If Ads Disappeared, What Would the Cost of Using Google, YouTube, or News Sites Be?

We like to believe the internet is free. We search, scroll, watch, and read without pulling out our credit cards. But the truth is, every time you use Google, watch a YouTube video, or skim a news article, you’re paying — not with money, but with attention.
Advertising is the hidden currency of the web. And the question isn’t whether ads are “bad,” but whether they’re the price that makes “free” possible.

01 ✢ The Illusion of Free

Google Search doesn’t charge you to ask billions of questions a day. YouTube doesn’t send a bill for the hours you stream. Your favorite news site lets you read articles without paying per view.

But none of this is truly free. The infrastructure — servers, engineers, content creation — costs billions.

The way it’s funded? Ads.

- Google’s revenue: ~80%+ comes from advertising. - YouTube’s revenue: almost entirely ad-based, unless you pay for Premium. - News outlets: even subscription-based sites often still run ads.

Without advertising, the internet as we know it simply doesn’t exist.

02 ✢ What If Ads Disappeared?

Let’s play the scenario out. Imagine a world where ads vanish overnight. What would replace them?

- Google Search might cost a monthly subscription, like Netflix. - YouTube could charge per view or bundle into a premium-only service. - News sites would all hide behind paywalls.

Instead of free access supported by advertisers, we’d face a system where access itself becomes a privilege for those who can afford it.

Ads, for all their flaws, democratize access. They subsidize the “free” model so billions of people, in every corner of the world, can use these platforms without financial barriers.

03 ✢ Are Ads Really Bad?

Ads annoy us because they interrupt. They feel invasive when they chase us across websites. But the truth is, advertising in itself isn’t inherently bad — it’s how it’s done.

- Irrelevant ads feel like spam. - Relevant ads feel like information. - Responsible ads fund the ecosystem without destroying trust.

When ads are aligned with intent — showing a deal, solution, or idea at the right time — they stop being noise and start being value.

04 ✢ The Price of Access

The internet is not free, and it never has been. We either pay with:

1. Money (subscriptions, paywalls, memberships), or 2. Attention (ads that monetize engagement).

The myth is that one option is pure and the other is exploitative. In reality, both are just models of exchange. Ads are not the enemy of the internet; they are the infrastructure that makes universal access possible.

05✢ Closing Thought

The next time you feel frustrated by an ad before a video or a banner on a page, consider the alternative: paying for every search, every article, every clip.

Maybe the real paradox isn’t that ads exist — it’s that we forget they’re the reason the internet feels “free” in the first place.