How to Get a YouTube Premium Discount and Save Money

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How to Get YouTube Premium at a Discount

Enjoying an ad-free YouTube experience is a wonderful idea, and it is possible if you subscribe to YouTube Premium.

But if the monthly fee for your location is too steep, follow these steps to get a discount on your YouTube Premium membership. You’ll need a VPN service first.

  1. Login to your Google account (or create a separate Google account just for your premium subscription).
  2. If you don’t already have one, get a VPN. We recommend NordVPN.
  3. Go to Youtube Premium and verify the pricing appears in Argentinian pesos.
  4. Click Try It Free.
  5. Fill in your card information. You can use your regular card or find a fee-free card and avoid currency conversion fees.
  6. In the address section, use a street, city, and postcode in Argentina (or whatever country you selected). You can search for addresses in Google or use a random address generator (find out how in the article below!).
  7. Click Buy.

That’s it! Now you can enjoy ad-free YouTube at a very discounted price every month. Read our full article to learn everything you should know about this money-saving hack.

If you like free YouTube but hate the seemingly endless ads, you’re not alone. Watching the countdown timer until you can skip an ad and get to your video is one of the more frustrating things about using the popular video site.

Of course, that is by design. YouTube knows that at some point the ads will drive you over the edge. And then, paying for ad-free videos will be irresistible. While the initial YouTube Premium free trial offer might have you sign up without a second thought, what happens when your free access ends?

You can move to a paid subscription, of course. But that can get expensive, especially if you already have other monthly subscription fees.

If you’re interested in saving money (who isn’t?), we’re here to show you how to enjoy ad-free viewing and get a YouTube Premium discount every month, too.

What is Included with a YouTube Premium Subscription?

Before we dig in, here’s what you get when you subscribe to YouTube Premium.

  • Ad-free YouTube experience – sort of. YouTube eliminates all YouTube distributed ads (e.g. the annoying ones that play before your video starts). However, even with Premium, you still will see ads, commercials, and sponsored content embedded in the videos and live channels (which YouTube doesn’t have a hand in distributing).
  • Download videos for offline viewing – only possible when you have a YouTube Premium subscription.
  • Background play  – useful when you use YouTube to play your favorite songs while you use other apps or your device is locked.
  • Access to YouTube Originals – movies, shows, and features from a variety of genres, that you can’t stream elsewhere
  • YouTube Music Premium subscription – a music streaming service similar to Spotify Premium, you get no ads, can download and play offline, and listen to music when your device is locked.

If you watch YouTube a lot, the paid subscription makes sense. However, for occasional users who subscribe to other streaming music services (Amazon Music, Spotify), some of the YouTube Premium benefits may not be of that much value.

How Much Does a YouTube Premium Subscription Cost?

YouTube prices its premium service by location. And in this case, not every country is equal.

In fact, YouTube Premium subscriptions can range from downright cheap (Argentina and India) to very expensive (the United Kingdom and Switzerland).

Here’s a breakdown of how prices compare around the world, converted to USD ($) for comparison purposes.

CountryMonthly Subscription Rate
(local currency)
Monthly Subscription Rate
USD ($)*
Argentina119.00$1.20
India129.00$1.71
Brazil20.90$3.75
South Africa71.99$4.94
Romania26.00$6.11
Sweden69.00$8.01
Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg6.99$8.13
Czech Republic179.00$8.17
Hong Kong68.00$8.74
Singapore11.98$8.90
Canada11.99$9.70
Portugal8.49$9.88
Australia14.99$11.19
United States11.99$11.99
Austria, France, Germany, Italy11.99$13.95
United Kingdom11.99$16.54
Switzerland15.90$17.25

* Pricing and currency conversion rates as of October 2021.

If you live in a country where YouTube Premium costs more, why would you want to pay extra when other countries get the same content, but at a lower price? After all, being punished for where you live seems like a sketchy way for a big company with deep pockets to make their profits.

While YouTube doesn’t offer discounts or sales after you’ve become a premium subscriber, there are ways to reduce your costs before you sign up.

How to Get YouTube Premium Way Cheaper

If you’re new to the YouTube Premium service, you can start with a test drive by claiming a YouTube Premium free trial. If you like the experience, you can move on to a monthly paid subscription.

However, before you do either one, be sure to read on to find out how to position yourself to get the lowest price on your monthly paid subscription.

Look for YouTube Premium free trial offers

For new subscribers, YouTube offers a free trial period. This is usually one month, but occasionally you can find special offers of three-month free trials (although those offers are quite hit-or-miss). If you don’t cancel before the end of your free trial, your subscription will automatically roll over to a paid one.

To find your YouTube Premium free trial offer, log in to your Google account, then go to YouTube Premium to see if you qualify and for how long. You should see one of two screens, like in the example below.

