Discovery+ now costs $6.99 a month with ads and $11.99 a month ad-free in the United States, plus taxes. Those prices apply to new subscriptions from Oct. 13, and the service’s help center says current subscribers billed directly or through an app store pay the new price on their first billing date on or after Nov. 12, 2026. The ad plan went up $1 and the ad-free plan $2.
No single day switches the whole base over. Each subscriber’s own renewal date decides it, so a person billed on the 20th of the month pays the higher price on Nov. 20, while a person billed on the 3rd sees it on Dec. 3, the first billing date after Nov. 12.
A $1 and $2 increase, worked out over a year
Published reports put the old prices at $5.99 for the ad plan and $9.99 for ad-free, which makes the jumps about 17 percent and 20 percent. Android Headlines reported the changes on Oct. 13, the same day the new rates took effect for new customers. The same report says existing subscribers get 30 days’ advance notice.
Across twelve billing cycles, the arithmetic is $12 more a year on the ad plan and $24 more on the ad-free plan. A household that pays for ad-free only to skip commercials is now paying $143.88 a year at the new rate before tax. The ad plan comes to $83.88 a year.
The question that decides what to do is which plan a subscriber really uses. Someone who watches a few shows a month has a different calculation than someone who streams nightly. Because the increase lands on the renewal date, the choice has to be made before that date, not after the charge posts.
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Promotional rates keep their price until the promotion ends
The help center says a subscriber with a promotional discount will not see a price increase until the promotional period ends. That covers people who joined on an introductory offer or a bundle deal and pay a reduced rate today. The increase does not cancel the promotion, and it does not apply early.
When the promotion ends, the subscriber moves to the standard rate, and the standard rate is now $6.99 or $11.99. A promotional subscriber who joined on a year-long deal should find the end date in the account and mark it, because the higher price then arrives without a separate announcement date.
Subscribers billed by Amazon, DIRECTV, Roku or Sling follow their provider
The Nov. 12 rule covers subscribers billed directly by Discovery+ or through an app store, according to the help center. Subscribers billed through another provider, such as Amazon Prime Video Channels, DIRECTV, the Roku Channel or Sling TV, are on that provider’s schedule. The help center says those providers will let customers know of any price changes.
That is why a Discovery+ price can differ from one household to the next in the same month. A subscriber who added the service through a cable or satellite bundle may see a different figure, on a different date, than the $6.99 and $11.99 that direct subscribers pay.
The Account screen shows who is doing the billing
Direct and app-store subscriptions renew automatically at the new price, plus applicable taxes, the help center says. Nothing has to be accepted or signed. A subscriber who does nothing is charged $6.99 or $11.99 plus tax on the first billing date on or after Nov. 12, and keeps being charged each month after.
Subscribers can find out who bills them by signing in to the Discovery+ app or website, choosing the profile in the upper right and opening Account. The Subscription section changes with the biller. For app-store billing, the message reads “Changes to this subscription must be made on the app store.” For direct billing, the option to cancel appears. For a provider, it reads “discovery+ via” followed by the company’s name.
The help center links to instructions for finding the billing date at each app store, on Roku, on Samsung and on discoveryplus.com. For anyone billed by another provider, the monthly statement is the place to look. The page does not explain how to switch plans, so a downgrade from ad-free to the ad plan has to be located inside the Account screen.
Cancel, downgrade or keep paying
A subscriber who watches only the networks behind the service may already have them elsewhere. AmericanTV, a DIRECTV-focused site, notes that DIRECTV carries Discovery on channel 278, Animal Planet on 282, HGTV on 229 and Food Network on 231, and that many popular Discovery+ shows also stream on HBO Max. Its advice is that someone who mostly watches new episodes live or on a DVR may not need Discovery+ at all.
Discovery+ makes the most sense, the same site says, for older seasons on demand, ad-free viewing or streaming-only originals. Whatever the choice, the first bill on or after Nov. 12 is the one that shows the new amount, and a subscriber who wants to avoid it has to act before that billing date.
What will the Discovery+ charge say after Nov. 12?
A $1 or $2 increase is easy to miss on a statement that already runs long. Streaming charges sit beside phone, internet and cable lines, and the Nov. 12 billing date is when the Discovery+ line changes with no step the subscriber has to take.
Lower Your Phone & Internet Bill is a guide that reads a bill line by line and marks what to keep, question or remove. It also compares the 55+ plans from T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon and gives the retention call, word for word, for the moment a company’s rate goes up.
The guide runs 12 pages and ends with a worksheet that sets a bill against two quotes, with taxes and fees. That is the page for checking whether a price rise like this one is worth keeping or worth a call.
Get the line-by-line bill check and the retention call script for a streaming increase →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
