Find out how much you’ll pay, and how to cut costs.
It’s only been a few months since Netflix shook up password sharing and axed its most popular plan – making streaming more expensive. And now there’s more bad news — prices are up again, potentially adding £24 a year to your bill.
Here’s how much more you’ll pay and when.
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How much are Netflix prices increasing by?
Two Netflix tiers are going up by £1 or £2 a month. Here are the new prices:
| Tier | Old Price | New Price | Monthly / Annual Increase | Number of streams | Picture quality |
| Standard with Adverts | £4.99 | £4.99 | £0 | 2 | HD (1080p) |
| Basic (only existing subscribers) | £6.99 | £7.99 | £1 / £12 | 1 | HD (720p) |
| Standard | £10.99 | £10.99 | £0 | 2 | HD (1080p) |
| Premium | £15.99 | £17.99 | £2 / £24 | 4 | 4K |
| Extra Members | £4.99 | £4.99 | £0 | 1 | Depends if master plan is Standard or Premium |
When will the prices change?
New subscribers will already be paying the new rates. Existing customers will be charged the higher fee at their next billing date, though there should be 30 days notice of this, so look out for emails.
What if you pay for Netflix via Sky, Virgin, BT or TalkTalk?
Some pay-TV customers get Netflix bundled in with their other channels. It’s not clear yet if the increases will be passed on, but I’d imagine it’s likely they will.
Bizarrely these plans tend to include Basic, which was closed to new subscribers in the summer. Despite the increase to Basic from £6.99 to £7.99, it’s still cheaper that paying for Standard at £10.99.
But it might actually save you money by signing up separately. First, it’d mean you’re not tied into an 18 month contract, so you can ditch Netflix when you’re watching other streaming services.
Second it means you can avoid what I think is too high a price for Sky TV – it’s better for most to get these same channels via NOW.
How do costs compare to other streaming services?
Netflix was already the most expensive of all the different streaming services if you’re on Standard or Premium – and unless others hike prices too (and they could) the difference is even larger.
| Streaming service | Cost | Quality | |
| NOW Entertainment | £9.99 a month | HD (720p) | |
| NOW Cinema | £9.99 a month | HD (720p) | |
| Disney+ | £4.99 to £10.99 a month* | 4K | |
| Amazon Prime Video | £5.99 a month | 4K | |
| Apple TV+ | £6.99 a month | 4K |
When compared to these other costs it’s hard to justify the huge £17.99 a month for Premium. Even £10.99 for Standard feels steep when you could get a huge selection on Amazon for almost half the price.
In my opinion, the best value for money is Disney+. Even with a forthcoming shake up on tiers, at £7.99 there’s a great selection of TV and movies, though the library is much smaller than what you’ll get with Netflix.
Though a shout out to Apple TV+ which offers a number of free trials for new and previous customers and has some great content – I’ve had it a lot but not paid for it once since it launched in 2019.
Don’t forget there’s also a massive amount of content on iPlayer and All4, which are free (as long as you are paying your TV licence).
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How to spend less on Netflix
Well, you can obviously downgrade to a lower tier if you’re not prepared to pay the increased prices. This is done in settings and will take place when you’re next charged.
Or better still, cancel and only pay from time to time, rather than treat it as an ongoing cost. This is my go-to way to save on streaming as it allows you to use multiple services and really focus your viewing. When you’re done with one, you move to the next and so on.
Andy’s top ways to pay less for Netflix
It’s harder to pay less for Netflix than other streaming services, but you can bring down your costs with these rules. Click the links to read more about each one.
- Only pay for the Netflix tier you actually need
- Add an Extra member and see if they’ll split the costs
- Cancel from time to time when you’re watching other streaming services
- Look out for rare Netlix discounts and deals
Sadly the days of easily sharing Netflix to split the cost, and therefore reducing the impact of the increase, are behind us – almost.
Since the crackdown in the summer the rules say you can only watch within your household. So to watch on your own devices you need to pay for your own plan or ask someone to add an Extra Member. That’s the theory at least.
It’s not possible to access someone else’s account on a smart TV, but I know some of you have still been able to log into laptops, phones and smart sticks. I wouldn’t be surprised if Netflix work out a way to completely rule that out too sooner rather than later.
We have Netflix Premium plus two extra members so new monthly cost will be £28/3 = £9.33p per month per family. Getting to the stage where you wonder if it’s worth it particularly as we stream Freeview channels most of the time. How many of us spend 10 minutes scrolling through pages of content on Netflix and conclude there’s nothing worth watching (that we haven’t already watched). Also noticed Netflix have recently put a lot of older content on front pages.
Open an account via VPN in Brazil or Turkey, and pay their rate…