https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08/youtubes-premium-lite-trial-offers-ad-free-youtube-for-7-a-month/

YouTube Premium is $12 a month, and the service offers ad-free videos, background play on phones, and downloading videos (both for YouTube and Google's Spotify competitor, YouTube Music). What if you don't care about music and all that extra functionality, though? What if you just want to not see ads?

Google is now trialing a service for that, and it's called "YouTube Premium Lite." For €7 a month ($8.31), you would get ad-free YouTube and nothing else—no background play, video downloads, or Music Premium access.