YouTube Cracks Down on Cheap VPN Premium Subscriptions

YouTube Premium can significantly improve the videos you watch, with the ability to go ad-free, listen to the audio with your screen locked on your phone and the option to download content to watch offline.  

However, at £12.99/$13.99 per month, it’s not the cheapest subscription. Many users turned to signing up via a VPN, as some countries such as Turkey, Argentina and Ghana offer less expensive subscriptions. Therefore, users could trick the app/site into believing they were based there. 

Those days may soon be over.  

GoogleWatchBlog first reported getting the following email from YouTube: 

“Your YouTube Premium membership has been terminated because we believe you did not provide your actual country of residence when signing up with […]. If you want to remain a member, you must sign up for YouTube Premium again within the next few weeks. Otherwise, you will only be able to access the benefits of YouTube Premium until [date]. After that date, your membership will not automatically renew.” 

Several other users on Reddit have also reported having their accounts terminated by YouTube. The company later confirmed to TechCrunch that it is cracking down on users who’ve been utilising this hack.  

If you don’t want to go back to the free version of YouTube but also can’t fork out more money, we have a few hacks you can try.  

How to get the benefits of YouTube Premium for cheaper 

For watching videos in the background on a smartphone, there are numerous workarounds you can use. You can watch videos in your browser and control playback via the control centre.  

If you’re in the US, picture-in-picture is available to users for no extra charge. Other people can access this feature with a VPN – as far as we’re aware, YouTube is only cracking down on people who use this software when it comes to payment. If that changes, we’ll update this article.  

Downloading videos is also possible without a Premium membership, as many third-party apps offer this service: 

The same applies to ad-blockers, which can be used on desktop, iPhones and Android devices: 

Finally, if you happen to be at college or university, then you can shave off some money by signing up for a dedicated student membership.