Every Netflix, HBO Max, and Hulu Price Increase: The History of Streaming Service Prices

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Netflix pricing history

Netflix’s latest price increase went into effect in January 2025.

Netflix currently offers three plans:

• Standard with Ads ($7.99/mo., 2 streams)
• Standard ($17.99/mo., 2 streams, no ads)
• Premium ($24.99/mo., 4 streams, no ads)

Netflix broke its streaming service off from its DVD rental service in 2011 and stopped renting out DVDs altogether in 2023.

Netflix Basic (1 stream, ad-supported) was discontinued in January 2025. All Netflix plans now provide at least two simultaneous streams.

Netflix’s monthly price history

Netflix’s streaming service began as a free perk for its DVD rental subscribers in 2007, but became a standalone option in 2011. Users could pay $7.99/mo. for Netflix’s full, ad-free library of television and movies.

That price for a Standard subscription—that is, two streams and no ads—has steadily increased every few years since its inception. Netflix subscribers now have to make a choice: Pay over double what the original Netflix subscription cost to maintain their ad-free experience, or downgrade to Netflix Standard with Ads and return to that $7.99/mo. price tag.

Of course, you could always upgrade to Netflix Premium for those coveted four streams. But $24.99/mo. is a lot, even with inflation, and those four streams don’t guarantee you can share your password with anyone outside of your main household.

That’s the hidden fee behind every Netflix subscription: Restricted password sharing. Standard subscribers can purchase one extra member for $6.99–$8.99/mo., and Premium subscribers can purchase two. Got more family members than that? You’re on your own.

Disney+ pricing history

Disney+’s latest price increase went into effect in October 2024.

Disney+ currently offers two plans:

• Basic ($9.99/mo., 4 streams)
• Premium ($15.99/mo., 4 streams, no ads)

Disney+’s monthly price history

Disney+ launched in 2019 as an ad-free service, but introduced ads in 2022. Subscribers could choose to remove ads, but it would cost $3 more per month.

Disney+’s price has risen astronomically since its inception. Where Netflix took about 14 years to double the price of its original plan, Disney+ did the same in just four. Rather than the steady increase over time to mirror inflation, it gives the impression that Disney is scrambling to recover costs (since cancelling and removing a bunch of shows didn’t seem to work).

When I recommend Disney+, I’m not usually recommending the standalone streaming service. It just seems like too much money for too little content (unless you’re really passionate about Star Wars). Instead, it’s a much better deal to bundle Disney+ with Disney’s other major streaming service, Hulu.

Hulu pricing history

Hulu’s latest price increase went into effect in October 2024.

Hulu currently offers two (on-demand) plans:

• Hulu ($9.99/mo., 2 streams)
• Hulu (No Ads) ($18.99/mo., 2 streams, no ads)

Hulu’s monthly price history

Hulu was pretty chill about price increases for a long time. For its first eight years of existence, its plans stayed exactly the same. And since Hulu began as an ad-supported service rather than an ad-free one, the introduction of different price tiers didn’t feel like a total betrayal.

But then Disney bought a majority stake in Hulu in 2019 and finished acquiring the service entirely in 2023. Since then, standalone prices—especially for Hulu (No Ads)— have steadily increased, likely as an incentive to make users switch over to the Disney Bundle.

It’s actually my professional opinion (and personal conspiracy theory) that Hulu won’t exist as its own entity for too much longer. Disney owns both Disney+ and Hulu, and has been putting a lot of effort into getting users to bundle them together. Subscribing to either service individually doesn’t make much financial sense anymore—it’s a far better deal to bundle them.

The Disney Bundle pricing history

The Disney Bundle’s latest price increase went into effect in October 2024.

There are currently four ways to get the Disney+/Hulu version of The Disney Bundle:

• Duo Basic ($10.99/mo., Hulu and Disney+)
• Duo Premium ($19.99/mo., Hulu and Disney+, no ads)
• Trio Basic ($16.99/mo., Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+)
• Trio Premium ($26.99/mo., Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+, no ads)

The Legacy Disney Bundle ($21.99/mo., Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+, no ads on Disney+) is only available to existing subscribers.

