Max's monthly ad-free streaming subscription costs $1 more than it did yesterday. Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) today raised the prices for ad-free Max subscription plans, effective immediately for new subscribers.
In addition to the cheaper ad-free plan now costing $17 per month, the Ultimate ad-free monthly plan, which supports four instead of two concurrent streams and 4K instead of 1080p resolution, is up a dollar to $21 per month.
Annual subscriptions to the streaming service are also getting more expensive. The annual ad-free plan is $20 more, at $170/year, and the Ultimate ad-free annual plan went up by $10 to $210 per year.
WBD said it will inform current subscribers about the new pricing 30 days in advance of their plan renewing. Subscribers will have to pay the new prices—or switch to a different plan or cancel—beginning on their next billing cycle that takes place on or after July 4.
Max isn't hiking the price of its subscription plans that show commercials. That move is ostensibly to draw more subscribers to Max's ad plans, which make WBD more revenue per user on average. Revenue, of course, aids WBD's plans to maintain profitability for its streaming business.
Subscribers advise each other to cancel... for now
Max's abrupt pricing changes are similar to its first price hike, which took place in January 2023 (when the video-streaming service was still called HBO Max). Ad-free subscriptions went from $15 to $16 per month. In a statement at the time, WBD said the price hike would enable it "to continue to invest in providing even more culture-defining programming and improving our customer experience for all users."
Subscribers of the cheapest ad-free plan also lost features, including 4K and HDR streaming. The maximum number of supported concurrent streams dropped from three to two.
With subscription streaming prices incessantly rising with no clear end in sight, some fed-up subscribers are seeking alternative solutions. Ars Technica has seen various users advise others online to "definitely cancel" and then alternate their streaming subscriptions, which could even include eventually returning to Max.
"I'll pay for a month later this year after House of the Dragon and The Penguin are out. I think staggering subscriptions with different platforms is the way to do it these days," TheHeyHeyMan said on Reddit today.