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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- YouTube is raising prices by $2 to $4 a month.
- The increase applies to all monthly subscriptions and the annual plan.
- This is just the latest move among streaming services to boost prices.
Do you subscribe to YouTube Premium? If so, you’ll soon be paying premium prices to watch your favorite videos.
Both new and existing subscribers are getting socked by higher price tags due to go into effect with the June billing cycle. The sign-up page for YouTube Premium reveals the gory details. But here are the increases for each plan:
- Lite plan: $8.99 per month, up from $7.99.
- Student plan: $8.99 per month, up from $7.99.
- Individual plan: $15.99 per month, up from $13.99.
- Family plan: $26.99 per month, up from $22.99.
Also: I was overpaying for YouTube Premium for months without realizing it – check yours ASAP
One way to save money on an individual plan is to opt for an annual subscription instead of a monthly one. But even here, YouTube is boosting the price to $159.99, up from $139.99. If you subscribe through Apple, the news is even worse. With Apple taking its usual 30% cut of the action, you’ll shell out 30% more than if you sign up for YouTube Premium at the website.
YouTube has been alerting current subscribers about the price increases via email. One person who has the individual plan through Apple shared the email on Reddit, which read in part: “To continue delivering great service and features, we’re increasing your price to $20.99/month. We don’t make these decisions lightly, but this update will allow us to continue to improve Premium and support the creators and artists you watch on YouTube.”
Save by signing up directly on YouTube
The email also told this person that they would save on their Premium subscription by signing up directly on the website, where the new rate would be $15.99/month.
Compared with free YouTube, a Premium plan offers several perks. You can watch videos ad-free, download and play them offline, and run videos in the background while doing something else. With all plans except Lite, you can listen to music ad-free in the YouTube Music app and enjoy other benefits.
Also: Why YouTube with ads just isn’t worth it for me anymore – even if it’s free
The last time YouTube bumped up the cost of its Premium subscriptions was in 2023. At that point, the price of an individual plan rose to $13.99 a month from $11.99, while the cost of an annual plan increased to $139.99 from $119.99.
Over the past year, price increases have run rampant among video streamers. Last month, Netflix raised the cost of its standard plan with ads by $1 per month and the cost of its ad-free standard and premium plans by $2. Last October, the price tag for Hulu with Live TV jumped to $90 a month, up from $82. In September, Disney+ raised subscription prices across the board by $2 to $3 per month.
Time to review your subscriptions
The irony here is that streaming video services were initially touted as a cheaper alternative to a full cable TV subscription. While that’s still true individually, many of us pay for multiple streaming services, which means our monthly bills may be even more exorbitant.
With YouTube and other services all boosting their prices, now is as good a time as any to review all your streaming subscriptions and see which ones you can downgrade or cancel outright. Also consider free or inexpensive streaming services, such as Roku TV or Tubi TV, both of which offer a variety of movies and TV series to enjoy.