The Disney Bundle’s monthly price history

The Disney Bundle is a great way to get multiple streaming services for cheap—if you’re okay with ads. The Duo Premium and Trio Premium plans are pretty pricey in their own right, even if they’re technically better deals than subscribing to every service individually. In my opinion, the gap between the Basic and Premium prices is way too high.

Disney Bundle subscribers can also now access Hulu through Disney+’s interface, suggesting that the company is thinking of ditching the Hulu app altogether. In this age where Paramount Global turned SHOWTIME into a Paramount+ add-on and Warner Bros. Discovery changes HBO Max’s identity every other year, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Disney+ and Hulu finally merge into one, probably very expensive service, very soon.

HBO Max pricing history

Max’s latest price increase went into effect in June 2024.

Max currently offers three plans:

• Basic with Ads ($9.99/mo., 2 streams)
• Standard ($16.99/mo., 2 streams, no ads)
• Premium ($20.99/mo., 4 streams, no ads)

HBO Max changed its name to Max in 2023 and will change it back to HBO Max in Summer 2025.

HBO Max’s monthly price history

When HBO Max launched in 2020, it was already pretty expensive. That’s because it couldn’t be cheaper than the HBO cable channel, a premium add-on with a premium price tag, or its streaming predecessor, HBO Now, which only streamed HBO content. So unlike Disney+ and Peacock, HBO Max never had the chance to market itself as the cool, cheap, cable alternative.

Instead, it began as a way for non-cable subscribers to watch WarnerMedia-owned content on demand. The “HBO” brand name promised high-quality, prestige entertainment and was bolstered by a library full of titles from all of WarnerMedia’s brands: DC, Turner Classic Movies, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Studio Ghibli, and more.

But things went downhill after WarnerMedia merged with Discovery to form Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). The two media giants’ streaming services, HBO Max and Discovery+, merged into the monosyllabic “Max.” Max lost its premium cable identity when it lost its HBO branding, and the platform was flooded with Discovery’s most popular reality shows. (Discovery+ continues to this day as a standalone service that features dozens of additional reality TV franchises and spinoffs.)

Something really bothers me about the name change—WBD justified it with the claim that the HBO branding was scaring parents away. WBD wanted to welcome kids onto their platform. This should have been a slam dunk because WBD owns Cartoon Network.

But instead of investing in animation and kids’ content, Max slowly removed popular CN titles from its library. WBD reduced spending on animation, shut down CN’s physical headquarters, and stripped away the station’s identity. Kids lost interest in Max.

In 2025, WBD gave up on kids. It sold off Sesame Street to Netflix and The Amazing World of Gumball to Hulu, put the “HBO” back in “HBO Max,” and is desperately trying to claw back its standing as the place to find serious adult television.

Amazon Prime Video pricing history

Prime Video’s latest price increase went into effect in January 2024.

Prime Video subscribers can choose between two subscription options:

• Amazon Prime Video (ads) ($8.99/mo., 3 streams)
• Amazon Prime Video (no ads) ($11.98/mo., 3 streams, no ads)

Prime Video also comes bundled with a full Amazon Prime membership:

• Amazon Prime (ads) ($14.99/mo., 3 streams)
• Amazon Prime (no ads) ($17.98/mo., 3 streams, no ads)

Prime Video was ad-free until January 2024, when it put ads on most of its content. Users can now disable ads for an additional $2.99/mo. I’ve included that cost in the plan prices above.

Amazon Prime Video’s monthly price history

Amazon Prime Video’s pricing structure was pretty reasonable until 2024. Customers could access the service either by subscribing to the full Amazon Prime membership (for free two-day shipping and more) or by subscribing to Prime Video as a standalone service.

