There are few things in life more annoying than two unskippable 90-second ads every five minutes in a YouTube video. If you're ready to leave ads in the past, you might be interested in a YouTube Premium subscription. YouTube offers two tiers: Premium, which is totally ad-free and includes a YouTube Music subscription, and YouTube Premium Lite, a cheaper option with limited ads sans YouTube Music.
Also: YouTube Premium is getting a price increase in June - but you can save $32 with one change
Both plans offer offline viewing and picture-in-picture video; YouTube Premium is $13.99/month, while YouTube Premium Lite recently increased by $1 to $8.99/month. You might choose the YouTube Premium membership for a completely ad-free experience and all the premium benefits, or the Lite membership to avoid the drawbacks of the free tier at a lower cost.
Here's everything you should know before making a decision.
Specifications
YouTube Premium Premium Lite
You should choose YouTube Premium if…
1. You want to bundle videos and music
A YouTube Premium subscription includes ad-free video-watching and a YouTube Music subscription. If you're willing to cancel an $11/month Apple Music or $13/month Spotify subscription, you can switch to YouTube Premium for $14/month.
Unlike Apple Music, YouTube Music lacks lossless audio and Dolby Atmos, and unlike Spotify, it lacks a comprehensive audiobook library. However, with a subscription, you can access music videos on YouTube ad-free, and YouTube Music offers several popular podcasts ad-free.
2. You can't stand ads - period
If you can't stand ads, especially if you watch YouTube more than you watch Netflix or Hulu, you'd benefit greatly from a YouTube Premium subscription. With a subscription, all videos on YouTube and YouTube Kids are ad-free, you can download videos to play offline, and you can continue playing a video even with your screen locked.
Also: How to download YouTube videos for free - 2 easy and reliable methods I always use
YouTube ads range from political ads and local business messaging to obscure mobile games and AI-generated ads. If you're lucky, you can skip them in 30 seconds or less, while other times, the ads run for 60+ seconds. On mobile, you'll often encounter two unskippable ads throughout your video.
You should choose YouTube Premium Lite if…
Subscribe to YouTube Premium Lite
1. You can't justify $14/month
Although you hate YouTube ads, you can't bring yourself to pay $14/month to eradicate them. Fortunately, a Lite subscription is $9/month, but not all videos are ad-free. According to YouTube, ad-free content is available only for gaming, fashion, beauty, and news videos. Music content and YouTube Shorts may still contain ads. I can attest to this as someone with a Premium Lite subscription: whether you're watching an official music video or a user-uploaded live performance, you'll get ads between nearly every video.
However, for any other content, a Premium Lite subscription guarantees an essentially ad-free experience. Whether I'm watching an hour-long BBC documentary or videos from GQ's "10 Essentials" series, I can watch for hours and hours and avoid ads.
A Lite subscription also lets you download videos to play offline and continue playing videos with your screen locked, but these features are limited. YouTube Shorts, official music videos, and user-generated content featuring songs from YouTube's partners are excluded from download and background play within this subscription tier.
2. You don't want to switch from Spotify or Apple Music
If you aren't ready to part ways with Spotify or Apple Music, YouTube Premium Lite is the best middle ground to upgrade your YouTube account without overpaying for unused features.
Also: Spotify vs. YouTube Music: I paid for both services, and this one was more worth it
Although a YouTube Premium and YouTube Music subscription bundle is more cost-effective than a Spotify or Apple Music subscription plus YouTube Premium Lite, you might forego your favorite features to save a few bucks a month.
If you watch a lot of YouTube, chances are your preferred videos are compatible with the Lite subscription's ad-free parameters. And now, you can even watch videos in picture-in-picture mode with only a Lite subscription, making the pricier Premium tier harder to justify.
Writer's choice
I watch a lot of YouTube. After years of vowing to never pay for a subscription, I caved and purchased YouTube Premium Lite. Since most of the videos I enjoy fall into this tier's ad-free parameters, I've greatly enjoyed it. I prefer a YouTube Premium Lite subscription to YouTube Premium, first because it's cheaper and second because I don't want to cancel my Apple Music subscription. To have fewer ads on YouTube and not pay for YouTube Music, I'll happily stick with YouTube Premium Lite.
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