Good news! YouTube’s cheaper Premium Lite now blocks most ads – and finally adds downloads and background play

In a rather unprecedented move, YouTube has just made its cut-price Premium Lite subscription a lot more appealing. In other words, you get more features without having to pay extra. Take that, capitalism.

From today, Premium Lite subscribers will start getting background play and downloads – two features that were previously locked behind the full Premium tier. Until now, if you wanted to keep videos playing while your phone was locked, or save clips for offline viewing, you had to pay for the standard Premium plan. 

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Not only that, but ads will also be removed from most – but not all – videos. Music content and the YouTube Music app are still excluded, and Shorts will continue to show ads. Ads can also appear on music content and in certain browsing scenarios, though their prevalence has yet to be tested. But hopefully, the reduction will be noticeable.

While YouTube Premium Lite began life as a more stripped-back, lower-cost option, YouTube says the addition of background play and downloads comes after feedback from users following last year’s expanded pilot programme.

The rollout begins now and will continue over the coming weeks in all markets where Premium Lite is available, so not everyone will see the new perks immediately.

How much is YouTube Premium Lite?

YouTube Premium Lite costs $7.99 / £7.99 per month and currently comes with a one-month free trial. 

If you want everything ad-free – including music videos and the YouTube Music app – you’ll still need the full YouTube Premium plan, which will set you back  $13.99 / £12.99 a month.

For anyone who mainly watches non-music videos and just wants offline viewing and background playback without paying full price, though, the gap between the two tiers has narrowed considerably.

If you’ve been holding off because Lite felt a little too lite, this update makes it a much more serious contender.

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Esat Dedezade Contributor

About

Esat has been a gadget fan ever since his tiny four-year-old brain was captivated by a sound-activated dancing sunflower. From there it was a natural progression to a Sega Mega Drive, a brief obsession with hedgehogs, and a love for all things tech. After 7 years as a writer and deputy editor for Stuff, Esat ventured out into the corporate world, spending three years as Editor of Microsoft's European News Centre. Now a freelance writer, his appetite for shiny gadgets has no bounds. Oh, and like all good human beings, he's very fond of cats.