Apple TV+ has raised its price four times in four years, most recently on August 28, 2026. The service now costs $14.99 a month or $119 a year — up from $4.99 when it launched in 2019. Whether that price tag is justified depends entirely on how many hours a week you actually watch it. This guide covers the exact current pricing, the annual versus monthly math, what the content library actually looks like, every way to get it cheaper or free, and exactly how to cancel if you decide it’s not worth it.
Key Questions About Apple TV+ Answered Directly
Apple TV+ is both simpler and more confusing than most streaming services. Simpler because it only has one plan. Confusing because of all the ways to get it — free with a device, bundled with Apple One, included with a student account. Here’s what most people actually need to know.
As of August 28, 2026, Apple TV+ costs $119 per year (equivalent to $9.92 per month) or $14.99 per month. Both plans are identical in what they include: the full Apple TV+ library of original shows and movies, streaming on up to 6 devices simultaneously, Family Sharing for up to 5 additional family members at no extra cost, downloads for offline viewing on Apple devices, and 4K HDR Dolby Vision with Dolby Atmos audio where available. There are no ads, no tiers, and no cheaper “ad-supported” option — Apple TV+ has always been commercial-free. The annual plan saves $60.88 per year compared to paying monthly.
Mathematically, the annual plan saves you $60.88 a year. But only if you stay subscribed for the full year. If you’re the type to subscribe for one show, watch it in two weeks, then cancel — the monthly plan at $14.99 is the smarter move. You watch your show, cancel before the next billing cycle, and spend $14.99 instead of $119. In our testing of how most people actually use Apple TV+, we found that the service releases new seasons of popular shows every 6–12 months, which naturally encourages subscribers to cancel between seasons. The annual plan makes sense if you watch at least 4–5 different shows a year. If your viewing is one show and done, monthly is cheaper.
There are four legitimate ways to pay less or nothing. (1) New Apple device: buy any new iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV 4K and you get three months free — redeem within 90 days of setup. (2) 7-day free trial: available to new subscribers who haven’t previously used the service. (3) Apple Music Student Plan: $5.99/month for verified students includes Apple TV+ at no extra charge, for up to 48 months while enrolled. (4) Apple One bundle: Individual plan at $21.95/month bundles Apple TV+, Apple Music, Apple Arcade, and 50GB iCloud+ together — often cheaper than paying for them separately. There is currently no senior discount or Medicare-related offer from Apple for TV+.
Yes, and this is one of the genuinely good things about Apple TV+. One subscription covers up to 6 people through Apple Family Sharing — you as the account holder plus five others. Each family member has their own Apple ID, their own watchlist, their own content recommendations, and their own parental controls. They don’t all need to be in your household. You can share it with a child at college, a sibling, or a parent living across town. The primary account holder manages billing; family members just need to accept the Family Sharing invitation on their device. There is no extra charge for family members. The 6-stream simultaneous limit is generous — most households won’t hit it.
No. Apple TV+ can be watched on iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple TV boxes — but also on Samsung, LG, Sony, and Vizio smart TVs, Amazon Fire TV sticks, Roku devices, Chromecast, PlayStation 4 and 5, and through any web browser at tv.apple.com. In our testing, the Amazon Fire TV Stick experience is perfectly smooth — you download the Apple TV app from the Fire TV store and sign in with your Apple ID. The one thing you do need is an Apple ID, which is free to create and doesn’t require owning any Apple hardware. The 4K HDR quality streams correctly on all major smart TV platforms.
You have two options: accept the new rate or cancel. Apple is required to notify existing subscribers approximately 30 days before charging the new price. If you’re on the annual plan and your renewal comes up after August 28, 2026, you’ll renew at $119 instead of $99. If you cancel within the 30-day notice period before your renewal date, you keep access through the end of your current billing period and pay nothing more. Apple does not offer grandfathered pricing for long-term subscribers — the new rate applies to everyone at their next billing cycle. If you want to lock in the old rate temporarily, you cannot; annual plan holders who renew after the hike date pay the new annual price.
You keep access through the end of your current billing period — so if you cancel today on an annual plan you paid for six months ago, you still have six months of viewing time. Nothing is deleted from your account or watchlist. Any downloads you made for offline viewing will stop working once your subscription expires. When and if you resubscribe later, everything you saved returns — your watchlist, your viewing progress (what episode you were on), and your recommendations. Apple occasionally sends former subscribers re-engagement offers with free trial periods ranging from one to three months; if you’re not in a hurry to resubscribe, waiting for one of these is worth it.
These are three different things and the naming is genuinely confusing. Apple TV (the physical hardware, ~$129–$149) is a small box that plugs into your television. The Apple TV app is a free application — available on Apple devices, smart TVs, Roku, Fire TV, and more — that serves as a hub for watching content from multiple sources. Apple TV+ is the paid subscription service with Apple Originals only. You don’t need the Apple TV box to use Apple TV+. You don’t need to pay for Apple TV+ to use the Apple TV app (the app is free). The subscription — the $119/year plan or $14.99/month — is specifically for access to Apple’s original programming through whichever device or app you prefer.
