Starz Price Hike: How to Keep Watching for Less

The Price Increase, Explained

Starting March 31, Starz's standalone monthly subscription jumps from $10.99 to $11.99. That is a $1 increase, about 9%. And it applies to both direct Starz subscribers and the Hulu add-on channel. The Amazon Prime Video channel price also moves to $11.99/month, matching the new standalone rate.

The annual plan stays put at $69.99/year. That is worth emphasizing: at $5.83/month effective, the annual rate is now less than half the new monthly price. If there was ever a time to commit to the annual plan, this is it.

Existing monthly subscribers will see the change on their first billing cycle on or after March 31. If your billing date happens to fall on, say, April 3, that is when the $11.99 hits. Subscribers on the annual plan or a promotional rate keep their locked-in price until the current term expires.

A Brief History of Starz Pricing

Starz has not been as aggressive with price increases as some of its peers, but the trend is clear:

A cumulative 33% increase since launch. That sounds aggressive until you compare it to the rest of the market: Disney+ has roughly tripled from its launch price, and Peacock went from $4.99 to $7.99 in a single jump. Starz's increases have been smaller and more gradual. The frustration is less about the $1 itself and more about what you get for $11.99. A catalog that is a fraction of what Netflix or Max offers at similar or lower price points.

Deals You Can Lock In Before March 31

You have about four days. Here is what is available right now.

Annual Plan. $69.99/Year ($5.83/Month)

This is the single most impactful move for anyone who watches Starz regularly. At $5.83/month effective, you are paying less than Starz cost at its original 2021 launch price. The annual plan saves $73.89 per year compared to the new monthly rate ($143.88 for 12 months at $11.99 versus $69.99 flat). There is no guarantee the annual price stays at $69.99 indefinitely, Starz could adjust it in a future pricing round. But locking it in now secures the rate for the next 12 months.

3-Month Promotional Rate — $6.99/Month

Starz is running a promotional offer for new subscribers: 3 months at $6.99/month. Total cost: $20.97 for three months of access. This is available through the Starz app, starz.com, and through Amazon Prime Video channels. After the promotional period, the rate reverts to $11.99/month unless you cancel or switch to an annual plan. If you have not been a Starz subscriber recently, this is the cheapest possible entry point. Grab it, binge whatever you have been meaning to watch, and decide later whether to continue.

6-Month Plan, $45.99 ($7.67/Month)

Sits between the promo and the annual plan in both cost and commitment. Reasonable if you want six months of access but are not sure you need a full year. Works out to about $7.67/month. Still well under the new $11.99 rate.

Starz vs Everything Else. Side by Side

The real question behind any price increase: what else could you spend this money on?

The math does not favor Starz on a content-per-dollar basis. Peacock has roughly 60 times more titles for $4/month less. Netflix has about 30 times more for $4 less. Even AMC+, another niche premium service, costs less and has a slightly larger library.

But content-per-dollar is not the whole picture. Nobody subscribes to Starz for volume. They subscribe because Outlander is there and nowhere else. The Power universe is there and nowhere else. If those specific shows matter to you, the comparison table is irrelevant. You either pay for Starz or you do not watch those shows. That is the honest framing.

Option 1: Starz as a Hulu Add-On

Adding Starz through Hulu costs $11.99/month, the same as standalone. There is no price advantage. What you get is billing consolidation: one Hulu invoice covers your base Hulu plan plus Starz, and you watch Starz content through the Hulu app rather than a separate Starz app.

This makes practical sense if you already have Hulu and prefer a single app for your viewing. It makes no financial sense versus the standalone Starz app. Same content, same price, just a different billing address. If you are on the Hulu + Live TV plan ($82.99/month), adding Starz means your combined bill hits $94.98. That is a meaningful total monthly cost that is worth questioning.

One practical benefit: Hulu's interface for managing add-on subscriptions makes it slightly easier to pause or cancel Starz compared to going through the Starz website directly. Minor, but it matters if you plan to rotate subscriptions.

Option 2: Starz + MGM+ via Amazon Prime Video

Amazon bundles Starz and MGM+ together as a Prime Video channel at $13.99/month. Individually: Starz ($11.99) + MGM+ ($5.99) = $17.98/month. The bundle saves about $4/month, or $48/year.

MGM+ carries the classic MGM film library, former Epix originals, and shows like From and Hotel Cocaine. If either of those overlaps with your interests, the bundle is genuinely good value. You get two ad-free premium services for $2 more than Starz alone.

