How to Watch YouTube Without Ads

YouTube relies on advertising to fund its free service. However, YouTube displays many types of ads that often interrupt video streaming. These include in-stream ads that play before or during a video and cannot be skipped, as well as static on-page ads that appear on the page while the video is playing.

Since YouTube began canceling the subscriptions of users who accessed a cheaper YouTube Premium plan using a VPN, it’s become increasingly challenging to find an affordable option for ad-free viewing.

We’ve found four different ways to block all types of YouTube ads. We’ve compared each method based on its reliability, price, device compatibility, and set-up difficulty to help you decide which option is best for you.

We found four highly-effective ways to watch YouTube without ads. We’ve focused mainly on methods that bypass non-skippable video ads, but these will also block skippable in-stream ads, bumper ads, and masthead ads.

All of these methods are 100% legal and your YouTube account won’t be suspended. The only method that violates YouTube’s Terms of Service is using a modded YouTube app, like NewPipe. However, NewPipe doesn’t let you log in to your YouTube account, so YouTube can’t ban you for using it.

In the table below, you can compare each method side-by-side:

Method	Reliability	Price	Supported Devices	Requires a VPN	Set-Up Difficulty
VPN Server in Albania, Moldova, or Myanmar	Very Reliable	100% Free	Every Device	Yes	Easy
Ad Blocker Browser Extension	Reliable	100% Free	Desktop Only	No	Easy
Pi-hole	Unreliable	$15.00 One-Time Payment	Every Device	No	Difficult
Modded YouTube App	Unreliable	100% Free	Android Only	No	Moderate

In the section below, we’ll evaluate each method in detail so you can decide which is best for you. We’ll also show you how to set up and use each option.

1. Connect to a VPN Server in Albania, Moldova, or Myanmar

Pros	Cons
Blocks all types of YouTube ads	Requires a VPN with servers in a compatible country
Easy to set up	Potentially lower video quality due to internet speed loss
Works on every device that supports VPN apps	Need to connect to VPN every time using YouTube
Counters YouTube data profiling	Doesn’t block ads on other websites

We discovered that you can watch YouTube videos ad-free by connecting to a VPN server in Albania, Moldova, or Myanmar.

In the video below, see us connect to a VPN server in Albania to bypass an unskippable YouTube advert:

Here are the VPNs that allow you to get an Albania, Moldova, or Myanmar IP address:

VPN Service	Albania	Moldova	Myanmar
ExpressVPN	✓	✓	✓
Surfshark	✓	✓	✓
PIA	✓	✓	✕
Proton VPN	✕	✓	✓
NordVPN	✓	✕	✕

As YouTube doesn’t run an advertising program in these countries, it won’t show you any type of ad if it thinks you’re located there. For instance, by getting an IP address from Albania, you won’t see any non-skippable in-stream ads, bumper ads, or overlay ads.

Sadly, unlike the YouTube Premium workaround, you’ll have to connect to a VPN every time you use YouTube. VPN apps can’t be installed on some devices, like Roku, so this method won’t work there.

As well, connecting to a server in one of these countries can slow your download speed by up to 50% (depending on where you are), videos might stream in lower quality than what you’re used to.

It also means that you’ll likely have to use a paid-for VPN subscription. TunnelBear is the only free VPN service with servers in one of the three countries, but we used up the 500MB data cap in just 15 minutes.

2. Use an Ad Blocker Browser Extension

Pros	Cons
100% free and doesn’t require payment details	Only works on desktop
Easy to install	Some ad blockers don’t work with YouTube
Blocks ads on other websites	Few options for Safari
Also blocks trackers

Ad blockers are browser extensions that prevent ads from displaying on websites, including YouTube. These programs are easy to use and can block all types of YouTube ads, including non-skippable ones.

Our tests found that by far the most effective ad-blocking extension is uBlock Origin, which always worked. Other popular extensions we tested, like AdGuard and AdBlock, failed to block ads 50% of the time, and most VPN ad blockers didn’t work at all.

uBlock Origin is available on Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. However, it is not available for Safari. A good free alternative is 1Blocker, but this isn’t open-source like uBlock Origin.

However, all of these ad blockers only work on desktop and laptop computers. Ad blockers for other platforms, like iOS, only prevent ads from loading in your web browser. You’ll still encounter all types of advertisements in the YouTube app.

You could also use a private browser with built-in ad blocking, like Brave. But we prefer installing an extension as it allows you to watch YouTube in the web browser you normally use.

3. Set Up Pi-hole on a Raspberry Pi

Pros	Cons
Works on every device, including Smart TVs	Rarely blocks video YouTube ads
Effectively blocks ad trackers	Only works on your home network
	Requires a Raspberry Pi device
	Difficult to set up

For network-wide ad and tracker blocking, you can set up Pi-hole on a Raspberry Pi. Pi-hole will set up a DNS server on your home network that’ll automatically prevent your device from connecting to domains that serve advertisements.

However, although this used to work reliably, our most recent tests have found that Pi-hole often fails to block YouTube video ads. It still works for hiding bumper and masthead adverts, though.

Sadly, it’s unlikely this will be fixed because of the way DNS-based ad blockers work. YouTube now delivers adverts from the same domain as its videos, so Pi-hole can’t know what to block and what to bypass.

As the DNS server is set up on your home network, you’ll still see ads whenever you’re on a different network. To bypass ads on cellular or different WiFi networks, you’ll have to upgrade to YouTube Premium or change your IP address to Albania, Moldova, or Myanmar.

Pi-hole is also difficult to set up and not recommended for beginners. It took us over 30 minutes to configure and we had to troubleshoot many of the commands before it worked correctly.

4. Use a Modded YouTube App

Pros	Cons
Blocks all types of YouTube ads	Works intermittently
Safe & open-sourced application	Only available on Android
Free	Requires sideloading
Other benefits, like background playback	Violates YouTube’s Terms of Service

Modded YouTube apps differ from the regular app as they block all types of YouTube ads by default. The best modded YouTube app we’ve used is NewPipe, which is free and open-sourced.

However, unlike all the other ad-blocking methods listed above, this is only available on Android devices. You’ll also have to use the NewPipe client, which has fewer features and is more difficult to use than the official YouTube app.

The NewPipe app doesn’t allow you to log in to your YouTube account, so you won’t have access to your likes and video history. The video quality also defaults to 720p, so you’ll have to manually toggle it to 1080p every time you want to watch a video in full HD.

As NewPipe is an unofficial third-party client, YouTube often intentionally breaks its functionality. When this happened, we had to wait for NewPipe to release updates to fix the issues, which sometimes took over a week.

Still, NewPipe is by far the best third-party YouTube app we’ve used. YouTube Vanced is no longer available following a DMCA notice from Google and Revanced is facing the same issues. SkyTube is a good alternative, but it’s targeted by YouTube more often as it uses official YouTube APIs.

The most effective way to block YouTube ads depends on the device you’re using. For example, modded YouTube apps are only available on Android, and you can’t download a VPN app on Roku.

Here’s our recommended method to stream YouTube with no ads on every device: