Software · pricing
YouTube pricing
YouTube publishes 2 tiers. Below is each one, what it adds over the tier beneath it, and where the ladder stops being worth climbing for most people.
- Entry price
- Free, then $11.99/month
- Model
- Freemium
- Tiers
- 2
- Free tier
- Yes
YouTube plans, side by side
Every published tier in ascending order of price, with the number of features each one lists. An absence here means the record does not itemise it, not that the tier lacks it.
| Plan | Price | Features listed | Step up from the tier below |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | 4 | Entry tier |
| YouTube Premium | $11.99/month | 4 | +$11.99/month, 4 more features |
What each tier adds
The set difference between each tier's feature list and the one beneath it. Where a tier lists nothing new, the vendor has either stopped repeating the inherited list or the tier raises limits rather than adding capability, the record does not distinguish the two, so this page does not either.
Free
FreeThe entry tier. It covers unlimited video watching, basic video uploads, community features, ad-supported.
YouTube Premium
$11.99/monthOver Free, this tier adds:
- Ad-free videos
- Background play
- YouTube Music included
- Offline downloads
Where YouTube stops being free
Free, Free
- Unlimited video watching
- Basic video uploads
- Community features
- Ad-supported
YouTube Premium, $11.99/month
The first thing you pay for:
- Ad-free videos
- Background play
- YouTube Music included
- Offline downloads
What the product covers
The full YouTube feature record, grouped as the catalogue groups it. This is the product as a whole; the record does not map every feature onto a specific tier.
Core
- Video hosting
- Live streaming
- Content discovery
- Creator tools
- Analytics
Integrations
- Google services
- Social media
- Creator tools
- Third-party apps
Security
- Content ID
- Community guidelines
- Privacy controls
- Parental controls
Platform
- Web support
- Ios support
- Android support
- Smart-tv support
- Gaming-consoles support
People bring YouTube in for video sharing, content marketing, education, entertainment, live streaming. If that is not the job you are buying for, the alternatives to YouTube are worth a look before you commit to a tier.
Before you pay for YouTube
Three things this page cannot tell you, and all three change the bill. The record carries a price and a billing period but not the unit - per-seat and flat-rate pricing are indistinguishable in this data, so a five-person team may be looking at five times the figure above. It carries no annual rate, so any discount for paying yearly is not something this page can quote. And it carries no trial length.
What it can tell you is the shape of the ladder: 2 tiers between Free and $11.99/month, with the jump itemised above. Because there is a free tier, the cheapest way to answer the rest is to use it before paying anything.
YouTube runs on web, ios, android, smart-tv, gaming-consoles, and is published by Google LLC of San Bruno, California, USA. The full record is on the YouTube review.
YouTube pricing questions
- How much does YouTube cost?
- YouTube publishes 2 tiers, from Free for Free up to $11.99/month for YouTube Premium. The entry tier costs nothing.
- Does YouTube have a free plan?
- Yes. The Free tier costs nothing and covers unlimited video watching, basic video uploads, community features. Paying starts at $11.99/month for YouTube Premium.
- What is the difference between Free and YouTube Premium on YouTube?
- YouTube Premium costs $11.99/month against Free, and adds ad-free videos, background play, youtube music included, offline downloads.
- What am I actually paying for with YouTube?
- The record lists 18 features across 4 areas: core, integrations, security, platform. In practice it is brought in for video sharing, content marketing, education.
- Does YouTube charge per user?
- The record carries a price and a billing period for each of its 2 tiers, but not the unit that price is charged in. Per-seat and flat-rate billing look identical in this data, so check the vendor's page before budgeting for a team.
- Are these YouTube prices current?
- They are what the catalogue entry holds, refreshed when the entry is. Vendors change pricing without notice and nobody at Softwr re-verifies each tier by hand, so treat this as a structured summary and the vendor's own pricing page as the authority.
- What should I compare YouTube against before paying?
- Nothing else in this directory is filed close enough to YouTube to make a useful price comparison.