📋 Table of contents

• Option 1 · Add the list to Pi-hole (recommended)
• Option 2 · Run the script
• Other DNS blockers (AdGuard Home, pfBlockerNG, Technitium, Blocky)
• What it does and doesn't do
• How it works
• The crowd list (optional)
• Troubleshooting
• Privacy
• Contributing
• Support the project

⚡ Option 1 · Add the list to Pi-hole (recommended)

The easiest way — nothing to install. Pi-hole downloads the list itself and refreshes it every time gravity updates.

1. Open the Pi-hole web interface → Lists (Pi-hole v6) or Group Management → Adlists (Pi-hole v5).
2. Paste this address into the Address field and click Add:

   https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kboghdady/youTube_ads_4_pi-hole/refs/heads/master/youtubelist.txt
   

3. Update gravity so the list takes effect: Tools → Update Gravity, or from the terminal:

   pihole -g
   

That's it. Pi-hole re-downloads the list on every gravity update (weekly by default — run pihole -g any time to get the latest version sooner). The published list already excludes everything in ignore.list, so videos keep playing.

💡 Using Pi-hole's default blocklist (StevenBlack hosts)? It blocks s.youtube.com, which breaks video playback. Allow it once:

pihole allow s.youtube.com      # Pi-hole v6
pihole -w s.youtube.com         # Pi-hole v5

🧰 Option 2 · Run the script

Prefer to have every domain as an exact entry in your denylist (visible under Domains in the web interface), add your own never-block entries, or pick up new domains every hour instead of at the next gravity update? Use youtube.sh.

Every time it runs it:

1. downloads the latest black.list from this repo,
2. drops everything that matches ignore.list (so videos keep playing),
3. adds only the domains your Pi-hole doesn't have yet — the first run takes a few minutes, later runs finish in seconds,
4. reloads Pi-hole's lists so the new domains are blocked right away.

It works with Pi-hole v5 and v6, needs nothing beyond what Pi-hole already installs, and re-runs itself with sudo if you forget.

Install

git clone https://github.com/kboghdady/youTube_ads_4_pi-hole.git
cd youTube_ads_4_pi-hole
sudo ./youtube.sh

You should see something like:

  YouTube ads blocker for Pi-hole v6

  [i] Downloading the latest YouTube ad list...
  [+] 15855 domains in the list (0 skipped because of ignore.list)
  [i] Adding 15855 new domain(s) to the denylist...
  [i] This takes a few minutes the first time - later runs only add what is new
  ................................................................................
  [+] Added 15855 domain(s)
  [i] Reloading Pi-hole's lists...
  [+] Shared 12 googlevideo.com hostname(s) from your query log - thank you!

  [+] All done. Pi-hole is blocking 15855 YouTube ad domains.

Keep it updated automatically

Add the script to root's crontab so it picks up new domains on its own:

sudo crontab -e

Add this line to run it every hour (change the path if you cloned somewhere else):

0 * * * * /home/pi/youTube_ads_4_pi-hole/youtube.sh > /dev/null 2>&1

Tip: crontab.guru explains the schedule syntax if you'd like a different interval.

Options

The same settings live at the top of youtube.sh if you'd rather change them permanently.

To add your own never-block entries, put them in the ignore.list next to the script (one per line — a full hostname or just a part of it, such as n4v7sne7). Your entries are merged with the latest ignore.list from this repo on every run.

🌐 Other DNS blockers (AdGuard Home, pfBlockerNG, Technitium, Blocky)

youtubelist.txt is a plain list of hostnames, one per line, so it works with any DNS-level ad blocker that can subscribe to a domain list — not only Pi-hole. Use the same address everywhere:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kboghdady/youTube_ads_4_pi-hole/refs/heads/master/youtubelist.txt

Whatever you use, keep s.youtube.com and the hostnames in ignore.list allowed — they are needed for videos to play.

✅ What it does and doesn't do

It does

• Block the DNS lookups for known YouTube ad-serving hostnames, network-wide, on every device that uses your DNS server — smart TVs, phones, consoles and browsers alike, with nothing to install on them.
• Stop many pre-roll and mid-roll video ads from loading at all, instead of showing a skippable ad.
• Stay current: the list is refreshed every day or two from the hostnames users report (see Privacy).

It doesn't

• Block every ad. YouTube serves ads and videos from the same googlevideo.com domains and rotates them constantly; some ads will always slip through, and new hostnames take a day or two to reach the list.
• Block ads that are stitched into the video stream itself (server-side ad insertion). No DNS blocker can — that needs a browser extension such as uBlock Origin or SponsorBlock on the device.
• Remove sponsor segments, banners, or ads inside the YouTube app on devices that bypass your DNS (for example, with DNS-over-HTTPS enabled or a hard-coded DNS server).
• Track you. Option 1 sends nothing anywhere; Option 2 shares only the hostnames described under Privacy, and you can turn that off.

For the best result, use this list on your DNS blocker and a browser extension on the devices where you can install one.

🧠 How it works

YouTube serves ads and videos from the same family of domains (*.googlevideo.com), so a normal blocklist can't tell them apart. This project keeps a curated list of the hostnames that only serve ads, and an ignore.list of the ones that break video playback. Both published lists are filtered against ignore.list before every update.

The list is refreshed every day or two.

👥 The crowd list (optional)

crowed_list.txt contains every googlevideo.com hostname reported by users of the script — including the ones that serve videos. It blocks more ads but is far more likely to break playback.

• As a Pi-hole list: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kboghdady/youTube_ads_4_pi-hole/refs/heads/master/crowed_list.txt
• With the script: sudo ./youtube.sh --crowd (or set INCLUDE_CROWD_LIST=true at the top of the script)

Only use it if you know how to find and allow a blocked hostname in Pi-hole's query log.

🛠 Troubleshooting

pihole-FTL sqlite3 /etc/pihole/gravity.db "DELETE FROM domainlist WHERE type = 1 AND domain LIKE '%googlevideo.com';"
pihole reloadlists                  # Pi-hole v6
pihole restartdns reload-lists      # Pi-hole v5

pihole-FTL sqlite3 /etc/pihole/gravity.db "DELETE FROM domainlist WHERE comment = 'YouTube ads (youtube.sh)';"

🔒 Privacy

Option 1 sends nothing anywhere — Pi-hole just downloads a text file from GitHub.

To keep the list up to date, the script (Option 2) shares the googlevideo.com hostnames that your Pi-hole has seen in the last 24 hours. That's all it sends — no IP addresses, no client names, no other domains. The hostnames are collected through a Google Form and reviewed before anything is added to the list.

Don't want to share? Run the script with --no-share, or set SHARE_LOGS=false at the top of youtube.sh. Everything else works exactly the same.

🤝 Contributing

• Found an ad domain that isn't blocked? Open an issue / pull request against youtubelist.txt and black.list — or run the script with log sharing on and it will reach the list.
• A domain breaks video playback? Open a pull request that adds it to ignore.list.
• Something in the script or docs is unclear? Issues and pull requests are very welcome.

☕ Support the project

Keeping the list current takes daily work. If it saves you from a few ads, consider buying me a coffee:

Thank you! 🙏