YouTube Premium Lite Launches in the US at $7.99/Month

The new YouTube Premium Lite subscription that Google has been testing with some users in Thailand, Germany, and Australia is officially launching in the US today. At $7.99/month, YouTube Premium Lite provides an ad-free experience on “most” YouTube videos, with music videos being a notable exception. Background play on mobile and offline viewing is also not included on YouTube Premium Lite.

“We’ve been testing Premium Lite to make sure we have the right balance of features and benefits for those viewers who want to watch most videos ad-free – whether it’s gaming, comedy, cooking or learning. For users who want ad-free music on YouTube and YouTube Music, plus offline and background play, we recommend the Premium plan,” explained Jack Greenberg, Director, Product Management, YouTube Premium.

At $13.99/month, a regular YouTube Premium subscription probably remains better value, especially if you care about music. YouTube Premium makes all videos ad-free and it also includes YouTube Music Premium, which is available as a standalone subscription for $10.99/month.

Google said today that it’s planning to make this new YouTube Premium Lite subscription generally available in the three other countries where it’s being tested (again, that’s Thailand, Germany, and Australia). There’s no word yet about an expansion to other countries, however.

Lastly, Greenberg announced today that YouTube Music and Premium have crossed over 125 million subscribers (including trials) globally, a number that’s up from 100 million a year ago. YouTube has approximately 2.5 billion monthly active users, so its number of paid subscribers is still quite low. In comparison, Spotify has 263 million paying subscribers on a global user base of 675 million users.