YouTube Raises Premium Prices to $15.99 Monthly, Addresses 90-Second Ad Bug

YouTube announced its first U.S. price increase for Premium since 2023, raising individual plans to $15.99 per month starting June 7, 2026. The $2 increase follows a pattern of regular price hikes since the service launched as YouTube Red in 2015 at $9.99 monthly. Family plan subscribers face a steeper $4 increase to $26.99 per month. YouTube Premium Lite, which removes most ads, increases from $7.99 to $8.99 monthly. The company notified existing subscribers via email, citing the need to continue improving Premium and supporting content creators. The announcement coincides with user reports of 90-second unskippable advertisements on the free tier. YouTube initially denied testing such a format, stating the platform does not offer 90-second non-skippable ads. The company later acknowledged the reports reflected a user interface bug rather than intentional testing. According to a company spokesperson, the bug caused inaccurate timers to display for shorter advertisements, making multiple sequential ads appear as a single extended unskippable break. YouTube stated it is rolling out a fix. The price increase continues a broader trend among streaming services. Netflix raised prices in March 2026, while Amazon Prime Video has increased costs and removed features from lower-tier plans. YouTube generated over $40 billion in advertising revenue during 2025.