Netflix has announced another price hike that, effective immediately, will ask a whopping $23 per month just so you can stream content in 4K.
Starting today, new and existing Netflix customers will see their bills go up.
Specifically, this latest price hike applies to the “Basic” and “Premium” plans, the latter being the only one in Netflix’s lineup that supports streaming at 4K quality.
The Basic plan, which was previously $9.99 per month, will now cost $11.99 per month. And, notably, Netflix doesn’t actually offer this plan anymore. The streamer pulled the plug on the Basic tier earlier this year but left existing subscribers able to access the cheapest ad-free plan. Now, those customers will need to pay an additional $2 per month.
The bigger increase is to the Premium plan, which unlocks 4K streaming and support for more simultaneous screens. That plan is jumping from the already pricey $19.99 per month to $22.99 per month, a 15% increase.
Netflix prices in the US are now as follows and are effective for existing subscribers on their next billing cycle:
- Standard with ads – $6.99/month
- Basic (no longer available to new subscribers) – $11.99/month
- Standard – $15.49/month
- Premium with 4K – $22.99/month
Top comment by Evan Adams
Really want a service that will compare all my streaming. I hardly use some of these and it is time to start cutting them and signing up for when I want to watch something.
The price hike was announced during Netflix’s latest earnings call, where the streamer didn’t provide a real reason for the rise, just stating that it “occasionally” asks customers to pay more.
While we mostly paused price increases as we rolled out paid sharing, our overall approach remains the same — a range of prices and plans to meet a wide range of needs, and as we deliver more value to our members, we occasionally ask them to pay a bit more
Netflix added, as 9to5Mac pointed out, that its “starting price is extremely competitive with other streamers and at $6.99 per month in the US, for example, it’s much less than the average price of a single movie ticket.” This is really just a sorry attempt by Netflix to bend the truth as much as possible. The Verge showed that Netflix has now doubled the cost of its Premium plan since it debuted in 2013.
Of course, Netflix isn’t alone with these price hikes. Disney+ is currently rolling out a massive price jump to $140/year. But at least Disney+ and other services include 4K in the standard plans instead of charging a significant premium as Netflix is.
Meanwhile, Netflix also this week announced that its cloud gaming test is rolling out in the United States.
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