Here are the best ad-supported streaming plans for people on a budget

When Netflix first started its streaming movie and TV show business, the idea was that subscribers would not have to deal with commercials in exchange for paying a monthly fee. Other streaming services like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV Plus, and Disney Plus all launched with the same business model. Things have changed, and Netflix, along with other major streamers like HBO Max are seeing the advantage of offering cheaper options with ads. So, what are the best ad-supported streaming plans?

In this article, we go over the various ad-supported streaming plans that are currently available, offering you the pros and cons so you can pick the ones that suit your needs.

Netflix

Netflix is the oldest of the premium streaming services, and until now, it has only had ad-free plans to purchase. In early November 2022, Netflix added a new plan in several markets. Basic with Ads gives subscribers access to nearly all of the service’s content for a cheaper price.

Basic with Ads is available in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with plans to expand to more markets in the near future. Due to licensing deals with certain third-party studios, Basic with Ads subscribers can’t watch between 5% and 10% of Netflix’s library, although that gap will get smaller as the streaming giant makes new deals.

• Price: $6.99 a month
• Amount of ads per hour: Between four to five minutes
• Number of concurrent streams: One
• Video resolution: Up to 720p
• Support for downloads to mobile devices: No
• Free trial: No

Hulu

Many people may not remember that Hulu first started as a completely free ad-supported service in 2007. It let users watch new TV episodes the day after they aired, with commercials. In 2010, the company launched Hulu Plus, which was still ad-supported but included an expanded library of content. Now the service is just known as Hulu, and it has two main plans. One gets rid of ads (with a few small exceptions) for $14.99, but the ad-supported streaming plan is much cheaper at $7.99 a month. College students can get an even bigger discount on the Hulu Ads plan for just $1.99 per month.

• Price: $7.99 a month or $79.99 a year
• Amount of ads per hour: Between 12 to 14 minutes
• Number of concurrent streams: Two
• Video resolution: Up to 4K
• Support for downloads to mobile devices: No
• Free trial: 30 days

HBO Max

The Warner Bros. Discovery-owned streaming service started out as a completely ad-free experience. However, it quickly launched an ad-supported plan in order to gain more users. The price for the ad-based plan is very high at $9.99 a month. The good news is that any HBO-based shows and movies, which were made with no commercials in mind, are still ad-free when you watch them on the ad-based plan. However, video resolution is cut down to 1080p and there’s no support for offline downloads.

• Price: $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year
• Amount of ads per hour: Between 3 to 4 minutes
• Number of concurrent streams: Two
• Video resolution: Up to 1080p
• Support for downloads to mobile devices: No
• Free trial: No

Peacock

Peacock is a bit different than the other services on this list. It has two ad-based plans. One is completely free to access and offers lots of older TV shows and movies to download. The other costs just $4.99 a month and offers access to the entire Peacock content library, plus all of Peacock’s original content and live NBC access.

• Price: Free/$4.99 a month or $49.99 a year
• Amount of ads per hour: About 5 minutes
• Number of concurrent streams: Three
• Video resolution: Up to 1080p
• Support for downloads to mobile devices: No
• Free trial: 7 days

Paramount Plus

Paramount Plus also has a pretty cheap ad-supported streaming plan. It costs just $4.99 a month and offers all the content available on the streamer. The only exception is that it does not offer live streaming of your local CBS TV station, which is included in the ad-free plan. If you are a US college student, you can get a 25% discount on the ad-based plan, which makes it even better.

• Price: $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year
• Amount of ads per hour: Around 5 minutes
• Number of concurrent streams: Three
• Video resolution: Up to 4K
• Support for downloads to mobile devices: No
• Free trial: 7 days

Discovery Plus

Discovery Plus is a recent addition to the streaming services competition. It offers thousands of shows and movies that mostly come from the Discovery family of cable TV networks. Their ad-supported streaming plan is pretty cheap at just $4.99 a month, and the number of ads on the service is not that bad. Best of all, other than the price and ads, there’s no difference between the ad-based and no-ads versions of Discovery Plus

• Price: $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year
• Amount of ads per hour: Around 3 minutes per hour
• Number of concurrent streams: Four
• Video resolution: Up to 4K
• Support for downloads to mobile devices: No
• Free trial: 7 days

Disney Plus (December 8)

More than three years after launching, Disney Plus started offering an ad-based subscription plan in late 2022. The price for the plan is $7.99 a month or $79.99 a year, which was until recently the price for the ad-free plan, now available for $10.99 a month. The new ad-based plan doesn’t include ads for any kids’ content, however.

• Price: $7.99 a month or $79.99 a year
• Amount of ads per hour: Around 5 minutes
• Number of concurrent streams: Two
• Video resolution: Up to 1080p
• Support for downloads to mobile devices: No
• Free trial: No

Free ad-supported streaming services

While there are plenty of ad-supported streaming services that you have to pay money to get, there’s a growing number of streaming services that run ads and are completely free to access. This category even has an acronym: FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV). While these kinds of services are still mostly seen as being on the lower end of the streaming business in terms of features and content, they are gaining more and more of an audience. Some of them have even ventured into original content.