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Paramount+ EssentialOur score 4,1/5
$89.99/yr

$7.50/mo

Plus sales tax where applicable

Source · Checked

Choose a plan

Billed once for the full year, up front.

Streaming in the US

Paramount+ plans, price and what each includes

Paramount+ has two plans. Essential is ad-supported: 40,000+ episodes and movies, CBS News 24/7, 20 live channels, NFL on CBS, UEFA Champions League, UFC and select SHOWTIME series. Premium removes ads from on-demand content and adds your local live CBS station, all of SHOWTIME, 4K on select titles and downloads. Both allow 3 streams and 6 profiles and can be paid yearly.

  • NFL on CBS on both plans. Games broadcast on your local CBS station stream on Essential too.
  • UFC and Champions League. Included with Essential, on separate live feeds.
  • 3 streams, 6 profiles. Including kid-friendly profiles.
  • Yearly billing. Both plans have an annual option.
  • Student discount. Paramount+ advertises 50% off for students.

Most important before you pay

Essential doesn’t include your local live CBS station — only NFL on CBS games. Premium is ad-free on demand, but live TV still has ad breaks, and every plan includes Paramount+ promos and trailers. Paramount+ has no DVR; downloads are Premium-only, on phones and tablets.
Compare streaming servicesHow to cancel

Tomas StankevičiusUpdated 2026-10-14Facts from the Paramount+ website and Help Center, with dates

At a glance

Plans
Essential (with ads), Premium
Local live CBS
Premium (NFL on CBS on both)
SHOWTIME
Select series / all of it on Premium
Downloads
Premium, up to 25
Streams / profiles
3 / 6
Yearly billing
Both plans

Plans and prices change — check the provider’s own page before you pay.

Prices with dates

Every price has a source and the date it was checked.

From the Paramount+ website and Help Center

Plans, live TV, downloads and cancellation as Paramount+ publishes them for the US.

Affiliate links are labeled

If a link is an affiliate link, we say so right next to it.

Short summary

Paramount+ Essential is a solid budget plan if you mainly want NFL on CBS, UFC and Champions League — they’re all included. Premium is worth it if you want your local CBS station live all the time, all of SHOWTIME, downloads and an ad-free library.

Sports on the cheaper plan

NFL on CBS, UFC and Champions League on Essential.

No local CBS on Essential

Live CBS beyond NFL games needs Premium.

We recommend first:
CBS, SHOWTIME and UFC viewers; NFL fans who want games on a budget.
With caveats:
Anyone who wants a DVR or downloads on a TV or computer.

Who Paramount+ is for, and who it isn’t

Essential covers more sports than you might expect.

A good choice

  • For NFL and UFC fans

    NFL on CBS, every numbered UFC event and Fight Night, and Champions League on Essential.

  • For CBS viewers

    New episodes of CBS shows stream on demand 24 hours after airing.

  • For SHOWTIME

    All of SHOWTIME is on Premium.

A weaker choice

  • If you want a DVR

    Paramount+ says it has no DVR capability.

  • If you want live CBS on the cheaper plan

    Essential has NFL on CBS only, not the local station.

  • If you download on a laptop

    Downloads work on iPhone, iPad and Android phones and tablets.

Two plans

Prices are in the block above.

Two plans
Paramount+ EssentialWhat it means in practiceAd-supported. 40,000+ episodes and movies, CBS News 24/7, CBS Sports HQ and 20 live channels, NFL on CBS, UEFA Champions League, UFC, Zuffa Boxing, select SHOWTIME series. No local live CBS station. Series may not include all episodes.
Paramount+ PremiumWhat it means in practiceEverything in Essential with no ads on demand (live TV has ad breaks), your local live CBS station with more sports and events, all of SHOWTIME, select titles in 4K UHD, Dolby Vision or HDR10, and downloads.

Games, UFC and a budget → Essential; live CBS, SHOWTIME, downloads and no ads on demand → Premium.

Our score and what it’s made of

This is our own assessment based on checked facts. It isn’t an average of user reviews or the provider’s claim. Below — every criterion with its weight and source.