YouTube Premium Subscription Pricing Page Screenshot

YouTube Premium Subscription is not available in your country window screenshot

If you receive a message stating that Premium is not available in your country, you’ll need to use a VPN to start your subscription. Likewise, if you don’t like the rate you see (based on your physical location), you can also use a VPN to start your subscription in a different virtual location. Read on to find out more.

Use a VPN to sign up for YouTube Premium

Life hacks are nice, and this YouTube Premium discount hack is among the best for saving money. Especially if you are an avid YouTuber.

To find the best deal on YouTube Premium (or be able to subscribe if you live in a country where YouTube Premium isn’t available), follow these instructions. If you don’t already have a VPN service, you’ll need to sign up for one first. Check out our recommended VPN providers in the next section.

In the following steps, we used NordVPN with a Firefox browser and selected Argentina as our destination location.

  1. Login to your Google account (or create a separate Google account just for your premium subscription).
  2. Open your VPN and connect to a server in Argentina (or the location of your choice, depending on the discount you want).
  3. Go to Youtube Premium and verify that the price appears in Argentinian pesos (or the currency of the location you selected).
  4. YouTube Premium Argentinian Pricing window screenshotIf you don’t see the proper currency, double-check that your current IP address is in Argentina. You can do that via this link. If it is the correct country, try a different server in that country. Search for other servers by typing Argentina # in the NordVPN search bar, reconnect to the new server, then refresh your YouTube Premium page.
  5. Click Try It Free and you’ll see the following screen:YouTube Complete Your Purchase page screenshot
  6. Fill in your credit/debit card information. You can use your regular card or find a fee-free card and avoid currency conversion fees.
  7. In the address section, use a street, city, and postcode in Argentina (or whatever country you selected). You can search for addresses in Google or use a random address generator.
  8. Click Buy.

Things to know about using a VPN to get a YouTube Premium discount

While this hack can be a real money saver, there are some important things to note before you commit.

  • Your monthly subscription fee will be billed to your card in Argentinian Pesos (or the currency of the country you selected). You may get hit with currency conversion fees, depending on the card you added.
  • As long as you’re signed in to your YouTube Premium account, you won’t need to use a VPN to watch content.
  • This strategy works with more plans, like the YouTube Family Plan. To make it work, though, you’ll need to invite everyone and have them accept before you start this process.
  • And, like any tech hack, YouTube might terminate your subscription. While this is rare, it is not unheard of. You should be aware of this risk, and accept this possibility before you click buy.

VPN Recommendations

If you don’t yet have a VPN service, you should definitely get one. Besides being helpful to unlock better pricing for a variety of online services, a VPN offers other great benefits. It can save you a lot of money on other subscriptions too.

A VPN helps you hide your identity online since it cloaks your actual IP address and replaces it with one attached to the VPN server you choose. A VPN also secures your data since every byte you send via the VPN connection is fully encrypted. Finally, a VPN allows you to more freely use the internet since neither your ISP nor government can eavesdrop on what you’re doing online.

If you’re not sure which VPN provider is right for you, check out our recommended list.

If you want to get going right away, we strongly recommend NordVPN for unlocking cheaper YouTube Premium subscriptions. We tested several VPN providers for this article, and Nord delivered flawlessly. We also love NordVPN because it has a strict “no logs” policy, which means they don’t keep any record of your activity on their servers. If they are subpoenaed by a government or law enforcement, they have nothing to share about you.

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Closing Thoughts

Saving money is always good. Leveraging technology to make that happen is even better.

If you’re serious about enjoying YouTube Premium at a discount, a VPN makes it possible.

While life hacks like this aren’t often discussed, they are a great way to keep some of your hard-earned cash in your pocket every month. And who doesn’t like that idea?

How to Get a YouTube Premium Discount and Save Money - Frequently Asked Questions

Didn’t find what you needed in the article? Have other questions? Read on or drop us a line. We’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

You can! Don’t fall victim to YouTube’s practice of charging you based on your physical location. Use a VPN to virtually locate yourself in a country where YouTube is less expensive (Argentina and India are currently the cheapest), then sign up and save.

Read our full article to find out how.

Occasionally, YouTube will make three-month free trial offers available. Sometimes they will run specials for new premium subscribers, that offer a longer free trial dependent on activating a new Google service.

One way you can grab a heavily discounted premium subscription anytime is with a VPN. Read our full article to find out how.

It totally depends on where you’re physically located when you sign up. YouTube prices its premium service based on your location. The more affluent the location, the higher the monthly subscription fee.

To avoid this, you can use a VPN pointed to a cheaper location (Argentina, India) when you sign up for YouTube Premium service. Read our full article to find out how.

Tech journalist
Liz is a professional writer with a special interest in online privacy and cybersecurity. As a US expat who travels and works in diverse locations around the world, keeping up with the latest internet safety best practices remains her priority.