Disney+ Is Hiking Prices Yet Again
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It’s beginning to look like we can count on streaming service price increases becoming an annual event. Certainly, that’s becoming the case for the House of Mouse, which has just announced its fifth price increase since it launched in 2019.
In case you’re not doing the math, that’s basically one price increase each year. The Disney streaming service started with a base ad-free monthly plan for $6.99 a month, which was a great deal even in 2019. So, nobody was too disappointed when it upped that by a mere dollar in March 2021.
Even at $7.99, Disney+ offered great value for the money. Sadly, that was before the streaming giants figured out they could make even more money by shoving ads down people’s throats. In December 2022, Disney restructured its streaming service, converting the most affordable $7.99 plan into an ad-supported “basic” tier and charging $10.99 per month for those who wanted to maintain their ad-free experience. The only arguably good news here is that, unlike Amazon Prime Video, which added ads to its standard plan and required users to “upgrade” to continue an ad-free experience, Disney simply raised its prices.
Still, Disney wasn’t done with the hikes. In October 2023, the ad-free premium plan increased by $3 to $13.99. Then, last October, an additional $2 was added to both plans, bringing the premium (ad-free) plan to $15.99 and the basic (with ads) plan to $9.99 per month.
Now, right on time, Disney has just announced that both plans will go up by another $2–3. Effective October 21, 2025, the basic Disney+ plan with ads will cost $11.99 per month, while the Disney+ Premium plan will increase to $18.99 per month.
Disney has outlined the changes in a new support document, which also shows that the standalone Disney+ plans aren’t the only ones affected. The Disney+ and Hulu bundle with ads will also increase by $2, to $12.99 per month, while the Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN Select bundle (with ads) will rise from $16.99 to $19.99 per month.
If you want a no-ads bundle, you’ll also be paying $3 per month more for most of those. The only one that seems to have escaped the hikes is the Premium Disney+ Hulu bundle, which remains at $19.99 per month, making it a surprisingly great deal considering that Disney+ is now $18.99 on its own. The Disney+/Hulu/ESPN+ Unlimited Bundle also remains fixed at $44.99, although it still includes ads on the ESPN side, so it’s not truly an ad-free offering (ad-free ESPN options don’t exist).
One small silver lining is that Disney has a long way to go before it catches up with Netflix. The streaming giant has had the priciest premium tier on the market for several years now, hitting $24.99 per month in January. While Netflix also offers a more affordable standard plan, that’s limited to two devices with 1080p streaming. Disney+ also offers a Standard tier outside of the US with similar restrictions, but it’s the now-$18.99 Premium plan that aligns directly with Netflix’s $24.99 plan. On the other hand, the ad-supported Netflix plan still comes in at $7.99, which is significantly less than what Disney now charges for its similar plan.
HBO Max has generally kept pace with Disney+ and Hulu, gradually increasing its premium plan prices by $2–3 every year or two, to the point where it now sits roughly in the middle at $20.99 per month for the “Ultimate” plan. However, it was $15.99 as recently as 2023, so its increases are less frequent but steeper when they do land.
Meanwhile, Amazon Prime Video has avoided significant price increases. In 2022, the cost of Amazon Prime increased from $12.99 to $14.99, but this includes significantly more than just the streaming service. Those who want to subscribe to Amazon Prime Video by itself can still do so for $8.99 per month. However, as of early 2024, that’s now an ad-supported plan that also lacks Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos; the new ad-free plan costs $11.99 per month.
Even Apple TV+ has had its share of price increases, although, like Disney+, the first one was likely inevitable. The two services were launched at nearly the same time in November 2019 for what could only be considered “introductory” prices, and Apple confirmed this when it finally increased Apple TV+ from its $4.99 monthly opening price to $6.99 per month in October 2022.
Sadly, that wasn’t the end of it, as Apple then bumped the price up to $9.99 per month a year later, in October 2023, and while it managed to do better than the bigger streaming services by holding that price for almost two years, it increased the monthly price in August, bringing it up to $12.99. However, that was a more unusual change, which seemed to be more about reducing subscriber churn, since the annual pricing remained the same at $99 per year, as did the cost of an Apple One bundle. Apple likely hoped those better prices would encourage customers to sign up and stick around for the long term rather than hopping on and off once they’ve finished binging their favorite shows.
