The Complete History of HBO Max Price Hikes
To organize all their media into one streaming home, Warner Bros. Discovery released HBO Max in May 2020. At launch, HBO Max was already pricier than many other services, but it was offered at the same price as HBO’s former streaming service HBO Now, and it included a huge back catalog of Hollywood hits and classics from Warner Bros. Still, the ad-free plan cost $14.99, which was higher than most on-demand streamers even back then.
Like many of their competitors, HBO Max hasn’t escaped price hikes. However, they haven’t increased prices as often, with only 2 price hikes that happened so far. In this article, we explore HBO Max’s previous price hikes, to see how it might cost in the future.
HBO Max Price Hikes
June 2021. $14.99 to $14.99 (HBO Max ad-free plan)
A year after launch, HBO Max offered a cheaper plan to make their platform more accessible. This plan allowed access to HBO Max’s library, but with advertisements.
- HBO Max with ads: $9.99 (New plan)
- HBO Max without ads: $14.99 (No change)
Other than the ads, the lack of offline downloads, and no 4K streaming, there wasn’t much difference between the two plans. Both plans access the same library, and they both allow users to stream on 3 devices. The ad-supported plan has remained the same price since its launch.
January 2023. $14.99 to $15.99 (HBO Max ad-free plan)
Two years later, HBO Max increased the price of their ad-free plan by $1.
- HBO Max with ads: $9.99 (No change)
- HBO Max without ads: $15.99 (+$1)
At the time, the ad-free plan still had 4K streaming for some films and shows. It’s possible that this change occurred due to the Discovery merger. Intending to combine HBO Max and Discovery+, Warner Bros Discovery started rebranding the streamer as Max.
May 2023. $15.99 to $15.99 (Max ad-free plan)
A few months later, Max changed the package structure. Instead of increasing the cost, Max instead added a new plan with much more features.
- Max Ad-Lite: $9.99 (No change)
- Max Ad-Free: $15.99 (No change)
- Max Ultimate: $19.99 (New plan)
Max Ultimate offered a higher 100-title limit for offline downloads, 4 concurrent streams, and 4K streaming. However, while the cost of the existing plans remained at the same rate, both the Ad-Lite and Ad-Free plans had their number of streams decreased from 3 to 2 screens. They also removed 4K streaming for the Ad-Free plan.
June 2024. $15.99 to $16.99 (Max ad-free plan)
A year later, Max increased the price for their ad-free tiers by $1.
- Max Basic: $9.99 (No change)
- Max Ad-Free: $16.99 (+$1)
- Max Ultimate: $20.99 (+$1)
While the ad-supported tier remained the same price, it doesn’t mean that the plan goes unscathed. The following year, Max removed CNN Max and B/R Sports from the basic tier, which disappointed sports fans. The streamer also started to crack down on password sharing, offering an Extra Member option for direct subscriptions, and they reverted back to their old branding of HBO Max.
HBO Max Future Price Hikes
As of September 2025, Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav announced that HBO Max will increase their prices, though it’s unclear as to when and how much will change.
It’s so disappointing to see our July prediction for 2025’s prices was wrong. We predicted that it would take a while for HBO Max to increase prices, but that was due to the history we’ve listed above. To be fair, HBO Max’s streaming plans already started off on the pricier side, so the streamer didn’t increase the rates as often, preferring to revamp their package structure instead of hiking up the prices of existing plans.
We also noticed that HBO Max was focusing more on expanding globally. They temporarily stopped expanding to new territories in 2022, but they have since continued widening their reach in 2023, moving into Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Asia-Pacific. With third-party distribution deals expiring in Western Europe, East Asia, and the Middle East, we thought that HBO Max would have their hands full updating there rather than raising prices back home.
Sadly, the new announcement proved us wrong. Sorry, HBO Max subscribers. We’re hoping that like the previous price hikes, HBO Max would increase only by a dollar or so, but considering Zaslav considered it “way underpriced”, we’re worried that this announcement would mean a drastic change.
Would making another prediction jinx us again? Maybe. Still, what is this article for, if not to figure out HBO Max’s future? We think that the earliest time a price hike would occur is in January 2026. So far, HBO Max favors late spring or early summer to change the price structure, but they did make that one hike in January 2023. At the very least, HBO Max, can we delay this hike till past the holidays, please?
HBO Max subscribers, we’re trying our best to manifest a delay in this. But whichever way Warner Bros Discovery decides, we’ll keep an eye out for any price hikes for HBO Max as well as other streaming services for you.
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