San Francisco, Jul 21 (IANS): Google-owned YouTube has increased the price of a Premium individual plan by $2 in the US for new and current customers.

Users will now have to pay $13.99 per month instead of $11.99.

The plan will cost $18.99 if users are subscribing from the iOS YouTube app, reports 9to5Google.

"We're updating the price for YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium subscribers in the US to continue delivering great service and features. We believe this new price reflects the value of YouTube Premium which allows subscribers to enjoy ad-free YouTube with background and offline play and uninterrupted access to over 100 million songs with the YouTube Music app," a YouTube spokesperson was quoted as saying.

Toward the end of last year, family Premium plans saw a big hike to $22.99/month which remains the same today.

The annual subscription, which was introduced in January 2022, will cost $139.99, a $20 increase, according to the report.

Moreover, the company is also increasing the price of Music Premium to $10.99 per month from $9.99.

Additionally, YouTube is cracking down on ad blockers.

YouTube last increased the price of YouTube Premium (previously known as "Red") in 2018 with the relaunch of YouTube Music.

Existing subscribers will notice the new pricing beginning with their next billing cycle. The changes will be explained in an upcoming email, the report mentioned.

Meanwhile, YouTube has announced that it is testing a new feature that allows users to easily watch videos at 2x speed.

"Long press anywhere on the player while watching a video to automatically bump the playback speed to 2x," the company said on its experiments page.

Although the feature is in testing, Premium members can access this feature until August 13.

The company also mentioned another feature it is testing that provides bigger previews to users while seeking.