YouTube Premium in 2025: Is It Still Worth the Subscription?

YouTube is one of the world’s leading video platforms, and for many people it’s a daily tool for entertainment, learning, and personal growth. According to a 2025 report from Reuters, YouTube now has over 2.7 billion active users worldwide, solidifying its place as one of the largest video platforms on the planet.

However, the free version still comes with noticeable limitations—ads before and during videos, no background play, and no offline viewing. These restrictions can interrupt your flow, slow down your productivity, and make everyday use less convenient. That’s why many users are starting to wonder whether upgrading to Premium is actually worth it.

In this review, we break down exactly what YouTube Premium offers and whether it’s worth subscribing to in 2025. If you’re unsure whether Premium fits your needs or your budget, this guide will give you a clear and helpful answer.

What Is YouTube Premium?

YouTube Premium is YouTube’s paid membership service, first launched in 2015 under the name YouTube Red and rebranded as YouTube Premium in 2018.

Its core value is simple: it builds on the free version and adds a set of features that significantly improve your viewing experience. With Premium, you get ad-free videos, background play, offline downloads, and full access to YouTube Music Premium, making it easier and smoother to watch or listen to the content you love.

How Much Does YouTube Premium Cost in 2025?

If you’re trying to decide whether YouTube Premium is worth it, price is one of the most important factors to consider. In 2025, YouTube Premium doesn’t come in a single plan—instead, it offers several different tiers.

Here are the current YouTube Premium prices by plan:

From this comparison, you can clearly see that each plan differs in price, features, and who it’s designed for. Unlike platforms that focus heavily on exclusive paid content, the main value of Premium lies in improving the overall user experience.

Next, we’ll break things down from an experience standpoint to help you decide whether YouTube Premium is truly worth subscribing to long-term.

Is YouTube Premium Worth It?

If you use YouTube every day, hate constant ads, want to keep listening with your screen locked or while switching apps, or often need offline downloads, the upgrade YouTube Premium brings is very noticeable. In that case, it’s absolutely worth subscribing to.

But if you only watch YouTube occasionally, don’t really mind ads, and don’t need background play or download features, you probably won’t feel a big difference. For light users, subscribing—or not—won’t impact much.

That said, if the official price feels a bit steep, there are more affordable ways to enjoy the full Premium benefits. For example, GamsGo Marketplace offers access to the same Premium features at a lower cost, making the overall experience more budget-friendly.

What Premium Features Make YouTube Worth It?

If you want a clearer idea of how YouTube Premium improves your everyday experience, the best way is to look directly at its core features. These are the functions that define Premium’s real value—and they’ll also help you decide whether you truly need it in daily use.

Ad-Free Video Viewing

This is the single most important feature of YouTube Premium. Once you subscribe, YouTube removes all official ads—including pre-roll ads, mid-roll ads, end ads, banner ads, and even ads shown in search results.

One thing to note: sponsor segments added by creators themselves cannot be removed, since they’re part of the actual video content.

The ad-free experience applies across every device you use—phone, tablet, computer, smart TV, or even game consoles. As long as you're logged in with your Premium account, you get uninterrupted playback everywhere.

If your only concern is watching without ads, you can also check out my guide on how to watch YouTube ad-free. Besides subscribing to Premium, it also covers other practical options, so you can choose the one that fits you best.

Enjoy YouTube Music for Free With Premium

The bundled YouTube Music Premium is another major benefit that’s often overlooked. Today, music streaming is one of the biggest digital expenses for many users. Instead of paying separately for another music app, Premium gives you both video and music membership in one subscription, making it far more cost-effective.

YouTube Music itself is now a mainstream music platform—and in some areas, it even beats other services.

Compared with Spotify, it offers more live performances, studio sessions, covers, and remixes uploaded by creators and labels.
Compared with Apple Music, it’s more flexible across devices and seamlessly integrates with YouTube’s huge ecosystem of video content.

In other words, even as a standalone service, YouTube Music is already worth considering. But with Premium, you essentially get it as a free add-on, which increases the overall value significantly.

Here’s what YouTube Music Premium includes:

• Switch freely between songs, music videos, live versions, covers, and remixes
• A wide library with indie artists, regional music, and user-uploaded content
• Ad-free listening, background play, and offline downloads

If you already use a music streaming service, YouTube Premium basically feels like a “two-for-one” deal—making it one of the most cost-efficient options available.

Offline Downloads & Background Play

Offline downloads and background play are two more features that greatly improve your daily YouTube experience with Premium.

With Premium, you can download videos or music directly to your phone or tablet, allowing you to watch normally during commutes, travel, or whenever your network is unstable—without worrying about data usage or signal issues.

Background play solves one of the biggest frustrations for free users. Even if you exit the YouTube app, switch to another app, or lock your screen, the video or audio keeps playing. This is especially useful for podcasts, music, interviews, and educational content.

For anyone who uses YouTube every day, these two features significantly boost convenience, flexibility, and overall viewing comfort.

A Better Experience for YouTube Kids

YouTube Premium also improves the viewing experience on YouTube Kids. When Premium is enabled, children’s accounts won’t see ads, making playback cleaner, more seamless, and safer. It also reduces accidental clicks from ads and exposure to content that may not be suitable for kids.

