5 Disadvantages Of YouTube Premium Lite Compared To Standard Premium

YouTube Premium is Google's premium subscription for YouTube — or as I call it, my favorite streaming subscription ever. First released in 2014 as Music Key, then rebranded as YouTube Red until it finally got the name we all know now in 2018, it focuses on fixing one of the platform's worst issues: the crazy amount of ads users have to sit through to enjoy their favorite content.

Over the years, YouTube Premium evolved into more than just removing ads, introducing new features like background play, improved bitrate for videos, and more. As the subscription got more expensive, YouTube released a Lite version as a test in 2021, and by 2025 it finally rolled out to several markets globally, including the U.S. With a bigger focus on affordability, it shares many of YouTube Premium's features, but still displays some ads, limits a few experiences, and even ditches YouTube Music completely.

While in only a year YouTube Premium Lite became a lot more competitive by adding Background Play and Offline Downloads, there are a few differences — and disadvantages — when users choose the $8.99 monthly subscription instead of the $15.99 monthly version that gives you all the perks. Understanding the limitations of YouTube Premium Lite can give you a better picture of whether it's enough for you, or if the more expensive subscription is the better deal. That said, with Google making it harder to bypass ads, I'd say that a YouTube subscription is arguably mandatory in 2026.

The main reason why anyone should subscribe to a YouTube Premium version is to get rid of ads. Every time YouTube opens my secondary Google account and I take a look at YouTube's page, wow, what a horrible experience. Ads everywhere. You tap a video to watch, immediately get two unskippable ads, and when the platform doesn't display another ad during the video you're watching, you immediately get another one by the time the video ends. When you go to the next video, the experience repeats. And even worse, shows the same ads, eventually making you go crazy.

When I decided to subscribe to YouTube Premium years ago, it felt like a new life not to see ads everywhere. Now that I downgraded to the YouTube Premium Lite version, the main disadvantage is that I get ads every now and then on YouTube Shorts, but, most importantly, whenever I want to watch a music video clip.

While I don't see ads in news, Zelda or Pokémon theory videos, and other general content, it only takes me one music video clip of Blossoms to be bombarded by two unskippable ads. Even though YouTube might give me a video or two of a break, it doesn't take long until I get more ads again. That said, if you choose the Lite version instead of Premium you should be aware that there are still ads in music content.

While watching YouTube videos is fun, it's even nicer to just leave the app in the background and go answer messages, lock my phone to wash the dishes, and so on. Until very recently, not only did Google fix all the possible loopholes for viewers enjoying this feature for free, it didn't offer that perk for YouTube Premium Lite. Fortunately, in early-2026, the platform added background play for those users, except for during music or Shorts.

YouTube Premium Lite doesn't let users listen to official music videos, art tracks, children's songs, and videos featuring licensed partner audio in the background, which also has everything to do with a third disadvantage of this cheaper subscription: you can't download YouTube Shorts or music videos.

Even though the company also recently allowed YouTube Premium Lite customers to download content to watch later — a blessing for me on a long plane trip where I just want to listen to a random British guy telling me Pokémon facts until I fall asleep — there's no way to download any YouTube Shorts or music video clips, which means you'll need to download your favorite songs on your preferred music streaming platform. It's not the end of the world, of course, but it's a disadvantage when you're just bouncing between content and you end up getting a message you can't do something because it's beyond what you're paying for.

The fourth disadvantage regards advanced playback features and, if you spend a lot of time on YouTube, you probably came across them and realized they make a lot of difference in your experience. For example, the standard YouTube Premium lets you jump past an ad the content creator added to their video, seamlessly resume videos from where you left off across devices, add videos to a temporary queue on mobile and TV screens, get higher bitrate video options and high-quality audio, and even get picture-in-picture playback for music videos.

These are all nice and useful features that anyone paying for YouTube would expect to get, but no. They're only available for the standard YouTube Premium, and if you have the Lite version, you'll have to do like any other person and guess when to jump ahead on a video to the part that matters most, go without using that temporary queue, and forgo premium video quality when watching.

While I could go on about picture-in-picture playback for music videos, I already think it's sad enough I can't listen to a song in the background with the Lite version, so it's all the same. If you want better control of the video you're currently watching/listening to, you need to pay more. Simple as that.

Last but not least, the fifth disadvantage of YouTube Premium Lite — and you've probably guessed by now — is that it doesn't include YouTube Music. After all, who would've thought that with YouTube Premium Lite displaying ads during music videos, not letting you play them in the background, or download them, that it also wouldn't have access to Google's music streaming service?

All kidding aside, it's interesting to note that while a standard YouTube Premium subscription gives you access to YouTube Music Premium, if you only subscribe to the music streaming service, which costs $11.99/monthly, it gives you access to just its app, meaning that if you subscribe to this service and open YouTube, you'll still be plagued by ads on music videos.

So, if besides watching your favorite content creators, watching music videos is a big part of your YouTube experience, then using the Premium Lite version will be a lot harder, as you'll constantly get annoyed by unskippable ads while you're enjoying your favorite artists, bands, and albums.

The standard YouTube Premium experience is almost twice as expensive as the YouTube Premium Lite subscription. As someone who enjoyed regular Premium for years and has now downgraded the experience because Google AI Pro offers YouTube Premium Lite "for free", I'd say that life hasn't changed much, besides those small inconveniences when I try to jump ahead during a video, want to queue content, or tap on a music video clip and immediately get an ad.

If your YouTube experience relies a lot on music, then a standard YouTube Premium subscription is a must, because otherwise you'll feel like you pay for something that still continues to display ads all the time. Even though you'll get fewer than without a subscription, it's still annoying and feels a bit misleading. However, if the kind of content you consume on YouTube doesn't rely on music, then a Lite subscription is more than enough because you'll have all the important perks of the more expensive version.

If you enjoy using AI, you could take advantage of a bundle, like I did with Google AI Pro, which costs $19.99 and also gives me a few terabytes of Google Drive storage and better Gemini models; or if you really use YouTube for music, then a Premium subscription gives you access to the full Music Premium service, which can be very nice. Still, what feels impossible is to heavily use YouTube and not subscribe to it at all.