All three console subscriptions changed in the past year, so here are the current US prices. Xbox Game Pass is $9.99 a month for Essential, $14.99 for Premium, $22.99 for Ultimate and $13.99 for PC Game Pass. PlayStation Plus is $10.99 a month for Essential, $16.99 for Extra and $19.99 for Premium, or $79.99, $134.99 and $159.99 a year. Nintendo Switch Online is $19.99 a year, and $49.99 a year with the Expansion Pack.
The short answer: Nintendo Switch Online is the cheapest by a distance and mostly buys you online play and classic games. PlayStation Plus Extra is the best way to catch up on a few years of big PlayStation games, especially on a 12-month plan. Game Pass is the only one of the three that promises new games on launch day, on Ultimate and PC Game Pass, although Call of Duty no longer counts. If you only want online multiplayer, the bottom tier of whichever console you own does the job.
Game Pass vs PS Plus vs Switch Online: 2026 prices at a glance
| Plan | 1 month | 3 months | 12 months | Games included | New releases | Cloud play |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Game Pass Essential | $9.99 | Not offered | Not offered | 50+ | No | 5 hours a month from November |
| Game Pass Premium | $14.99 | Not offered | Not offered | 200+ | Xbox-published games within a year | 10 hours a month from November |
| Game Pass Ultimate | $22.99 | Not offered | Not offered | 500+ | Day one (except Call of Duty) | 15 hours a month from November |
| PC Game Pass | $13.99 | Not offered | Not offered | 300+ PC games | Day one (except Call of Duty) | Not included |
| PS Plus Essential | $10.99 | $27.99 | $79.99 | Monthly games | No | No |
| PS Plus Extra | $16.99 | $43.99 | $134.99 | Game Catalog of hundreds of games | No promise | No |
| PS Plus Premium | $19.99 | $54.99 | $159.99 | Game Catalog, Classics, trials | No promise | PS5 cloud streaming |
| Switch Online | $3.99 | $7.99 | $19.99 | NES, Super NES and Game Boy classics | No | No |
| Switch Online + Expansion Pack | Not offered | Not offered | $49.99 | Adds N64, GBA, Genesis, Virtual Boy, GameCube on Switch 2 | No | No |
Prices are from the official Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo pages. Xbox's US page lists Game Pass as a monthly plan only. Nintendo's family plans cost $34.99 a year, or $79.99 with the Expansion Pack, and cover up to eight accounts.
Xbox Game Pass tiers in 2026: Essential, Premium, Ultimate and PC
Game Pass was rebuilt on October 1, 2025, when Microsoft renamed Core to Essential and Standard to Premium, limited day-one releases to Ultimate and raised Ultimate to $29.99 a month, per Wikipedia's history of the service. It has moved twice more in 2026.
The April price cut. On April 21, 2026, Microsoft cut Game Pass Ultimate from $29.99 to $22.99 a month and PC Game Pass from $16.49 to $13.99. The trade-off came in the same post: "future Call of Duty titles won't join Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass at launch," and will arrive during the following holiday season instead. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, out October 23, is the first test. Xbox has told subscribers it "won't be available in Game Pass at launch" and lists availability from Holiday 2027, per Pure Xbox.
The November cloud limits. Cloud gaming has been unlimited, but from November, Game Pass plans get a monthly allowance: 15 hours for Ultimate, 10 for Premium and 5 for Essential, according to Xbox Wire. You'll be able to buy more hours in the Xbox Store, and Microsoft expects the change to affect 4% of subscribers. PC Game Pass doesn't include cloud play at all.
Per Xbox's comparison page, every console tier includes online multiplayer and in-game benefits. Ultimate adds EA Play, Fortnite Crew and Ubisoft+ Classics, and PC Game Pass includes EA Play but no console play.
Gears of War: E-Day shows the split in practice: it launched on October 6 into Ultimate and PC Game Pass, while Premium members should expect it about a year later, per Pure Xbox. Our Gears of War: E-Day review roundup covers whether it's worth the time.
PlayStation Plus Essential, Extra and Premium in 2026
Sony raised US prices for new and lapsed subscribers on May 20, 2026: monthly Essential went from $9.99 to $10.99, Extra from $14.99 to $16.99 and Premium from $17.99 to $19.99, with three-month plans up too and 12-month prices unchanged, per Push Square. Existing subscribers on a rolling plan keep their old price unless it lapses.
What each tier includes, per PlayStation:
- Essential: online multiplayer, monthly games, exclusive discounts and content, cloud storage for saves and Share Play.