But Amazon ruffled a lot of feathers in 2024 by putting ads on all of its content, not just the titles it inherited from the now-defunct free ad-supported television (FAST) service Freevee. If customers hate the frequent interruptions, they can opt out for an additional $2.99/mo. fee.

Even though Amazon doesn’t advertise it this way, I consider this to be a new pricing tier, so I’ve written it up in the table above accordingly. Prime Video took a page out of Disney+’s playbook: get customers hooked on ad-free television and then take it away, hiding the privilege behind another paywall. It’s a transparent attempt to wring more money out of customers, and I’m not a fan.

Apple TV+ pricing history

Apple TV+’s latest price increase went into effect in October 2023.

Apple TV+ currently offers one plan:

• Apple TV+ ($9.99/mo., 6 streams, no ads)

Apple TV+’s monthly price history

Apple TV+’s price history is easy to track because it’s only ever offered one plan. The monthly price doubled over the course of four years, much like Disney+. That’s why it’s so surprising that Apple hasn’t yet given in to the trend of multiple pricing tiers. (Disney+ wasted no time in charging customers for ad-free viewing and extra household members.)

I’m hesitant to praise Apple TV+ too much for keeping its plans cheap and simple. Soon after I praised Prime Video for doing the same in 2023, Amazon decided to charge customers an extra $2.99/mo. for the same ad-free service they’d always gotten.

But Apple TV+’s content library is almost entirely original. Maybe the lack of licensing fees will keep prices low (and advertising far, far away) for a little while longer.

Paramount+ pricing history

Paramount+’s latest price increase went into effect in August 2024.

Paramount+ currently offers two plans:

• Paramount+ Essential ($7.99/mo., 3 streams)
• Paramount+ with SHOWTIME ($12.99/mo., 3 streams, no ads)

Paramount+ Premium was discontinued in 2023 when it was replaced by the newly discounted Paramount+ with SHOWTIME bundle. All ad-free Paramount+ plans now include SHOWTIME content by default.

Paramount+’s monthly price history

Paramount+ is an interesting case because its premium tier offers two streaming services in one. Unlike other streaming bundles, you can’t subscribe to both components of Paramount+ with SHOWTIME separately. SHOWTIME no longer exists as its own entity, and even the premium cable channel is called Paramount+ with SHOWTIME now.

Paramount+ with SHOWTIME is cheaper now than when the bundle first debuted in 2022. In a remarkably reasonable decision, the company split the difference between the $14.99/mo. bundle price and the $9.99/mo. price of the Premium plan it was replacing.

It’s rare to see a streaming service decrease the price of one of its plans over time—especially without taking something important away. The only other instance that comes to mind is when Hulu decreased its prices in 2019 in an attempt to pull customers away from its notoriously expensive competitor, Netflix.

Peacock pricing history

Peacock’s latest price increase went into effect in July 2024.

Peacock currently offers two plans:

• Peacock Premium ($7.99/mo., 3 streams)
• Peacock Premium Plus ($13.99/mo., 3 streams)

Peacock discontinued its free tier in 2023.

Peacock’s monthly price history

Peacock’s prices have only gone up a few dollars in the years since its inception. It doesn’t have the larger content libraries of its competitors, and it’s never merged with another service, which could explain why it’s afraid to raise prices too high.

I don’t exactly want prices to go up again, but I do wish that Peacock would rebrand its tier names. “Peacock Premium” sounds like a premium experience—that is, streaming without ads. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. If you want the full Peacock experience, you’ll need Peacock Premium Plus. There’s nothing “premium” about Peacock Premium. The Premium moniker is a relic from the days when Peacock offered a free tier—remember that? Users used to be able to watch a select amount of Peacock content for free, much like Crunchyroll’s current business model.

But unlike Crunchyroll, Peacock only kept that policy as a short-term promo. Three years after the service’s inception, it discontinued the free tier and moved all of its content behind a paywall.

ESPN+ pricing history

ESPN+’s latest price increase went into effect in October 2024.

