I will try to keep this article up-to-date (you can see the last updated date at the very top). The basic idea is: how to watch YouTube videos without ads – and without paying for YouTube premium.
1. Intro and ethical considerations
1.1. What are we talking about here?
As a YouTube creator, I get a few bucks from ads shown to people watching my videos (even more when they click on them – LOL 🙂 ). When you watch my videos with an adblocker, I get nothing (not a cent).
Still, from a neutral, objective point, I can clearly see that:
- There are waaay too many adverts on YouTube (ad frequency is very high).
- The ads are loud (often obnoxiously loud).
- YouTube Premium subscription (that lets you watch without ads) is outrageously expensive (they just made a huge price hike in June 2025).
1.2. What about using an (effective) ad-blocker?
Some compare it to stealing, but I think that is a very poor comparison. I see it as watching a theatre play without paying a ticket (i.e. sneaking in 🙂 ):
- The show will be played regardless of whether you pay the ticket, sneak in (without paying a ticket), or don’t watch it at all.
- If many people sneak in, theatre and actors will starve.
While my analogy is not perfect for Google (YouTube’s owner), because it is a huge corporation with a ton of resources, it is definitely true for creators (“Youtubers”). Youtubers (creators) get paid very little compared to the amount of work it takes to make good videos. Talking about 99.999% of them – there are a few super-popular and super-rich Youtubers that are (ab)used to sell the illusion of YouTube being a fair game that lets everyone earn a lot while doing what they love, when they are free to do it (riiight – that’s not how capitalism works).
1.3. “But I pay Patreon support (or buy merch) for creators I love!”
This is often followed by other similar rationalisations, such as “creators only get one cent from my views, if I support them with even just one $1 per month, it ends up being a lot more.”
Sure, that is all very nice (and technically correct). Now, please take a notebook and add a line whenever you watch a video from a creator you don’t support in any way (not even $1 per year). You can stop when you reach a dozen, or a hundred – and many people will reach that number surprisingly quickly.
The same calling bullshit goes for those who claim to block ads for privacy: if you use a smartphone (and especially if you also pay by a card), you have already waived your privacy to the corporations (and governments as their tools).
1.4. Summing it up?
So, you see how controversial and contradicting this quickly becomes? In this article, I’ll explain an up-to-date way to watch YouTube without ads – and without paying for a subscription. I’ll leave it up to your concience to decide whether you want to do that and whether you think it is moral.
2. Desktop adblockers
For desktop, it is easy:
- Install Firefox web browser (official Mozilla website link).
- Install uBlock Origin Firefox extension (Github link).
- Install Malwarebytes Browser Guard Firefox extension.
This second extension may not be necessary, but it has worked fine for me so far
The default settings of the browser and the plugins should work fine.
This works for both Windows and Linux at the time of writing. In case of any changes, I will update this article.
3. Android adblockers
Putting this as a placeholder – no way to test it now.
4. IOS adblockers
At the time of writing, I have not found an easy, simple, convenient way to effectively block YouTube ads on an iphone.
I could install Firefox, but the uBlock Origin extension can’t be normally installed on IOS, so that’s a problem.
5. Conclusion
I hope this helps you.
If you have solutions for smartphones or better ideas for desktop, please share them on the BikeGremlin forum (and I will see to include the info in this article).
Last updated:
Originally published:
