YouTube Premium subscription prices to increase in the U.S.
The YouTube Premium individual plan will increase from $13.99 to $15.99 per month. The family plan, which covers up to six accounts, goes from $22.99 to $26.99 per month. YouTube Premium Lite, the stripped-down tier that removes ads from most videos but leaves out music content, offline saving and background playback, will cost a dollar at $8.99 per month.
On the music side, the YouTube Music individual plan goes from $10.99 to $11.99 per month, while the family plan goes from $16.99 to $18.99 per month.
The higher prices apply immediately to new signups, while current members won’t be charged the new rates until their June billing cycle, according to Variety; YouTube said it would send affected subscribers an email warning at least a month before the change happens.
“We are updating the pricing of YouTube Premium plans in the United States for the first time since 2023 to continue to deliver a high-quality experience that supports creators and artists on YouTube,” a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement. “This change allows us to keep the features our members love most: ad-free viewing, background playback, and a massive library of over 300 million songs on YouTube Music.”
The previous round of price increases was in July 2023, when Premium subscribers absorbed a $2 per month hike to $13.99 and YouTube Music went from $9.99 to $10.99. According to an announcement made in March 2025, the two services together had 125 million subscribers worldwide, an increase from 100 million the previous year.
The announcement came with a separate controversy: Some users reported encountering non-skippable 90-second ads when watching YouTube on their TVs. In an article on X $TWTR, the platform pushed back on the reports, saying: “YouTube does not have a non-skippable 90-second ad format. This is not something we are testing at this time.” According to Forbes, the denial did little to quell the complaints, with viewers continuing to insist they had seen the ads.
The price increases follow a broader wave of subscription rate hikes across the streaming industry. Netflix $NFLX has increased prices on all US plans – by $1 to $2 depending on the tier – with its standard plan hitting $19.99 per month and its premium tier climbing to $26.99. Disney $DIS+, Hulu, HBO Max, and Peacock all raised their prices last year, and Spotify $SPOT increased its individual plan from $11.99 to $12.99 per month earlier this year.
