Beginning in 2023, Google started raising the price of YouTube Premium. Most saw the increase immediately, but there were some exceptions. The early adopter (grandfathered) price for what’s now YouTube Premium is going away soon.
The very first customers of YouTube’s “Music Key” streaming subscription in 2014 were charged $7.99 per month. (International pricing was fairly similar at the time.) After the early adopter/beta period ended, it went up to $9.99.
When YouTube Music relaunched in 2018, those who originally subscribed to the music streaming service got upgraded to the full YouTube Premium experience with ad-free videos, while keeping the legacy $7.99 or $9.99 pricing. (At the time, the music service was $9.99 and YouTube Premium was $11.99.)
In 2023, there was a $2 price increase that saw YouTube Music Premium go to $11.99 and YouTube Premium to $13.99.
At that time, those at $9.99 rate had to start paying the full price, though there was a few month’s leeway. However, Google did not touch the $7.99 pricing whatsoever.
That is now beginning to change, with grandfathered customers in Europe being told about pricing changes to their discounted rate. In one example, the price won’t go up for at least three more months. But after that, everybody will be paying the same rate for YouTube’s subscription services.
We have yet to see US reports of the early adopter price changing (chime in if you do), but that’s presumably coming next with YouTube typically rolling out these Premium changes on a region-by-region basis.
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