Netflix kills its basic ad-free plan in the US and the UK

Netflix’s cheapest ad-free plan is no longer available in the United States and the United Kingdom. The Basic plan used to be $9.99 (£6.99) a month for no ads; now the cheapest plan is a $6.99 (£4.99) monthly plan that comes with ads, with the next tier being $15.49 (£10.99) and the most expensive one going for $19.99 (£15.99) a month. Netflix already quietly removed the $9.99 tier in Canada.

The streaming service has been revamping its pricing plans for quite some time, adding the ad tier back in October 2022 and introducing a charge for password sharing in May. The Basic Plan was notably exempt from being able to add password sharing — a sign that it would be phased out. According to the Verge, Netflix has been hiding the Basic Plan option from its sign-up page for new users.

If you are currently subscribed to Netflix’s Basic plan, you can still keep it, so long as you don’t cancel it or upgrade (or downgrade) your plan. But if you sign up for Premium and then realize you don’t want to pay $19.99 to see Stranger Things in 4K+HDR, you can no longer go back to Basic. And given Netflix’s aggressive pricing increases, it’s not guaranteed that the Basic plan will stick around, even for current subscribers.