A writer checked YouTube's built-in usage page after a year of paying for Premium and found 1,330 hours of ad-free video. Here is how to check yours.
A writer at Android Police tracked a full year of YouTube Premium use and concluded the $15.99 monthly fee was worth it. The proof came from a page inside YouTube that most subscribers may never have opened. It shows how much of the service you actually use.
The page counted more than 1,330 hours of ad-free video. That is almost 56 days of watching with no ads. The writer says that without Premium, watch time would have grown by at least 200 hours, which is more than a week of ads.
Not every perk mattered. The writer has unlimited data, so offline downloads were the least useful part. Background play was also lower than expected.
The page is easy to find. Tap your profile icon in the upper-right corner of YouTube, then tap Premium benefits. On a phone, the option sits beside View channel. It works on both desktop and mobile.
The writer says the stat is not new but was only found recently. It gives a clear picture of whether the subscription earns its price.
Premium costs $15.99 a month and includes ad-free video and YouTube Music. A cheaper Lite plan exists, but it is not completely ad-free and does not include YouTube Music Premium.
Spotify Premium Individual costs $12.99 a month. That is $3 less, but it covers music only. The writer pays for both services. If forced to keep one, the choice would be YouTube Premium, partly because its music recommendations are preferred over Spotify's.
One person's results do not predict yours. Someone who rarely watches YouTube, or who does not use YouTube Music, may see much smaller numbers. The writer also says free accounts have been showing more ads in recent years, which may push more people toward paying.
Open the Premium benefits page and look at your own hours. If the numbers are low, that is a reasonable cue to consider dropping the plan or trying the cheaper Lite tier.
Open Premium benefits in YouTube to see your own hours, then decide whether the $15.99 monthly fee is worth keeping.
Running a laptop with the lid closed at your desk has small perks and small risks, and a few settings and a stand can cover most of them.
Read more: Laptop lid open or closed at your desk? Mostly a style choiceNetflix's top plan is now $26.99 a month, while its 2007 streaming only worked on a Windows PC with Internet Explorer. Here is what each plan gets you.
Read more: Netflix now costs up to $26.99 a month, and in 2007 it only ran on one kind of PCThe IRS says it first contacts people by mail and never calls to demand instant payment, so a rushed message claiming to be the IRS is a warning sign.
Read more: IRS Lists How to Spot Tax Scams and Protect Your Information
