Discovery+ has raised its monthly subscription prices, pushing the ad-free plan from $10 to $12 and the ad-supported plan from $6 to $7. That works out to increases of 20 percent and about 17 percent, respectively. New subscribers pay the higher rates immediately.
Existing subscribers will receive 30 days’ notice before their new prices take effect. The increases will begin with bills issued as of November 12, according to the company’s announcement as reported by Ars Technica. Subscribers should check their billing notices for the date that applies to their accounts.
The timing invites an obvious question: did the price change arrive with the new ownership? The increases were announced a week after Paramount Skydance bought Discovery+ parent Warner Bros. Discovery, forming Skydance. A Skydance spokesperson told Ars Technica that the pricing changes were in the works before Discovery+ knew when the deal would close and were not planned in anticipation of the merger.
The spokesperson said Discovery+ regularly evaluates prices to keep them in line with the content and experience it offers, and that the new rates reflect that assessment. That is the company’s explanation; it does not provide a breakdown of what changed in the service or how those changes informed the specific dollar amounts. The timing, meanwhile, is a coincidence according to the company. Convenient, perhaps, but not evidence of a connection.
Discovery+ primarily offers unscripted programming, including reality shows and documentaries. The price change applies to both its ad-supported and ad-free monthly plans. The announcement does not describe any accompanying change to plan features, advertising, or the content available to subscribers. In other words, the stated update is the price—not a newly announced bundle of improvements.
This is not the service’s first increase. Its previous hike came in January 2025, when the ad-supported plan rose from $5 to $6 per month and the ad-free plan went from $9 to $10. Today’s changes add another dollar to the ad-supported tier and two dollars to the ad-free option. For customers who have stayed subscribed through successive increases, the latest bill will make the trend fairly easy to audit.
Subscribers weighing whether to keep the service can compare the new monthly cost with the programming they actually watch, rather than the full library’s theoretical value. Those who want to avoid the higher charge should review their account’s billing date and cancellation terms before the new rate takes effect. No immediate action is required for new subscribers to encounter the increase: they are already seeing the revised prices.
Skydance says the merger did not set these rates. The available explanation is that Discovery+ reviewed its pricing and decided the service now warrants more. Whether subscribers agree is likely to show up in the only review streaming companies reliably notice: renewals.
Sources: Glitch Please! and Ars Technica — https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/skydances-discovery-prices-increase-by-up-to-20-percent/ — Reported price changes, billing timing, company explanation, and prior increase.
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