
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def is_path(file):
+        return isinstance(file, (str, bytes, os.PathLike))
+
+    @contextlib.contextmanager
+    def open(self, file, *, write=False):
+        if self.is_path(file):
+            with open(file, 'w' if write else 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
+                yield f
+        else:
+            if write:
+                file.truncate(0)
+            yield file
+
     def save(self, filename=None, ignore_discard=False, ignore_expires=False):
         """
         Save cookies to a file.
@@ -1458,7 +1478,7 @@ class YoutubeDLCookieJar(compat_cookiejar.MozillaCookieJar):
             if cookie.expires is None:
                 cookie.expires = 0
 
-        with open(filename, 'w', encoding='utf-8') as f:
+        with self.open(filename, write=True) as f:
             f.write(self._HEADER)
             now = time.time()
             for cookie in self:
@@ -1514,7 +1534,7 @@ class YoutubeDLCookieJar(compat_cookiejar.MozillaCookieJar):
             return line
 
         cf = io.StringIO()
-        with open(filename, encoding='utf-8') as f:
+        with self.open(filename) as f:
             for line in f:
                 try:
                     cf.write(prepare_line(line))