SUBSCRIPTION AUDIT · PUBLISHED 2026.05.28 · 8 MIN READ

Every Subscription That Raised Prices in 2026

The short version: Netflix, Spotify, Paramount+, Crunchyroll, PlayStation Plus, Starz, AMC+, Amazon Music, and Microsoft 365 have all raised prices in 2026. In most cases the increases look small in isolation — $1 here, $2 there. Add them up across five or six subscriptions and you are paying $120–200 more per year than you were in 2024. Here is every increase, what each service costs now, and what to do about it.

2026 is not a normal year for subscription pricing. It is the most aggressive wave of increases the streaming industry has seen since services started going mainstream in the 2010s. The pattern across all of them is the same: launch low to build subscribers, wait for the market to mature, then raise prices once switching feels like too much hassle. They are counting on inertia. Most of the time, they are right.

Netflix — Standard and Premium tiers up again

Netflix raised prices for the second time in roughly 14 months. The Standard plan now runs close to $20/month. Premium is higher still. The ad-supported plan — $8.99/month — has stayed relatively stable and is now the clearest value option for casual viewers who do not mind interruptions.

What to do: If you watch Netflix multiple times a week, the price increase is noise. If you open it once or twice a month, the ad plan at $8.99 covers your actual usage at less than half the Standard price. If you primarily watch other platforms and keep Netflix out of habit, it is worth asking when you last finished something on it.

Spotify — $12.99/month as of February 2026

Spotify raised its US Premium individual plan by $1 in February, from $11.99 to $12.99/month. Duo, Family, and Student plans followed with proportional increases. This is Spotify's second price hike in under two years in the US market.

Spotify is one of the harder subscriptions to cancel on pure usage grounds — people who stream music daily genuinely use it. But the free tier still exists, and for listeners who primarily use Spotify for background music while working, the ad-supported free plan is tolerable. The $1 increase alone is not a reason to cancel; it is a reason to ask whether you actually need the Premium tier or whether the free plan would be fine most days.

What to do: If you are a daily active listener who relies on offline downloads and no ads, keep it. If you stream casually and ad interruptions would not ruin your experience, try the free tier for a month before paying $155.88/year.

Paramount+ — up $1/month since January 15, 2026

Paramount+ raised prices on January 15, 2026. The Essential (ad-supported) plan went from $7.99 to $8.99/month. The Premium (ad-free) plan went from $12.99 to $13.99/month.

Paramount+ is one of the more easily skippable services on this list unless you watch CBS live, follow specific Paramount originals, or are a Yellowstone fan who needs access to the full catalog. The content depth outside of those specific areas is thin compared to Netflix or Max at a similar price.

What to do: Subscribe for specific seasons of shows you watch, then cancel. Paramount+ has no meaningful lock-in, and their catalog does not justify year-round subscription for most casual viewers.

Crunchyroll — up $2/month across all tiers, February 2, 2026

Crunchyroll raised prices by $2/month on February 2. The Fan plan is now $10/month (was $7.99). Mega Fan is $14/month. Ultimate Fan is $18/month.

Crunchyroll is the dominant legal anime streaming platform — if you watch anime regularly, there is not a comparable alternative with the same simulcast breadth. The price increase stings more here because there is less competition to move to. Funimation merged into Crunchyroll in 2024, removing the main alternative. If anime is your thing, you are paying $10/month with few escape routes.

What to do: If you watch weekly simulcasts, the Fan plan at $10/month is still reasonable for the library size. If you only watch one or two series per year, cancel between seasons and resubscribe when the next one starts — Crunchyroll makes this easy.

PlayStation Plus Essential — $10.99/month since May 20, 2026

Sony raised PS Plus Essential from $9.99 to $10.99/month for new subscribers on May 20. Extra and Premium went up $2/month each. Annual prices were not changed — the annual Essential plan at $79.99/year remains the same price.

The price increase landed the same year Sony removed PS4 games from the Essential monthly lineup. New subscribers paying more are getting a narrower free game rotation than subscribers from a year ago.

What to do: Buy the annual plan instead of monthly. $79.99/year ($6.67/month) is unchanged and significantly cheaper than $10.99/month. If you only play single-player games and do not use the free titles, cancel — PS5 games run offline without a subscription.

Starz and AMC+ — both up $1/month from June 8, 2026

Starz raises from $10.99 to $11.99/month. AMC+ raises from $9.99 to $10.99/month. Both changes take effect June 8, 2026.

These two are the most commonly forgotten subscriptions in the SubscriptionShame calculator — services people signed up for to finish one specific show and then never canceled. If either of these is in your auto-renew list and you cannot name a show you are currently watching on it, this is the moment to cancel before the higher price hits.

What to do: Check your bank statement right now. If you have not opened Starz or AMC+ in more than 30 days, cancel before June 8.

Amazon Music — Individual plans up to $13/month

Amazon Music Unlimited individual plans increased to $13/month ($12/month for Prime members). Family plans rose to $22/month.

Amazon Music competes directly with Spotify at a higher per-month price without meaningfully differentiating on catalog. Its value proposition is strongest for Prime members who get $1 off — but even at $12/month, most users are paying for a music service they could replace with the Spotify free tier for casual listening or Apple Music at the same price with a potentially better catalog.

What to do: If you are a Prime member using Amazon Music daily, the $12/month Prime rate is competitive. If you picked it up as a default with your Prime subscription and use it occasionally, switching to Spotify free costs nothing and serves the same function.

Microsoft 365 — commercial price increase arriving July 1, 2026

Microsoft announced a roughly 20% price increase on commercial Microsoft 365 plans effective July 1, 2026. Consumer plans (Microsoft 365 Personal and Family) have not seen a major rate change for 2026 in the US, though regional pricing has shifted. The big hit is for small businesses and self-employed users on commercial plans who are now facing significantly higher annual bills.

What to do: If you are a consumer on the Personal plan ($99.99/year), your rate is stable for now. If you are on a commercial plan, audit actual usage before July 1 — if you are primarily using Word and Excel, LibreOffice is free and handles the same tasks. Google Workspace is free for personal use and handles 90% of typical office work. The 20% increase is a real reason to re-evaluate whether 1TB of OneDrive storage and Microsoft-brand apps are worth the premium.

What to actually do with all of this

The instinct when prices go up is to get annoyed at each individual increase and then do nothing. That instinct is what these companies are counting on.

A better approach: treat the wave of 2026 increases as a single trigger to audit everything at once. Not one service at a time — all of them, together, so you can see the total annual number. Most people find that they have 8–12 subscriptions auto-renewing, and 3–4 of them are ones they opened in the last six months and have barely used since.

The question is not whether $1 or $2 more per month is worth fighting over. It is whether you are getting value from the subscription at any price. A service you use daily is worth $20/month. A service you open twice a year is not worth $5/month. Know which ones are which.

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