Xbox Game Pass Price 2026: $22.99/mo

As of Jul 2026, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate costs $22.99/month in the US — +53% from $14.99 in 2021, across 3 price hikes. That comparison is the primary plan charted on this page: current US list price versus the stored launch price, with every intervening change kept as a dated event. The latest change took it from $29.99 to $22.99/month on Apr 21, 2026, as reported by Xbox Wire. Each event links to a primary source — an official newsroom post or reputable reporting — listed in the pricing log below. Prices are US list prices in USD, excluding tax; promotional and app-store rates can differ. Subscription Price Guide is an independent index and is not affiliated with Xbox Game Pass. Every statistic on this page — current price, total increase, hike count, highs and lows — is computed at build time from the stored event log, so the page, the structured data and the index cannot disagree.

Xbox Game Pass costs $9.99 per month for Essential, $14.99 for Premium, $13.99 for PC Game Pass, and $22.99 for Ultimate in the US. Microsoft cut Ultimate from $29.99 and PC Game Pass from $16.49 on April 21, 2026, reversing most of its October 2025 increase; Essential and Premium were unchanged.

Essential ($9.99/month) includes online multiplayer, cloud streaming, and a curated library of around 50 games. Premium ($14.99/month) expands the library to 200-plus titles but excludes most day-one releases. Ultimate ($22.99/month) carries the full 500-plus catalog with day-one first-party releases, EA Play, Ubisoft+ Classics, Fortnite Crew, and the highest-quality cloud streaming.

Microsoft cut Ultimate from $29.99 to $22.99 on April 21, 2026 after the 50% hike of October 2025 drove downgrades and cancellations. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said Ultimate had become too expensive for too many players. In exchange, new Call of Duty games no longer join Game Pass at launch.

Existing Call of Duty titles remain in the Game Pass library, but as of April 21, 2026, new Call of Duty releases no longer arrive on Ultimate or PC Game Pass on day one. Microsoft says future entries will be added about a year after release, around the following holiday season, as the trade-off for Ultimate's price cut to $22.99.

No. Xbox Live Gold was retired on September 14, 2023 and replaced by Game Pass Core at the same $9.99 per month, which Microsoft renamed Game Pass Essential in October 2025, still $9.99. Every current Game Pass tier, from Essential through Premium and Ultimate, includes online console multiplayer.

Game Pass Essential at $9.99 per month is the cheapest tier, with online multiplayer, a curated library of about 50 games, and cloud streaming. PC-only players get more for less with PC Game Pass at $13.99 per month, which includes a 300-plus game library and day-one Xbox first-party releases.

Yes, on every tier since the October 2025 restructuring. Streaming quality scales with the plan: Ultimate ($22.99/month) streams at up to 1440p, Premium ($14.99) at 1080p, and Essential ($9.99) at 720p. Cloud play works on consoles, PCs, phones, tablets, browsers, and supported smart TVs without downloading games.