Summary: After the EU, YouTube Premium’s grandfathered price will increase in the US as well. Users paying $7.99 per month will now have to fork out $12.99.
For years YouTube has allowed beta testers of its early streaming service to keep the grandfathered pricing, significantly lower than what other users pay. Now the company is finally pulling the plug, bumping them up from $7.99 monthly to $12.99 a month.
This is still not the full price being paid by a new user. After various price hikes over the years, the YouTube Premium subscription costs $13.99 for individuals and a whopping $22.99 for family plans.
Still, the YouTube Premium grandfathered price increase is rather substantial and marks a shift from the policy of letting the early adopters continue on their original pricing. This is not particularly surprising; the grandfathered price was hiked in the EU last year itself.
The YouTube Music Key
What we call YouTube Premium started as the YouTube Music Key service in 2014. The marketing focused on ad-free music and background playback of videos.
The price announced back then was $9.99 a month, with early adopters getting a 20% discount. A lot of savvy users jumped into the Music Key service at this discounted rate of $7.99 a month, getting a great deal.
When YouTube upgraded the service to YouTube Music and YouTube Premium, it kept this old pricing for the beta users. They got access to the complete package without paying the extra price.
More interestingly, this discounted pricing continued for several years. Other plan prices were frequently hiked, but the beta adopters could continue paying the old rates.
Premium Lite is changing things
The reason for YouTube Premium’s grandfathered price increase is clear; the new Premium Lite plan. YouTube has launched Premium Lite as the more affordable plan in the US.
It is priced at $7.99 monthly; the same price being paid by the early adopters of YouTube Music Key. The scope of the service is different, however.
YouTube Premium Lite only offers access to ad-free videos. YouTube Music is not bundled with this package, remaining part of the complete YouTube Premium.
The Premium Lite plan also doesn’t offer background play or video downloads, making it a very barebones service. It is still a good deal for anyone who just wants to watch videos ad-free and doesn’t care for the additional features.
This is a good alternative for users facing YouTube Premium’s grandfathered price increase. Either pay more to continue enjoying the same level of service, or switch to YouTube Premium Lite.
2025-04-07 15:09:58