Netflix retired its cheapest Basic plan in January 2025, and since then every subscriber has been choosing between three tiers. The last price change landed in March 2026, so this is the current shape of the service: three plans, all allowing at least two simultaneous streams.
Here is what each one costs and what you get for it, based on the pricing history tracked by CableTV.com and updated 28 September 2026.
The three plans
Netflix Standard with Ads: $8.99 per month. Two simultaneous streams, with advertising.
Netflix Standard: $19.99 per month. Two simultaneous streams, no ads.
Netflix Premium: $26.99 per month. Four simultaneous streams, no ads.
Notice what disappeared. There is no longer a one-stream plan, so the cheapest way into Netflix is $8.99 with ads rather than the old Basic tier.
What changed in March 2026
The March increase moved every tier up by one to two dollars. The ad-supported plan went from $7.99 to $8.99. Standard went from $17.99 to $19.99. Premium went from $24.99 to $26.99.
Extra-member pricing also moved. Adding a member to Standard costs $7.99 with ads or $9.99 without. Premium allows up to two extra members at the same $7.99 or $9.99 each.
The gap that actually decides it
The distance between ad-supported and ad-free is now $11 per month on the standard tier, which works out to $132 a year. That is the single biggest lever in the entire lineup, and it is much larger than the gap between Standard and Premium.
Standard to Premium is $7 per month, and what you buy is two more simultaneous streams plus 4K. If your household has three or four people watching different things at once, Premium is the cheaper answer than stacking a second subscription.
Who each plan suits
Standard with Ads fits a household that watches casually, tolerates commercial breaks and does not need 4K. At $8.99 it is the only tier that competes on price with the cheaper ad-supported options from other services.
Standard is the default for most people. Two streams covers a couple, and the ad-free experience is the main thing most viewers actually pay for.
Premium makes sense in two situations: a household with three or more concurrent viewers, or a setup where 4K genuinely shows. If you watch on a 1080p television, the extra $7 buys you nothing you can see.
The bundling calculation
Netflix has no bundle. That matters, because its main competitors now push multi-service packages hard. Disney, for example, sells Disney+ and Hulu together at prices that undercut buying either alone.
If you subscribe to three or four services, run the combined total before you decide Netflix is expensive. A household on Netflix Standard, Disney+ Premium and one more service is commonly past what a traditional cable package used to cost, which is precisely the argument the bundlers are making.
What to check before you switch
Confirm the price you are shown on your own account rather than trusting any published figure, including this one. Streaming prices move, regional pricing varies, and annual plans are not offered on every tier in every market.
Also check whether you are still paying for a tier you no longer use. The most common waste in streaming is not the plan you chose deliberately, it is the ad-free tier you upgraded to during one show and never downgraded.
Sources
Prices are US list prices as reported by CableTV.com. Confirm current pricing on Netflix directly before making a decision.
