Spotify Premium: Plans, Prices, and How to Cancel

Spotify Premium is the paid tier that strips out ads, lets you download music for offline listening, and gives you full control over what plays next. There are four plans, they cost different amounts, and Spotify has raised US prices three times in three years, so it pays to know exactly what you are signing up for. This hub walks through every plan, the current US pricing, the free trial, the student discount, and how to cancel without losing access early.

What Spotify Premium adds over free

The free version of Spotify is genuinely useful, but it holds a few things back. Premium removes those limits.

• No ads between songs.
• On-demand playback on phones, so you can play any track in any order instead of shuffling.
• Offline downloads for listening without a connection.
• Higher audio quality, and Spotify has been adding lossless audio as part of the reason for recent price increases.
• Access to a chunk of the audiobook catalog (listening hours vary by plan).

If you mostly listen at your desk and do not mind ads, free is fine. If you commute, travel, or want to pick exact songs on your phone, Premium is the upgrade that removes the friction.

How much is Spotify Premium in the US

Prices below reflect current US pricing as of 2026 after the increase that took effect in early 2026. Spotify changes these figures periodically, so treat them as a snapshot and confirm on the official Premium page before you buy.

• Premium Individual: about $12.99 per month. One account, all Premium features. This rose from $11.99.
• Premium Duo: about $18.99 per month. Two accounts for two people at the same address. Up from $16.99.
• Premium Family: about $21.99 per month. Up to six accounts at one address, plus parental controls and a Kids app. Up from $19.99.
• Premium Student: about $6.99 per month. One verified student account. Up from $5.99.

A quick note on where you subscribe. If you sign up through the Apple App Store, Apple’s cut has historically pushed the price higher than paying on the web. The cheapest route is almost always to start the subscription at spotify.com in a browser, then just log in on your phone.

Which plan makes sense

If it is just you, Individual is the default. Two people in one home who both want their own library and recommendations should compare Duo against two Individual plans, since Duo is cheaper than paying twice. Families or roommate groups at one address get the best per-person rate on Family, which also keeps everyone’s playlists and Wrapped separate. Students should always check the Student plan first, because it is less than half the Individual price.

Spotify Premium free trial

New users can usually start with a free trial. Right now the Individual plan advertises one month for $0, and the Student plan advertises a longer trial, around three months, once you verify. Trials are for people who have not had Premium before, and you will need a payment method on file that gets charged when the trial ends unless you cancel first.

This is the only legitimate way to get Spotify Premium free. Ignore any site offering “free premium codes,” cracked APKs, or modded apps. Those break Spotify’s terms, can get your account banned, and are a common vector for malware. The real free option is the trial, full stop.

Spotify Premium Student, explained

The Student plan is the same Premium experience at a steep discount, and in the US it has bundled extras like Hulu (with ads) at various points, so check what is currently included when you sign up. To qualify you verify your enrollment through SheerID, the third-party service Spotify uses to confirm you attend an accredited college or university.

You re-verify once a year, and you can stay on the plan for up to four years total. If SheerID cannot match your details automatically, it will ask for a document like a student ID or enrollment letter. Once you graduate or hit the four-year cap, the account rolls to the standard Individual price.

Spotify Premium Family and Duo details

Family covers up to six accounts under one roof. Each member gets their own login, library, and recommendations, and the plan manager can turn on a content filter for explicit music and add younger kids through the Spotify Kids app. The one real rule Spotify enforces is the shared address, and accounts can be asked to confirm it.

Duo is the two-person version: two separate Premium accounts plus a shared Duo Mix playlist. Same address requirement applies. If you and a partner or roommate both want Premium, Duo beats two Individual subscriptions on price.

How to cancel Spotify Premium

Cancelling is straightforward, and importantly you keep Premium until the end of the period you already paid for.

1. Go to your account page at spotify.com and log in (do this in a browser, not the app).
2. Open Manage your plan under your subscription.
3. Select Cancel Premium or Cancel subscription.
4. Confirm. Spotify will show the date your Premium ends.

After that date, your account switches to free automatically. You keep all your playlists and saved songs, you just get ads and lose downloads and on-demand mobile playback. There is one exception: if you cancel during a free trial that has not been charged yet, your account can drop to free right away rather than waiting out a paid period.

If you subscribed through Apple, you cancel in your iPhone’s subscription settings instead of on Spotify’s site, because Apple handles that billing. Same for anyone who signed up through a phone carrier bundle. Cancel where you pay.

Spotify Premium vs SoundCloud Go Plus

If you are weighing streaming services, SoundCloud is the other option many listeners and artists use, and it works differently. SoundCloud’s paid tiers, covered in our SoundCloud Go hub, split into SoundCloud Go and Go+, and Go+ is the one that opens up the full catalog and removes ads. SoundCloud’s real edge is its deep well of remixes, DJ sets, demos, and underground uploads you will not find on Spotify.

Spotify’s edge is catalog breadth, polished recommendations, and cross-device playback that just works. For a full side by side, including which service treats independent artists better, see SoundCloud vs Spotify. Plenty of people keep both, using Spotify for mainstream listening and SoundCloud for discovery, and you can move tracks between them with a Spotify to SoundCloud workflow.

Artists thinking about payouts should also glance at our Spotify royalty calculator, since the streaming economics matter as much as the listening experience.

Is Spotify Premium worth it

After three price hikes in three years, this is a fair question, and Spotify users ask it loudly. In r/spotify the reaction to each increase is a wave of “should I cancel” posts, and the honest consensus is split: heavy daily listeners tend to stay because the ad-free, offline experience is hard to give up, while lighter listeners increasingly test the free tier or a rival service.

My take is simple. If you listen every day, download for trips, and want to pick exact songs on your phone, Premium earns its keep even at the new price. If you mostly listen at a computer and tolerate ads, free is a genuinely good product and you are not missing much. Try the free trial, see how often the missing features actually annoy you, and decide from there. For the rest of the set, see all our Spotify tools and guides.

FAQ

Sources

• Spotify Premium plans and pricing, official
• Cancel Premium, Spotify Support
• Spotify raising US prices to $12.99, TechRadar
• Spotify increases US Premium subscription prices, Variety
• Spotify to raise US subscription prices in Q1 2026, GSMArena
• Spotify raises subscription prices in the US again, TechCrunch
• r/spotify price increase discussions