Lifestyle

Amazon Hikes Ad-Free Price 67% — and Takes 4K With It

By Mike Harper · April 13, 2026

Streaming price hikes have become a seasonal ritual at this point. Amazon just made its move — and this one has a twist that affects more than just your monthly bill.

Effective April 10, Amazon rebranded its ad-free Prime Video tier as “Prime Video Ultra” and raised the monthly price from $2.99 to $4.99 — a 67% increase on top of the existing $14.99 Prime membership. That puts the all-in cost for ad-free Prime Video at $19.98 per month, putting it squarely in the same range as Netflix, Disney+, and HBO Max.

The part that stings more than the price: 4K streaming is now locked behind the Ultra paywall.

Previously, 4K was available to standard Prime members at no additional cost. As of April 10, that’s gone. If you want the highest picture quality on Amazon — for Thursday Night Football, for Rings of Power, for anything — you’re paying for Ultra. Standard subscribers get HD and HDR, but 4K is no longer part of the deal.

Amazon has framed the change as an upgrade rather than a cut. Ultra subscribers get five concurrent streams instead of three, 100 offline downloads instead of 25, Dolby Atmos audio, and the newly exclusive 4K access. The company said in a statement that delivering ad-free streaming with premium features “requires significant investment” and that the structure aligns with competitor pricing.

That last point is technically true. But Amazon is also the only major streaming service that requires a separate membership just to access the platform in the first place. Paying $14.99 for Prime and then an additional $4.99 to avoid ads and watch in 4K is a structure none of its competitors replicate.

Current ad-free subscribers are being automatically migrated to Ultra at the higher price starting April 29 unless they cancel. An annual option is available at $45.99 — saving about 23% compared to paying monthly.

According to a Reviews.org survey cited by Parade, U.S. consumers already spent an average of $3,350 on streaming and connectivity in 2025. Nearly every major service raised prices last year. Amazon is following suit — and doing so at a moment when household budgets are already under pressure from rising gas prices and inflation driven by the Iran conflict.

The timing is notable. Whether subscribers absorb the hike, downgrade to the ad-supported tier, or cancel entirely is the unresolved question. Amazon’s ad-supported base — which reached 315 million average viewers globally — suggests the company has calculated that most will stay. Advertisers will be watching either way.