YouTube users who do not want to be pestered by ads on the platform have several options. The only official option is a YouTube Premium subscription, which is completely ad-free according to Google.
Problem is, you pay a premium depending on where you live. If you live in the United States, you pay $14 a month for YouTube Premium. This does get you access to YouTube Music, but not everyone needs that.
Look abroad, and you may notice that subscriptions are considerably cheaper in some regions. Users from India, for example, pay less than $16 per year for YouTube Premium.
It should be clear that Google is taking into account wealth differences when selecting prices for YouTube Premium. The per-capita income in India has been $2,050 as of 2023, which is considerably less than the United States 2023 per-capita income of $71,000.
YouTube users finding a loophole
Some YouTube users discovered that they can sign-up for YouTube Premium in a different country. This required the use of a VPN to get to the sign-up page of that country.
Sign-ups worked and users could access YouTube and YouTube Music ad-free afterwards.
Google did receive some money from these users, which some felt was still better than getting nothing. The use of adblockers prevents advertisement as well, and solutions do exist for all major platforms, including desktop PCs, mobile devices, and TVs.
Google fighting back
Reports suggest that Google is now cancelling YouTube Premium subscriptions for some subscribers.
No official confirmation: Google has not confirmed the crackdown officially.
The company told Techcrunch that it has systems in place that detect when a user’s country of origin and the YouTube Premium sign-up country are different.
Customers are asked to update their billing information in this case, according to Google.
Users claim that Google is cancelling their subscriptions outright. Some claimed that they were able to sign-up again using a VPN, but this is unconfirmed.
Closing Words
Google is already playing cat and mouse with adblocking users. It tests and implements changes to get adblocking users to stop using their content blocking extensions on YouTube or signing up for YouTube Premium. Adblockers do get updated quickly and the game begins anew.
It is possible that this is now extended to YouTube Premium subscriptions. Google cancels the subscription and users sign-up again using the same or a different account, in the same or a different region.
Some may also switch to using adblockers instead.
How much is YouTube without ads worth to you? That is a question that every user has to answer individually.
I would pay $5 a month for ad-free YouTube experiences on two devices because I would not need to pay $4 a month for VPN to circumvent ad blocking and I would not need to check for new userscripts when something goes wrong with YouTube webpage after constant changes. And no tracking, too.
YouTube is not worth paying a red cent for. But not only that, while I had considered paying for Google One since I was nearing the limit of free cloud storage – and it was well-priced – I got other cloud storage. I also tried to remove a credit card from Google Play, but that seems impossible to do. So I froze the card. If I want an Android app, I will buy it an alternative way or not at all. After YouTube has been free and free of ads for adblocker users for many years, it doesn’t work to pull this stunt that Google is pulling against adblockers. I really did love Google for many years, but I’m done now and don’t even use Google search.
I have Firefox installed on my phone and have disabled Google Chrome. I buy stuff on my Android phone for which Google is the processor, but use the option to have it charged to my ISP. So Google never gets to see my credit card details.
Other than that I use Firefox and have disabled all Google related apps so no ads appearing out of the blue suddenly.