YouTube Premium Lite Plan Makes A Surprise Return With A Caveat

In a surprising move, YouTube is now testing YouTube Premium Lite subscriptions in select territories, after retiring the plan a year ago and focusing on improving YouTube Premium. Users in Australia, Germany, and Thailand are currently able to sign up for the plan for a few months now, although Google declined to confirm if the plan will be making a full comeback in the other territories where it operates.

The YouTube Premium Lite plan offered users the ability to watch videos on the platform without any ads, at roughly half the cost of a standard YouTube Premium plan. To get the lower price, users gave up ad-free access to YouTube Music and several other features, including background playback. However, it was a great option for users who only cared about ad-free video watching.


There is a wrinkle to this possible return of YouTube Premium Lite, however. The current version currently being tested does include limited ads, which can appear while watching Shorts or during searching or browsing for content. Of course, with this plan still currently in the testing phase, it could be that this changes by the time YouTube decides to potentially roll it out as an option for the rest of their global user base.

As the price of YouTube Premium continues to climb, it would be great to see the Lite version be brought back in full. While it’s disappointing to see some ads make their way into the experience, at the very least it would be nice to have a less expensive option available for those who don’t want to get bombarded with ads while enjoying content on the platform.