Amazon isn’t done squeezing Prime Video subscribers just yet. The company has announced that its ad-free add-on is getting a major price hike in the United States – and the UK could be next.
Starting April 10, the company is replacing its existing Prime Video Ad Free add-on in the US with a new tier called Prime Video Ultra, and the price is jumping from $2.99/month to $4.99/month.
That’s a 67% increase, and while it’s US-only for now, it would be very surprising if the UK doesn’t follow later this year.
Amazon is packaging this as an upgrade rather than just a price increase, bundling in some new perks along the way, but some of those perks (such as 4K) will simply be removed from the basic tier.
But the headline here is that ad-free is getting a lot more expensive – and the writing is on the wall for UK subscribers too.
How We Got Here
It wasn’t long ago that Prime Video was entirely ad-free as standard – no tiers, no add-ons, no choices to make. Then, back in late 2023, Amazon announced that adverts were coming to Prime Video – and that those who wanted to keep watching without interruptions would need to pay an extra £2.99/month on top of their existing Prime subscription.
When the emails went out to subscribers in January 2024, the reaction was, to put it mildly, not great. Many were frustrated at what was effectively a mid-subscription price hike, with some pointing out that Prime Video was starting to look a lot like Amazon’s existing ad-supported service, Freevee (which has since been folded into Prime Video).
When the adverts actually launched on February 5, 2024, the ad breaks were minimal at first – but Amazon had always signalled that content investment required this change, and it was reasonable to expect things to creep up over time.
Now, just over two years later, we’re at the next stage: the ad-free option itself is getting more expensive.
What Is Prime Video Ultra?
In the US, Prime Video Ultra replaces the existing Ad Free add-on from April 10, at $4.99/month – or $45.99/year if you’d rather pay annually (a saving of around 23% compared to the monthly rate).
The big change is straightforward: ad-free viewing, which currently costs $2.99/month, will now only be available as part of the Ultra tier.
On top of that, 4K/UHD streaming and Dolby Atmos are also being locked to Ultra – meaning subscribers who don’t upgrade will lose access to 4K.
That’s a notable change – 4K hasn’t previously been an explicitly tiered feature on Prime Video, and moving it behind a paywall is a meaningful step down for the standard tier.
There are a couple of improvements coming to the standard tier, too. Dolby Vision – which was previously available and then, oddly, removed – is being reinstated for all subscribers.
The number of concurrent streams is also going up from 3 to 4 on the standard tier (and 5 for Ultra), and the download limit is increasing from 25 to 50 (or 100 for Ultra).
| Feature | Prime Video (included with Prime) | Prime Video Ultra |
|---|---|---|
| Thousands of movies, TV series & live sports | ✔ | ✔ |
| HD (High Definition) | ✔ | ✔ |
| HDR (High Dynamic Range) | ✔ | ✔ |
| Dolby Vision | ✔ (newly available) | ✔ |
| Downloads (offline viewing) | ✔ 50 downloads (up from 25) | ✔ 100 downloads (up from 25) |
| Concurrent streams | ✔ 4 streams (up from 3) | ✔ 5 streams (up from 3) |
| Ad-free | – | ✔ |
| 4K/UHD | – | ✔ |
| Dolby Atmos | – | ✔ |
| Price | Included with Prime membership ($14.99/month or $139/year) | $4.99/month, or $45.99/year (a 23% saving). Requires a Prime or Prime Video subscription. |
What Does This Mean for the UK?
Right now, Prime Video Ultra is a US-only announcement. Amazon has been clear about that. But it would be naive to assume it stays that way.
When Amazon introduced adverts to Prime Video back in 2024, the US launched first, with the UK following just one week later on February 5.
The ad-free add-on launched at the same time, at £2.99/month in the UK (versus $2.99/month in the US – so we were already paying a little more in real terms).
If Prime Video Ultra follows the same pattern and arrives in the UK later this year, you’d expect the pricing to land at £4.99/month – up from £2.99/month.
That would take the total cost of Amazon Prime with ad-free Prime Video from around £130/year to around £155/year. Not a catastrophic jump, but a noticeable one – and that’s before factoring in 4K being moved behind the paywall.
How Does This Compare to Other Services?
Amazon is following the same playbook as Netflix and Disney+, both of which now operate multiple tiers at different price points. The upcoming HBO Max service will have 4 (!) separate tiers at launch.
The difference – and it’s worth acknowledging – is that Amazon’s base price isn’t changing. Prime Video remains included with a Prime membership at no extra cost, and the standalone Prime Video subscription stays at £5.99/month in the UK.
Unlike Netflix, which axed its cheapest ad-free tier and effectively pushed subscribers up a price point, Amazon isn’t raising the price of what you already have.
What it’s doing instead is making the premium experience – ad-free, 4K, Dolby Atmos – progressively more expensive to access. Whether you see that as reasonable or not probably depends on how much you value those features.
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“go the same way as their Ring doorbell”
Can you expand on what you mean by this please? What has happened with Ring doorbells?
I’ve never been really impressed with Prime video and after reading this, I fancy it will go the same way as their Ring doorbell. At a time when there are so many really good streaming channels, it just seems to me that Amazon are shooting themselves in the foot, obviously, I may be wrong.