YouTube Premium is implementing its first price hikes since 2023, lifting the monthly cost of its main plan by $2 a month to $15.99.
YouTube Premium Lite is going up a dollar to $8.99 and family plans are rising by $4 to $26.99 a month.
While YouTube more broadly has grown into a colossus mostly by being free and ad-supported, the company has gotten traction with its Premium offering. In 2025, the company announced it had surpassed 125 million subscribers to the service, which delivers ad-free videos, allows background play and offline downloads, among other benefits. YouTube Music Premium, which is now $11.99, up from $10.99, is a streaming music service comparable to Spotify or Apple Music.
The price hikes will take effect with June billing statements, customers were told in an email from the company.
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The increases will enable the company to “continue delivering a high-quality experience that supports creators and artists on YouTube,” a spokesperson told Deadline in a statement. “This change allows us to maintain the features our members value most: ad-free viewing, background play, and a massive library of 300M+ tracks on YouTube Music. We continue to offer several plans, ensuring subscribers can choose the option that works best for them.”
Streaming subscribers across the board are being hit by repeated price hikes as the shift from linear and physical media fully takes hold. Netflix recently announced its latest round of increases, joining other video streamers in continuing to create a wider and wider spread between its pricier, ad-free subscription tiers and its less-expensive tiers supported by ads. Bundling strategies also reflect this strategy, with services like Comcast’s Xfinity StreamSaver bundle putting together ad tiers in order to keep prices low and also create incentives for bundle participants.