In this photo illustration, TV remote control in Morden March 2025 (Photo by Peter Dazeley/Getty Images)
For millions of people who stream their favorite shows, the price of doing so just keeps getting higher and higher. On Friday, YouTube became the latest major streamer to hike its prices. But the company is by no means the only one that has done so recently.
Why you should care:
While each price hike is only a couple of dollars per month, that can soon add up, especially because many people are subscribed to multiple services. When each of them raises its prices, that can quickly add up for consumers.
By the numbers:
Just over a quarter of the way through 2026, here are some of the services that have raised prices already this year:
YouTube Premium
The latest popular service to up its monthly subscription fee. On Friday, the company hiked rates for the first time in years. Its ad-free tier now goes for $15.99/month or $159.99/year. Its cheapest Premium Lite plan, which eliminates most advertisements, will run subscribers $8.99/month.
Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime members will still be able to watch Prime Video as part of their subscription, but they will have to fork out a little more if they don’t want to watch ads. The online shopping site overhauled its ad-free plan and upped its price, with the new rates going into effect on Thursday. While the price hike in absolute terms was $2 per month, it was a big percentage jump from the $2.99/month Amazon was previously charging.
Netflix
The change that likely affected the most people happened just two weeks before YouTube’s announcement. That’s when Netflix told subscribers that it would be raising prices for the second time in a little more than a year. A standard plan will now run subscribers nearly $20/month, with the Premium plan costing seven dollars more. Like YouTube Premium, a plan with ads is available for around $8.99/month.
Spotify
It was not just video services raising prices. The music streaming service Spotify tacked another dollar onto its premium plan in February. That meant subscribers on that plan are now paying $12.99/month for their music.
Paramount Plus
The new year was only about two weeks old when Paramount Plus added a dollar per month to its Essential and Premium plans. The former went to $9/month or $90/year, while the latter costs $14/month or $140/year, CNET reported.
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Sling TV
In February, Sling TV increased its prices, and by one of the largest amounts on this list. The live streaming service owned by DISH Network raised rates by $4/month on some of its plans, Cord Cutter News reported. However, the price for its Sling Select plans stayed the same.
Crunchyroll
The popular anime streamer Crunchyroll raised its subscription prices in February, as well. The company noted that the hike to its base Fan tier, which went from $7.99/month to $9.99/month, was the first in the U.S. since 2019. Its Mega Fan and Ultimate Fan levels also went up by $2 to $13.99/month and $17.99/month.
The Source: Information for this article was taken from YouTube, Netflix, Amazon, Spotify, Crunchyroll, CNET, and Cord Cutter News. This story was reported from Orlando.