What it now costs to avoid ads on streaming

ad-free vs ad-supported · measured from each ad tier's launch

Every service that launched an ad-supported tier now charges more to avoid ads than it did when the tier appeared. On the two we have matched records for, the monthly gap between the ad-free and ad-supported plan has widened in both cases, most sharply at Disney+, where it went from $3 to $7 a month.

The price of going ad-free, then and now

service	ad tier launched	gap today	gap at launch	change
Netflix	2022-11	$11	$8.50	+29%
Disney+	2022-12	$7	$3	+133%

The gap is the monthly difference between the ad-free and ad-supported tier. Measured from the month each ad tier launched, so both plans are compared over the same window.

The detail, service by service

Netflix, measured from 2022-11 when its ad tier launched: the ad-free plan went $15.49 to $19.99 (+29%), the ad-supported plan $6.99 to $8.99 (+29%).

Disney+, measured from 2022-12 when its ad tier launched: the ad-free plan went $10.99 to $18.99 (+73%), the ad-supported plan $7.99 to $11.99 (+50%).

It would be neater to say ad-free tiers are being raised faster to push people toward advertising. On this evidence that is only partly true: the percentage rise was not always steeper on the ad-free plan. What did happen in every case is that the cash gap widened, the amount you hand over to not see adverts is larger now than when the choice was first offered.

Full records

Netflix · Disney+ · Spotify · YouTube Premium

Questions

Is it cheaper to watch with ads?

Yes, and increasingly so, not because the ad tier got cheaper, but because the ad-free price rose while the gap between them widened. At Netflix the gap is now $11 a month; At Disney+ the gap is now $7 a month.

Are ad-free streaming tiers rising faster than ad-supported ones?

Not universally, and it is worth being precise. Netflix: ad-free +29% against ad-supported +29% over the same window; Disney+: ad-free +73% against ad-supported +50% over the same window. The absolute gap widened in both cases; the percentage rates did not always differ.

How much does it cost to avoid ads?

Netflix: $11 a month; Disney+: $7 a month, the difference between the ad-supported and ad-free tiers as published today.

"At Disney+ the monthly premium for an ad-free plan rose from $3 to $7 between 2022-12 and today." HonestlyRanked, sources cited per change, CC BY 4.0.

By Rashid N. Rashid N edits Honestly Ranked and checks the figures before they go up. Rashid N is a pen name. Figures come from our tracking database and are re-checked daily (how we get the numbers). We measure published pricing only. Spotted an error? Tell us.