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EssentialOur score 4,5/5
$9.99/mo

Plus sales tax where applicable

Source · Checked

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Billed monthly.

Gaming in the US

Xbox Game Pass plans compared

Xbox Game Pass comes in four plans. Essential, Premium and Ultimate all include online multiplayer and a growing library — 50+, 200+ and 500+ games — plus monthly cloud playtime of 5, 10 or 15 hours. Ultimate adds new games on day one and EA Play, Fortnite Crew and Ubisoft+ Classics. PC Game Pass has 300+ PC games with day-one releases but no cloud gaming.

  • Four plans. Essential, Premium, Ultimate and PC Game Pass.
  • Day-one games. On Ultimate and PC Game Pass.
  • Cloud gaming. Stream on phone, tablet, TV and VR — 5 to 15 hours a month by plan.
  • Bundled extras. Ultimate includes EA Play, Fortnite Crew and Ubisoft+ Classics.
  • $1 to try. Essential and Premium: first 14 days for $1.

Most important before you pay

Cloud playtime is capped per month and not included with PC Game Pass. The library changes over time. Game Pass renews automatically — cancel in your Microsoft account or on your console before the next billing date. Microsoft can raise prices with at least 30 days’ notice.
Compare gaming subscriptionsHow to cancel

Tomas StankevičiusUpdated 2026-10-14Facts from xbox.com, with dates

At a glance

Plans
Essential, Premium, Ultimate, PC
Games
50+ / 200+ / 500+ / 300+ (PC)
Day one
Ultimate and PC
Cloud
5 / 10 / 15 h a month; not on PC
Multiplayer
Essential, Premium, Ultimate
Trial
14 days for $1 (Essential, Premium)

Plans and libraries 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 xbox.com

Plans, libraries, cloud hours and billing terms as Microsoft 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

Game Pass is the best value in gaming if you play several new games a year. Ultimate is the full package — day-one games, cloud play and EA Play. PC players can skip the console tiers with PC Game Pass. Essential mostly makes sense for online multiplayer and a small library.

Day-one releases

New games the day they launch on Ultimate and PC.

Capped cloud play

5 to 15 hours a month; none on PC Game Pass.

We recommend first:
Xbox and PC players who try many new games.
With caveats:
Players who stick to one or two games all year.

Who Game Pass is for, and who it isn’t

The tier depends on where and how much you play.

A good choice

  • For new-release players

    Ultimate and PC Game Pass include day-one games.

  • For PC gamers

    PC Game Pass has 300+ PC games.

  • For EA fans

    Ultimate includes EA Play.

A weaker choice

  • If you only stream

    Cloud playtime is capped at 5–15 hours a month.

  • If you play one game all year

    Buying it may cost less.

  • If you want cloud on PC Game Pass

    It isn’t included.

Four plans

Prices are in the block above.

Four plans
EssentialWhat it means in practice50+ games on console, PC and more devices, online multiplayer, 5 hours of cloud play a month.
PremiumWhat it means in practice200+ games, online multiplayer, 10 hours of cloud play a month.
UltimateWhat it means in practice500+ games, new games on day one, EA Play, Fortnite Crew and Ubisoft+ Classics, 15 hours of cloud play a month.
PC Game PassWhat it means in practice300+ games on PC only, new games on day one; no cloud gaming.

Online play and a few games → Essential; bigger library → Premium; everything → Ultimate; PC only → PC Game Pass.

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.

4,4

out of 5 · average of 4 plans · 5 of 6 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: PC Game Pass 4,5 · Essential 4,5 · Premium 4,4 · Ultimate 4,3

The same for all “Xbox Game Pass” plans

Criteria that are the same for all of this provider’s plans
CriterionWhat we foundScoreSource
Advertised price is the final price(10 %)sales tax is added at checkout3,0our catalog
Free way to try it(10 %)provider doesn’t say—source
Newest games(25 %)on release day5,0our catalog
Playing online with others(25 %)yes, but not on all tiers4,0our catalog
Where it works(20 %)console, PC and cloud5,0our catalog

Depends on plan

Criteria that differ between plans
CriterionPC Game PassEssentialPremiumUltimate
Price compared with others(10 %)13,99 USD/mo5,09,99 USD/mo5,014,99 USD/mo4,022,99 USD/mo3,0

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

What each Game Pass plan includes

From Microsoft’s US plan cards. Library sizes are approximate and change over time.