- Extra: everything in Essential, plus the Game Catalog of hundreds of games and Ubisoft+ Classics.
- Premium: everything in Extra, plus the Classics Catalog, game trials, PS5 cloud streaming and the Sony Pictures Catalog of up to 100 films.
The Game Catalog is where the value is. Sony's PS Plus page features games like Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut, God of War Ragnarök, Cyberpunk 2077, Hogwarts Legacy and Silent Hill 2. Notice what those have in common: they're great, and none of them are new. None of Sony's tiers list day-one releases as a benefit. Monthly games are yours "for as long as you remain an active member," Sony says, while catalogue games can leave, with end dates announced ahead of time.
Most free-to-play games, such as Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone, don't need a membership to play online.
Nintendo Switch Online and Expansion Pack in 2026
Nintendo's pricing is simpler: $19.99 a year for an individual membership ($3.99 for one month, $7.99 for three) and $49.99 a year for the Expansion Pack, which is sold only as a 12-month plan.
According to Nintendo's plan comparison, the base membership includes online play, the NES, Super NES and Game Boy libraries, the Nintendo Music app, Save Data Cloud, member offers and GameChat on Switch 2. The Expansion Pack adds:
- Nintendo GameCube games, on Switch 2 only. The library launched with the console in June 2025 and includes The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and SoulCalibur II. Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness joined in March 2026.
- Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance and SEGA Genesis libraries.
- Virtual Boy games, which also need Nintendo's Virtual Boy accessory, sold to members for $99.99 or $24.99 for the cardboard model, per the classics page.
- DLC at no extra cost: the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass, Animal Crossing: New Horizons Happy Home Paradise and Splatoon 2's Octo Expansion, plus the Switch 2 Edition upgrade packs for Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. You need the full game for each.
The family plan is the bargain of the three services: up to eight people share an Expansion Pack family membership for $79.99, about $10 each per year. Our post on Nintendo Classics covers why that retro library matters.
Is Game Pass worth it in 2026? Which subscription to pick
It depends less on the service than on how you play:
- You only want to play online with friends. Buy the cheapest tier for your console. That's $19.99 a year on Switch, $79.99 a year for PS Plus Essential, or $9.99 a month for Game Pass Essential ($119.88 over a year).
- You buy a lot of new games on Xbox or PC. Game Pass Ultimate at $22.99, or PC Game Pass at $13.99 if you only play on PC. Day-one access to games like Gears of War: E-Day is the whole point. Just budget separately for Call of Duty.
- You own a PS5 and missed the big PlayStation games. PS Plus Extra. The 12-month plan at $134.99 works out to about $11.25 a month. Or take one month at $16.99, play two catalogue games and cancel.
- You love retro games. On Switch 2, the Expansion Pack's GameCube library is hard to beat at $49.99 a year. PS Plus Premium's Classics Catalog suits PlayStation fans better, but costs over three times as much.
- You're buying for a family. Nintendo's $79.99 Expansion Pack family plan covers eight accounts, each on their own console. PS Plus and Game Pass work differently: their benefits are shared with everyone who plays on your main console.
- You stream more than you download. Check the new cloud caps before choosing a Game Pass tier. Fifteen hours a month on Ultimate is about half an hour a day.
Subscriptions and your backlog
Every subscription comes with the same side effect: a catalogue full of games you'll "get to eventually." We wrote about how a subscription drop makes your backlog louder when August's PS Plus games arrived, and the advice holds for any service. Pick two or three games you'll actually start, and let the rest go.
A backlog tracker helps here. In Perthro, the catalogue games you're only considering can sit on your Interested list, apart from the games you own, and move to Playing when you actually start one. If a game leaves the service before you finish, mark it Shelved and you'll know where you stopped if you ever buy it.
Sources
- Xbox: Xbox Game Pass plans and FAQ
- Xbox: Compare Xbox Game Pass plans
- Xbox Wire: Xbox Game Pass Ultimate price update (April 21, 2026)
- Xbox Wire: Upcoming changes to Xbox Cloud Gaming (September 3, 2026)
- Wikipedia: Xbox Game Pass
- Pure Xbox: Xbox reminds Game Pass members to buy Modern Warfare 4
- Pure Xbox: Gears of War: E-Day release and Game Pass guide
- PlayStation: PlayStation Plus plans and FAQ
- Push Square: PS Plus price increases also hit Extra and Premium
- Nintendo: Nintendo Switch Online overview
- Nintendo: Compare membership plans
- Nintendo: Membership prices
- Nintendo: Nintendo Classics library
- Nintendo: Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness joins the GameCube library
