If you subscribe to a YouTube Premium family plan, you may want to check your email: Google is notifying users that the monthly cost of the service will be going up by $5 a month.
Starting in November, most users will start paying $22.99 per month for YouTube Premium — though there seems to be some leeway. While the main announcement says that the price increase starts on the next billing cycle on or after November 21st, some legacy subscribers won’t see their bill jump for several months. One Engadget staffer was informed that their price would not increase until April due to their status as a “long-standing and valued member.”
With the new price structure, the family plan is less of a bargain for smaller groups. At $17.99, buying into the family plan for just two users offered a significant savings over individual accounts. Now, a two-user family will save only $1 a month. For now, however, single-user prices remain the same: $11.99 a month for individual accounts and $6.99 for students. The benefits haven’t changed either, with Premium still offering users an ad-free YouTube experience, the ability to download videos for offline viewing, access to YouTube Music, and the ability to continue to play music and videos in the background or with your phone screen off.
At least you still don’t need to subscribe to Premium to watch videos in 4K.