  • Online console multiplayer

    Essential
    Yes
    Premium
    Yes
    Ultimate
    Yes
    PC
    No

  • Games on console, PC and more

    50+, 200+, 500+; PC Game Pass 300+ on PC only.

    Essential
    Partly
    Premium
    Partly
    Ultimate
    Yes
    PC
    Partly

  • New games on day one

    Essential
    No
    Premium
    No
    Ultimate
    Yes
    PC
    Yes

  • New Xbox-published games

    Premium gets them within a year of launch.

    Essential
    No
    Premium
    Partly
    Ultimate
    Yes
    PC
    Yes

  • EA Play

    Essential
    No
    Premium
    No
    Ultimate
    Yes
    PC
    Yes

  • Fortnite Crew and Ubisoft+ Classics

    Essential
    No
    Premium
    No
    Ultimate
    Yes
    PC
    No

  • Cloud gaming

    5, 10 and 15 hours a month.

    Essential
    Partly
    Premium
    Partly
    Ultimate
    Partly
    PC
    No

  • In-game benefits

    Essential
    Yes
    Premium
    Yes
    Ultimate
    Yes
    PC
    Yes

Games come and go

You can play a Game Pass game until your subscription ends or the game leaves the library; titles vary by plan and platform.

Content

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

What’s in Game Pass

A library of console and PC games, with new games added each month.

  • Library

    50+ to 500+ games depending on the plan.

  • Day-one releases

    New Xbox-published and third-party games on Ultimate and PC.

  • Extras

    EA Play, Fortnite Crew and Ubisoft+ Classics on Ultimate.

Games join and leave the library over time.

Charged after you meant to cancel?

Game Pass renews automatically. If you forgot to turn off recurring billing before the charge went through, Microsoft says you’re entitled to a refund of the most recent recurring charge.

Time limit

Cancel the subscription within 30 days after the payment.

How often

Once per Microsoft account, per subscription product.

Where

Request it from Xbox Support after canceling.

To avoid the charge in the first place, turn off recurring billing in your Microsoft account or on your console.

What US App Store reviewers say about the Xbox app

The Xbox app has 4.7 out of 5 stars from 1.7 million ratings on the US App Store. We also read the 50 most recent US reviews — 17 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.

What the app is

It’s the companion app for Xbox and Game Pass — reviews are about the app, not the game library itself.

Complaints

Recent reviews mention account recovery problems, party chat without audio, reward notifications that won’t turn off, and too much promoted content.

Cloud gaming

A few reviewers complain about where cloud gaming is available.

Game Pass itself is managed in your Microsoft account; the app is mainly for remote play, chat and purchases.

Consoles and devices

Where it works and what you need to play.

Where you can play

Where you can play
DownloadExamplesXbox console, PC, supported handheldsCaveatPC Game Pass is PC only.
CloudExamplesPhone, tablet, TV, VR headsetCaveatMonthly hours vary by plan; requires a supported device.

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
4,7out of 5

1,749,655 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 terms

Sharing, access to games after you cancel, and refund rules.

Account

  • Game Pass is tied to your Microsoft account.
  • Rewards points: 2x or 4x depending on plan (select markets, terms apply).
  • Online multiplayer is included on Essential, Premium and Ultimate.

Price changes

Microsoft may increase charges with at least 30 days’ notice.

Cloud gaming

Cloud gaming
EssentialHow it works5 hours a month
PremiumHow it works10 hours a month
UltimateHow it works15 hours a month
PC Game PassHow it worksNot included
Cloud-playable games not included with Game Pass are sold separately.

Canceling

Game Pass renews automatically until you cancel. To stop being charged, cancel in your Microsoft account (account.microsoft.com/services) or on your Xbox console before the next billing date.

Monthly

Cancel any time to stop future charges.

Promotions

Offers such as 14 days for $1 may be for new subscribers only.

Before the billing date

Microsoft says to cancel before the next billing date to stop being charged.

Separate page: how to cancel this subscription →

Cloud gaming rules

Cloud gaming streams console games to devices you already own, with a monthly cap that depends on your plan.

