YouTube shutting down ad-free ‘Premium Lite’ plan for some, testing new version for others [U]

Ben Schoon | Sep 26 2023 - 12:38 pm PT

YouTube Premium offers quite a bit, but its biggest attraction is ad-free videos. That’s what made YouTube “Premium Lite” attractive, as it brought ad-free viewing for less money. However, the tier is now shutting down in some countries.

In mid-2021, Google introduced a more affordable “Premium Lite” plan for YouTube that ditched YouTube Music, offline downloads, and background playback. The only advantage it had over the regular YouTube experience was the addition of ad-free viewing, but it came at half the cost of the regular YouTube Premium plan at €6.99 per month.

Now, YouTube is removing that plan.

As confirmed in emails seen by The Verge, YouTube Premium Lite is shutting down in the handful of European countries where it was available (Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden). The plan never expanded to other regions.

YouTube says in that email.

We’re writing to let you know that after 25 October 2023, we will no longer be offering your version of Premium Lite. While we understand that this may be disappointing news, we continue to work on different versions of Premium Lite as we incorporate feedback from our users, creators and partners.

Update 9/26: YouTube has clarified to 9to5Google that it will continue to toy around with different versions of Premium Lite based on feedback received from viewers, creators, and partners.

According to YouTube, a new version of Premium Lite has also become available in Thailand which may be rolled out more broadly based on feedback.

The removal comes just a few weeks after YouTube Premium upped its prices for individual plans for the first time, with the plan now starting at $13.99/month. Family plans, meanwhile, jumped to $22.99/month late last year.

Earlier this year, we called on Google to offer a more affordable version of YouTube Premium without the addition of YouTube Music and downloads – much like this “Premium Lite” plan – in order to offer an easier point of entry for users who have grown frustrated with YouTube’s aggressive ads, especially as the platform has been pushing to block ad blockers.