Introduction

The internet advertising market is experiencing rapid growth, with global revenue reported to reach approximately $250 billion in 2024 and projected to expand to over $400 billion by 2029.
This market expansion is fueled by the diversification of digital marketing, with many companies now leveraging online advertising. This growth has also led to an increase in the frequency of ads that we encounter daily.
Video services like YouTube generate revenue through ads inserted between content segments, yet some users are dissatisfied with the frequency and nature of these ads.

Specifically, the rise of intrusive ads, such as non-skippable ones that interrupt the viewing experience, has drawn criticism. Additionally, certain ads contain misleading information, which increasingly frustrates users.
These factors have led to a growing interest among users in blocking YouTube ads. YouTube ads, however, are integral to its infrastructure, operated on tens of thousands of servers, and are a crucial support for creators who produce YouTube content.
To address ad-averse users, YouTube implemented the YouTube Premium subscription, but its reception is mixed: subscription costs have been increasing across much of Europe, with recent hikes of up to 40% reported in countries like the Netherlands and Italy.

Given these circumstances, this article explores the relationship between YouTube ads and AdBlockers and how VPNs can help you avoid YouTube ads.

DISCLAIMER: Web ads provide legitimate revenue for everyone active on the internet. Some websites prohibit AdBlock use, and this article does not promote using AdBlockers.

About AdBlockers

Many people may have heard of AdBlockers.

Ads are embedded on every web page, from news sites to video platforms and social media, with targeted ads increasing based on user interest and behavior. This is where AdBlockers come in.
AdBlockers are available as browser extensions or VPNs, with popular options like uBlock Origin and AdGuard.

These AdBlockers function effectively across various platforms, but YouTube explicitly prohibits AdBlocker use under its terms of service.

Specifically, accessing YouTube with an active AdBlocker triggers a message prompting users to disable it, as shown in the image above, preventing video playback.
While AdBlockers are updated in real-time, allowing users to resume YouTube access once filters are refreshed, this results in an ongoing game of "cat and mouse."

Moreover, Google has intensified its crackdown on AdBlockers. For instance, Google Chrome recently updated Manifest V2 to V3, adding changes that disrupt AdBlockers.
While the move to Manifest V3 does not immediately disable AdBlockers, further restrictions on their functionality remain possible.

Consequently, AdBlocker use against YouTube ads is becoming less effective.
Under these conditions, one alternative for users is to utilize a VPN and access YouTube via networks in countries where YouTube ads are unsupported. Let’s take a closer look.

Which Countries Don’t Support YouTube Ads?

While Google provides open services globally, certain services are restricted to specific countries.
This can be due to various factors, such as compliance challenges with local data protection laws, the need to avoid geopolitical and political risks, or market size limitations.

For similar reasons, Google ad services, including YouTube ads, are not supported in several countries. Here is a list of these countries as of November 2024:

Afghanistan, Albania, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Botswana, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, China, Comoros, Republic of Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Vatican, Iran, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Micronesia, Monaco, Mongolia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Niger, North Korea, Palau, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Suriname, Syria, Tajikistan, East Timor, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Zambia

These countries, highlighted in red on the map, are concentrated mainly in Africa, the Middle East, and East Asia.

Watch YouTube Ad-Free with Proton VPN

By accessing YouTube through one of the countries listed above, you can watch YouTube without ads.

This time, I will show you how to access YouTube through these countries using Proton VPN.

Why Choose Proton VPN

Proton VPN is an anonymous VPN service provided by Proton AG, headquartered in Switzerland.

The unique feature of Proton VPN is that it was developed by engineers at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) (the web you're currently using was also developed by CERN!). Their emphasis on transparency means that all their products are offered as open-source software.

Free VPNs often pose security risks. For example, operators might collect your browsing history, personal information entered on websites, and confidential information such as IDs and passwords, which could be misused for unauthorized access. With Proton VPN, you don't have to worry about these risks, as the code behind every action is publicly available!
Moreover, Proton VPN follows a strict no-logs policy, meaning they do not retain any information on who accessed which websites and when.

Proton VPN’s free option is also robust, with NetShield, which blocks all web ads, not just those on YouTube, implemented by default.
While a YouTube Premium subscription only removes ads on YouTube, Proton VPN blocks ads across all web platforms.

There is also a cost advantage.
With long-term contracts, Proton VPN offers significant discounts, and until December 2, 2024, an additional Black Friday discount allows access starting at just $2.99 per month.
Considering that YouTube Premium costs over $10 per month in many countries, Proton VPN’s price is just one-third.
It also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, making it easy to try and request a refund if you’re unsatisfied.
Payment can be made in USD, EUR, or Swiss Francs.

Get the special offer for Proton VPN here.

Next, let’s look at how to connect to the internet via Albania with Proton VPN and watch YouTube.

How to Connect to an Albanian VPN with Proton VPN

Subscribe to Proton VPN

While Proton VPN has a free version, you cannot manually select a country to connect to with the free plan.
Therefore, to connect to a VPN server in a country without YouTube ads, a paid subscription is necessary.

But don’t worry—the paid version of Proton VPN currently costs as little as $2.99 per month due to the Black Friday sale, making it affordable; certainly more so than YouTube Premium!

