Crunchyroll is raising subscription rates across the board just weeks after retiring its free, ad-supported option—tightening the screws on anime fans who now must pay more for access.
What’s Changing for Crunchyroll Subscribers Now
The Fan plan, Crunchyroll’s entry-tier membership, jumps to $9.99 per month, up from $7.99. Mega Fan rises to $13.99, while Ultimate Fan moves to $17.99.
New members pay the higher rates immediately; existing accounts will see the increase roll out in the coming weeks. Crunchyroll is dangling a limited-time annual deal for the Fan plan at $66.99, which works out to about $5.58 a month—roughly 44% less than the new monthly rate. The company hasn’t indicated when that promotion ends.
Features appear unchanged: Fan remains ad-free access on a single stream, while Mega Fan and Ultimate Fan add more concurrent streams, offline downloads, and member perks. The bigger picture is clear, though: there’s no longer a free on-ramp, and the paid tiers now cost more.
Why Crunchyroll Is Raising Prices Across Its Plans
Crunchyroll notes it hasn’t adjusted its cheapest plan in roughly half a decade, a period that saw production costs surge and licensing competition intensify. Since merging operations with Funimation under Sony, the service has aggressively expanded its global simulcast pipeline and dubbed catalog—an expensive strategy that relies on continuous rights acquisitions and localization.
Industry data helps explain the move. Antenna’s tracking shows double-digit streaming price inflation across major platforms in recent years as services push toward profitability. Premium, ad-free plans at many large streamers now cluster between roughly $10 and $20 per month, with some tiers rising multiple times in quick succession.
Sony’s recent earnings commentary has also underscored strong worldwide demand for anime and better monetization opportunities via direct-to-consumer subscriptions and licensing. In other words, Crunchyroll is leaning into pricing power it didn’t always have—especially now that its free tier is gone.
How It Stacks Up Against Rivals in Streaming
At $9.99, Crunchyroll’s base plan is now aligned with or slightly below many ad-free entry tiers from general entertainment streamers. Netflix, Disney, and Max all charge more for their top ad-free options, while Apple and Paramount typically sit at the lower end—but nearly all of them have implemented steady increases.
Within anime specifically, HIDIVE remains the most direct alternative. Its catalog is smaller but has landed buzzy exclusives, making it a value play for fans who follow a few must-watch series each season. Broad services like Netflix and Prime Video also carry growing anime libraries, but they aren’t one-to-one substitutes for Crunchyroll’s deep simulcast pipeline.
What the Price Changes Mean for Crunchyroll Fans
If you watch a handful of marquee shows each cour—think One Piece, Jujutsu Kaisen, or new seasonal standouts—the higher monthly rate may still feel like acceptable friction for day-one access and reliable subtitles. But for casual viewers, the economics change: the new annual deal is compelling, the monthly plan less so.
Consider your cadence. Bingeing via a one- or two-month burst per season, then pausing, can offset the increase. Alternatively, the $66.99 annual Fan plan undercuts the new monthly rate by a wide margin, paying for itself if you’d otherwise stay subscribed more than half the year.
Families or shared households that rely on multiple streams will likely be pushed toward Mega Fan or Ultimate Fan, where the hike is steeper. That makes auditing how many simultaneous devices you truly need—and whether downloads or perks matter—more important than ever.
The Bigger Streaming Trend Behind Rising Prices
Price hikes are now a feature, not a bug, of the subscription video market. Deloitte’s Digital Media Trends research has repeatedly shown that households juggle several services at once, fueling churn as consumers rotate to save money. Services, in turn, are nudging users toward annual plans and ad-supported tiers to stabilize revenue.
For Crunchyroll, removing the free tier and lifting prices in quick succession suggests confidence that anime’s demand curve remains strong—and that its deep catalog and simulcast speed are differentiators worth paying for. The risk is predictable: higher churn among light users and more selective subscriptions among the rest.
The takeaway is simple. Anime has never been more mainstream, but access now costs more. If Crunchyroll continues to deliver timely releases, robust dubs, and fewer delays, many fans will accept the new normal. If not, the growing field of rivals gives viewers options—and they’re only a cancel button away.
