Peacock Raises Prices Across All Plans — What You’ll Pay Now

Peacock Just Got More Expensive — Here’s the New Price of Every Plan

If your streaming bill seemed to creep up every few months, here’s another one to add to the list. Peacock announced this week that it’s raising prices across all of its plans, marking the service’s fourth price hike in four years. The increases took effect August 18 for new and returning subscribers, with current customers seeing the new rates on their next billing date after September 17.

The cheapest option, the ad-supported Select tier, jumps from $7.99 to $8.99 a month. The Premium plan with ads goes from $10.99 to $12.99, while the ad-free Premium Plus gets the biggest bump, moving from $16.99 to $19.99. If you’re on an annual plan or riding a promotional offer, you’re in luck for now — Peacock confirmed those subscribers keep their existing rates until their current plan or promo expires.

“These price changes allow Peacock to continue to create the best experience for its viewers, remain competitive in the marketplace, and deliver unique content across all genres,” the company wrote on its support page. It’s the same carefully worded script every streamer reaches for when the price tags move, but the real story is what Peacock is betting on to make that extra money worth it.

More Money, More Content — What Peacock Is Spending It On

Peacock isn’t just raising prices into a void. The service has been quietly piling on features and originals over the last several months, and it clearly wants to justify the climb. Recent additions include an AI-powered “Bravoverse” vertical-video feed, which serves up short-form clips from reality franchises like The Real Housewives and Vanderpump Rules — a direct play for the mobile-first viewer who lives in the vertical scroll. There’s also a feature in the works that would let fans stream live games in a vertical format, using real-time AI-driven cropping to keep the action in frame.

On the games front, Peacock launched two new mystery titles — Law & Order: Clue Hunter and Public Eye — both built by AI gaming startup Wolf Games, expanding the brand’s footprint beyond the long-running Law & Order TV franchise. It’s an odd but telling addition: Peacock wants to be more than a place you go to binge a show. It wants to be a destination you stick around in, picking up a game or scrolling a feed between episodes. Whether that’s enough to keep people paying is the real question.

It’s also worth remembering where Peacock has been. The service launched back in 2020 and spent years as the streaming underdog, but it reported its first-ever profitable quarter just last month as subscribers climbed to 48 million, boosted by the NBA playoffs, the FIFA World Cup, and a certain reality juggernaut that we’ll get to in a second. That momentum gives NBCUniversal some cover to test what its audience will tolerate.

How Peacock’s Price Hike Fits the Bigger Streaming Picture

Peacock is far from alone in this cycle. Netflix and HBO Max (now just Max) have both been steadily nudging prices upward, and the broader industry has normalized the idea that a decent streaming stack now costs close to what a cable bundle used to. The difference is that Peacock — which has historically positioned itself as one of the more affordable options, especially with its ad-supported tier — is starting to look less like a bargain.

That pricing power is possible because of the library. Peacock is the streaming home for The Office, one of the most rewatchable sitcoms ever made, plus a deep bench of NBC classics and Universal films. It’s also the exclusive home for the modern Suits fandom explosion, a show that found an entire second life on streaming after years on USA Network. Originals like Poker Face from Rian Johnson and the gonzo action-comedy Twisted Metal give it the kind of flagship buzz that justifies the monthly fee.

And then there’s the reality engine. Peacock pulls in an outsized share of its engagement from franchises like Love Island, which has become appointment viewing for a huge international audience. When a platform can turn a reality hit into weekly appointment viewing, it stops competing purely on price — it competes on habit.

The Math on Switching, Bundling, and Staying Put

So what should you actually do? If you’re already on an annual plan or a promo, the answer is simple: do nothing. You’re locked into your current price until it expires, and there’s no point voluntarily moving to the new monthly rate. Let it ride.

If you’re a month-to-month subscriber on Premium Plus, the jump to $19.99 is the steepest single increase in this round, and it’s worth checking whether you’re really using the ad-free experience. A lot of people signed up for ad-free when streaming was cheap and now find themselves paying a premium they barely value. Dropping to the ad-supported Premium tier at $12.99 could save you $7 a month for the same core library.

There’s also the bundling angle. Just last month, NBCUniversal announced a partnership that will bring Peacock’s Premium plan to YouTube Premium subscribers starting in early 2027. If you’re already paying for YouTube Premium, that could effectively fold Peacock into your existing subscription down the line — a deal worth keeping on your radar before you re-up anywhere.

The Bottom Line

Peacock’s fourth price hike in four years is part of a broader reality check across streaming: the era of endless content for a handful of dollars is over, and every service is figuring out how much its audience will actually pay. The good news for Peacock is that it finally has the content and the momentum to make the argument — a profitable quarter, 48 million subscribers, flagship hits, and a pipeline of features that go beyond just playing things on demand.

The question is whether that’s enough to keep you on board. If the library you actually watch lives on Peacock, a dollar here and there is probably tolerable. If you signed up for one show and never came back, this might be the nudge to cut the cord on this particular service — at least until the next must-watch lands.

Whether you’re here for The Office, the Suits obsession, a round of Poker Face, or the latest Love Island drama, the math is worth doing before your next billing date. Know what you’re paying for, check your plan, and decide whether the bump is worth it.