Access Proton VPN through the banner above and select your desired subscription.

Just enter your email address and choose a payment method—credit card or PayPal are accepted.

Once the payment is complete, you can start using Proton VPN right away.

Download the Proton VPN client here. Proton VPN is available for major operating systems like Android, iPhone/iPad, Windows, macOS, and Linux, as well as for Chrome and Firefox as browser extensions.

How to Use Proton VPN

In fact, the UI of the Proton VPN client software is surprisingly simple, leaving little to introduce!
When you launch the Proton VPN software, you will see a world map with pins indicating the locations of VPN servers, as shown in the image above.
Please select any country you wish to connect to by clicking on these pins or the list of countries on the left.

We tested a VPN in Myanmar, which is geographically close to us in Hong Kong and does not display YouTube ads, and it works perfectly. The communication is very fast, and ads are indeed not displayed.

Coverage of YouTube Ad-Free Countries Available with Proton VPN

At the beginning of this article, we provided a list of countries where YouTube ads are not displayed. Among those countries, the following are the ones where Proton VPN provides servers. The countries marked in red in the image above are where Proton VPN offers servers, totaling around 20 countries.

This means that even if the situation changes and YouTube starts showing ads in some of these countries, there will still be alternatives available.

As of November 2024, the countries available with Proton VPN (where YouTube ads are not displayed) include: Afghanistan, Albania, Bhutan, Chad, Comoros, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Myanmar, Russia, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Togo, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan (and coverage is expanding daily!)

Proton VPN Feature 1: High-Speed Browsing Using Proprietary Technology

After connecting to a Proton VPN server located in Myanmar, we measured the communication speed using Speedtest.net.
The results showed a download speed of 64.69 Mbps and an upload speed of 50.00 Mbps, demonstrating very high-speed communication.

The recommended connection speeds for watching YouTube are 5 Mbps for Full HD (1080p) and 20 Mbps for 4K. Therefore, even while connected to Proton VPN, 4K videos can be watched smoothly.

According to the Speedtest Global Index by Ookla, Myanmar's internet speeds are 29.07 Mbps for downloads and 11.38 Mbps for uploads, ranking it 85th among countries worldwide. In contrast, the speed of Proton VPN's server located in that country records nearly double the score.
This is because Proton VPN servers are positioned on a powerful 10 Gbps network, and the company’s proprietary technology, the VPN Accelerator, can speed up communication by up to 400%.

VPNs are used to hide personal information for safe internet browsing and to bypass geo-blocking on video sites like Netflix and YouTube; however, one of the downsides is often a slower communication speed.
However, as shown by these results, Proton VPN has overcome the speed issues that are typically a problem with standard VPNs, making it a unique software that achieves both security and comfort.

Proton VPN Feature 2: Extensive Server Network

Here's another piece of evidence demonstrating the stability of Proton VPN.
Proton VPN has hundreds of servers available in each country. The congestion status of each server is continuously monitored, ensuring that the least congested and most comfortable servers are always in use.

Proton VPN servers can stream videos without issue on many websites that employ geo-blocking.
With many VPNs, the IP addresses can be tracked by service operators and added to blacklists, making it difficult to bypass geo-blocking through the VPN. However, with Proton VPN, there is no such worry.

Proton VPN Feature 3: Built-in AdBlock Functionality: Blocking Ads Beyond YouTube

Proton VPN comes with an ad-blocking technology called "NetShield" built-in.
This feature is enabled by default, and there are no additional charges. NetShield prevents all types of advertisements from appearing on the web.

Now, are you ready to block YouTube ads and enjoy an ad-free internet experience while protecting your personal information using a VPN?
Get Proton VPN now via the link below! Currently, during Black Friday, you can start using it for just $2.99 per month, 70% off!

More Advanced Security Protection

In this article, we introduced how to enjoy web browsing while hiding your personal information using a VPN.
While a VPN can help prevent your personal information from being unknowingly extracted, this does not apply if you actively enter your personal information.

For example, when registering on a website, you often input your name, email address, and phone number. These can often be used for the management of the website or for promotional services. While that might be acceptable, there is also a risk that your personal information could be sold without your knowledge or that it could be stolen by malicious third parties through unauthorized access to services.

At SMSOnline, we provide a means to protect against such privacy exposure by offering disposable phone numbers that anyone can use for free.
While there are methods to conceal your name and email address, hiding your phone number is not so easy. You need to obtain a local phone number and pass SMS verification to prove that you are the legitimate owner of that number.

SMSOnline is a service that allows anyone to use phone numbers acquired by SMSOnline and collaborators worldwide on the web, enabling you to receive SMS verification codes online.

https://www.smsonline.cloud/

By using SMSOnline, you no longer need to expose your real phone number on the web.
Moreover, SMSOnline continuously acquires phone numbers from over 20 countries, including Japan, China, Taiwan, South Korea, the United States, and Germany, and there are always more than 100 phone numbers available online.

There is no need for any membership registration or personal information input to use the service. The phone numbers provided by SMSOnline can be used for receiving SMS just like your real phone number, eliminating the need to expose your actual phone number online.

We strongly recommend combining a VPN with SMSOnline to appropriately protect your personal information!