Why streaming costs nearly twice as much in Switzerland as in Poland

Of all the market pairs in our 20-country index, Switzerland and Poland show the largest absolute price gap for identical streaming services. A Netflix Standard subscription in Switzerland costs CHF 22.90 per month — approximately €24.80 at current exchange rates. The same plan in Poland costs 55 zł — approximately €12.80. That's a 94% difference for the same service, the same content catalogue, and (mostly) the same content rights.

This isn't a rounding anomaly. The gap holds across every service we track. Here's why, and what it means for subscribers in both countries.

The gap in numbers

Exchange rates: 1 EUR ≈ 4.30 PLN, 1 CHF ≈ 1.08 EUR (European Central Bank, August 2026). All prices include local VAT.

Factor 1: purchasing power parity

Switzerland consistently ranks as one of the most expensive countries in the world by almost every price index. The median gross wage in Switzerland is approximately CHF 6,500 per month — roughly €7,000. In Poland, the median gross wage is approximately 7,200 zł per month — approximately €1,674. Swiss consumers earn roughly four times as much in EUR-equivalent terms.

This creates an interesting paradox: a CHF 22.90 Netflix subscription takes 0.35% of median monthly gross income in Switzerland. At 55 zł (€12.80), Poland's subscription takes 0.76%. On a purchasing-power-adjusted basis, Polish subscribers pay proportionally more for Netflix than Swiss ones.

Factor 2: VAT rates

Switzerland applies a VAT rate of 8.1% to digital services (raised from 7.7% in January 2024). Poland applies 23% VAT to streaming. That's a 14.9 percentage point difference in tax burden. On a CHF 22.90 subscription that includes 8.1% VAT, the pre-tax price is approximately CHF 21.18. The headline price gap narrows slightly when comparing pre-VAT values, but the net effect is that Swiss subscribers pay less tax on each franc spent.

Factor 3: local competition and market strategy

Poland has a more competitive streaming market at the lower end: Canal+ Poland, Player.pl, and TVN Player all offer subscription tiers below €5 per month equivalent. This competitive pressure keeps international services from pricing too far above local alternatives. Switzerland has no equivalent domestic competition at scale — SRF's streaming offering is free and licence-funded.

Factor 4: the Swiss franc as a safe-haven currency

The Swiss franc has consistently strengthened against the euro over the past decade. For a service priced in CHF, this means real revenue per subscriber grows in EUR terms even when nominal CHF prices stay flat. The PLN has been more volatile against the EUR, which partly explains why some services have raised Polish nominal prices in recent years.

What this means if you're a subscriber in Switzerland

Switzerland has the highest absolute streaming prices in our 20-market index, in EUR terms, for almost every service. Netflix Standard at CHF 22.90 (≈€24.80) is more expensive than any EU market including France and Spain (both €14.99). One important limitation: Netflix Standard with Ads is not available in Switzerland as of August 2026. The lowest entry point to Netflix in Switzerland is CHF 14.90 for an ad-supported tier.

What this means if you're a subscriber in Poland

Polish prices look cheap when converted to EUR but represent a significant share of local wages, particularly for Spotify and Amazon. Poland is one of the markets where the ad-supported tier offers the largest proportional saving in local currency: Netflix Standard with Ads costs 29 zł vs 55 zł for ad-free Standard — a 47% saving for tolerating roughly four minutes of ads per hour.

The PlayStation Plus exception

The most interesting entry in the table above is PlayStation Plus: Switzerland (CHF 9.99 ≈ €10.80) is only 33% more expensive than Poland (34.99 zł ≈ €8.10). This is the narrowest gap of any service we track across these two markets. Gaming subscriptions have competitive dynamics that streaming doesn't — they must compete with free-to-play games at every price point.

How PlanIntel tracks this

Every price in this post comes from the service's official pricing page in that market. We fetch the Swiss price in CHF and the Polish price in PLN separately, on the same day, and record both independently. Browse the live data on the Subscription Price Index to compare current prices across all 20 markets, with full history for each service.