YouTube introduces cheaper Premium Lite plan

YouTube has today unveiled a new plan called Premium Lite. As the name implies, this is cheaper than YouTube Premium, but it also comes with fewer features. To make sense of what's what, YouTube has provided the image below.

So, whereas with Premium you get a fully ad-free experience (well, aside from the sponsored segments in seemingly all videos), as well as the ability to download videos and background playback support, Premium Lite has none of that.

You aren't getting downloads or background playback, but you should see "most videos ad-free" across categories such as gaming, fashion, beauty, and news. In the small print, YouTube says ads may appear on music content, Shorts, and when you search or browse.

Premium Lite is $7.99 per month versus Premium's $13.99, so you are saving $6 each month, which means $72 per year. Worth it? That's a decision you'll have to make yourself.

Premium Lite is available as a "pilot" for US users, and in the coming weeks, it will be an option for all YouTube users in Germany, Thailand, and Australia, the three countries where it's been offered on a limited pilot basis up until this point. The company says it will continue to expand its Premium Lite pilots to additional countries this year.

YouTube boasts that Premium now has over 125 million subscribers across the world, but the number does include people currently engaging with a trial. Lite seems to be a way to get more people in, by focusing on those who don't want to listen to music on YouTube Music or download any stuff.

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