YouTube ends its 4K video for only premium subscribers experiment

YouTube on smartphone stock photo 4

Credit: Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
  • YouTube was experimenting with locking 4K resolution behind its paywall.
  • Those in the experiment saw the word “premium” next to the 2160p option.
  • The company has confirmed it has ended the test and non-premium viewers should have access to 4K again.

YouTube had been testing out the idea of making 4K resolution an exclusive feature for YouTube Premium subscribers. Now, the company has ended the experiment.

Earlier this month, we reported that some YouTube users on Reddit were discovering that the word “premium” was appearing next to the 4K option on YouTube videos. It turned out that these people were a part of a small experiment group where YouTube was testing out the idea of locking resolutions of 4K and above behind its premium service.

LATEST ARTICLE

See Our Latest

Blog Posts

admin January 20th, 2026

Credit: realme TL;DR Realme is launching the P4 Power with a massive 10,001mAh “Titan” battery. The company claims its Titan […]

admin January 14th, 2026

No one enjoys the contact center experience. In fact, most people dread calling them, and healthcare and life sciences executives […]

admin January 14th, 2026

Signals on Direction of Travel from Recent Announcements and Implications for Consumer Behavior While buzz around AI has remained at […]