5 things YouTube Premium Lite gets wrong and how they should be fixed

YouTube Premium offers everything you need for the best streaming experience, from YouTube Music Premium to other useful features to control video playback. Many people consider bundling YouTube Music Premium with YouTube a major benefit of buying a YouTube Premium subscription. However, for those who prefer a different music streaming platform, $14 a month may seem overpriced. The YouTube Premium Lite subscription tries to solve this problem.

YouTube Premium Lite removes YouTube Music Premium and is available at a lower price. On top of that, Premium Lite also lacks some useful features available in YouTube Premium, forcing people to stay away from it, ultimately leading to poor acceptance. As much as we’d love to see it, it doesn’t make sense for Google to add all YouTube Premium features to Premium Lite. Instead, it should address what’s wrong with YouTube Premium Lite. Here is how it can fix it.

5

Family plan

It should bring the price further down

The YouTube Premium Family subscription costs $23 a month, with support for up to six accounts. That means less than $4 a month for each individual if it’s a family of six, cheaper than the Individual plan. Similarly, YouTube Premium Lite would have been cheaper had Google introduced a Family plan. If not a Family plan, at least a “Duo” plan option to share it with another person would have reduced the price of YouTube Premium for each individual.

Another way Google could cut the cost of the YouTime Premium Lite subscription is by introducing savings for paying upfront, as is the case with YouTube Premium, which offers a 15% discount if you buy it for 12 months. It may not be the best business decision to offer the same discount on the Premium Lite, but anything close to 10% or slightly less than that will make the subscription more appealing.

4

Offline downloads with limitations

There is something for Google, too

The lack of an offline download option in YouTube Premium Lite is another drawback of the subscription. Adding the feature to YouTube Premium Lite would make users happy and may benefit Google in the long run if done tactfully. Instead of allowing users to download as many as they want for offline viewing on their phones, restricting how many they can download would’ve been a great addition for users and Google.

The benefit is obvious to users, as they get a premium feature with some limitations at a lower cost. Google also has an opportunity to give users a taste of premium features in the cheaper plan to create a “fear of missing out,” which might lead them to subscribe to a Premium plan. It’s about hitting the sweet spot where users are satisfied with the number of videos they can download while still wanting more.

3

Background play support

Give podcast listeners something to love

The background play support allows you to watch videos while using other apps and lets you play videos when the screen is off. It’s useful for those who want to enjoy podcasts on YouTube while doing chores. You can save more battery if you play videos with the screen off.

However, to be fair to Google, it doesn’t need to add full-fledged background play support to YouTube Premium Lite. Instead, it can exist in the subscription offering with some limitations. For example, since it’s most beneficial for podcasts and audio stories, Premium Lite can restrict background play support to those types of content. In addition, the company can limit how many hours of background play users get daily or monthly with the YouTube Premium Lite subscription.

Limited background play support can benefit Google in the same way support for offline downloads with restrictions would. The lower price opens the door for many people to pay for the subscription and try things they have missed out on. When users see the real benefit, it’s more likely that they will need more of them, giving Google a chance to convert more people from Premium Lite to Premium. It’s a win-win situation.

2

Premium Lite for students

Make it more inclusive

A YouTube Premium subscription, with all its benefits, isn’t always $14 a month or $140 a year. If you’re a student, you get those premium features by paying $8 a month, which is nearly half the price of the YouTube Premium Individual. The Premium Lite subscription costs the same but has fewer features than a Premium plan, leaving students no choice other than opting for the latter.

To fix this, Google should launch a Premium Lite subscription tier for students, with a price lower than $8 per month. This will encourage more students to get the Premium Lite. If I were a student, I would love an ad-free experience minus the YouTube Music Premium if the cost was less than $8 a month.

1

Take YouTube Premium Lite to the global

Why do only select countries have all the fun?

YouTube Premium Lite has an interesting story. It launched in 2021, was discontinued, and is now back. YouTube Premium Lite was launched in Australia, Germany, and Thailand and later expanded to the US in March 2025. Even if you’re in one of these countries, you may not get access to it, as the cheaper subscription is available as a pilot program.

However, when the product launches broadly, the YouTube Premium Lite availability shouldn’t come with an asterisk. An ad-free experience on most videos with a lower price can potentially bring in more users, especially from Europe and emerging markets like India, Brazil, Turkey, and more. Since the purpose of a pilot program is to test a feature with a smaller number of people, Google deserves the benefit of the doubt.

Who is YouTube Premium Lite for, and will it ever change?

YouTube Premium Lite is for anyone who only cares about an ad-free video experience across topics and genres like gaming, comedy, fashion, beauty, cooking, and learning. It’s not for people who want an entirely ad-free experience for everything they watch on YouTube, nor will it impress people who can’t give up on features like background play, enhanced bitrate version of 1080p for better viewing, and offline download.

However, that doesn’t rule out the possibility of Google adding more Premium features to its Lite subscription in some capacity. Google might extend more benefits to Lite users or make the subscription more affordable for people willing to pay upfront. It can happen if Google feels there is a genuine demand for change and the company benefits from doing so. In addition to collecting feedback about what users want, Google should brainstorm ways to make it more appealing to customers, with the above suggestions serving as a guide.