I tried YouTube Premium Lite and I’m never going back to the full subscription

More so than any other subscription service, I’ve never been more conflicted about one than YouTube Premium. YouTube ads are horrendous; between non-skippable ads, pre-roll ads, mid-roll ads, etc., the amount of advertising you have to sit through for a 10 or 15-minute video is ridiculous. Surely, paying for YouTube Premium to remove those ads would be a no-brainer, right?

I’ve subscribed to YouTube Premium for a couple of months here and there, but I haven’t been able to commit to it long term. When the core YouTube experience is available for free and I have no use for the included YouTube Music Premium service, paying $14/month to essentially use only half of the subscription’s functionality is something I’ve had a hard time justifying.

Given that, you can probably imagine how Google piqued my interest last month when it announced YouTube Premium Lite. For almost half the price of the regular YouTube Premium subscription, the Lite variant removes ads and nothing more. There’s no YouTube Music Premium bundled in, no video downloads, and a few other missing features. But at just $8/month, it’s significantly cheaper, too.

After trying YouTube Premium Lite for a couple of weeks, I can safely say it’s the YouTube subscription I’ve been waiting for.

As much as YouTube Premium Lite sounded like it was designed just for people like me, the wording on YouTube’s website made me slightly anxious. Google says “most videos” are ad-free, but advertisements may still appear on music content, YouTube Shorts, or while browsing/searching for videos. While ads aren’t completely removed in Premium Lite, for the way I use YouTube, I rarely see them at all.

True to Google’s word, pre- and in-video advertisements in all non-music videos are nonexistent with a YouTube Premium Lite subscription. I primarily watch gaming, tech, movie review, and personal finance videos (plus the regular Good Mythical Morning episode). Across all of these video types, not once have I seen a single ad before or during playback. That’s precisely what I wanted out of Premium Lite, and it’s fully delivered.

There’s been exactly one instance where advertisements played before a video, and that’s because I was trying to watch a music video on Twenty One Pilots’ YouTube channel. While annoying, I very rarely watch music videos on YouTube, so getting ads before one video out of 100+ others with no ads works out pretty darn well. I’ve also still seen sponsored videos in search results, but it takes just a second to scroll past these, so they’ve not been a bother at all.

There’s not much more to say about YouTube Premium Lite. It doesn’t include any special features beyond getting rid of most video ads, but that’s exactly why I signed up for it in the first place. It’s the ad-free YouTube experience I’ve always wanted, and at $8/month, it’s a lot easier to justify than $14/month for the regular YouTube Premium subscription.

While that works out nicely for how I use YouTube, you may use it differently. And if so, YouTube Premium Lite may not be nearly as compelling. As lovely as the ad-free video experience has been, there are a few major missing features with Premium Lite compared to the regular YouTube Premium subscription.

From a value perspective, not getting YouTube Music Premium included is a big deal. If you enjoy or don’t mind using YouTube Music, having the Premium version bundled with YouTube Premium is a phenomenal value for $14/month. But if you’re like me and can’t stand using YouTube Music, that may not have much of a bearing on you.

What may be a bigger consideration is the lack of video downloads and background playback. Being able to download YouTube videos for offline use is a nice perk, and while it’s not something I use, not having that option with Premium Lite may be a dealbreaker for you.

The lack of background playback has been more of a nuisance. When I had regular YouTube Premium, the ability to lock my phone and still listen to a video (sort of like a podcast) was a nice touch. I do occasionally miss that convenience, but not nearly enough to justify going from Premium Lite’s $8/month price to $14/month for the full YouTube Premium experience. And, of course, splurging for regular YouTube Premium removes music video ads and other non-video ads you’ll still see across the YouTube app with Premium Lite.

As someone who doesn’t use YouTube Music and is OK living without those extra YouTube features, Premium Lite works out perfectly. But it’s important to understand what’s missing from the service because, if you do use those things, Premium Lite may not make sense for you at all.

At the end of the day, YouTube Premium Lite is the best YouTube subscription. At least, in my eyes, it is. All I want is to remove video ads for as low a monthly price as possible. That’s what I get for $8/month — no more, no less.

But is YouTube Premium Lite the best YouTube subscription for you? It all depends on how you use YouTube. Do you watch a lot of music videos? Listen to YouTube Music? Download videos? Listen to videos with your phone locked? If you say yes to any of those things, you’re much better off ponying up $14/month for YouTube Premium.

And if you have a family that you want to share your subscription with, there’s currently no family option for Premium Lite. Six individual Premium Lite subscriptions come out to $48/month, whereas the YouTube Premium family plan (which can be used by you and five other people) is just $23/month.

There are a lot of factors to consider when deciding between YouTube Premium and Premium Lite. If it works out that the normal Premium subscription makes more sense for you, great! But if your YouTube usage mirrors mine, Premium Lite is the way to go.

YouTube Premium Lite is precisely what I’ve wanted out of a YouTube subscription for years, and it’s one I’ll happily be sticking with for the foreseeable future.