YouTube’s Affordable Premium Lite Plan Officially Launches in the US
Credit: Christian Wiediger
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We saw hints last month that YouTube might soon launch a cheaper ad-free tier in the US, and now it appears that became a reality this week. YouTube Premium Lite began rolling out in the United States yesterday after an extended on-again-off-again trial in several other countries, providing a more affordable way to legitimately avoid ads on the popular streaming service.
After YouTube began cracking down on ad blockers in 2023, many folks were left with little choice but to pay for YouTube Premium if they wanted an ad-free experience. However, that was a pretty expensive route, especially since YouTube added insult to injury by hiking the price of Premium around the same time it began its fight against ad blockers.
YouTube Premium costs $13.99 monthly in the US (assuming you sign up directly on YouTube’s website), but it also does far more than just removing the ads, including adding support for background playback, picture-in-picture, and video downloads.
Not everyone needs all these extra perks, so the market has been ripe for a more cost-effective way to just filter out the ads for those who want an uninterrupted viewing experience. That’s where YouTube Premium Lite comes in.
For $7.99 per month, the Lite plan will make “most” videos on YouTube ad-free. This includes gaming, fashion, beauty, news, and more. The big exception? Music videos will still carry the same ads they do for free users; you’ll need to spring for the full Premium plan if you want to get rid of the ads from those.
Unsurprisingly, YouTube Premium Lite doesn’t give you anything else beyond ad-free viewing. There’s no support for downloads, background play, and picture-in-picture on the iPhone and iPad will work the same as it does for free users, which means you won’t be able to use it for music videos either.
That’s likely because YouTube has a special licensing arrangement for those with Vevo and the record labels. Most of the content on YouTube costs the company nothing beyond the cost of hosting those videos, so the ads on those are mostly for the creators. YouTube gets a sizeable cut of that advertising revenue, but it’s still mostly profit. On the other hand, YouTube has to pay for the music it provides, so it needs to recoup those costs through ads and the pricier Premium plan.
The Premium Lite plan also doesn’t get rid of the ads you’ll see while you’re browsing and searching YouTube; it’s mostly about reducing the pre-roll and interruptive ads that occur during videos. Similarly, parks like higher-quality audio and video and experimental features like PiP for YouTube Shorts will still be limited to members of the full Premium plan.
In January, Google introduced a special deal for Google One Premium subscribers, offering $2 per month off a YouTube Premium subscription. This brings that down to $11.99 per month, but you’ll also need to already be paying $9.99 monthly for a Google One Premium plan with 2TB of cloud storage to take advantage of it.
At $7.99 per month, YouTube Premium Lite is still the most affordable option for folks that simply don’t want to be interrupted by ads when watching their favourite videos.
Although YouTube Premium Lite was piloted in Thailand, Germany, and Australia, it’s launching to all users in the US first. YouTube promises it will get a full rollout in those other countries “in the coming weeks.”
