Used VPN for cheaper YouTube Premium? Congrats, your subscription has been canceled

A YouTube Premium subscription can be one of the best subscriptions you can purchase, especially if you are an avid user of the video streaming platform. The platform has made it clear that it doesn’t like ad blockers, and the amount of ads on it has also made it rather annoying to use. The only real solutions are to stop using YouTube or plop some money down for a Premium subscription. Some users have used VPNs to buy YouTube Premium at cheaper rates, but it appears that Google is cracking down on such subscriptions and canceling them.

Reddit user Alopez1024 pointed out that YouTube seemingly canceled their YouTube Premium membership out of nowhere.

Other Redditors chimed in, claiming that their subscriptions were canceled too. However, the common thread appears to be that the users used a VPN to subscribe to YouTube Premium at a cheaper rate than what is available for their home market.

YouTube presents different Premium rates to specific markets, possibly to better accommodate the purchasing power of the local currency and local consumer expectations. Many people have used a VPN connection to mask their country of origin and take undue advantage of this regional pricing.

For instance, one of the common countries for such workaround subscriptions is Ukraine, where the subscription costs 99 UAH per month (~$2.44) compared to $13.99 per month in the US, and an international credit card would work. Premium would work normally after subscription, even without a VPN, making it a lucrative workaround. But not anymore, though.

If you have subscribed to YouTube Premium through a VPN, there is a good chance that your membership has been canceled. If you were scratching your head on the reason, this is probably it.

Redditors who have contacted customer service mention that the cancelation is because the user “moved” to a different location than the one they signed up from. They have been advised to sign up with a local card and address, which would inevitably bring them the normalized regional prices.

So far, we have not yet come across reports of people who have moved countries being caught in this clampdown on VPNs. But there is a possibility that even they could be affected.

We’ve reached out to Google for a statement and will update this article if and when we hear back.