Paramount+ Just Got More Expensive: Here's What I Did Instead

What Actually Changed (The Numbers)

Paramount+ quietly bumped its prices across both tiers. The Essential plan (with ads) moved from $7.99 to $8.99 per month. A dollar increase that sounds minor until you realize it is a 12.5% hike. The Paramount+ with Showtime plan climbed from $13.99 to $14.99, which adds up to an extra $12 per year.

Annual pricing followed suit. The Essential annual plan went from $59.99 to $69.99, and the with Showtime annual plan went from $139.99 to $149.99. Existing subscribers keep their old rate until their next billing cycle, at which point the new pricing kicks in automatically unless you cancel first.

This is the second Paramount+ price increase since the Showtime merger in mid-2023. The pattern is familiar across the streaming industry, incremental $1 bumps that compound over time. Since the Showtime bundle launched, the combined tier has risen roughly $3 from its original promotional pricing.

Old Price vs. New Price Comparison

The "What You Lose" column is deliberately blunt. Paramount did not add new features, expanded content, or improved streaming quality alongside the price increase. The same service now costs more. That is what prompted me to look at alternatives seriously.

Free Alternatives: Pluto TV and Tubi

Pluto TV. Free, Owned by Paramount

Here is something most people do not realize: Pluto TV is owned by Paramount Global, the same parent company. It carries a rotating selection of CBS shows, Comedy Central content, MTV classics, and a decent movie library, all completely free with ads. You will not find Paramount+ originals on Pluto TV, but if you were mainly watching older CBS procedurals (NCIS reruns, Survivor classic seasons) or MTV reality shows, Pluto TV covers a surprising portion of that catalog.

Pluto TV also runs linear-style channels, which sounds antiquated but works well for background viewing. There is a dedicated Star Trek channel that runs episodes continuously. No, you cannot pick specific episodes on-demand through those channels, but the on-demand library lets you browse and select individual titles within the available catalog.

Tubi. Free, Massive Library

Tubi has grown into one of the largest free streaming platforms in the US, with roughly 50,000 titles as of early 2026. The library skews toward older movies and catalog TV series rather than recent originals. You will not find Yellowstone or Star Trek: Strange New Worlds here. But for general "I want something to watch tonight" browsing, Tubi fills the gap without costing anything.

The ad load on Tubi is noticeable but lighter than standard cable television, roughly 4-5 minutes of ads per hour of content, compared to 15-20 minutes on traditional TV. Not ideal, but the price (free) absorbs a lot of that friction.

The $1/Month Promotional Trick

This is the strategy I actually used, and it has worked three times over the past 18 months.

Paramount+ runs aggressive win-back campaigns targeting lapsed subscribers. The pattern is consistent enough to be predictable:

1. Cancel your subscription. Do this during a gap between seasons of whatever show you watch.
2. Wait 2-4 weeks. Paramount+ will email you a promotional offer. These typically range from $1/month to $2/month for 2-3 months.
3. Resubscribe at the promotional rate when the offer arrives.
4. Watch what you need during the promotional window, then cancel again before the rate reverts to full price.

I paid $1/month for Paramount+ Essential for three months last fall. That is $3 total for a quarter of access. Compared to $26.97 at the new $8.99/month rate for the same period, the savings are substantial. The promotional offers also tend to coincide with NFL season kickoffs, Black Friday, and mid-year retention pushes, so timing your cancellation around May or June usually triggers an offer by August or September.

The obvious caveat: this is not guaranteed. Paramount+ could stop running these promotions at any time. But they have been consistent about it for over two years, and win-back offers are a standard tactic across the streaming industry. Netflix, Hulu, and Max all run similar campaigns.

Bundle Options That Actually Save Money

Walmart+ Membership, Includes Paramount+ Essential

A Walmart+ membership costs $12.95/month or $98/year and includes Paramount+ Essential as a bundled perk, alongside free grocery delivery, fuel discounts, and early access to deals. If you already use Walmart for groceries, this effectively makes Paramount+ free. Even if you sign up specifically for the Paramount+ access, the $98/year annual rate works out to $8.17/month. Cheaper than the new $8.99 standalone price, and you get grocery delivery on top.

Apple TV+ Bundle Approach

Apple One (Individual) costs $19.95/month and includes Apple TV+, Apple Music, Apple Arcade, and 50GB iCloud storage. If you are already paying for Apple Music ($10.99/month) and iCloud ($0.99/month), adding Apple One effectively gives you Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade for roughly $8/month combined. This does not include Paramount+, but if you are reconsidering your entire streaming stack, Apple TV+ offers a small but critically acclaimed library that can partially replace the entertainment hours Paramount+ used to fill.

The Annual Billing Hack

Paramount+ Essential annual pricing is $69.99/year, which works out to $5.83/month — significantly below the $8.99 monthly rate. If you know you will watch Paramount+ for more than roughly 8 months of the year, annual billing saves you about $38 compared to paying monthly. The downside is obvious: you are locked in for a full year with no refund if you decide to cancel mid-cycle.

