Why Streaming Prices Keep Rising and What You Can Do About It

When Netflix launched its streaming-only plan in 2010, it cost $7.99 per month. In 2025, the cheapest Netflix plan with ads costs $7.99, the standard ad-free plan costs $17.99, and the premium plan costs $24.99. Every other major platform has followed the same trajectory. Disney Plus launched at $6.99 in 2019 and now charges $11.99 for its ad-supported tier and $18.99 without ads. The promise of streaming as a cheap alternative to cable is fading fast. Here is why prices keep climbing and what you can realistically do about it.

Why Prices Rise: The Economics

Content costs are enormous. A single season of a prestige drama like The Rings of Power costs roughly $450 million. Even mid-budget shows run $5-15 million per episode. Streaming platforms collectively spend tens of billions of dollars per year on original content, and that money has to come from somewhere. As platforms exhaust their growth in subscriber numbers, the only way to increase revenue is to charge existing subscribers more.

The growth-at-all-costs era is over. For years, platforms like Netflix and Disney Plus prioritized subscriber growth over profitability, offering low prices to attract users with the promise of raising prices later. That later is now. Wall Street demands profitability, and every platform has responded by increasing prices while reducing content spending.

Price creep is built into the model. Consumer advocates call it “subscription price creep,” the strategy of raising prices in small increments, $1 or $2 at a time, that feel individually insignificant but compound into major increases over a few years. Netflix has raised prices every 12 to 18 months for a decade. Most subscribers absorb the increase because canceling means losing access to shows they are mid-way through watching.

The password-sharing crackdown. Netflix’s decision to end password sharing in 2023 was not just about enforcement; it was about converting free riders into paying subscribers. The crackdown worked, adding millions of new subscribers, but it also removed a subsidy that had effectively made Netflix cheaper for many households. The result is that more people are paying full price, and the full price keeps going up.

The Current Price Landscape

As of early 2025, here is what the major services cost per month:

• Netflix: $7.99 (ads), $17.99 (standard), $24.99 (premium)
• Disney Plus: $11.99 (ads), $18.99 (no ads)
• Hulu: $9.99 (ads), $18.99 (no ads)
• Max: $10.99 (ads), $17.99 (no ads), $21.99 (ultimate)
• Apple TV Plus: $9.99
• Amazon Prime Video: $14.99 (included with Prime), $2.99 add-on to remove ads
• Peacock: $7.99 (ads), $13.99 (no ads)

A household subscribing to all seven services at the cheapest tier would pay about $73/month. At the ad-free tier, the total exceeds $130/month, approaching or exceeding what many people paid for cable.

What You Can Do About It

Rotate subscriptions. This is the most effective strategy. Subscribe to one or two services at a time, binge the shows you want, then cancel and switch to a different service next month. Most platforms make canceling and resubscribing easy, and your watch history is preserved when you return.

Use bundles. The Disney Bundle (Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN Plus) and the Disney Plus/Hulu/Max bundle both offer significant savings compared to subscribing individually. These bundles represent the best value available in streaming right now.

Accept ads. The ad-supported tiers are genuinely cheaper, and the ad load is lighter than traditional cable. Netflix’s ad tier runs about four to five minutes of ads per hour, roughly half of what broadcast television delivers. Nearly half of streaming subscribers now use ad-supported plans, and retention rates are comparable to ad-free plans.

Use free tiers. Tubi, Pluto TV, and The Roku Channel all offer substantial libraries of movies and TV shows completely free with ads. The content is older and less prestigious, but there is genuinely good stuff buried in these catalogs.

Check your library card. Many public libraries offer free access to streaming services like Kanopy and Hoopla, which carry independent films, documentaries, and classic cinema. This is a genuinely underused resource.

For more on saving money, check our best streaming bundles guide and our streaming wars analysis for context on where the market is heading.