Apple TV has raised its subscription price again. As of August 28, 2026, the monthly cost of Apple TV in the United States climbed from $12.99 to $14.99 — a $2 increase that makes this the fourth price hike in four years for a service that launched at $4.99 back in 2019. The annual subscription has also gone up, from $99 to $119 per year, and the Apple One Individual bundle has increased from $19.95 to $21.95 per month.
New subscribers are already paying the higher rates as of today. Existing subscribers will receive a notification approximately one month before their next billing cycle is charged at the new price — so if you’re a current subscriber, you have a window to decide whether to cancel, switch to the annual plan, or simply accept the increase before it hits.
The Full Apple TV Pricing Picture Right Now
- Apple TV Monthly: $14.99 (up from $12.99)
- Apple TV Annual: $119/year (up from $99)
- Apple One Individual: $21.95/month (up from $19.95)
- Apple One Family: Unchanged
- Apple One Premier: Unchanged
One piece of useful maths: paying $14.99 per month adds up to $179.88 over 12 months. The new annual plan at $119 saves you more than $60 compared to paying monthly — making the annual subscription the considerably better deal if you plan to stay subscribed for the full year. The gap between monthly and annual pricing has actually widened with this hike, which is presumably deliberate on Apple’s part as a way to lock in longer commitments.
It’s also worth noting that Apple TV does not offer a cheaper ad-supported tier — unlike Netflix, Disney+, Max, and Peacock, which all have lower-priced plans that include advertisements. If you want Apple TV, you’re paying the full $14.99 or committing to the annual plan. There’s no middle option.
The Full Apple TV Price History — How We Got Here
The $14.99 monthly price represents an exact tripling of what Apple TV cost at launch. Here’s the complete pricing progression:
- November 2019: $4.99/month — Apple TV+ launches with a small initial content library, priced below almost every competitor
- October 2022: $6.99/month — first price increase, a $2 jump as the content library expanded
- November 2023: $9.99/month — second increase, now in the mid-tier streaming bracket
- August 2025: $12.99/month — third increase, a 30% jump that also saw the annual plan’s price hold at $99
- August 2026: $14.99/month — fourth increase, the annual plan rises to $119 for the first time
The 2022 and 2023 increases were spread across 13 months. Then Apple went two years without hiking prices, before making back-to-back annual increases in August 2025 and August 2026. Two consecutive August price hikes is a pattern that existing subscribers might want to keep in mind heading into next summer.
What Prompted This Increase?
Apple hasn’t issued a formal statement explaining the rationale behind the hike, which is standard practice for streaming price increases — companies rarely frame them as anything other than a natural adjustment reflecting the value of the content.
The context is fairly clear though. Apple TV has been on a significant content investment push. Recent and upcoming additions to the service include F1: The Movie, a new fourth season of Ted Lasso, and a growing library of prestige originals. The service received a strong 2026 Emmy nominations cycle, building on its track record with shows like Severance, Shrinking, The Morning Show, Silo, Presumed Innocent, and Slow Horses. More content costs more to produce, and that cost gets passed to subscribers.
There’s also a broader tech hardware context worth noting: component shortages driven by massive AI data centre demand have pushed up RAM and hardware costs industry-wide in 2026, affecting everything from consumer electronics pricing to operational costs for companies running large server infrastructure — including streaming platforms.
Apple TV Isn’t Alone — Every Major Streamer Is Raising Prices in 2026
Apple TV’s hike lands in a year where virtually every major streaming service has increased what it charges subscribers:
- Netflix — raised prices in March 2026, including its second increase of the year
- YouTube Premium — increased in April 2026
- Prime Video — increased in April 2026
- Peacock — announced a price hike earlier in August 2026
- ESPN Select — price increase confirmed for September 2026
- Apple Music — price increase announced just weeks before this Apple TV hike
- Disney+ / Hulu — pricing changes expected later in the year as the platforms navigate a potential merger
The streaming industry’s collective pricing behaviour in 2026 looks less like individual business decisions and more like a coordinated sector-wide recalibration away from the growth-at-any-cost subscriber acquisition model that defined the early streaming wars. With subscriber growth plateauing across most platforms, revenue now has to come from charging existing subscribers more rather than from adding new ones.
Is Apple TV Worth $14.99 Per Month?
That’s the question every current and prospective subscriber is now asking. Apple TV’s position in the streaming landscape is unusual. Its content library is genuinely small compared to Netflix, Prime Video, or Disney+ — it carries no licensed back catalogue, no movies from other studios, and no legacy TV shows. Everything on Apple TV is an original production. That limits the breadth of what’s available but has consistently pushed the quality bar higher than platforms with larger but less curated libraries.
The argument for $14.99: if you regularly watch Apple TV originals, you’re probably getting genuine value from the service. Severance season 3 is among the most talked-about TV of 2026. Ted Lasso season 4 has been a significant cultural moment. The service consistently punches above its library size in critical reception and awards attention.
The argument against: at $14.99, Apple TV is now priced identically to or higher than services with vastly larger content libraries. Netflix’s standard plan, Max, and Disney+ all offer considerably more volume of content for comparable or lower monthly prices. If you’re only using Apple TV for one or two shows and don’t have another reason to stay subscribed between seasons, the annual plan at $119 starts to look more attractive than month-to-month — or cancelling between seasons becomes the obvious play.
The one alternative worth flagging: if you’ve recently bought a new Apple device, Apple TV typically comes with a free trial period as part of the purchase. And if you’re subscribed to Apple One Individual, the increase to $21.95/month still represents value relative to paying for Apple TV, Apple Music, iCloud+ and Apple Arcade separately — though whether that bundle makes sense depends entirely on how many of those services you actually use.
In other tech and gaming news this week, Pokémon GO’s Phantump Catch Mastery event is coming September 26 for mobile players looking for something to do this month. Fable’s official PC system requirements dropped with a surprisingly accessible minimum spec for a 2027 AAA open-world RPG. And IShowSpeed launched a $1 million giveaway with Dr. Squatch — nine weeks of wild real-world challenges with a $250,000 grand finale hunt at the end.
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