Picture: Netflix
Just as Netflix hit a landmark moment in its history with over 300 million global subscribers, the streamer announced it will raise the prices of all subscription tiers in the USA. Here’s how the price changes will affect your subscription.
Is a price hike surprising? No. A price hike was looming since Netflix did not raise its prices in 2024. Not to mention, in 2024, Netflix made significant strides forward towards its live content, such as the Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul event, the NFL games on Christmas Day, and at the start of 2025, the introduction of the WWE on Netflix which will see Raw call the platform its exclusive home for the next ten years. Considering Netflix’s success with live streaming so far, we expect a lot more live content from the streaming service in the near future.
Naturally, and for good reason, no subscriber will be happy to hear their subscription price is increasing. There’s also never a good time to announce a price hike. Still, Netflix has chosen to announce the price hike while also announcing that the total number of global subscribers now exceeds 300 million after adding 19 million subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Here’s how the price hikes will affect your subscriptions in the US:
Ad-supported Tier
Old Cost: $6.99 | New Cost: $7.99
Price Increase: $1
After almost a decade of ad-free viewing, in November 2022, Netflix introduced its ad-supported plan to 12 countries. The “Basic with Ads” provided subscribers with a more affordable subscription in exchange for enabling ads and a restriction on a few movies and TV shows in the Netflix library.
The ad-supported tier does offer subscribers offline downloads but limits the number of monthly downloads to 15 per device.
While on the earnings call with analysts, Netflix’s co-CEO Greg Peters said the following about the price increase:
“We believe that our starting price” for Standard With Ads — even after the price increase — “is an incredible entertainment value. And it’s a highly accessible entry point.”
However, this does mean that, for the first time since the tier was introduced, the cost of the Ad-supported tier is more than the federal minimum wage.
Standard Subscription
Old Cost: $15.49 | New Cost: $17.99
Price Increase: $2.50
It’s been three years since its last increase, but the standard subscription has been hit by the new price hike, which will increase the price of your subscription by $2.50 from $15.49 to $17.99.
The standard plan still offers two simultaneous HD streams and access to all content streaming on Netflix.
Premium Subscription
Old Price: $22.99 | New Price: $24.99
Price Increase: $2
Netflix’s most expensive tier will be hiked by two dollars, but subscribers will retain access to four simultaneous streams and streaming in 4K.
One of Netflix’s lost benefits was password sharing, which previously allowed the primary account holder to share their plan with multiple people outside their household at no additional cost. However, since the crackdown on password sharing, primary account holders have had to pay an extra fee on top of their subscription to add a member to their account. This fee was previously $7.99 per month but has been raised by a dollar to $8.99 per month.
What are your thoughts on the subscription price increases? Let us know in the comments below!
