YouTube introduced a new, cheaper paid tier in the US called YouTube Lite. While the “Lite” plan is light on perks, it also carries a lower monthly subscription fee of $7.99 per month.
YouTube Premium Lite retains the biggest advantage of paying for YouTube: an ad-free viewing experience. Well, almost.
YouTube Premium Lite is all about its lower price tag
In recent years, like most streaming services, YouTube has also raised the price of its Premium subscription. The individual plan has increased from $11.99 to $13.99 per month. For this, the Premium subscription includes perks like ad-free videos, offline downloads, background play, and YouTube Music access.
However, many users only want to watch YouTube without ads, and paying $13.99 per month just for that made little sense. YouTube trialed a YouTube Lite subscription back in 2021, which had a lower monthly subscription cost and fewer benefits.
Based on that feedback, the company is now making YouTube Premium Lite official in the US. For $7.99 per month, it contains only one perk: “most videos ad-free.”
Photo: YouTube
In its announcement, YouTube says that with YouTube Lite, you can watch videos from gaming, fashion, beauty, news, and other categories ad-free. The platform will only show ads on music videos, Shorts, and videos that you search or browse.
There are no other benefits to the plan, so you don’t get access to offline downloads, background play, and YouTube Music. Still, if you never cared about these YouTube Premium benefits, the Lite plan makes much more sense, especially since it is $6 cheaper.
For now, YouTube Premium Lite is only available in the US. In the coming weeks, the cheaper plan’s availability will expand to Thailand, Germany, and Australia. YouTube did not mention if it plans to offer the Lite plan globally.
Rajesh has been closely following and writing about the latest happenings in the world of mobile for nearly a decade now. While he prefers Android, he does not deny the superiority of Apple’s products and ecosystem.
