Summary
- YouTube is raising prices on YouTube Premium and YouTube Music.
- Some plans are going up as much as $4 per month.
- These increases go into effect immediately on April 10.
In a move that should surprise no one, YouTube has been announcing price hikes for its major streaming services. Both YouTube Premium and YouTube Music are seeing price increases, with some plans going up by as much as $4 per month.
Related
I still refuse to pay for YouTube Premium — 3 reasons why it’s not worth it
The basic YouTube package isn’t as bad as some people make it out to be, and I’ll be dipped if I pay for something that was free months ago.
YouTube’s new pricing
Up, up, up
Here are the new prices we’ve seen:
Plan
Old Price
New Price
YouTube Premium
Individual
$13.99
$15.99
Family
$22.99
$26.99
Student
$7.99
$8.99
Annual
$139.99
$159.99
YouTube Premium Lite
Individual
$7.99
$8.99
YouTube Music
Individual
$10.99
$11.99
Family
$16.99
$18.99
These increases feel especially bad because they’re so large. Other services tend to bump prices in smaller increments — for example, Spotify generally only increases by $1–$2 at a time. That makes the family plan’s $4 jump harder to stomach. However, Spotify has been raising prices every year, whereas YouTube’s last bump was in 2023. I’m not sure whether larger or more frequent increases are worse, but I do know I’ve come to look forward to Spotify’s annual email with great annoyance.
YouTube’s emails to customers try to ease the pain by justifying the increases. “We don’t make these decisions lightly, but this update will allow us to continue to improve Premium and support the creators and artists you watch on YouTube,” said an email posted to Reddit. Redditors were less enthusiastic:
Another Redditor jumped in with a helpful tip about subscribing directly through YouTube — subscribing through the App Store costs an extra 30% to account for Apple’s cut.
How YouTube compares to other streaming services
Very competitive
It’s worth noting that, despite the large hikes, YouTube remains relatively affordable compared to other services. For example, I’m currently paying $21.99 per month for a Spotify family plan. YouTube Music’s family plan is now $18.99, so it’s a fair bit cheaper (and we’re big fans of it).
Apple Music is even cheaper: $10.99 per month for an individual and $16.99 for a family plan. Price-wise, Apple might actually be the way to go, although Spotify’s feature set is tough to give up. That said, YouTube did recently get its own mood-based AI playlists.
YouTube’s new pricing goes into effect immediately on April 10.