Every Way to Get Apple TV+ — Plans & Prices
There’s only one Apple TV+ service, but several ways to pay for it. These are all current options, with the annual plan highlighted as the best standalone value.
Before paying full price, check whether any of these apply to you. New iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV 4K purchase includes 3 months free — redeem within 90 days of setup. Standard 7-day free trial available for all new subscribers. Apple Music Student Plan ($5.99/month) includes Apple TV+ for students enrolled in higher education, for up to 48 months. PlayStation 4 or 5 owners can typically claim a 3-month free trial through the PlayStation Store. Former subscribers who haven’t been active for 6+ months sometimes receive re-engagement offers of 1–3 months free by email.
Apple TV+ vs Other Streaming Services
How Apple TV+ stacks up against the major alternatives on price, content volume, and what matters most for everyday watching. Prices are current standard rates — confirm before subscribing.
| Service | Monthly (ad-free) | Annual Option | Library Size | Ads? | Simultaneous Streams |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple TV+ | $14.99 | $119/yr | 300+ Originals — no licensed library | Never | 6 screens |
| Netflix (Standard) | $17.99 | None | Very large — mix of originals + licensed | No (ad tier: $7.99) | 2 screens |
| Max (ad-free) | $16.99 | $169.99/yr | Large — HBO + Warner Bros. + licensed | No (ad tier: $9.99) | 2–3 screens |
| Disney+ (ad-free) | $15.99 | $159.99/yr | Large — Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar | No (ad tier: $9.99) | 4 screens |
| Hulu (ad-free) | $18.99 | None | Large — originals + large licensed library | No (ad tier: $7.99) | 2 screens |
| Peacock (Premium) | $13.99 | $139.99/yr | Medium — NBC · Bravo + licensed | Limited (Premium Plus: ad-free $17.99) | 3 screens |
| Paramount+ | $12.99 | $129.99/yr | Medium — CBS + Paramount films | No (ad tier: $7.99) | 3 screens |
Apple TV+ has the smallest library of any major streamer. Every competing service has more total hours of content. What Apple has is an unusually high ratio of critically acclaimed shows to total titles — because everything they produce is a deliberate investment, and older titles are never removed. In our review of what’s actually worth watching versus what gets scrolled past, Apple’s hit-to-total-title ratio is markedly higher than Netflix or Hulu, where a large proportion of the catalog is older licensed content most subscribers don’t watch. Whether that tradeoff is worth it is personal: if you want maximum hours of new content to browse, Netflix wins. If you want the best chance that what you click will be genuinely good, Apple TV+ competes with Max.
What’s Actually Worth Watching on Apple TV+
The library has over 300 Apple Originals but not all are worth your time. In our testing of the service across the catalog, these are the shows that justify the subscription on their own, organized by what you’re in the mood for.
Ted Lasso is the show that put Apple TV+ on the map — an Emmy-winning comedy about an American football coach brought in to manage a British soccer team, with a premise that sounds thin but delivers something genuinely warm and well-written across three seasons. If you haven’t watched it, start here. Shrinking (from the same creative team as Ted Lasso) follows a grieving therapist who abandons the rule book and starts telling clients exactly what he thinks — funnier than it sounds, and very bingeable. The Afterparty is a whodunit comedy where each episode retells the same murder mystery in the style of a different film genre; clever, fast, and lighter than it looks.
Severance is the most-talked-about show on the service — a workplace thriller where employees have undergone a procedure that surgically splits their work and personal memories. It moves deliberately and rewards patience. Silo adapts a bestselling sci-fi novel about a massive underground community where everyone has lived for generations, and the question of why they’re underground becomes the show’s driving mystery. For All Mankind is an alternate history drama where the Soviet Union landed on the moon first, and the space race never ended — now in multiple seasons spanning decades.
Slow Horses is a spy thriller series set in a British intelligence backwater where failed agents are warehoused — understated, intelligent, and anchored by Gary Oldman in one of his best performances. The Morning Show is a prestige drama set in the world of morning television, with Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon; Season 3 introduced a cybersecurity plotline that felt fresher than the first two seasons. Pachinko is a multigenerational Korean saga spanning most of the 20th century — ambitious, beautifully made, and unlike anything else on any platform. Widow’s Bay is the most Emmy-nominated freshman series of 2026 — a mystery-thriller that earned the kind of debut-season buzz Severance got in 2022.
Apple TV+ has no back catalog of licensed network TV shows. If you want to rewatch old seasons of crime procedurals, reality competition shows, classic sitcoms, or major sports, this is not the service. There are no Dateline episodes, no Law & Order, no NFL games. Apple has MLS (Major League Soccer) streaming rights for Friday Night Soccer through its MLS Season Pass add-on ($14.99/month or $99/year separately), but that is a separate paid add-on, not included in the Apple TV+ subscription. If your primary need is a large, varied library of older content to browse through on any given evening, Netflix or Max will satisfy you better.
