If you’ve been with Netflix since 2014 or earlier, you’re probably paying around $7.99 a month, even though new users pay $9.99. This year, that ride is coming to a close for many users.


In a statement to shareholders, Netflix announced that in Q2 and Q3 of this year, “a substantial number of our US members” will lose their grandfathered pricing. If you’ve been paying $7.99 for the last two years, you’ll have the choice of either keeping your $7.99 plan, but only streaming in SD, or you can upgrade to HD streaming and pay $9.99.

To be clear, this isn’t a new price hike. When Netflix announced the price hike in May of 2014, it stated that existing users would be locked into the $7.99 price point for two years and, well, time’s up. For those counting, if you stayed with Netflix for the full two years, you saved about $48, which should cover the extra cost of your new subscription for another two years.


It’s a bummer that prices are going up for Netflix’ most loyal users, but we all knew this was coming. If you’re overly upset by the news, though, you can try to comfort yourself with the 600 hours of new content Netflix is making this year. After all, you paid for it.

Netflix Earnings Report [PDF] via The Next Web