Netflix is hiking subscription prices across all of its U.S. plans, the second such increase in less than two years, with the changes taking effect immediately for new members and rolling out to existing subscribers in the coming weeks.
The ad-supported plan is now $8.99 a month, up from $7.99, while the standard plan is now $19.99 a month, up from $17.99, and the premium plan is now $26.99, up from $24.99. It is also getting more expensive to add additional members to certain plans, with prices for extra members jumping to $7.99 with ads or $9.99 without ads.
New members saw the updated plan prices starting Thursday, while existing subscribers will see the updated prices roll out over the coming months. Existing members will be notified by email a month before the new prices are applied to them.
Netflix raised its prices by similar amounts in January 2025, when it was expanding into live programming. The last price jump before that came in October 2023.
The higher Netflix U.S. pricing represents an 11% increase on average across the product suite. With the new prices, the streamer’s average revenue per subscriber in the U.S./Canada region will rise 6% year over year in 2026, according to estimates from TD Cowen analysts.
Netflix has projected that ad revenue will roughly double in 2026, and the company plans to spend more than $20 billion on content this year, up from $18 billion the previous year, covering scripted series, live events, sports, video podcasts and games.
Netflix has recently expanded its live offerings, debuting Major League Baseball this year. The company has also moved to integrate more video episodes of podcasts onto its platform, such as Barstool Sports and several iHeartMedia shows.
The price increases come just weeks after Netflix abandoned its pursuit of Warner Bros., opting not to match a higher bid from Paramount Skydance. Paramount paid Netflix a $2.8 billion deal-breakup fee once Warner Bros. Discovery terminated its agreement with Netflix in favor of Paramount’s “superior” offer. After walking away from the deal, “Now we move forward, and we move forward with $2.8 billion in our pocket that we didn’t have a few weeks ago,” Netflix CFO Spence Neumann said at an investor conference.
Netflix’s previous guidance for full-year 2026 was for revenue of between $50.7 billion and $51.7 billion, which would be an increase of 12% to 14% year over year.
Netflix executives have said that they raise prices when they feel the company is delivering enough value to justify the increases. The company has by far the lowest churn rate in the streaming industry. Netflix provided an official statement via Variety: “Our approach remains the same: We continue offering a range of prices and plans to meet a variety of needs, and as we deliver more value to our members we are updating our prices to enable us to reinvest in quality entertainment and improve their experience.”
This article was constructed with the assistance of artificial intelligence and published by a member of The Washington Times’ AI News Desk team. The contents of this report are based solely on The Washington Times’ original reporting, wire services, and/or other sources cited within the report. For more information, please read our AI policy or contact Steve Fink, Director of Artificial Intelligence, at sfink@washingtontimes.com
The Washington Times AI Ethics Newsroom Committee can be reached at aispotlight@washingtontimes.com.
