YouTube is rolling out the pilot of its latest offering, the Premium Lite. The launch of the extension in its ad-free plan subscriptions happened on March 05, 2025.
It is a cheaper alternative at $7.99 per month. The plan is more affordable compared to the more expensive Premium Plan that comes at $13.99 a month. The video-sharing company’s new package caters to people who prefer watching videos more often than listening to music. More concretely, Premium Pan is ad-free for most videos only, excluding content in the music category. It reverses the $10.99 monthly deal in Premium Music.
“We’ve been testing Premium Lite to make sure we have the right balance of features and benefits for those viewers who want to watch most videos ad-free – whether it’s gaming, comedy, cooking, or learning,” reads a YouTube official article.
The company also added that the existing Premium Plan is recommended for users who seek ad-free music with offline and background play.
Serving the Demand of Consumers
YouTube fills the demand of many users who are already subscribed to other music streaming platforms. Alphabet’s media content hub also focuses on providing multiple options for subscribers to enjoy their favorite content. Simultaneously, the company highlights that the expansion of the ad-free plans enables their partners and creators to earn more.
“We didn’t feel that we really got it matching the tier for users that don’t need the music content, and so that’s where this revision comes in,” says YouTube Premium Product Director Jack Greenberg, Kenrick Cai of Reuters reports.
The expansion of the pilot began on Wednesday to US users. YouTube plans to make Premium Lite available to other pilot countries, namely Australia, Germany, and Thailand in the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, YouTube Music and Premium garnered more than 125 million subscribers. However, this figure counts trial subscriptions, hence the cheaper tier.Â
