With YouTube trying to increase advertising, restrict users from blocking YouTube ads, and taking strict action against ad blockers, you might want to subscribe to YouTube Premium, a subscription plan that offers ad-free videos, some features, and YouTube Music. If you’re wondering if Premium is worth it, especially after Google recently increased the price, you’re in the right place. We’ll explain how much YouTube Premium costs and whether it’s worth paying your hard-earned money for.
YouTube Premium pricing and benefits
A personal YouTube Premium subscription costs $13.99 per month if you subscribe via Android or the web. If you subscribe from an iPhone, it will be $18.99 per month as Apple will deduct a percentage from the price, but if you subscribe to Premium via the web or a spare Android device, you should be fine. An annual subscription costs $139.99.
Family and student plans are available for $22.99 and $7.99 per month, respectively. The family plan gives you access to YouTube Premium benefits on up to five devices. There’s also a YouTube Music-only plan, which, like Spotify, costs $10.99 per month or $109.99 per year for individuals, or $16.99 for a family of five.
With a Premium subscription you get:
Includes a YouTube Music subscription Ad-free playback Download videos for offline viewing Background playback Continue watching Premium controls Picture-in-picture support Video queueing on smartphones and tablets Higher video bitrates Look-ahead, smart downloads
Is YouTube Premium worth it?
If youโre looking for a short answer, then yes, the benefits are worth it. As someone who has been using YouTube Premium for almost a year, here are my thoughts on who should consider subscribing to YouTube Premium and who should avoid it.
If you hate ads
It’s no surprise that the main reason people are considering YouTube Premium is the ads that appear on the platform. Google has increased the frequency of ads on YouTube over the past few years, so if you hate ads, Premium might be worth a try. Image credit: Shutterstock
Sure, the recently increased price of $14 is a bit steep, but time is money, and not seeing ads with YouTube Premium can save you a lot of time, not to mention unlocking all the other perks that come with the subscription.
Kill two birds with one stone
As you may know, Spotify has recently increased its subscription fees, and users have started searching for alternatives on the internet, leaving them feeling disappointed. However, YouTube Music is a great alternative to Spotify.
If you use both YouTube and Spotify, you can get YouTube Music by subscribing to YouTube Premium, which essentially means you can avoid paying for two different subscriptions and enjoy both ad-free videos and music by just paying for Premium.
Google has a standalone subscription plan that gives you just YouTube Music for $11 a month, but we recommend paying the extra $2 to get all the perks of YouTube Premium.
I wish there was a video-only option for Premium at a lower cost, like a separate YouTube Music-only subscription. Not everyone listens to Music, so this plan would make Premium available to more people.
Greatly improved playback performance and enhanced functionality
Features like background play, continue watching, and picture-in-picture are three of the main reasons to get a premium subscription. The feature I use most is continue watching. It allows you to resume a video on your PC from where you left off on your smartphone. It’s a great feature if you need to switch between devices often.
Background playback and picture-in-picture are great features if you want to work and watch content at the same time. PiP in Android 15 recently got new animations, making it perfect for watching content while doing other things. YouTube Shorts, a popular video viewing format, also got PiP support exclusively for Premium subscribers.
Additionally, YouTube Premium also gives you the ability to play videos at a higher bitrate, which, for those unaware, is supposed to reduce artifacts in action-packed videos with a lot of movement.
Offline, Smart Download
I have both of these features enabled but have never personally used them. Smart Download automatically downloads videos that match your preferences so you can watch them offline. Offline Download manually saves videos so you can watch them offline. I don’t watch much content on my smartphone, but if I did, these features could be very useful.
Cue Video and Premium Controls
The ability to queue videos on your phone or tablet isn’t a huge feature, and the premium controls feature mostly feels like a gimmick – the latter opens up a menu with UI buttons for play, pause, fast forward, rewind, video quality, etc., which are already present in the YouTube player.
Should I buy premium?
The decision to buy Premium comes down to how important two things are to you: ad-free playback and price. Other features, while still important, are just perks. With prices starting at $13.99, YouTube Premium offers a lot more than just ad-free playback. Features like continue watching, PiP, and smart/offline downloads further enhance the experience and are worth the purchase.
Plus it includes YouTube Music, which has only gotten better over the last few years. If ads aren’t a problem for you, features like offline/smart downloads and PiP, background play and continue watching improve the YouTube user experience and make Premium a good investment.