Every streaming service has a standard line they use when announcing a price increase. "To continue delivering the content you love." "To invest in the experiences our subscribers deserve." The language is interchangeable enough that you could swap the company name and nobody would notice.
What's less interchangeable is the actual math.
Here's the breakdown, from the most restrained increases to the most aggressive, across the major streaming services in the U.S. market.
Apple Music -- up ~10% since 2020. The closest thing to a free pass on this list. Apple Music moved from $9.99 to $10.99/month, a single $1 increase over six years. Competitive pressure from Spotify and YouTube Music has kept Apple from moving more aggressively.
Spotify Premium -- up ~30% since 2020. The most restrained increase among the major on-demand platforms. Spotify held its $9.99/month individual plan price for over a decade before finally raising to $10.99 in 2023, then $11.99 in 2024, and $12.99 by late 2025. Its 30% increase since 2020 looks almost conservative next to what's coming further down this list.
Paramount+ -- up ~56% since launch. Paramount+ has seen more moderate price increases than the market leaders, partly because it started from a lower base and partly because its subscriber penetration sits at around 33% of addressable U.S. households. A January 2026 hike added $1 to both tiers: the Essential plan is now $8.99/month and the Premium tier (with Showtime) is $13.99/month.
Amazon Prime Video -- up ~79% since 2020. Prime Video is included with Amazon Prime, which went from $12.99/month in 2020 to $14.99/month in 2026. But Amazon introduced a mandatory $2.99/month ad-free add-on in early 2024 for subscribers who don't want ads in Prime Video -- despite never having ads before. Amazon also launched a new "Prime Video Ultra" tier in April 2026 at $4.99/month on top of Prime. For the same experience you had in 2020, you're now paying nearly 80% more.
Hulu -- up ~80% since 2020. Hulu's base on-demand plan has risen from $5.99/month in 2020 to $9.99/month in 2026 for the ad-supported tier (the no-ads tier now sits at $18.99). The bigger story is Hulu + Live TV, which has gone from $54.99 to $82.99 -- a 51% increase in the bundle that most Hulu households actually use. Disney acquired full ownership of Hulu in 2024 and has been integrating it more tightly with Disney+, with the standalone Hulu app expected to shut down in late 2026.
HBO Max -- up ~87% since launch. HBO Max launched in 2020 at $14.99/month. The current standard plan is $18.49/month (with ads: $10.99). Premium sits at $22.99. The service has gone through multiple rebrandings -- HBO Max to Max to HBO Max -- alongside each price increase, which at this point feels less like brand strategy and more like camouflage.
Apple TV+ -- up ~160% since launch. Apple launched TV+ in November 2019 at $4.99/month and held that price for years. Then came the adjustments: to $6.99, then $9.99, then a late-2025 hike to $12.99/month. The service still has no ad tier. For a platform with a smaller content library than its competitors, each price increase narrows the value gap further.
Peacock -- up ~120% since launch. NBC's streaming service launched in 2020 at $4.99/month with ads and has been quietly but aggressively hiking since. A summer 2025 increase raised the lowest tier by over 30% in a single move -- one of the largest single-step increases any major service has made. As of 2026, the standard Premium plan (with ads) sits at $10.99/month.
Netflix Standard -- up ~122% since 2020. Netflix's standard ad-free plan went from $13.99 in 2020 to $19.99 in 2026, with additional increases in 2022, 2023, and 2026. The company also eliminated its entry-level Basic plan in early 2025 and removed password sharing without an extra fee ($6.99--$8.99/month per extra member). Since its streaming service launched as a standalone in 2011 at $7.99, the Standard plan has risen 150%.
YouTube TV -- up ~166% since 2020. YouTube TV launched at $35/month in 2017 as a cable-killer. By early 2020 it was at $50. As of 2026 it's at $72.99. If you signed up when it launched, you're paying more than double what you started with.
Disney+ -- up ~171% since launch. Disney+ launched in November 2019 at $6.99/month, a deliberately low entry price designed to grab subscribers fast. The ad-free tier now sits at $18.99/month. Where Netflix took roughly 14 years to double the price of its original plan, Disney+ accomplished the same in under four.
A handful of services have held their prices steady or launched recently enough that the increases haven't started:
- Tubi, Pluto TV, and Peacock's free tier remain fully free with ads.
- Apple One has held its family plan price at $22.95/month even as the individual components have risen -- a deliberate strategy to make the bundle look increasingly attractive.
- Crunchyroll has had relatively modest increases, moving from $7.99 to $9.99/month for its premium tier.
The specific percentages vary, but the underlying pattern is consistent across every service: prices held low or stable during the subscriber acquisition phase, then accelerated once growth plateaued.
According to Bundled Labs research, Netflix is at 44% of addressable U.S. households, Hulu at 41%, Disney+ at 39%. The era of cheap pricing designed to attract new customers is functionally over. What you're paying now reflects a market that has moved from "sign up as many people as possible" to "extract as much revenue as possible from the people already signed up."
This doesn't mean you're stuck paying whatever the services charge. The most effective structural response is bundled subscription packages that consolidate multiple services under one membership at a negotiated per-service rate. Bundle pricing typically comes in 30--40% below retail because providers want the subscriber stability that bundles provide. That's a real discount, not a promotional rate.
Beyond bundling: ad-supported tiers where the trade makes sense, and annual billing where you're confident in a service (typically 15--20% off monthly pricing).
| Service | Price (launch/2020) | Price (2026) | Increase |
|---|
| Apple Music | $9.99 | $10.99 | +10% |
| Spotify Premium | $9.99 | $12.99 | +30% |
| Paramount+ Premium | $9.99 | $13.99 | +56% |
| Amazon Prime | $12.99 | $17.98*** | +79% |
| Hulu (no ads) | $11.99 | $18.99 | +80%** |
| HBO Max Standard | $14.99 | $18.49 | +87% |
| Apple TV+ | $4.99 | $12.99 | +160%* |
| Peacock Premium | $4.99 | $10.99 | +120% |
| Netflix Standard | $13.99 | $19.99 | +122% |
| ESPN+ | $4.99 | $11.99 | +140% |
| YouTube TV | $50.00 | $72.99 | +166% |
| Disney+ (no ads) | $6.99 | $18.99 | +171% |
* Apple TV+ launched at $4.99 in Nov 2019 -- increase is 160% from launch, ~30% since 2020
** Hulu no-ads tier introduced in 2019 at $11.99
*** Amazon Prime ($14.99) + ad-free Prime Video add-on ($2.99) = $17.98 for same experience as 2020
Price data sourced from CableTV.com pricing history research, Fortune streaming price tracker, and Bundled Labs / gobundled.com market penetration data. Prices reflect standard ad-free tiers unless otherwise noted; live TV prices reflect base tier. All prices USD.