The requirement: an active Amazon Prime membership ($14.99/month or $139/year). If you are already a Prime subscriber for the shipping benefits, adding the Starz + MGM+ channel is a reasonable incremental cost. If you would need to sign up for Prime just to access this bundle, the math falls apart, $14.99 + $13.99 = $28.98/month for Amazon access plus two streaming channels.

Option 3: Apple TV Channels and Roku

Starz is available as an Apple TV channel at $11.99/month. Again, no discount versus standalone. The value here is integration: if your household runs Apple TV as the primary streaming hub, managing Starz through the Apple TV app keeps everything in one place. Apple's family sharing features also let multiple household members access the Starz channel under a single subscription.

Roku similarly offers Starz as a premium channel subscription through the Roku Channel. Same $11.99/month price, but the Roku Channel occasionally runs its own promotional deals on premium add-ons, worth checking the Roku Channel hub before subscribing directly, as you might find a limited-time discount that is not available through the Starz app.

Neither Apple TV channels nor Roku provides a permanent cost advantage. The platform convenience is the only differentiator.

Option 4: Free and Low-Cost Alternatives

If the Starz price hike is enough to push you toward canceling, here are options that cost nothing or close to it.

Tubi and Pluto TV. Free

Neither Tubi nor Pluto TV carries Starz-exclusive content. But both offer a surprising amount of older films and catalog TV. Including some titles that previously rotated through premium channels like Starz and Showtime. The trade-off is ads (more frequent than Peacock or Netflix's ad tiers) and no originals. If your Starz usage is primarily browsing the film catalog rather than following specific originals, free ad-supported services may cover enough of that habit to make canceling Starz painless.

Library Streaming. Kanopy and Hoopla

If you have a library card, Kanopy and Hoopla offer free streaming, Kanopy specializes in independent and classic films, while Hoopla has a broader mix including some mainstream titles. Neither replaces Starz originals, but they are genuinely useful for film watching at zero cost. Availability depends on your local library system.

Paramount+ Essential. $5.99/Month

The cheapest paid alternative worth mentioning. At half the new Starz price, Paramount+ offers Star Trek (the full franchise), Yellowstone, CBS shows, live NFL games, and a library roughly 40 times larger than Starz's catalog. No Outlander, no Power — but significantly more content overall for roughly half the price.

Option 5: The Rotation Strategy

This is the approach that makes the most financial sense for viewers who care about one or two Starz shows and nothing else on the platform.

Starz originals air on weekly schedules. Typically 8 to 10 episodes over 2 to 3 months. You cannot subscribe for a single month and finish a season that is still airing new episodes. But you can time your subscription strategically:

1. Track when your show's season is scheduled to end. Starz usually announces premiere dates well in advance.
2. Subscribe in the final 2-3 weeks of the season. You catch the last few episodes live and can binge the earlier ones on-demand.
3. Cancel the day after the season finale airs. Starz has no cancellation fee and no contract.
4. Repeat when the next season premieres. Resubscribe, binge, cancel.

The math:

• Year-round monthly: $143.88/year ($11.99 x 12)
• Annual plan: $69.99/year
• Binge-and-cancel, 2 months: $23.98/year
• Binge-and-cancel, 3 months: $35.97/year

The breakeven point between binge-and-cancel and the annual plan falls around 5-6 months. If you would actively use Starz for fewer than 6 months per year, binge-and-cancel saves money even compared to the annual deal. Above 6 months, the annual plan is cheaper.

The friction is that you need to remember to cancel, track premiere dates, and accept gaps in access between seasons. For a single show, say, just Outlander. The effort is minimal and the savings are substantial. For someone following three concurrent Power universe spinoffs with staggered release windows, the math gets messier and the annual plan starts looking simpler.

Is Starz Actually Worth $11.99?

An honest accounting.

The case for keeping Starz: The originals are genuinely well-made. Outlander has maintained quality across seven seasons. A rarity in prestige television. The Power franchise has expanded without the quality collapse that often accompanies rapid spinoff production. BMF has grown its audience every season. Party Down is one of the most underappreciated comedies on any platform. If you watch two or more of these shows actively, $11.99/month for ad-free access is a defensible entertainment expense. It costs about the same as two movie tickets, and you get substantially more hours of content.

The case against: Around 1,300 titles total. Compare that to Peacock at 80,000, Paramount+ at 50,000, or Netflix at 40,000. Starz has not expanded its original programming slate significantly. It is still the same handful of franchises plus some theatrical films that rotate through the catalog. At $11.99/month, Starz costs more than Netflix with ads, more than Peacock, and more than Paramount+ while offering dramatically less variety. The absence of ads is nice but does not bridge a 30x gap in library size.