ESPN+ currently offers one plan:

• ESPN+ ($11.99/mo., 5 streams)

ESPN+ is only available with ads. ESPN+ is not the same thing as ESPN Unlimited, which is an ESPN streaming subscription that provides much more content and will launch later in 2025. ESPN+ will soon be rebranded as ESPN Select.

ESPN+’s monthly price history

Unlike my colleague Taylor Kujawa, I’m not much of a sports fan beyond the occasional baseball game, so ESPN+’s new subscription system was initially pretty confusing to me.

Essentially, the ESPN+ streaming service is going to continue to exist, but the traditional ESPN+ plan is getting rebranded to ESPN Select. Superfans will be able to upgrade to the $29.99/mo. ESPN Unlimited plan for even more sports content, like the ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU cable channels. Previously, ESPN+ did not include everything airing on ESPN the cable channel.

“For customers, ESPN’s unlimited direct-to-consumer service is a double-edged sword,” says CableTV.com Sports Editor Taylor Kujawa. “It’s perfect for fans of the ESPN brand and the sports covered under ESPN’s media agreements. But the rise of these standalone streaming services could make watching sports much more expensive than it already is.”

The name for this new service is going to simply be “ESPN,” even though it will contain more than just the ESPN channel. ESPN has not yet announced when exactly the new branding and subscription tiers will happen.

Crunchyroll pricing history

Crunchyroll’s latest price increase went into effect in May 2024.

Crunchyroll currently offers three paid tiers:

• Crunchyroll Fan ($7.99/mo., 1 stream, no ads)
• Crunchyroll Mega Fan ($11.99/mo., 4 streams, game vault, no ads)
• Crunchyroll Ultimate Fan ($15.99/mo., 6 streams, game vault, no ads)

Crunchyroll also offers an ad-supported free tier with limited library access.

Crunchyroll’s monthly price history

Crunchyroll began as a free service in 2006, and initially, memberships were more of a donation thing to keep the site running. Users would pay for higher-quality streaming and the privilege of a star-shaped badge.

Crunchyroll started formally offering a premium membership by 2009. This predates Netflix’s streaming service; there was no blueprint for how these subscriptions should work. In addition to the standard credit card and PayPal payment methods, users could also pay for their memberships by physically putting a check in an envelope and sending it through the mail. It was a different era.

Early Crunchyroll memberships would give members same-day simulcasts and access to 100% of Crunchyroll’s library. Free users would get simulcasts a week late, and access to “most” of Crunchyroll’s library. It’s hard to say exactly how much “most” is, and how that percentage has changed over time. Unlike today, there weren’t a lot of online news articles documenting streaming service policy changes in 2009. I’m getting a lot of my info by crawling through janky captures on the Internet Archive.

My perception as a long-time anime fan is that Crunchyroll has been steadily putting more of its content behind a paywall; all simulcasts and dubs are limited to paid subscribers, and its free content is more of a sampling of what the service has to offer. That might be why Crunchyroll’s paid subscriber count jumped from five million to 15 million from 2021 to 2024.

I don’t think Crunchyroll’s shift towards profitability is as offensive as other services’. Yes, it sucks to pay for something that used to be free, but its lowest tier has only increased once since 2009. Most users can safely ignore its two premium tiers unless they’re really into Crunchyroll merch and store discount codes. I’m knocking hard on wood here, since Crunchyroll doesn’t have a major competitor to keep it in check. But these days, $7.99/mo. is pretty darn good for an ad-free service made of almost entirely exclusive content.

How did we get here?

Here at CableTV.com, we’ve been helping TV lovers make smart choices since 2007. We believe that you should spend your time enjoying the best entertainment, not poring over twenty years of news articles to figure out if you’re getting a good deal or not.

That’s where we come in. Our staff of TV experts spends every day scouring the web for information on streaming services past, present, and future so you can focus on the things that matter. Like bingeing another season of The White Lotus.

For more on our process, check out How We Rank.