You’re halfway through a lo-fi beats stream or a deep dive into 19th-century history when it happens. A loud, jarring 15-second unskippable ad for insurance or a mobile game destroys the vibe. It’s frustrating. Everyone asks, how do I get rid of ads on YouTube, but the answers have changed a lot lately because Google is actively fighting back against the tools we used to rely on.
They’ve started a "global effort" to crack down on ad blockers. You might have seen that scary pop-up warning you that video playback will be cut off after three videos if you don’t disable your extension. It’s a cat-and-mouse game. Honestly, what worked two months ago might be broken today.
The official way: YouTube Premium (and why people hate it)
Look, the most straightforward answer to how do I get rid of ads on YouTube is simply paying for it. YouTube Premium is the "official" solution. It’s expensive, though. Prices recently hiked in several regions, pushing the monthly cost to about $13.99 in the US.
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For that price, you get more than just an ad-free experience. You get background play on mobile, which is basically essential if you use the app for music or podcasts while walking. You also get YouTube Music, which is a decent Spotify competitor. But let’s be real: most people just want the ads gone. They don't want the extra "bloat" features.
Some users try to get around the high price by using a VPN to sign up in countries like Ukraine or India where the subscription is significantly cheaper. Google has started cracking down on this "digital nomadism" by requiring payment methods issued in the country of purchase. It's becoming a headache. If you go the Premium route, you’re paying for convenience and the peace of mind that your account won’t get flagged.
The browser battle: Why Chrome is losing
If you're using Google Chrome, you're playing on the home team's turf. Google is transitioning to something called Manifest V3. This is a technical shift in how browser extensions work. Basically, it limits the ability of ad blockers to update their filtering lists in real-time.
Because of this, many people are jumping ship to Brave or Firefox. Brave has a built-in blocker called Shields that is surprisingly aggressive. It works right out of the box. Firefox, on the other hand, still supports the older Manifest V2 architecture for now, which allows extensions like uBlock Origin to function at full strength.
uBlock Origin: The gold standard
If you’re on a desktop, uBlock Origin is the name you need to know. Not "uBlock" or "uBlock Plus"—those are often copycats. You want the "Origin" version maintained by Raymond Hill (gorhill).
When YouTube updates its ad-injection scripts, the volunteers behind uBlock Origin usually have a fix within hours. If you see an ad, you often just need to clear your filter cache and update the lists. It takes two clicks. It’s a bit of a manual chore, but it’s free.
Mobile is a different beast entirely
Mobile is where it gets tricky. On an iPhone? You're mostly stuck. You can use the Brave browser app to watch YouTube, which works well, but the actual YouTube app is a fortress. There are "sideloaded" apps like YouTube Premium iPA files, but they require refreshing every seven days unless you have a paid developer account. It’s a lot of work for most people.
On Android, things used to be easy with YouTube Vanced. Then Vanced got a cease-and-desist. Now, the successor is ReVanced.
It’s not a simple download. You have to download the official YouTube APK and use the ReVanced Manager to "patch" it. It sounds technical because it is. You’re essentially rebuilding the app on your phone to strip out the ad code. It works beautifully once it's set up, giving you Premium features for free, but it requires a bit of "tech-savviness."
The DNS and Network-level myth
I see people suggesting Pi-hole or AdGuard DNS all the time.
Let's clear this up: DNS blocking generally does not work for YouTube ads.
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Why? Because Google serves the ads from the same domain as the video content. If you block the ad domain at the DNS level, you block the video too. It’s like trying to cut the fat out of a steak with a chainsaw; you’re going to lose the whole meal. DNS blocking is great for tracking and those annoying banner ads on news sites, but for YouTube’s video-injected ads, it’s mostly useless.
Browser extensions that actually stay ahead
Aside from uBlock, there are niche tools like AdSpeedup. Instead of "blocking" the ad, these extensions detect when an ad is playing and automatically speed it up by 16x. The 30-second ad finishes in about two seconds. It technically plays the ad, so YouTube’s detection scripts don't always freak out, but you barely see it. It’s a clever workaround for the current "Ad Blocker Detection" war.
Another one is SponsorBlock. This is a crowd-sourced extension. It doesn’t block the "ads" served by YouTube, but it skips the "sponsored" segments inside the video itself. You know, the "This video is sponsored by Raid Shadow Legends" part. Users mark where those segments start and end, and the extension skips them automatically. It’s a game-changer for long-form content.
Is it worth the risk?
There’s a lot of talk about Google banning accounts for using blockers. So far, there haven't been widespread reports of people losing their entire Google account—the one with their emails and photos—just for blocking ads. Usually, they just block the video player.
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But, if you have your whole life tied to a Gmail address, it’s something to consider. Using a secondary, "burner" Google account for YouTube is a smart move if you're going to use aggressive patching tools like ReVanced.
Better habits for an ad-free life
If you don't want to mess with scripts and patches, sometimes changing your habits works. Watching YouTube through a "front-end" like FreeTube on desktop or NewPipe on Android is a solid alternative. These apps don't use the official YouTube API in the same way. They scrape the site for the video file and play it in a clean interface. No ads. No tracking. You can't comment or like videos easily, but for pure watching, it's the cleanest experience available.
Next Steps for an Ad-Free Experience:
- Switch Browsers: Download Brave or Firefox. If you choose Firefox, immediately install the uBlock Origin extension. This is the fastest fix for desktop users.
- Clean Your Filters: If you already have uBlock and see an ad, go to the dashboard, click "Filter lists," click "Purge all caches," and then "Update now."
- Go Mobile with ReVanced: If you are on Android, look up the official ReVanced subreddit and follow their setup guide. Avoid any site claiming to offer a "pre-patched" ReVanced APK; those are often malware.
- Install SponsorBlock: Regardless of how you block traditional ads, add the SponsorBlock extension to skip the baked-in marketing segments within the videos themselves.
- Audit Your Subscriptions: If the "cat-and-mouse" game becomes too annoying, check if you qualify for a Student or Family plan for YouTube Premium, which can significantly drop the per-person cost.