YouTube hikes cost of premium plans in India, family pack fee rises over 50%

YouTube increased prices of its premium subscription plans in India.

YouTube has raised the prices of its Premium subscriptions in India by 12-58 percent for all plans, marking the first such increase since the Google-owned video platform launched premium subscriptions in the country in 2019.

The individual plan is now priced at Rs 149 per month, a 15.5 percent increase from Rs 129 per month, while the student plan now costs Rs 89 per month, up 12.7 percent from Rs 79 per month.

The family plan, which allows users to share their subscription benefits with up to five family members in the same household, has witnessed the highest price increase. The plan will now cost Rs 299 per month, up 58.2 percent from Rs 189 per month.

YouTube Premium provides subscribers an ad-free experience along with the ability to play videos in the background and download videos for offline playback. It also provides them early access to some of the experimental features on the platform.

YouTube has also hiked the prices of its music streaming service, YouTube Music, with individual plans now starting at Rs 119 per month, up from Rs 99 per month.

The family plan now costs Rs 179 per month, as compared to Rs 149 per month earlier, while the student plan remains at Rs 59 per month.

A look at how YouTube Premium and YouTube Music's new prices compare against old prices.

These hikes come as Google looks to boost its subscription revenue, which is emerging as a potential new moneymaker for the tech giant.

While Google didn't comment on this specific price hike, it redirected us to a support page which mentions that the company "occasionally updates its membership prices to keep up with market changes, which can include inflation and local tax changes"

In an email sent to subscribers, YouTube stated that it is increasing the prices to "continue delivering great service and features"

"We don't make these decisions lightly, and this update will allow us to continue to improve Premium and support the creators and artists you watch on YouTube" the email read.

Read: What YouTube CEO has to say on hitting a new milestone in India

Google's overall revenue from its subscriptions, platforms and devices business, which includes YouTube Premium and YouTube TV, generated $9.3 billion revenue for the quarter ended June 30, 2024 (Q2 2024), up 14 percent from $8.1 billion in Q2 2023.

The revenue increase was driven by strong growth in YouTube subscriptions, Alphabet's chief business officer Philipp Schindler said during the company's earnings conference call.

The tech giant does not provide a break-up of its subscription, platforms and devices unit but Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in January that Google's subscription business generated $15 billion in revenue in 2023.

Pichai stated in April that YouTube and Google's cloud business is expected to reach a combined annual run rate of over $100 billion by the end of 2024.

In January, YouTube announced that it crossed more than 100 million paid subscribers across YouTube Premium and YouTube Music, up from 80 million in November 2022. YouTube TV, a television streaming service available in the United States, has more than eight million paid subscribers.

To drive this growth, YouTube also launched a global initiative to crack down on ad blockers in October 2023, which it extended to third-party apps in April 2024.

"We want to emphasize that our terms don't allow third-party apps to turn off ads because that prevents the creator from being rewarded for viewership, and Ads on YouTube help support creators and let billions of people around the world use the streaming service," the company said in a community announcement in April.

"We only allow third-party apps to use our API when they follow our API Services Terms of Service, and when we find an app that violates these terms, we will take appropriate action to protect our platform, creators, and viewers," the company said.