4,3

out of 5 · average of 2 plans · 9 of 12 criteria checked

The score is calculated from the criteria you see below: each criterion shows its weight, what exactly we found and where. Where we have the provider’s page, there’s a link with a check date; where the number comes from our catalog, we say so. “Not checked” means we don’t have the data and the criterion isn’t counted. “Provider doesn’t say” means we went through the provider’s pages but the information isn’t there; that criterion isn’t counted either. If you disagree with the weights — in the methodology you’ll see all the parts and can weigh them your own way. We don’t put app store ratings into structured data: they were collected on other websites, so they stay as visible text.

Scores for individual plans: Paramount+ Essential 4,1 · Paramount+ Premium 4,4

The same for all “Paramount+” plans

Criteria that are the same for all of this provider’s plans
CriterionWhat we foundScoreSource
Content you can’t get for free(18 %)content only with a subscription5,0our catalog
Fit for US viewers(15 %)US channels, network libraries and local originals5,0source
Advertised price is the final price(10 %)sales tax is added at checkout3,0our catalog
Free way to try it(10 %)not checked—not checked
Simultaneous streams(5 %)3 screens at the same time4,0our catalog
Profiles(4 %)up to 64,0our catalog
App rating(3 %)4,6 out of 54,6our catalog

Depends on plan

Criteria that differ between plans
CriterionParamount+ EssentialParamount+ Premium
Price compared with others(10 %)7,50 USD/mo5,011,67 USD/mo5,0
Maximum resolution(7 %)not checked—4K UHD (HDR not for all content)4,0
What else is included(9 %)1 extra content type at no extra cost3,02 extra content types at no extra cost4,0
Offline viewing(7 %)can’t be downloaded1,0phone or tablet only4,0
Spatial audio and HDR(2 %)not checked—yes5,0

Availability in the US

The final price in the US is clear

You pay in dollars, and the price is the one the provider lists — sales tax, where your state charges it, is added at checkout.

  • price in dollars
  • tax terms are known
  • shared international price list — the price depends on your account’s country

Content

What you actually get to watch: catalog, languages, sports and events.

What’s on Paramount+

CBS shows, Paramount+ originals, movies, SHOWTIME, kids’ programming and live sports.

  • CBS and Paramount networks

    Episodes from CBS, BET, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, VH1 and more.

  • Live sports

    NFL on CBS, UFC, UEFA Champions League and Zuffa Boxing; more CBS sports on Premium.

  • SHOWTIME

    Select series on Essential; all of SHOWTIME on Premium.

Some shows or episodes may be missing because of streaming rights; on Essential, series may not include all episodes.

Live sports and live TV by plan

Every Paramount+ subscriber can stream NFL on CBS games that air on their local CBS station. Essential also includes UFC, Zuffa Boxing and UEFA Champions League on a separate live feed. Premium adds your local CBS station around the clock and all CBS Sports, such as Big Ten Football on CBS, NCAA basketball and golf, plus live channels like CBS Sports Golazo Network.

  • On game day, open Live TV and choose the NFL on CBS channel.
  • You can only stream games broadcast in your local CBS market.
  • Restart a live NFL game from the beginning after enabling the prompt before kickoff.
  • Set game reminders in Settings → Sports.

Essential stops at the final whistle

Essential doesn’t include your local CBS station beyond NFL on CBS, so live CBS programming ends when the game does — keeping live TV needs Premium.

What US App Store reviewers say

Paramount+ has 4.6 out of 5 stars from 0.9 million ratings on the US App Store. We also read the 50 most recent US reviews — 31 of them gave one or two stars. Recent reviews skew toward people with a problem, so read them as a list of what can go wrong, not as a verdict.

Praised

Positive reviews mention the shows you can’t find on other services.

Performance

Lag, freezing during live games, blurry picture on TVs and slow resuming after pause are the most common complaints.

Casting and downloads

Some reviewers say casting from iPhone fails and downloads disappear quickly.

The catalog gets credit; streaming reliability is where the recent reviews are harsh.

Quality and devices

What picture and sound depend on, and where it works.

Where you can watch

Where you can watch
Phones and tabletsExamplesiPhone, iPad, Android phones and tabletsCaveatDownloads need iOS 16+ or Android 6+.
TVs and streaming playersExamplesApple TV, Android TV, Google TV, Fire TV, Roku, Chromecast, LG, Samsung, Vizio, VIDAACaveatAlso Xfinity, Xumo, Cox Contour, DISH Hopper 3 and DIRECTV Gemini.
Consoles and otherExamplesPlayStation, Xbox, computer browsers, Apple Vision ProCaveatSupported models are listed in the Help Center.