Shared Subscription Plans

One approach I have seen gaining traction is shared subscription services. Platforms that coordinate group purchases of family or team plans across streaming services. The idea is straightforward: a family plan for Spotify or YouTube Premium gets split among 5-6 people who do not know each other, and each person pays a fraction of the full price.

This model does not work directly for Paramount+ (which does not offer a traditional family plan in the way Spotify or YouTube do), but it can reduce your costs on other subscriptions enough to absorb the Paramount+ increase elsewhere in your budget. If you are paying full price for Spotify Premium ($11.99/month) and could get it for $2-3/month through a shared plan, that $9 savings more than offsets the $1 Paramount+ increase.

Honest Take: What IS Worth Keeping Paramount+ For

I would be dishonest if I pretended Paramount+ was entirely replaceable. Some of its content has no equivalent anywhere else, and for certain viewers, that content alone justifies the subscription regardless of price increases.

Yellowstone and the Taylor Sheridan Universe

Yellowstone and its spinoffs (1883, 1923, Lawmen: Bass Reeves) are Paramount+ exclusives. There is nothing quite like them on any other streaming platform. If you follow the Dutton family saga, you need Paramount+. Period. No workaround exists for this one.

Star Trek

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Lower Decks are Paramount+ originals. The Star Trek franchise has experienced a genuine creative resurgence, and Strange New Worlds in particular has drawn praise from both longtime Trek fans and newcomers. If Star Trek is your thing, Paramount+ is the only legal streaming home for the current series.

NFL on CBS

The Essential plan includes NFL games broadcast on CBS, including playoff games and the Super Bowl (when it rotates to CBS). For football fans without cable, this is a meaningful draw during the September-February season. The value calculation changes entirely during football season, $8.99/month for live NFL access is reasonable compared to YouTube TV at $72.99/month or Fubo at $79.99/month.

Showtime Originals (With Showtime Tier)

If you subscribe to the $14.99 with Showtime tier, you get access to the Showtime library. Billions, Yellowjackets, The Chi, and the Dexter revival series. The merger brought these under one umbrella, and the combined library is genuinely large. Whether $14.99 is fair for two merged libraries is debatable, but the content breadth is real.

How We Tested This

I maintained active Paramount+ subscriptions on both the Essential and with Showtime tiers through February and March 2026, verifying pricing changes at checkout on March 18, 2026. The $1/month promotional trick was tested across three separate cancellation-and-resubscribe cycles between September 2024 and March 2026, with promotional offers received within 14-28 days each time.

Pluto TV and Tubi content availability was verified through direct browsing on March 19, 2026. Content libraries on free platforms shift frequently, so specific title availability may differ from what I describe here by the time you read this.

Walmart+ pricing and Paramount+ bundle inclusion was confirmed on walmart.com on March 20, 2026. Apple One pricing was verified on apple.com the same day.

Cutting Costs on the Rest of Your Streaming Stack

The Paramount+ increase is $1/month in isolation. But stacked on top of Netflix going up, Max going up, and Hulu going up over the past year, the cumulative effect on a household streaming budget is substantial. Mine went from around $45/month total to over $55/month across four services before I started optimizing.

Where I found the most savings was not in cutting streaming services entirely, but in reducing costs on music and utility subscriptions. GamsGo coordinates shared subscription slots for services like Spotify Premium (~$2-3/month instead of $11.99), YouTube Premium (~$3-4/month instead of $13.99), and others. These run through each service's official family or team plan structure. GamsGo handles the group coordination.

Switching my Spotify to a GamsGo shared slot saved me roughly $9/month. That single change absorbed the Paramount+ increase nine times over.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much did Paramount+ increase its price?

Paramount+ Essential went from $7.99 to $8.99 per month, a $1 increase, or 12.5%. The Paramount+ with Showtime tier went from $13.99 to $14.99 per month. Annual plans saw proportional increases: Essential annual is now $69.99/year (up from $59.99) and with Showtime annual is now $149.99/year (up from $139.99). No new features or content were added alongside the price increase.

Is there a way to get Paramount+ for $1 per month?

Paramount+ regularly sends promotional offers to lapsed subscribers, typically $1-2/month for 2-3 months. The pattern: cancel your subscription, wait 2-4 weeks, and check your email for a win-back offer. This has worked consistently over the past two years, particularly around NFL season kickoffs (August-September) and Black Friday. It is not guaranteed every time, but it is reliable enough to plan around. Walmart+ membership ($12.95/month or $98/year) also includes Paramount+ Essential as a bundled perk.

What free alternatives exist for Paramount+ content?

Pluto TV (owned by Paramount Global) is free and carries older CBS shows, Comedy Central content, and MTV classics. But not Paramount+ originals. Tubi offers roughly 50,000 free titles including movies and catalog TV series. Neither platform carries exclusive Paramount+ content like Yellowstone, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, or NFL on CBS. For those specific properties, there is no free alternative, Paramount+ is the only legal streaming option during initial run windows.