Support the Creators You Love

While most people subscribe to YouTube Premium for a better viewing experience, there’s another benefit that’s not as obvious—it directly supports your favorite creators.

Premium revenue is distributed to creators based on factors like watch time, which means your viewing contributes to their earnings even without ads. Compared with traditional ad-based income, Premium revenue is more stable and less affected by fluctuations in the advertising market.

For channels that produce long-form videos, in-depth tutorials, or creative projects—where ads aren’t always the main source of income—Premium views often provide a healthier and more sustainable way for creators to keep producing high-quality content.

What Are the Downsides of YouTube Premium?

YouTube Premium offers a noticeably better viewing experience, but it’s not a perfect service. The following points may be reasons why some users decide not to subscribe.

Discontinued YouTube Originals Library

Around 2015, YouTube launched its paid service YouTube Red (later rebranded as YouTube Premium) and invested heavily in YouTube Originals, hoping to compete with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and other streaming platforms. Early on, it released original dramas, comedies, and documentaries.

However, by 2018–2019, YouTube significantly reduced its investment in scripted original content, and in 2022 officially announced that it would stop developing new Originals altogether. The company shifted its focus back to its core ecosystem—supporting creators, improving user experience, and maintaining a hybrid model of ads + subscriptions.

Today, most of those original titles—including popular ones like the documentary BTS: Burn the Stage—are already available to watch for free. So if your main reason for subscribing was access to YouTube Originals, Premium isn’t necessary for that anymore.

High Subscription Cost

Compared with many streaming platforms where you must pay to unlock content, YouTube already offers a huge amount of free videos to watch. For users who are price-sensitive or don’t really need Premium’s extra features, sticking with the ad-supported free version is a completely reasonable choice.

You could save that subscription cost and put it toward other services that fit your needs better—this might align more closely with your viewing habits and spending priorities overall.

TIPS: If you want to upgrade to Premium but the price is the only thing holding you back, you can consider buying YouTube Premium through GamsGo. Plans start at around $3.94 per month while still giving you the exact same benefits as the official subscription. This makes YouTube Premium much better value for money and a smarter choice overall.

You should be aware that this service usually requires a minimum 12-month subscription and does not support monthly activation. That said, the average monthly cost decreases as you choose longer subscription periods.

In addition, only the Recharge option provides the full Premium benefits. The Profile option is a shared plan — it’s cheaper, but it does not include YouTube Music.

How to Subscribe to YouTube Premium at a Lower Price

As mentioned above, YouTube Premium offers clear and meaningful improvements to the overall experience. For most users, the only real hesitation is the high official price.

But if you purchase through the YouTube Premium marketplace on GamsGo, that concern basically disappears. GamsGo offers Premium at a price far lower than the official rate while still giving you the exact same full benefits.

In addition to the Recharge service mentioned earlier (which is ideal for users who need full permissions and plan to use Premium long-term), you can also visit the Marketplace page on the GamsGo homepage to find sellers offering short-term plans or more flexible durations.

These sellers are verified and monitored by the GamsGo platform, so transactions are safer and more reliable—making them a great option if you don’t want to commit to a long subscription upfront.

What Are the Best Alternatives to YouTube Premium?

When people look for YouTube Premium alternatives, their first thought is often platforms like Netflix, Disney+, or HBO Max. But these services don’t actually replace YouTube—and the reason is simple:

These platforms offer closed, licensed libraries of movies, shows, and variety programs. You can only watch the content they provide. They can’t replace YouTube’s open ecosystem of creator videos, tutorials, unboxings, vlogs, tech reviews, music content, livestreams, and all kinds of user-generated content.

If what you want to solve are issues like ads, background play, offline downloads, music listening, or being able to lock your phone on commute, you need alternatives that more closely match YouTube’s functionality—not movie-streaming services.

Here are the best YouTube Premium alternatives:

• Vimeo – Clean interface and fewer ads, ideal for high-quality creative videos, though the content library is much smaller than YouTube.

• Dailymotion – A lighter video platform with fewer ads; works well as a supplemental source.

• Invidious / NewPipe (third-party clients) – Offer background play and ad-free viewing, but they’re unofficial, so stability and security may vary.

• Spotify / Apple Music – If your main goal is background listening or music, these services are more focused and often cheaper than Premium.

• Twitch – If you mainly watch gaming livestreams, Twitch is a strong alternative to YouTube Gaming thanks to its interactive features and superior live experience.

Overall, choosing a YouTube Premium alternative depends on your core needs:

Are you looking for ad-free viewing? Background play or music? Offline downloads?

Different needs have different alternatives—but no single platform can fully replicate everything YouTube offers.

Conclusion

At the official price, YouTube Premium offers great features, but the overall value isn’t particularly high,so it’s completely understandable if you’re unsure about subscribing. But once you can access the same benefits at a lower cost, the value of Premium becomes much more reasonable.

By getting YouTube Premium through the GamsGo marketplace, you can enjoy the full set of Premium features at a price far below the official rate, removing almost all concerns about cost-effectiveness. When you can get the same experience for much less, YouTube Premium becomes absolutely worth it.