Netflix isn’t preparing for a multibillion acquisition anymore, but it’s still raising prices.
As first spotted by Android Authority today, Netflix now lists its ad-supported plan as costing $9 per month, up from $8/month. The Standard, ad-free plan went up from $18/month to $20/month, and the Premium ad-free plan (which supports viewing from four, instead of two, devices simultaneously, 4K, and spatial audio) went from $25/month to $27/month.
For comparison, Disney+ starts at $12/month with commercials and $19/month without.
Netflix’s last price hike was in January 2025, when subscribers started paying up to 16 percent more. Before that, Netflix’s most recent price hike was in 2023.
Netflix told TechCrunch that the new prices are due to improvements to its “wide range of entertainment” and to the service.
The needs to pay for content and introduce new features are commonly cited by streaming services charging more. Since Netflix’s prior price hike, it has added HDR10+ support and a new type of subtitles that only writes out what people are saying. Since last increasing subscription fees, the world’s largest streaming service provider has also revamped its TV app and has announced plans for an updated mobile app, streaming traditional broadcast channels, and, less excitingly, showing AI-generated advertisements.
In its most recent earnings report, Netflix said its 2025 net income was about $11 billion, up from $8.7 billion in 2024. In an earnings call that took place on January 20, Spencer Adam Neumann, Netflix’s CFO, named pricing, membership growth, and a doubling of ad revenue as the key revenue drivers for 2026.
Netflix was expected to raise prices if it acquired Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD’s) movie studios and streaming businesses (especially if Netflix started offering HBO Max’s library), so some subscribers may be disappointed to see the streaming service getting more expensive despite the deal falling through in February.
Today’s price hike doesn’t seem directly tied to the shelved acquisition, based on statements made by Gregory K. Peters, Netflix’s president and director, during January’s earnings call. He said then that the planned WBD acquisition was having “no impact or change to our approach and how we’re running the business” in regard to pricing.
It’s still possible that Netflix may show more pricing stability moving forward compared to if it bought WBD’s film and streaming businesses.
But if that’s not enough solace, disappointed subscribers can always, as Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said last month, “cancel with one click.”
