Bad news: Apple’s raising subscription prices. Apple Arcade is jumping from $4.99 to $6.99, News+ from $9.99 to $12.99, and Apple TV+ from $6.99 to $9.99. (Remember when the latter was $4.99?)
Perhaps you’re preparing your wallet for these increases. Or, if you’re sick of price hikes, you might just cancel your sub altogether. Before you do either, know there is a way to lock in your subscription at the old rate for a month, or, in Apple TV+’s case, a year. But you’ll need to act fast.
If you haven’t subscribed to these Apple services in the past, you may be stuck with the price increase. Lucky for you, you can take advantage of any free trials still offered. But for anyone who has an active or expired Apple service subscription, you can bypass the price hike right now in your subscription settings.
Here’s how it works: Open Settings, tap your name at the top, then choose Subscriptions. Here, you’ll see all active and inactive subscriptions attached to your Apple ID. In my case, I have expired subscriptions for Apple News+ and and Apple TV+. If I tap either, I have the option to renew at the old rate, not the new one.
But it’s better news for Apple TV+. While Apple News+ only offers a monthly subscription, Apple TV+ comes in either monthly or yearly subs. If you tap Apple TV+, then choose See All Plans, you can choose from either the old $6.99 monthly rate, or the $69.00 per year option.
Apple hasn’t said what its new yearly option is going to be with the price hike, if any, so subscribing to this new plan is the only way to lock in the old price against changes for the next year. If $9.99 per month is the only option going forward, you’ll save $30 for a year of Apple TV+.
If you only want to commit to the month, you can still save a little money before the new prices kick in for you, too.