App ratings in the stores

These are ratings from store users. They rate how the app works; they say nothing about whether the subscription price is fair.

App Store

iOS and iPadOS
4,6out of 5

928,742 ratings

Source

Ratings change constantly and often drop after price increases or removed features. We show the value from the check date together with the number of reviews, because 4.8 from two hundred and 4.5 from two million ratings aren’t the same thing.

Account and household

Profiles, downloads, sharing and how to cancel.

Profiles and streams

  • Up to 6 individual profiles, including kids’ profiles.
  • Concurrent streaming on up to 3 devices.
  • My List watchlist on every profile.

Same on both plans

Streams and profiles don’t change between Essential and Premium.

Downloads

Downloads
PlanHow it worksPremium only
LibraryHow it worksUp to 25 videos at a time
How longHow it works30 days, or 48 hours after you start watching
DevicesHow it worksiPhone/iPad (iOS 16+), Android (6+)
Not every title can be downloaded, and downloads disappear when rights expire.

Canceling

Cancel where you signed up. On the web (also for smart TVs and consoles): your username → Account → Cancel subscription. Through Apple, Google Play, Amazon, Roku, Prime Video Channels or Apple TV Channels, cancel with them.

Monthly or yearly

Paramount+ says “Cancel anytime”; billing dates can’t be changed.

Through Walmart+ or a carrier

Walmart+, T-Mobile and Verizon manage their own Paramount+ plans; canceling Walmart+ also ends the Paramount+ benefit.

Uninstalling isn’t canceling

Paramount+ notes that uninstalling the app on Android TV doesn’t cancel the subscription.

Separate page: how to cancel this subscription →

What we don’t claim

Common claims about Paramount+, next to what Paramount+ says.

  • Premium has no ads at all.

    On-demand content is ad-free, but live content has ad breaks and all plans include Paramount+ promos and trailers.

  • Essential includes your local CBS station.

    No — only NFL on CBS games, on a separate live feed.

  • Paramount+ has a DVR.

    Paramount+ says it doesn’t; Premium has downloads instead.

  • If there’s no price on the page, the service isn’t available in the US.

    Not necessarily. More often it means the provider doesn’t publish a fixed price or shows it only at checkout. Availability and a published price are two different things.

  • An annual plan always works out cheaper.

    Cheaper than the monthly plan only if you use the whole period. You pay for the whole year up front, and when you cancel you usually don’t get the unused part back — so it’s a saving for people who already know they’ll stay all year.

  • Deleting the app cancels the subscription.

    No. Deleting the app doesn’t stop the payments — only canceling in the account where you bought the subscription does. The app disappears, the bill stays.

  • Every plan looks the same in every country.

    No. The list of plans, the features in the same plan and the available languages can differ. That’s why we don’t carry data from another country over to the US page.

  • The price on the pricing page is exactly what you’ll be charged.

    Not always. US providers list prices before sales tax, and whether tax is added at checkout — and how much — depends on your state. On one VPN order page we saw a 6.25% sales tax added on top of the listed monthly price.

This list isn’t an accusation against the service. If you find something on our page that doesn’t match the official source, write to us.

When Paramount+ is a good choice

  • NFL on CBS

    Essential or Premium.

    Compromise: Games depend on your local CBS market.

  • UFC

    Every numbered event and Fight Night on both plans.

    Compromise: Live content has ad breaks.

  • SHOWTIME

    Premium.

    Compromise: Essential has select series only.

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Sports on Essential

    NFL on CBS, UFC and Champions League.

  • Yearly billing

    On both plans.

  • Student discount

    50% off, according to Paramount+.

Cons

  • No DVR

    Downloads on Premium only.

  • Ads in live TV on Premium

    Ad-free applies to on-demand content.

  • Essential lacks local CBS

    Except NFL games.

Paramount+ compared with Peacock and Hulu

Three US services built around network TV, based on their own plan pages.

Plans
Essential, Premium
Streams at once
3
Downloads
Premium
Yearly billing
Both plans

If you want CBS, SHOWTIME and UFC — Paramount+

Premium adds your local CBS station.

If you watch NBC, Bravo and live sports — Peacock

Premium covers both.

