Google is shaking up its subscription offerings once more by rolling out its minimalist, more wallet-friendly YouTube Premium Lite plan to two new markets: France and Singapore. First unveiled in the U.S. earlier this year at $7.99 per month, Premium Lite strips down the full Premium experience to deliver an ad-free watch for most standard YouTube videos—sans the bells and whistles of music access, downloads, or background play. This move, announced July 17, comes as YouTube seeks to broaden its paid subscriber base beyond the roughly 125 million users already paying for Premium and Music globally.

Premium Lite represents YouTube’s attempt to capture viewers who crave uninterrupted video content without committing to the full suite of Premium features. Launched in the U.S. in March and quickly piloted in Thailand, Germany, and Australia, the Lite tier has proven popular among light users who already rely on standalone music services like Spotify or Apple Music and don’t necessarily need offline downloads or background play on mobile devices. For those who want everything—ad‑free music, offline videos, background audio—standard YouTube Premium remains available at higher price points.

In France, Premium Lite carries a monthly fee of €7.99, while in Singapore it’s priced at S$7.98—nearly half the cost of the regular YouTube Premium subscription in both regions. By contrast, full Premium in France runs about €13.99/month and in Singapore around S$13.98/month. This aggressive pricing strategy is designed to lure budget-conscious viewers who find the main Premium plan prohibitively expensive but still want to escape the barrage of ads that punctuate free viewing.

With Premium Lite, users enjoy ad-free playback on most content categories including gaming walkthroughs, cooking demos, comedy sketches, and educational videos. However, you’ll still encounter ads on music videos, in Shorts, and during search or browsing sessions—areas YouTube argues require additional licensing or infrastructure support. Missing from Lite are the ability to download videos for offline viewing and background play, features that are frequently cited by mobile-first users and commuters as crucial.

YouTube’s subscription revenue has been on an upward trajectory ever since the introduction of YouTube Music and Premium in 2018. The platform surpassed 125 million subscribers worldwide earlier this year—a milestone that underpins its confidence in diversifying subscription tiers. Premium Lite, then, is the latest experiment in this evolution, offering a lower barrier to entry and potentially widening YouTube’s paywall to audiences in price-sensitive markets.

With the latest additions, Premium Lite is now available in 19 markets: the United States, Australia, Germany, Thailand, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Great Britain, Turkey, Poland, France, Romania, Spain, Italy, Taiwan, Singapore, Chile, and Colombia. This lineup covers diverse regions across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. According to YouTube’s help documentation, the company plans to expand Lite to more countries “in the future,” although no specific timeline has been shared.