As soon as upon a time, streaming was thought of an inexpensive various to cable. Now, relying on the companies you subscribe to, “low-cost” is hardly the phrase.
Thus far in 2026, a number of apps have undergone worth will increase, to the purpose the place it is laborious to maintain up. That is the place we are available in. Listed here are the foremost streaming companies which have hiked up their costs in 2026 to this point.
SEE ALSO:
What’s new to streaming this week? (April 10, 2026)
Prime Video
In March, Amazon modified the pricing construction for Prime Video, downgrading its cheaper choices and locking essential options behind its premium tier. The essential price of Amazon Prime continues to be $14.99 a month or $139 a 12 months, however that tier now solely has entry to 1080p streams on Prime Video.
To see 4K Prime Video content material, you now must pony up an additional $4.99/mo for a brand new “Extremely” tier that additionally eliminates advertisements. Prime Video Extremely additionally permits for extra simultaneous streams and extra downloads. However at a 33% premium to the common worth, is it value it on this financial system?
Paramount Plus
Again in January, Paramount Plus upped the costs of each its obtainable tiers by a further $1 per thirty days.
Mashable Mild Pace
The cheaper, ad-supported Important tier is now $9 month-to-month or $90 yearly (up from $60), whereas the ad-free Premium tier is now $14 month-to-month or $140 yearly (up from $120).
Crunchyroll
Anime followers usually are not immune to cost hikes, both. Crunchyroll, the largest title in anime streaming, elevated its costs in February. The most cost effective Fan tier went from $7.99 to $9.99 per thirty days, the center Mega Fan tier went from $11.99 to $13.99, and the Final Fan tier went from $15.99 to $17.99.
This was the service’s first actual worth hike in years, and it did not come with out some perks: Customers can now obtain content material to look at offline, for one factor. Sadly, the free, ad-supported Crunchyroll tier was killed earlier this 12 months — so if you wish to watch one of the best in anime, you will most likely need to pay.
Spotify
Spotify elevated the value of its Premium plan from $11.99 to $12.99 per thirty days in February. The cheaper Scholar plan went from $5.99 to $6.99. Duo and Household plan customers noticed $2 hikes. The previous went from $16.99 to $18.99 per thirty days, whereas the latter jumped from $19.99 to $21.99.
Sling TV
Sling TV is the one service on this listing that was explicitly supposed to interchange cable. Sadly, it additionally turned the sufferer of a worth hike earlier this 12 months. There are too many tiers and permutations of Sling to listing right here, however the TL;DR is that costs went up by $4 per thirty days for a lot of customers.
YouTube Premium
Final however not least is YouTube Premium, lowkey one of many higher investments you may make in case you actually, really hate advertisements on YouTube. This service acquired a $2 a month worth enhance, going fro $13.99 to $15.99 in April.
Sadly, there are not any further perks to go together with this worth enhance.
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