The realistic middle ground: Most Starz subscribers do not need year-round access. They subscribe for a show, watch it, and then the service sits unused until the next premiere. If that describes you, the annual plan at $5.83/month or the binge-and-cancel strategy is the right answer, not canceling entirely, and not paying $11.99/month for 12 months either.

Cutting Your Broader Streaming Bill

Whether you keep Starz or not, $11.99/month for a single streaming service adds up alongside the three or four other subscriptions most households carry. The average American household spends somewhere around $50-60/month on streaming services. That is $600-720/year. Real money by any measure.

Services where you can cut costs significantly without losing access:

GamsGo matches you into legitimate family plan slots for services like Netflix, Spotify, YouTube Premium, and Disney+. You get your own profile on an official family plan at a fraction of the solo price. These are not hacked accounts or shared passwords, GamsGo coordinates group billing within each service's authorized family or team plan structure.

Switching just Netflix to a shared plan through GamsGo saves roughly $14/month. More than the entire Starz subscription at its new price. Two services switched to shared plans can easily offset $250-350/year in streaming costs. Use promo code WK2NU at checkout for a discount on your first order.

For a full breakdown of every major streaming service's current pricing, see our streaming price comparison guide. It tracks monthly rates and bundle deals as they change.

How We Tested This

Pricing data in this article was verified through the Starz app (iOS and web), Amazon Prime Video channels, and the Hulu add-on interface between March 20-26. We confirmed the current standalone rate, all promotional offers (3-month, 6-month, annual), and the Starz + MGM+ bundle price at checkout. Alternative service prices were verified against each service's official pricing pages on the same dates.

Library size estimates come from JustWatch aggregate data as of March 2026. These are approximations. Exact title counts shift weekly with licensing changes. We focus on relative scale (Starz has roughly 1,300 titles versus Peacock's roughly 80,000) rather than precise numbers that would be outdated within a week.

The promotional 3-month offer ($6.99/month) was verified as active at time of publication but is subject to change without notice. Check the Starz app or website directly for current promotional availability.

We do not have a commercial relationship with Starz or Lionsgate. The GamsGo link in this article is a paid affiliate arrangement, disclosed with rel="sponsored". For context on how another premium niche service handled a recent price increase, see our AMC+ price increase alternatives analysis.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much is Starz going up in price?

Starz raises its standalone monthly subscription from $10.99 to $11.99 on March 31. A $1 increase, about 9%. The Hulu add-on also increases to $11.99/month. Amazon Prime Video channels matches at $11.99/month. The annual plan remains at $69.99/year ($5.83/month effective) and is unaffected by this increase for the time being.

What is the cheapest way to watch Starz after the price increase?

The annual plan at $69.99/year ($5.83/month) is the cheapest ongoing option, less than half the new monthly rate. For shorter commitments, the 6-month plan at $45.99 ($7.67/month) is next. New subscribers can grab 3 months at the promotional rate of $6.99/month. The Starz + MGM+ Prime Video bundle at $13.99/month is the best deal if you want two services. Saving about $4/month versus subscribing to each separately.

Should I cancel Starz after the price increase?

It depends on how much you actually use the service. If you actively follow two or more Starz originals (Outlander, Power universe, BMF) through their current seasons, $11.99/month is reasonable — especially if you switch to the annual plan at $5.83/month. If you subscribed for one show and hold the subscription passively between seasons, either cancel and use the binge-and-cancel approach (2-3 months/year at $11.99 = $24-36) or switch to the annual plan. Both save substantial money versus paying $143.88/year at the monthly rate.

What streaming services are cheaper than Starz?

At $11.99/month, Starz is pricier than most competitors. Paramount+ Essential costs $5.99/month with around 50,000 titles. Peacock Premium runs $7.99/month with roughly 80,000 titles. Netflix with ads is $7.99/month with about 40,000 titles. Max with ads costs $9.99/month. AMC+ is $10.99/month. None carry Starz-exclusive shows, but all offer more total content for less money.

Does Starz have a free trial?

Starz occasionally offers 7-day free trials for new subscribers, typically through the Starz app or Amazon Prime Video channels. Availability varies. As of late March 2026, the more common offer is 3 months at $6.99/month rather than a free trial. Check the Starz app and Amazon Prime Video channels page directly, since promotional offers rotate and may differ by platform.

Can I lock in the old Starz price before March 31?

You cannot permanently freeze the $10.99 monthly rate. But you can lock in the annual plan at $69.99/year ($5.83/month effective) before March 31, which is cheaper than both the old and new monthly rates. If you grab the 3-month promo at $6.99/month before March 31, those three months stay at the promotional rate regardless of the price change. The $11.99 rate applies only after the promotional period expires.