YouTube Premium gets a price hike

Publish date: 2024-08-21

YouTube Premium is getting its first major price hike. The service will now charge $22.99 per month for its family plan.

Announced today in an email to subscribers, the monthly cost of YouTube Premium will jump from $17.99 per month to $22.99 per month for those using the family plan that allows for up to six accounts to use the same subscription. It’s an increase of over 25%. The price is jumping to $29.99/month if you subscribe through the Apple App Store.

YouTube does not appear to be raising the cost of YouTube Premium for individual accounts. That cost is still $11.99 per month on YouTube’s website, despite the new family pricing already showing (pictured below). The price change appears to be in place in a few regions including:

Original YouTube Red family subscribers that were grandfathered into $14.99/month these past few years will be getting the $22.99 price hike, but not until April, according to the email.

If you are seeing a price hike on YouTube Premium from a region we haven’t listed, let us know in the comments or on Twitter.

On a support page, Google notes that it will notify customers at least 30 days ahead of a price change.

In an email to current family plan subscribers, YouTube explains:

We created YouTube Premium to provide an uninterrupted YouTube experience, so you can get closer to the videos, creators, and music artists that you love. To continue delivering great service and features, we will be increasing your Premium family plan price from $17.99/month to $22.99/month.

This change will take place on your next billing cycle starting on or after November 21, 2022. To check the status of your account and billing information, go to your Settings > Purchases and Memberships page. All members have the flexibility to pause or cancel anytime here.

YouTube does not explain why prices are going up, but it’s certainly a major shift. YouTube Premium has held the same cost since 2018. The new price kicks in for existing subscribers on their next billing cycle but is already in place if you become a new subscriber starting today.

This unexpected price hike comes just days after YouTube ended an “experiment” that trialed requiring YouTube Premium to stream videos on the platform in 4K.

YouTube is clearly aware that users of the platform may not take kindly to the increase and has an open form for responses to the change.

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