Netflix Standard with Ads Review: 8.99 Dollars After Two Rises in Fourteen Months

Netflix raised the ad tier to 8.99 dollars on 26 March 2026, its second increase in fourteen months. With Basic discontinued, this is now the cheapest way to have Netflix at all.

Standard with Ads costs 8.99 dollars a month, according to Netflix’s own help page as read on 1 September 2026. It has been raised twice in fourteen months, from 6.99 to 7.99 in January 2025 and from 7.99 to 8.99 on 26 March 2026. The Basic plan that used to sit alongside it has been discontinued for new and existing US subscribers alike, which means the advertising tier is no longer the cheap alternative to Netflix. It is Netflix’s entry price, and it has risen 28.6 percent since launch.

Key facts

• Standard with Ads: 8.99 dollars a month, from Netflix’s help page checked 1 September 2026
• Standard 19.99 dollars; Premium 26.99 dollars; the Basic plan is discontinued
• Launched late 2022 at 6.99 dollars, raised to 7.99 in January 2025 and 8.99 on 26 March 2026
• Capped at 1080p with two simultaneous streams and downloads on two devices
• 60 titles out of 8,107, or 0.74 percent of the US library, were still blocked on the ad tier as of 6 April 2026

6.99 at launch, 7.99 in January 2025, 8.99 since 26 March 2026

The ad tier arrived in late 2022 at 6.99 dollars and held that price for over two years. The January 2025 increase took it to 7.99, the first rise the plan had ever seen, while Standard went from 15.49 to 17.99 and Premium from 22.99 to 24.99. The March 2026 round moved Standard with Ads to 8.99, Standard to 19.99 and Premium to 26.99. New members paid the new rates from 26 March 2026; existing members from their next billing cycle after being notified.

In dollar terms the ad tier absorbed the smallest increase both times, a dollar on each occasion against two dollars for the tiers above it. In percentage terms it absorbed the largest. Twelve extra dollars a year is not a crisis for most households, but the direction is settled: two rises in fourteen months on a plan that already carries advertising, with Basic removed so that nobody can step down.

What the 1080p cap and two streams actually rule out

Netflix’s help page is specific about what the money does not buy, and the restrictions are worth reading against the television you own rather than in the abstract.

A correction on downloads is needed, because the error circulates widely. Android Headlines states in a single article both that the ad plan does not support downloading content for offline viewing and that downloads work on two devices. Those cannot both be true. Netflix’s own help page is the authority, and it lists downloads on two devices. Anyone avoiding this tier because they were told it cannot download was told wrong.

• Resolution is capped at 1080p, so no 4K on any set, no matter its size
• No HDR of any kind, and no Netflix spatial audio, which is reserved for Premium
• Two simultaneous streams, the same as Standard; Premium is the only plan with four
• Downloads on two devices, which Netflix enabled in November 2023 at the plan’s first anniversary
• Roughly four minutes of commercials per hour, in fifteen and thirty second spots, per Android Headlines

Sixty titles still carry a padlock, and House of Cards is one of them

At launch in late 2022, 5.1 percent of the US Netflix library was blocked on the ad tier for licensing reasons. Whats-on-Netflix reported that by 6 April 2026 this had fallen to 0.74 percent, or 60 titles out of 8,107, after a Sony Pictures agreement cleared around 80 films for the tier earlier than the expected 2027 date. Blocked titles show a padlock icon in search results rather than disappearing, so subscribers can see what they are not allowed to watch.

What remains blocked is a specific and slightly odd set. House of Cards, licensed from Media Rights Capital, is still unavailable. So are DreamWorks Animation television shows including The Boss Baby and Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight, NBCUniversal and Telemundo titles such as Queen of the South and Dirty John, AMC Studios series including TURN, Weinstein Company films such as Lion and The Founder, and independent films including Boyhood, Frances Ha and Wind River. Against the 5.1 percent of the library blocked when the tier launched, that is a shrinking list rather than a growing one.

Sixty titles out of eight thousand is a real improvement and it deserves saying. It also means the licensing objection to this tier, which was the strongest one in 2023, is now close to spent. The reasons to pay more are picture quality and stream count, not catalogue.

Eleven dollars a month is what removing the advertising costs

The gap between Standard with Ads at 8.99 and Standard at 19.99 is exactly 11 dollars a month, or 132 dollars a year. Both plans give the same 1080p ceiling and the same two simultaneous streams. The upgrade buys the removal of advertising, downloads on more devices, and eligibility for an Extra Member slot, which Netflix’s help page prices at 9.99 dollars a month ad-free or 7.99 with ads and which Standard limits to one, Premium to two. Netflix does not list an extra member slot for Standard with Ads at all.

That is a large premium for the absence of something, and it is the clearest argument for staying on the cheaper plan. Anyone who wants 4K, HDR or spatial audio has to go past Standard entirely to Premium at 26.99, which is three times the ad tier’s price. The honest conclusion is that Standard with Ads is the sensible default for a 1080p television or a laptop, and Standard is poor value for anyone whose objection to it is purely the commercial breaks.

A Dutch foundation is suing over the price rises themselves

On 30 April 2026 the Foundation for the Protection of Consumer Interests filed a collective action against Netflix in the Netherlands over its repeated unilateral price increases. NL Times reported the core allegation: that Netflix repeatedly amended its terms and conditions without adequately informing consumers, and that earlier versions of those terms are no longer accessible, so subscribers cannot check what they originally agreed to. The estimated damages sought run to 673 million euros. The action is backed by Finch Dispute Resolution with funding from IVO Capital.

The claim is Dutch and its outcome will not directly change a US bill. The second half of it is the part that should interest any subscriber anywhere, because it is not about the amount. A subscription whose terms change repeatedly and whose earlier terms cannot be retrieved is one where the customer has no way of establishing what the original bargain was. That is a structural complaint about how streaming subscriptions are sold, and this is the first time a funded consumer body has put a number on it.

Sources: Netflix Help Center · MacMyths · What’s on Netflix · Android Headlines · NL Times