Key Takeaways
- Save by choosing a YouTube Premium Family plan that offers a shared ad-free experience for up to six people.
- Look out for promotional discounts and partnered mobile services that apply to you.
- Consider using the Google Play Points you’ve racked up to pay for YouTube Premium instead.
Paying a monthly subscription for YouTube is a lot to ask. Video downloads and access to YouTube Music still aren’t enough to justify the cost something that has always been free. However, there are a few hidden deals you can take advantage of that might make YouTube Premium finally seem worthwhile.
YouTube Premium Family
Many people don’t realize that YouTube Premium actually offers a bundle that’s competitive with some of the best streaming service family plans out there. The YouTube Premium family plan lets you add five additional household members to your subscription for a monthly cost of $22.99. That’s less than a third of the price of that many individuals paying for their own respective plans.
Each person on a YouTube Premium family plan also gets access to YouTube Music and its radio-sharing features. Of course, each plan member also gets to enjoy a completely ad-free YouTube experience. Considering YouTube’s aggressive advertising tactics recently, sharing an ad-free life with your family might just be the best deal of all.
YouTube occasionally runs limited-time promotions that you can take advantage of if you want to save on a Premium subscription. In the past, YouTube has offered as much as 50% off certain subscriptions during collaborative promotions with brands such as Best Buy and Samsung. Holiday promotions are relatively common too, so even if you cannot justify a YouTube Premium promotion right this instant, consider scouring for discounts during special event periods.
Keep an eye on promotions offered with certain Google products as well. Next time you buy a new Google Pixel phone or Google Nest device, you might be able to snag a few free months of YouTube Premium.
Google Play Points
If you use an Android device, you can earn Google Play Points every time you make a purchase on the Google Play store, as well as for certain in-app activities. You can redeem these for monetary credit to your account, then use your Google Play balance to pay for your YouTube Premium subscription from the Google Payments Center.
It’s perfectly understandable not to want to pay for YouTube Premium outright considering it lacks certain features that some users might expect of a paid service. It can be much easier to justify a month of Premium using the “found money” you passively accumulate from more meaningful purchases on the Google platform.
YouTube Partners
YouTube partners with certain mobile phone providers to let you bundle a YouTube Premium membership with your phone plan. The providers that partner with YouTube vary by country or region, so it’s worth exploring the options available to you. In the United States, Verizon offers a YouTube Premium perk with select mobile and home internet plans. Bundling with your Verizon plan effectively lowers the monthly cost of YouTube Premium to $10, as opposed to the normal price of $13.99/month.
If the cost of Premium is just a bit more than you’re willing to pay for YouTube, the savings you get from partnered phone services could be the cherry on top that makes the service worthwhile. Try out YouTube Premium next time you update your phone plan, and you might just find out you love it enough to never cancel.
Until YouTube makes some truly amazing changes to its platform, people will continue to wonder if YouTube Premium is worth it. It’s still possible to watch any content you want on YouTube for free, even if the war on adblockers makes it somewhat more inconvenient to do so. If you can save on the monthly subscription by taking advantage of special deals, though, suddenly the extra features of YouTube Premium become much more appealing.
