YouTube Ends Limited Test That Locked 4K Video Behind Premium Paywall - MacRumors
Skip to Content

YouTube Ends Limited Test That Locked 4K Video Behind Premium Paywall

by

YouTube has brought to an end a limited test that locked 4K videos behind its Premium subscription, according to one of its official Twitter accounts (via 9to5Google).

General YouTube Feature 1
YouTube has supported 4K videos since 2010, and they have since been freely available to be viewed by anyone. At least, that was until earlier this month, when some users reported seeing a "Premium" label against 2160p/4K content, indicating only paying YouTube subscribers were able to view 4K content on the platform.

Currently, a standard YouTube Premium plan costs $11.99 in the United States and includes ad-free videos, background playback, and the ability to download videos for offline viewing. YouTube's experiment suggested it was actively considering 4K viewing as an added perk.


According to multiple tweets from the official TeamYouTube Twitter account, that experiment has now come to an end. YouTube representatives gave no reason for the change, but it's possible the negative online backlash to the test hastened its discontinuation.

Tag: YouTube

Popular Stories

Four iPhone 18 Pro Colors Mock Feature

iPhone 18 Pro: Pre-Orders and Release Date

Sunday August 16, 2026 8:24 pm PDT by
Apple has yet to reveal when the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Ultra will be announced and released, but the dates usually follow a familiar pattern. As usual, the event is expected to take place in the first half of September. Labor Day falls on September 7 this year. The last time the holiday was on that day was in 2020, but the iPhone event that year was delayed until October due to the...
Read Full Article
apple camera airpods

Apple's Camera-Equipped AirPods Confirmed: See Them in Action

Monday August 17, 2026 6:21 pm PDT by
Apple is working on camera-equipped AirPods that appear to be nearly ready to launch, based on a video MacRumors found in the macOS Tahoe 26.7 release candidate. In a short demo, a man holds a book up so the camera in the AirPods can see the title. "With Visual Intelligence, your world becomes savable. See something you like? Just ask me to save it for later," says the voiceover text. Here ...
Read Full Article • 314 comments
imac video apple feature

September 1 to Mark the End of an Era at Apple

Tuesday August 18, 2026 9:14 am PDT by
Apple in April announced that Tim Cook will be stepping down as CEO at the end of this month, after 15 years of leading the company. Cook has been Apple's CEO since 2011 Effective September 1, Apple's hardware engineering chief John Ternus will become the company's next CEO, while Cook will become executive chairman of Apple's board of directors. In his new role, Apple said Cook will assist...
Read Full Article

Top Rated Comments

-DMN- Avatar
-DMN-
50 months ago
For now…
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Abazigal Avatar
Abazigal
50 months ago
$12 a month for YouTube would be theft even if it were in Canadian Dollars. 99% of the content is free anyway. And didn't it start at like $5-6 a month ?
For me, well worth not having to deal with ads on the big screen. Just sucks that I can’t share it with my corporate google account, because ads are annoying, all the more when I am trying to play some video for my students.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
H
HappyDude20
50 months ago
Remember everyone they only decided to stop this from becoming a premium service offering because they got caught and called out for it.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
krspkbl Avatar
krspkbl
50 months ago
good and you better keep it that way Google. i have YT Premium but this would be a stupid move.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
C
chocolaterabbit
50 months ago

The removal of the 👎 feature makes it harder to screen out the garbage. Before, I would skip videos with higher ratios of 👎 to 👍 because it will either be rubbish content😑, awful camera work😵‍💫, annoying music😒 or, worst of all, long winded rant from the YouTuber.😪 Now, even garbage videos can have high like ratings.😠

I don't subscribe to any channels, but I have a list of go to channels for information I'm looking for. I mostly watch home repair, cooking and sewing channels to see if it's a task I can handle or hire a pro.
Get the YouTube dislikes extension for your browser if you’re on desktop
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
S
SnappleRumors
50 months ago

$12 a month for YouTube would be theft even if it were in Canadian Dollars. 99% of the content is free anyway. And didn't it start at like $5-6 a month ?
$12 is worth it to me to skip the commercials.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments