YouTube is testing a cheaper “limited” ad plan after jacking up Premium prices

YouTube users looking for fewer ads without paying for a full-price Premium subscription could be in luck thanks to a new plan in the works.

In the last few months, YouTube has been steadily gaining ground against ad blockers while simultaneously increasing the number of advertisements on the platform.

In July, the site cracked down against ad blockers with a new feature designed to break them and followed this up by adding pause screen ads – something users had been warned was coming for years.

Now, after announcing that the ad-free Premium experience would be increasing as much as 50% in some regions come November, the Google-owned platform revealed it’s testing a cheaper alternative.

As reported by Android Authority, YouTube is testing a new version of Premium Lite. The plan had been removed in most countries back in 2023 and was essentially a stripped-down version of the Premium plan.

Premium Lite removed ads, but didn’t have any of the bells and whistles of traditional Premium such as background playback, YouTube Music, and download options.

YouTube/jonahmanzano

Google confirmed that it’s bringing the plan back, but it’s not exactly the same as before. “We’re testing a different version of Premium Lite and some users in Australia, Germany and Thailand may see the option to sign up,” YouTube said.

The big difference seems to be that this new iteration of Premium Lite will only offer “limited ads” as opposed to removing them completely.

Users in Australia noted that Premium Lite will cost $11.99 per month, which would save them a pretty penny compared to Premium’s $22.99/month price tag.

There’s no word yet on whether this Lite version will expand across the globe to countries like the US and Canada, so we’ll have to wait and see what YouTube decides to do if this new pricing test proves to be a success.