If you want current TV and a Disney+ bundle — Hulu

Hulu bundles with Disney+ and ESPN.

Final verdict

Paramount+ Essential is one of the better budget plans for sports — NFL on CBS, UFC and Champions League are included. Choose Premium for your local CBS station, all of SHOWTIME, downloads and an ad-free library.

Choose it if

You watch CBS, SHOWTIME, NFL on CBS or UFC.

Think twice if

You need a DVR or downloads on a TV or laptop.

Skip it if

You don’t watch CBS or Paramount networks.

Peacock is the closest alternative for NBC, Bravo and its own sports; YouTube TV if you want every local channel with a DVR.

Paramount+ prices

Two plans as Paramount+ lists them, monthly, plus applicable taxes.

Compare plans

Paramount+ lists prices plus applicable taxes, depending on your state. Both plans can be paid yearly. Walmart+ includes Essential at no extra cost; T-Mobile, Verizon, app stores and channel stores bill on their own terms.

How to cancel

Paramount+ deals and discounts

We have no confirmed deals or promo codes for Paramount+ right now. When the provider publishes one and we have checked it, the dates and terms will appear here — we never list made-up promo codes.

Track price and deals

Paramount+ free trial

We found no free trial for Paramount+ on the provider’s website right now. If one appears, we will mark it here and in the free trials list.

All free trials

How to pay less for Paramount+

  • Annual billing for “Paramount+ Essential”: $89.99 for 12 months instead of $107.88 if you pay monthly — you save 17%.
  • Annual billing for “Paramount+ Premium”: $139.99 for 12 months instead of $167.88 if you pay monthly — you save 17%.

Compare the price with alternatives: Disney+ price · HBO Max price · Netflix price

We only show the provider’s official options — no shared accounts and no region switching.

FAQ

Essential is ad-supported and has no local live CBS station (only NFL on CBS games) and select SHOWTIME series. Premium is ad-free on demand and adds your local live CBS station, all of SHOWTIME, 4K on select titles and downloads.

Yes. Games broadcast on your local CBS station stream on Essential. After the game, live CBS isn’t available on Essential.

Yes. Paramount+ says every numbered event and Fight Night streams live and on demand with a subscription, on both plans.

Up to 3, with up to 6 profiles.

On Premium only: up to 25 videos at a time, kept for 30 days or 48 hours after you start watching, on iOS 16+ and Android 6+.

Yes, Walmart+ includes Paramount+ Essential at no extra cost; Premium is an upgrade. Canceling Walmart+ also ends the Paramount+ benefit.

Start by checking who charges you — that decides where you cancel. If you signed up in an app, the payment usually goes through your Google or Apple account, outside the service’s own website. Check your subscriptions in Google Play, and on iPhone: Settings → your name → Subscriptions, signed in to the account you paid with. If you can’t find it, Apple suggests searching your email for “receipt from Apple” or “invoice from Apple”: the receipt shows which account paid. If there’s no receipt at all, you probably bought it on the service’s website or in a bundle from your wireless carrier, internet or TV provider — your bank or card statement shows which company bills you.

On a computer, open your subscriptions in Google Play, click Manage next to the one you want to cancel, then Cancel subscription, pick a reason and confirm with Continue. Some apps on Google Play also let you pause a subscription instead of canceling — that’s not the same thing as canceling.

On iPhone: Settings → your name → Subscriptions → choose the subscription → Cancel Subscription; you may need to scroll down to see the button. If there’s no Cancel button, or you see an expiration message in red text, the subscription is already canceled. For a free trial, Apple asks you to cancel at least 24 hours before it ends.

No. Google says it in a separate warning: when you uninstall an app, your subscription won’t cancel. Payments continue until you cancel in the account where you bought the subscription. It’s an easy trap: the app disappears from your phone, but the bill stays.

Then you cancel with that provider. Apple says it plainly: if you got the subscription through your wireless carrier or another provider, contact them. In the US this is common for streaming — services are often bundled with phone, internet or TV plans. If your plan has a minimum term or the subscription is part of a bundle discount, check the terms before you cancel.

No. Apple is clear about it: you can’t cancel a family member’s subscription. If the receipt shows a family member’s Apple Account, ask them to cancel it themselves. If it shows another account you use yourself, sign in to that one and cancel there.

