I had been a long-term YouTube Premium user and had purchased numerous annual subscriptions over the years. One thing to keep in mind is the fact that most or rather all of these purchases have been carried from my Android device. So recently I made a switch to an iPhone and a couple of weeks later, it was time to renew my annual subscription. To my surprise, the price wasn’t the same that I had paid last time around [or prior to it].
So one obvious explanation of the same could be an increment in price by the Silicon Valley giant, however, there was no such move from Google. Just to be double sure, I also checked if the pricing scheme is different across both platforms, but that wasn’t the case either [more on that later]. So why is this happening? Is this the price that you have to pay for ditching Google’s ecosystem and joining its rival? Well, not exactly! Let me raise the curtains over what exactly is going on.
Why is YouTube Costly on iPhone over Android?
iPhone and iPad users are charged $18.99/month [Rs 169/month] for YouTube Premium whereas Android users are only charged $13.99 monthly [Rs 129/month]. So why this major price difference? Well, you could thank Apple Tax for the same. For the unaware, the Cupertino giant charges a commission running from 15% to 30% for every transaction made through the App Store.
So the developer could do two things- either levy this additional charge on its users or take a loss and pay this amount via its own pockets. And it goes without saying that every developer would obviously take the former approach. So the additional $5 that you are paying is actually the developer’s [YouTube in this case] fee that has been levied by Apple.
Couldn’t the developer provide us an external medium to carry out the transaction instead of being reliant on Apple? Well, that’s a great question but unfortunately, the answer is in a negative tone. If your app has to stay in the App Store, then it has to follow their stringent guidelines, one among which is the restriction imposed on developers on offering an external platform [outside of the App Store] to carry out this transaction.
While there’s nothing to lose from the developer’s point of view, it’s the user base who ends up having to shell out these additional bucks from their pockets. Well, not anymore! This guide will show you a nifty method through which you could purchase YouTube Premium cheaper- similar to the price that is charged on the other side of the fence [aka Android].
How to Get iPhone YouTube Premium At the Cost of Android!
While purchasing the plan via the YouTube app on iPhone or iPad is costly, but that isn’t the only official source from where you could get this job done! You could also purchase the YouTube Premium plan from the YouTube website [if the website redirects you to the app, then use this URL: https://www.youtube.com/premium and guess what, you’ll only have to shell out $13.99 monthly [Rs 129/month], exactly what your Android counterparts are paying.
This has been made possible due to the fact that you are purchasing it directly from the YouTube site, so Google does not have to pay any commission on the purchase whatsoever to Apple. And hence we are the beneficiary this time around! So keep this trick in mind the next time you are about to buy the premium plan and gift yourself the precious $60 that you have saved for that year.
Are there any Differences in Features?
No, there are no differences. You will get the same number of features upon purchasing the YouTube Premium plan for $13.99 that you get for $18.99. These include:
- No ads anywhere in the video.
- Download videos for offline viewing.
- Use Picture in Picture Mode.
- Access to YouTube Music.
An important note regarding VPN
YouTube Premium costs considerably less in Argentina, Turkey, or Brazil as compared to the US. So many users use a VPN to spoof their location to one of these regions and then purchase the premium membership. However, over time, Google ultimately puts a nail in the coffin for those accounts, or in other words, terminates them for good. So it’s recommended that you refrain from carrying out the VPN tweak and only stick with the official method that we have shared above to get YouTube Premium at a cheaper cost.
