YouTube Premium, Google’s subscription-based plan for its video streaming service YouTube, is either quite expensive or a great deal, depending on who you ask.
If you are just after getting rid of ads on YouTube, it is quite expensive in the eyes of many. One reason is that Google added YouTube Music to the subscription. That’s great for users who use it, but not so much for everyone else.
That is probably the main reason why Google tested various YouTube Premium Lite offers in the past. Currently, Google is testing YouTube Premium Lite again.
YouTube Premium Lite
Here are the main differences to YouTube Premium
- No access to YouTube Music.
- No downloads (offline watching).
- No background playback in YouTube apps.
- Mostly ad-free (some ads may be shown when watching music videos).
The price of a YouTube Premium Lite subscription is less than half of a YouTube Premium subscription. In the European Union, you pay €5.99 (which is roughly $6)
Find out if you can subscribe to YouTube Premium
All it takes is to click on this link to find out. You either get “this offer is not available” or an option to subscribe to Premium Lite (maybe even with a trial month for $0).
Tip: do not use the the iPhone app to subscribe to YouTube Premium or YouTube Premium Lite. You will pay a “premium” because of Apple App Store fees.
Good to know: Premium Lite is in testing at the time. Google could shutter the service at any time or make it available to more or even all Internet users.
There is another way
As you all know, Google is battling content blockers on YouTube as well as third-party YouTube clients. While the battle is raging, most content blockers and apps continue to work at the time of writing.
You could, use an app like NewPipe or a browser like Brave or Firefox (with uBlock Origin extension) on mobile to access YouTube.
“Mostly ad-free”.. Nopety Nope Nope. I am am willing to pay ONE euro, per YEAR, for YouTube with ZERO ads, on unlimited amounts of devices. And that’s being generous.