Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Audio / Video
  3. Guides

What is YouTube Premium? Price, content, and more

By and

With so many different apps, services, and streaming platforms out there, it can be overwhelming trying to figure out which ones are right for you. And navigating YouTube’s latest suite of products presents a similar issue. The Google-run video-hosting website, launched in 2005, is massively popular, with more than 400 hours of video uploaded every minute. But lately, the service’s many expansions in the search for more revenue have made things a bit convoluted.

In the past few years, we’ve seen the launch of YouTube Music, YouTube TV, the now-defunct YouTube Go, and the one you’ve probably heard about most lately, YouTube Premium. If you’re wondering what exactly that means, read on as we explain what YouTube Premium is, how much it costs, and whether it’s right for you.

Recommended Videos

What is YouTube Premium?

YouTube Premium on iPhone.
Phil Nickinson/Digital Trends

YouTube Premium is a subscription-based service (it debuted as “Music Key” in 2014 and, as with many Google services, was eventually rebranded to YouTube Red before arriving at its current name) that adds several features to the basic YouTube experience.

Related

Unlike Spotify or Apple Music, it’s not a dedicated music streaming platform. Rather, it’s a multifaceted offering that boasts a number of small benefits to improve your YouTube experience, including ad-free YouTube video and YouTube Music streaming, offline playback, and access to exclusive, paywalled content. (Most of this content is created by well-known YouTubers and influencers.)

How much does YouTube Premium cost?

Considering the vast majority of YouTube content is free, the first thing that likely came into your mind was, “OK, so how much does it cost?” Well, unfortunately, due to a recent price increase announcement, it’s now a little more expensive than it was at launch.

An individual plan is $14 per month after a one-month trial, after seeing a $2 increase in July 2023. And previously, in October 2022, YouTube informed subscribers that the price of a family plan would increase from $18 per month to $23 per month.

Family plans allow up to six accounts total, so it’s still a budget-friendly offering if you’re sharing it with friends or actual family members.

Students can also subscribe to YouTube Premium for $7, although they’ll need to verify their student status once a year.

If you’re interested in YouTube’s original programming, YouTube Originals are free to watch and are also ad-free for Premium subscribers. However, non-Premium subscribers can still watch YouTube Originals free with ads.

What do you get with YouTube Premium?

As mentioned, YouTube Premium comes with a slew of benefits. We’ll run them down to simplify things for you.

Ad-free viewing

As mentioned above, a YouTube Premium subscription removes all advertisements from YouTube. This includes both banner ads and video ads (whether you’re in a desktop browser or on mobile) and extends to the YouTube Music app. For many, the default ad load isn’t too heavy, but YouTube brass has let on that those who “use YouTube like a paid music service” might encounter increased ad density.

Ad-free viewing extends to any platform on which you use YouTube Premium, including the web, smartphones, Roku, or any other streaming device.

YouTube Originals

YouTube Originals is dead insofar as you shouldn’t expect to see any new content under that branding. The YouTube Originals channel still remains, however, with more than 6.7 million subscribers and a host of shows and various other videos.

YouTube Music Premium

YouTube Music with background play.

Originally, a YouTube Premium subscription got you access to Google Play Music, but Google has streamlined its music offerings down to just YouTube Music. With YouTube Premium, you’ll also get access to YouTube Music Premium (normally $10 per month). Like YouTube Premium, YouTube Music Premium offers ad-free playback, offline viewing, and background play on mobile.

Background play on mobile

With a YouTube Premium subscription, you can lock your phone (or switch to a different app), and videos will continue to play in the background. This is a nice feature for listening to podcasts and the like or if you just want to listen to a song but can’t find it on any other platform. It works in the YouTube app and the YouTube Music app.

Offline viewing

You can download videos (and whole playlists) for offline viewing with YouTube Premium, a very useful feature for plane flights (or, really, any time you want to save mobile data or expect to have poor service). You will need to have a fair bit of free space on your phone, but downloading songs via YouTube Music instead of the default YouTube app mitigates this to a degree.

Is YouTube Premium worth it?

All streaming services have different values for different people. If you’re not a big YouTube consumer, you don’t need YouTube Premium — especially if you’re already happily subscribed to Spotify or Apple Music and don’t need the YouTube Music bonus.

But if you use YouTube religiously, have specific creators you love, and want to consume as much original content as you can, the $12-per-month price tag might be worth it. It’s about the same as most traditional streaming services, after all. Plus, you can cut down on the price by splitting a $23-per-month family plan with just one other person.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Kris Wouk
Kris Wouk
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…
YouTube TV: plans, pricing, channels, how to cancel, and more
The YouTube TV on a Roku TV.

When you think of streaming video, you think YouTube. And so YouTube TV — Google's live TV streaming service — very much just makes sense for a lot of people. Designed for those who want to cut the cord and ditch their cable or satellite subscriptions (and known in the industry as a multichannel video programming distributor, or MPVD), YouTube TV competes in the same arena as other streaming television services like DirecTV Stream (formerly known as AT&T TV Now and DirecTV Now), Sling TV, FuboTV, and Hulu With Live TV.

And YouTube TV offers a unique mix of features that make it very appealing, so much so that it's now the No. 1 service in the U.S. in terms of the number of paid subscribers, with some 5 million subscribers as of June 2022 — up some 2 million from the last time the service gave an update in October 2020. The popularity is due to several factors. YouTube TV is easy to use. It's got a selection of channels that's competitive with all its rivals. And the YouTube TV price is competitive, too. You're able to watch YouTube TV on pretty much any modern device. And the fact that parent company Alphabet (aka Google) has been marketing the heck out of it the past few years certainly hasn't hurt, either.

Read more
NFL Sunday Ticket price looks to push more viewers toward YouTube TV
NFL on YouTube TV.

We're still months away from the next NFL season, but we now have pricing information on the next incarnation of NFL Sunday Ticket, the subscription that lets you watch all out-of-market games. The package has left DirecTV's satellite service and will now be available on YouTube and YouTube TV starting in August.

The option to sign up will be available "over the next few days," according to the official YouTube blog. And there's a $100 discount if you sign up by June 6, 2023.

Read more
YouTube gives iOS users another reason to pay for Premium
YouTube Premium on iPhone.

Subscription fatigue is real. But YouTube today just gave more reasons to pony up a few bucks every month for YouTube Premium, especially if you're on iOS. The big selling point for Premium, which costs $12 a month, is that you'll get rid of ads on your YouTube experience. That's worth it in and of itself. But you'll also get the ability to play videos in the background, download for offline viewing, and a subscription to YouTube Music Premium.

The new stuff adds on to all that.

Read more