YouTube Premium hits 150 million users while free tier ads concerns rise

• October 29, 2026

• YouTube announced it’s hit 150 million subscribers across Premium and YouTube Music
• The platform also generated $11.2 billion in ad revenue
• Users say free tier ads are only getting worse, with some calling them ‘unbearable’

YouTube announced that it has surpassed a whopping 150 million subscribers across its Premium and YouTube Music experiences — marking a huge milestone for the video platform and one of the best music streaming services.

Alphabet Inc CEO, Sundar Pichai, announced the figures in the platform’s Q3 earnings release on Wednesday (October 28), which increased by 25 million from a total of 125 million subscribers in March 2025, though individual numbers for Premium and YouTube Music weren’t disclosed. Pichai also shared that YouTube’s ad revenue rose to more than $11.2 billion compared to $10.3 billion in 2025.

Speaking about the milestone, Google’s Chief Business Officer, Philipp Schindler, said “With Premium and Premium Lite, viewers have choice. As more people opt into premium experiences, it’s a win for viewers, creators, and our business. Subscriptions help fund the creator ecosystem and drive the platform forward.”

YouTube has accumulated over 25 million subscribers between now and when it last confirmed its total membership count in March 2025. When you break that down, that’s approximately 1.25 million new subscribers signing up each month, and it’s only going to increase.

While it’s not a traditional on-demand film and TV content platform, YouTube has emerged as a serious competitor among the best streaming services. In 2017, the company launched YouTube TV, and according to a recent report from Nielsen, it has surpassed Netflix in popularity for TV viewing. In July 2026, 49% of TV time was viewed via streaming platforms, with YouTube making up 14.2% of that, followed by Netflix at 7.8%.

There’s no denying YouTube Premium is rising in popularity, but as the company puts more effort into improving its paid services, a number of users have said its free version is becoming increasingly difficult to use because of the number of ads.

Earlier this year, I bit the bullet and signed up to a YouTube Premium free trial and, annoyingly, the experience was vastly more enjoyable. Not only does it grant you ad-free viewing, you get background and offline listening, as well as small but handy control tools and full access to YouTube Music. But once you go back to its free version, that’s when you truly realize how out of control YouTube’s ads have become — and I’m not the only one who’s noticed (see below).

In addition to YouTube’s ‘completely unbearable’ ads, users have also pointed out the rise in AI-generated sponsored content which one Redditor claims advertise “obvious scam products”. The combination of the two is the main catalyst for users abandoning YouTube as a platform altogether, and tech-savvy users are already opting for alternative ways to bypass ads.

One of the most popular ways YouTube viewers are working their way around ads is downloading browsers such as Brave, which users on Reddit have praised. Browsers like this come with built-in ad blockers, so it can automatically skip over ads when you’re streaming YouTube for free.

While YouTube gives you the option to tailor your ad experience and block certain types of promotional content, some users claim that when they do this, YouTube only feeds these ads to them even more. One user on Reddit used Old Spice as an example, saying “it’s like blocking them has a reverse effect.” Similarly, another user had an experience where they reported a potential scam ad, only for YouTube to email them with a counterargument.

I’m with a lot of other users who continue to call out YouTube for how expensive Premium has become (it now costs $15.99 / £12.99 / AU$22.99 a month), especially when you factor in your existing streaming subscriptions, so many of us just put up with its free service. Despite enjoying what Premium had to offer during my free trial, it doesn’t justify adding another subscription plan to my roster — my bank account will fall out with me.

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