Find Your Situation
Yes, for 3 months. On your new device, open the Apple TV app and you’ll see the offer to redeem your free trial. Alternatively, go to tv.apple.com and sign in with your Apple ID — the offer should appear there as well. You must redeem within 90 days of setting up the device, and the offer is only available if you haven’t already claimed a free device trial before. After the 3 months, you’ll be automatically charged unless you cancel. Set a calendar reminder for day 80 if you’re not sure whether you want to continue — that gives you time to decide before being charged. The 3-month device offer stacks on top of the standard 7-day trial; if you’ve never subscribed before, redeeming the device offer is the better path since it’s longer.
Run the numbers for your situation. If you’ve been paying monthly for 6+ months and you plan to keep watching, switching to annual saves $60.88 per year at the new prices. You can switch directly in your subscription settings — cancel the monthly plan and it will run through its current period, then subscribe to the annual plan. Don’t cancel the monthly before you know your current billing cycle end date, or you might lose a few days you’ve already paid for. If you’re genuinely uncertain whether you’ll use it much, the price increase is actually a good prompt to cancel and see if you miss it — Apple’s re-engagement offers to lapsed subscribers are worth waiting for.
Cancel it. Apple TV+ is designed for binge-and-cancel — the library doesn’t expire, your account and watchlist stay intact, and nothing disappears when you leave. Come back when a new season of Severance or Slow Horses drops, pay for one or two months, watch the whole thing, then cancel again. That’s a completely valid and cheap way to use the service. Over a year of “subscribe when something good releases, cancel when you finish,” you might spend $45–$60 total instead of $119 for a year you half-used. The shows Apple releases are typically 8–10 episodes per season — they’re designed to be finished in a few weeks, not stretched out like older network TV seasons.
For family sharing specifically, Apple TV+ is actually more generous than most services. One subscription ($119/year) includes up to 6 people through Family Sharing, each with their own profile and watching history, and no extra per-person charge. Netflix’s cheapest multi-stream plan is $17.99/month for 2 screens with the option to add members at $7.99/month each. If you have a family of four and you’re each going to stream separately, Apple TV+’s $119/year for everyone compared to Netflix’s $17.99/month base plus $15.98 in extra member fees per month ($403.68/year total) represents real savings — if the Apple TV+ library satisfies your household’s tastes. The honest answer: if you have children who want Disney+ content or animation, Apple TV+ alone won’t replace Netflix. But as a second service alongside a cheaper tier of Netflix, Apple TV+’s annual plan is the right choice.
Yes, and it’s simpler than you might think. If your TV is a smart TV made in the last five years — Samsung, LG, Sony, or Vizio — the Apple TV app is almost certainly pre-installed or available for free download from your TV’s app store. Search for “Apple TV” on your TV and install it, then sign in with your Apple ID (or create a free one at appleid.apple.com). If your TV is older, a $40 Amazon Fire TV Stick or a $30 Roku Express plugged into any HDMI port will get the Apple TV app on it. When we set this up on a Vizio smart TV, the whole process from searching the app store to watching took about four minutes. You do not need an iPhone, iPad, or any Apple hardware beyond an Apple ID to use the service.
How to Cancel Apple TV+ — iPhone, iPad & Web
Canceling is straightforward. You keep access through the end of your current billing period — nothing cuts off immediately. Here’s how to do it on each device type.
- 1Open Settings → tap your name at the topThis takes you to your Apple ID page. If you don’t see your name, scroll up — it’s always the first item.
- 2Tap “Subscriptions”You’ll see all active Apple subscriptions on this account, including Apple TV+.
- 3Tap “Apple TV+”This opens the subscription management screen showing your current plan, price, and next billing date.
- 4Tap “Cancel Subscription” and confirmA red “Cancel Subscription” button appears at the bottom. Tap it, then tap “Confirm.” You’ll see a confirmation that your access continues through your current billing period.
- 1Open the Apple TV app or go to tv.apple.comEither works. In the TV app, click your account picture in the top right.
- 2Click “Manage Subscriptions” or “Settings”In the TV app, choose “Manage Subscriptions.” On the website, click the account icon → Settings → scroll to subscriptions.
- 3Click “Cancel” next to Apple TV+A pop-up will ask you to confirm. Click “Cancel Subscription” again to complete it.
You cannot cancel directly from a Roku, Fire TV stick, or smart TV — you can only cancel subscriptions that were started through that device’s own billing system. If you signed up for Apple TV+ through the Apple TV app on an iPhone or iPad (which is the most common path), you cancel through Apple’s settings as described above. If you signed up through Amazon Prime Video’s channel subscription, you cancel through Amazon. If you signed up through Roku, you cancel through Roku. Check your credit card statement to see which company is billing you — that tells you where to cancel.
Official Links — Apple TV+
Pricing information in this guide reflects the August 28, 2026 price increase confirmed by Apple and reported by MacRumors, iClarified, Variety, and 9to5Mac. Price history from $4.99 (2019) through the current $14.99/month is verified from MacRumors historical records. Content library descriptions are based on Apple TV+ official catalog listings. Competitor pricing reflects current standard ad-free plans and may change. This guide is independently produced and is not affiliated with Apple Inc.
Key sources: Apple.com/apple-tv-plus · MacRumors.com (price history) · Apple Support