Cloud gaming rules
Monthly playtimeLimitEssential 5 h, Premium 10 h, Ultimate 15 hWhat it depends onNot included with PC Game Pass
Two subscriptionsLimitHours don’t stackWhat it depends onThe plan with more hours applies
ConnectionLimitAt least 10 Mbps; 20 Mbps on consoles, PCs and tabletsWhat it depends on5 GHz Wi-Fi recommended
Games you ownLimitSelect cloud-playable games you buy can be streamedWhat it depends onIncluding most Xbox Play Anywhere games
Free-to-playLimitFortnite and other select games need only a free Microsoft accountWhat it depends onAt xbox.com/play

What you need

A supported device — Windows PC, Apple or Android phone or tablet, Xbox console, select LG, Samsung and VIDAA TVs, Fire TV or Meta Quest — and a Bluetooth or USB controller; some games have touch controls.

What we don’t claim

Common claims about Game Pass, next to what xbox.com says.

  • Every plan includes day-one games.

    Only Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

  • Cloud gaming is unlimited.

    Essential 5, Premium 10, Ultimate 15 hours a month; none on PC Game Pass.

  • EA Play is separate from Game Pass.

    Ultimate includes EA Play.

  • 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 Game Pass is a good choice

  • New releases

    Ultimate or PC.

    Compromise: Library changes over time.

  • PC only

    PC Game Pass.

    Compromise: No cloud gaming.

  • Online multiplayer

    Essential.

    Compromise: Smallest library.

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Day-one games

    On Ultimate and PC.

  • EA Play included

    On Ultimate.

  • $1 trial

    For Essential and Premium.

Cons

  • Cloud hours capped

    5–15 hours a month.

  • Library rotates

    Games can leave.

  • Price can rise

    With 30 days’ notice.

Game Pass compared with PlayStation Plus and Nintendo Switch Online

Based on each provider’s US pages.

Library
50+ to 500+
Day-one games
Ultimate, PC
Cloud
5–15 h/month
Longer plans
Monthly

If you play many new games — Xbox Game Pass

Day one on Ultimate and PC.

If you play on PlayStation — PlayStation Plus

Game Catalog on Extra and Premium.

If you play on Switch — Nintendo Switch Online

Family plan for up to 8 accounts.

Final verdict

Game Pass Ultimate is the most complete gaming subscription for Xbox and PC players; PC Game Pass is the efficient choice for PC only. Check cloud hours if you plan to stream, and cancel before the billing date if you’re rotating.

Choose it if

You play several new games a year on Xbox or PC.

Think twice if

You mainly want cloud gaming — hours are capped.

Skip it if

You play one game all year.

PlayStation Plus is the equivalent on PlayStation; Nintendo Switch Online covers online play and classics on Switch.

Xbox Game Pass prices

Four plans as xbox.com lists them for the US.

Compare plans

All plans renew monthly until you cancel. Essential and Premium start with 14 days for $1; promotional offers may be for new subscribers only.

How to cancel

Xbox Game Pass deals and discounts

We have no confirmed deals or promo codes for Xbox Game Pass 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

Xbox Game Pass free trial

We found no free trial for Xbox Game Pass 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 Xbox Game Pass

There is no cheaper option we can confirm right now: among the confirmed Xbox Game Pass plans there is no cheaper annual version of the same plan and no family or student plan.

Compare the price with alternatives: Nintendo Switch Online price · EA Play price · PlayStation Plus price

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

Customer support

The help center is available in English.

Contact options the provider lists:

  • chatbot
  • email or form
  • community forum

Available 24/7 according to the provider.

„Chat with our support virtual agent for fast automated support, 24/7. If you need to contact us, ask the agent."

Source: support.xbox.com/en-US/contact-us

FAQ

Essential has 50+ games, Premium 200+ and Ultimate 500+. Ultimate adds day-one games, EA Play, Fortnite Crew and Ubisoft+ Classics, and the most cloud playtime.

Yes, on Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

Essential 5 hours, Premium 10 hours and Ultimate 15 hours a month. PC Game Pass doesn’t include cloud gaming.

Yes, in Game Pass Ultimate.

Essential and Premium start with 14 days for $1; offers may be for new subscribers only.

In your Microsoft account (account.microsoft.com/services) or on your Xbox console, before the next billing date.

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 xbox.com/en-US/xbox-game-pass.

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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