In Q1, YouTube Music and Premium saw ‘largest quarterly increase’ in non-trial subscribers since 2018 launch, says Alphabet CEO, as platform’s quarterly ad revenues rose to $9.88B

YouTube‘s advertising revenue grew 11% YoY to $9.88 billion in Q1 2026, up from $8.93 billion a year earlier, according to parent company Alphabet‘s earnings report published on Wednesday (April 29).

But on the earnings call, Alphabet Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler signaled that YouTube‘s subscription business is gaining ground on its ad business, noting that “YouTube subscriptions revenue continues to grow faster than ads, particularly YouTube Music and Premium.”

Alphabet Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai added that YouTube Music and Premium‘s Q1 performance represented a milestone for the platform’s subscription push.

“In Q1, our YouTube Music and Premium offering saw its largest quarterly increase in the total number of non-trial subscribers, both globally and in the U.S. since YouTube Premium launched in June 2018,” Pichai said.

“In Q1, our YouTube Music and Premium offering saw its largest quarterly increase in the total number of non-trial subscribers, both globally and in the U.S. since YouTube Premium launched in June 2018.”

Sundar Pichai

Alphabet does not disclose subscriber numbers for YouTube Music and Premium separately from its broader subscription total.

Across all of its services, Alphabet has reached a total of 350 million paid subscriptions. That’s up from the 325 million reported at the end of Q4 2025, and up by 80 million from the 270 million paying subscriptions reported in Q1 2025. Pichai noted that YouTube and Google One are the “key drivers.”

Alphabet‘s “Subscriptions, Platforms and Devices” segment — which includes YouTube subscriptions, Google One, the Play Store, and hardware — saw revenue jump 19% YoY to $12.4 billion from $10.4 billion.

Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi said this was “due to strong growth in both YouTube subscriptions, particularly in YouTube Music and Premium, and Google One subscriptions, which benefited from increased demand for AI plans.”

In March 2025, YouTube‘s Global Head of Music Lyor Cohen announced that YouTube Music and Premium had hit 125 million paid subscribers worldwide (including trials) — up from 100 million in February 2024. That means the platform added around 25 million subscribers in 12 months, or approximately 2 million per month on average.

YouTube also recently raised its US subscription prices, increasing the cost of an individual YouTube Premium plan from $13.99 to $14.99 per month. The price hikes took effect for new subscribers on April 10.

Overall, Alphabet‘s Q1 revenues rose 22% YoY to $109.9 billion from $90.2 billion. The company said this marks the 11th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.

Pichai said: “It was a terrific quarter for Alphabet… It’s clear that our AI investments and full-stack approach are driving performance across our business.”

The Google Services division, which includes YouTube, reported 16% YoY revenue growth to $89.6 billion, which the company attributed to the 19% YoY growth in “Google Search & other,” a 19% increase in revenue from Google subscriptions, platforms, and devices, and the 11% increase in YouTube ads revenue.

Schindler said the increase in YouTube ad revenue was driven by “direct response followed by brand.”

By the end of Q1, YouTube Premium Lite was fully launched in 23 countries, and Schindler said YouTube plans to launch the lower-cost tier in more than a dozen new countries in Q2.

Pichai noted during the call that revenue from products built on Alphabet‘s GenAI models grew nearly 800% YoY in Q1.

Alphabet outlined new AI tools to improve advertising quality. “AI is boosting our ability to deeply understand user intent for a given Search query and to find the most relevant ad. Even when we don’t have a direct user query, we’re making significant strides in improving relevance,” Schindler said.

Across YouTube, Alphabet has also been rolling out AI-powered changes, including the recent expansion of YouTube’s AI likeness detection tool to the wider entertainment industry, opening access to celebrities and talent agencies for the first time.

The expansion came six months after YouTube started rolling out the AI detection tool in October, which was limited at the time to a specific set of creators with YouTube channels.Music Business Worldwide