Commentary

Is YouTube Premium Worth the Cost? It Depends

By Ben Stockton

Published June 23, 2024

Try hard to resist it, but YouTube Premium might be worth the cost (for some users, anyway).

I love YouTube. While I’m trying to cut back on the amount of Google services I subscribe to, I don’t think YouTube is one that I can ditch. The problem with YouTube is the variety is hard to replace. I’m not a fan of short-form videos, so TikTok isn’t an option, and alternative platforms simply don’t exist at the scale that YouTube provides.

The one thing I can’t stand, however, is the adverts. One-minute-long advertisements popping up at random to block my videos are far too long. That’s why, when YouTube prompted me to subscribe to a free YouTube Premium trial, I jumped at the chance. It’s otherwise quite costly ($13.99 a month for individual users), so is it worth it? Well, that really depends.

No ads makes YouTube viewing a lot better

If you watch hours of YouTube videos, you’ll know how annoying the ad breaks can be. They’re frequent, can slow down your browser, and they just get in the way. I don’t mind the support for creators, but in many respects, it isn’t them that profit—it’s Google.

YouTube Premium doesn’t solve that problem, since you’re paying for a subscription to Google and the company still benefits. What it does solve is the ad problem, allowing you to watch your content for free, whether it’s a minute long or hours long. There are also some premium advantages to YouTube Premium, such as the ability to download videos to watch offline.

There are some discounts available, especially for families and students. If you’ve not had a subscription before, or you’ve allowed it to lapse for a while, you should be able to get a free month out of the company, too.

YouTube Music Premium softens the blow

If you’re a YouTube Premium subscriber, you’ve got a two-for-one deal to take advantage of. A subscription also gives you access to YouTube Music Premium, a premium Spotify alternative with ad-free playback of millions of different songs. You can also download songs for offline listening. Two services rolled into one might make it easier to justify the cost of YouTube Premium.

A Spotify subscription costs $6.99 a month for individual users—slightly under half the cost of a YouTube Premium subscription. If you cancel Spotify and stick to YouTube for both your music and video costs, you’ll be saving a bit of money in the process. If you go for a family plan (costing $22.99 a month), you’ll save even more money as a group. 

Use an adblocker instead (while you still can)

You don’t necessarily need YouTube Premium to block ads. Ad-blocking extensions in your web browser, like uBlock Origins, can block YouTube ads. I’ll admit to the fact that I used to use such an ad-blocking extension to block ads on YouTube, but there’s a fly in the ointment to consider—Google is fighting back.

Google really wants you to sign up for YouTube Premium

After years of ignoring the issue, Google is actively trying to block these blockers from working. YouTube pops up with a skippable warning that prevents playback, giving you several chances to disable your ad blocker before YouTube is blocked completely (at least until you disable the blocker).

Reports online also suggest that Google is also experimenting with more direct ways to deal with ad-blocking, including slowing down videos and automatically muting them. If you decide to use an ad-blocker, make sure you keep on top of the latest changes by keeping your ad-blocker (and the sources it uses) up-to-date.

YouTube Premium is a quality-of-life improvement

I don’t like the cost, but with stricter blocks against ad-blocking, Google is forcing users to make a choice: suffer through the ads or pay for YouTube Premium. Ultimately, YouTube Premium is a quality-of-life improvement for serious YouTube users. It sits alongside services like Twitch Turbo in that regard, which allows you to block all ads on that platform.

If you’re spending hours watching YouTube each day or week, YouTube Premium might be worth the cost. If you’re a very casual user, however, it really isn’t—after all, $13.99 a month would make it among the most expensive streaming services. I’ll pay for it, but if the ad-blockers win this battle, I might reconsider as there’s no contract to tie users in.

Do you subscribe to YouTube Premium or do you prefer to take your chances with the ad-blockers? If you’ve got your own recommendations to share, drop them in the comments.