Not as a general rule. Unlike the European Union, the US has no general 14-day right to withdraw from online purchases. Rules on automatic renewal and how easy canceling must be are set mostly by individual states and differ between them. In practice, check the provider’s own terms: some offer a money-back guarantee (common for VPNs and antivirus software), others don’t refund at all.

Usually not. Access typically lasts until the end of the period you’ve already paid for, and only then does the subscription expire. It works the other way too: canceling right after a payment usually doesn’t refund that period — it only stops the next charge.

Don’t rely on the confirmation pop-up — check the list. On iPhone, open Settings → your name → Subscriptions: if there’s no Cancel button anymore, or there’s an expiration message in red text, the subscription is canceled. In Google Play, a canceled subscription can be restarted with Resubscribe, so you can see the difference there too. If the subscription isn’t on either list, you bought it somewhere else, and that’s where you have to cancel it.

Sometimes, but it’s not guaranteed, and it’s not always the service whose logo you see that decides. Google says most apps on the Play Store are made by third-party developers, who can process refunds under their own policies and applicable laws; according to Google, contacting the developer directly is often the quickest way. If you paid on the service’s website, send the request there. For a charge that neither you nor anyone you know made, Google asks you to report it within 120 days of the transaction.

No — they’re two separate things that are easy to mix up. Deleting the account erases the data but doesn’t stop payments if you bought the subscription in an app store: there the subscription lives independently of the account. So the right order is the reverse — first cancel the subscription where you pay, check that it has really ended, and only then delete the account.

Usually only access to the content ends, while the account remains: history, settings and saved items stay, so you don’t start from zero if you come back. No law requires that, though — it’s the service’s own decision, so the data may be deleted after some time. If something matters to you, export it before the subscription ends.

Often yes, but in the US it depends on where you live. There’s no single federal law for this; several states give their residents the right to know what data a company holds, to get a copy and to have it deleted, and some providers offer the same tools to all users. Send the request to the provider itself — its privacy policy explains how. We don’t promise on the provider’s behalf that a request will be handled quickly or well.

On your card or bank statement. The amount there can differ from the price on the website for two common reasons: a promo price has ended, or sales tax was added at checkout. US providers list prices before sales tax, and whether it’s added — and how much — depends on your state. That’s why the same subscription can show up on your statement as a slightly higher amount than the price you saw on the pricing page.

How we work

This page is a comparison, and for every claim we say where it comes from.

The provider’s sources

The facts come from paramountplus.com and the Paramount+ Help Center.

We don’t write prices into the text

Prices are in the price block, in the price list’s currency, with a source and a date.

Product facts are shared, market facts aren’t

How many screens a plan allows, how many devices an account works on, how many servers a network has — that doesn’t depend on the country, and on our pages those numbers are the same in every language; a separate tool watches over that. Price, promotions, availability and app language belong to the market, and we never carry them over from another country.

The provider’s list is the same for everyone

If a service publishes a list of countries or languages, we can say whether the US is on it — that list looks the same for everyone. Checkout, however, can look different for every account, so for amounts a provider shows only at checkout we write: check before you pay.

A shorter section doesn’t mean something is missing from the product

If a section here is shorter than for another service, it’s because the provider publishes less about it. We don’t fill the gap with generic wording just to make the page look more complete.

Three different answers

We distinguish between “none”, “the provider doesn’t say” and “we didn’t find it”. They’re three different situations — mixing them up would turn our own limitation into a flaw in the product.

A price without a source isn’t shown

If an amount has no source and date, we don’t show it. An empty spot is more honest than a number that only looks right — and prices change more often than articles get updated.

Data from the US market

This page isn’t a translation of another language version. Numbers from other countries don’t end up here: markets differ, and that’s exactly why this page exists.

Affiliate links are labeled at the link

If a link is an affiliate link, we say so right next to it. The commission doesn’t affect what we write — and you know about it before you click.

We fix errors openly

If we got something wrong, we fix it and note what changed. A silent correction would mean you never find out you once relied on wrong information.

How we check the data

If anything on this page has gone out of date, write to us — we’ll fix it and note the date.

The order in the comparison is decided by the type of service; commission size doesn’t affect it.

Some links to providers are affiliate links: if you subscribe through them, we may earn a commission. It affects neither the price nor the placement in the comparison. Affiliate links are always labeled next to the link itself.

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