Every quarter we pull together the price movements we've verified across our 20 tracked markets and calculate how the average subscriber's bill has changed. This is Q2 2026 — April through June — covering streaming video, music, gaming, AI, and audiobooks.
The headline: the average price of a mid-tier subscription across our tracked EU markets (de, fr, es, it, nl, pl) rose 4.2% in the 12 months to end of Q2 2026, measured in EUR. That's a slowdown from the 7.1% annual rate we recorded at the end of Q4 2025, when several services raised prices simultaneously ahead of the January calendar reset.
Category breakdown
| Category | 12-month change (EUR, EU avg.) | Notable mover |
|---|---|---|
| Streaming video | +5.1% | Netflix Standard +£2 in UK; +€1 in FR, ES |
| Gaming | +6.3% | PlayStation Plus Essential +12.5% (annual → monthly repricing) |
| AI assistants | +8.2% | ChatGPT Plus held at €22/mo (no EU change in period) |
| Audiobooks | +2.1% | Audible monthly held; Kindle Unlimited unchanged at €11.75 |
| Music | +2.1% | Spotify Individual raised to €12.99 in DE (from €10.99, August 2025) |
Streaming video: Netflix leads, others hold
The Q2 2026 streaming picture is largely a Netflix story. No other video service in our EU markets moved their headline plan price during Q2. Netflix's increases in France (Standard to €14.99) and Spain in April 2026 (Standard to €14.99, with Ads to €8.99) account for most of the streaming video category's 5.1% average rise. Disney+, Paramount+, Crunchyroll, and Amazon Prime Video all held prices flat across EU markets during the quarter. The UK's Netflix Standard increase (from £10.99 to £12.99) is excluded from the EUR EU average but forms part of the broader 2026 pattern.
Gaming: the PlayStation Plus restructuring
Sony restructured PlayStation Plus pricing in several EU markets during Q1–Q2 2026, with the clearest effect being a rise in the month-to-month Essential tier. In Germany, the monthly price rose from €8.99 to €10.99 — a 22% increase on the monthly plan. The annual plan equivalent moved from €59.99 to €71.99 (20%). This is the largest single service price movement in our index for the quarter. Sony's stated rationale was increased infrastructure costs and content investment. The Essential tier's rise pushed it above Spotify Individual (€12.99) and into range of Disney+ Standard (€8.99).
AI category: stable but overweighted in percentage terms
ChatGPT Plus held at €22/month across all EU markets through Q2 2026 — no nominal change. The category's 8.2% year-on-year figure reflects a full-year comparison that includes OpenAI's late 2025 launch pricing in some markets. Quarter-on-quarter, AI was the most stable category we track. Microsoft Copilot Pro held at €30/month, and Google One AI Premium held at €21.99/month.
Music: small rise driven by Spotify Individual
Spotify raised Individual Premium in Germany from €10.99 to €12.99 in August 2025. While technically outside Q2 2026, this increase carries through the year-on-year comparison. Spotify restructured its Duo plan in Italy and Spain — the Duo plan moved from €17.99 to €14.99 in Italy and from €16.99 to €13.99 in Spain, reducing per-member cost. The net effect across the category was a modest +2.1% EU average over the year-on-year period. Music remains the category with the slowest pace of increases compared to video and gaming.
UK: excluded from EU average, notable in isolation
The UK is not included in the EU market average above. As a standalone market, the UK's picture through mid-2026 follows the broader trend: Netflix raised Standard from £10.99 to £12.99 and Standard with Ads from £4.99 to £5.99. All other major UK streaming services (Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Paramount+) held their prices flat through Q2 2026. The UK subscribers' mid-tier average for streaming services rose approximately 7% year-on-year in GBP terms, driven almost entirely by the Netflix Standard increase.
Methodology
The PlanIntel Price Index measures verified prices from official service pricing pages, not promotional prices, trial offers, or third-party data. Price changes are recorded the day they appear on the service's own page. The EUR average for EU markets uses mid-market ECB exchange rates at the time of each observation. Full index data is available on the Subscription Price Index page.