Disney+ Hulu Bundle Price Hike: What Changed in 2025
Disney's October 2025 price increase reshaped the math on its streaming bundles, and the trade-off still holds nearly a year later: the Disney+ Hulu bundle price hike pushed the ad-supported bundle to $12.99 a month while leaving the $19.99 ad-free Premium bundle untouched. That gap made the ad-supported bundle $6 cheaper than a single ad-free subscription to either app alone, Variety reported last year.
The rates below were U.S. prices effective October 21, 2025. Verify current pricing on the Disney+ or Hulu account page directly before switching anything, since a year of billing cycles have passed since this change went into effect.
New subscribers saw the new rates starting that day; existing subscribers saw them on their first billing cycle on or after October 21, 2025, according to TheWrap. The increase affected standalone Disney+, standalone Hulu, several Disney bundles, and ESPN Select.
What changed: the October 2025 price list
Disney+ with ads rose $2 to $11.99 a month, and Disney+ Premium (no ads) climbed $3 to $18.99 a month, TheWrap reported. Hulu with ads also rose $2 to $11.99 a month. Hulu Premium held steady at $18.99 a month, unchanged from its prior price.
The bundles moved differently. The ad-supported Disney+/Hulu bundle rose $2 to $12.99 a month, while the ad-free Disney+/Hulu Premium bundle stayed at $19.99, per Variety. ESPN Select also increased $1, to $12.99 a month.
| Plan | Price after Oct. 21, 2025 |
|---|---|
| Disney+ with ads | $11.99/mo |
| Disney+ Premium (no ads) | $18.99/mo ($189.99/yr) |
| Hulu with ads | $11.99/mo ($119.99/yr) |
| Hulu Premium (no ads) | $18.99/mo (unchanged) |
| Disney+/Hulu bundle with ads | $12.99/mo |
| Disney+/Hulu Premium bundle (no ads) | $19.99/mo (unchanged) |
U.S. prices as of October 21, 2025, per TheWrap and Variety.
Buying Disney+ with ads and Hulu with ads as two separate subscriptions added up to $23.98 a month combined, $10.99 more than the bundled $12.99 price, Variety's breakdown shows. The two services landed on the same $18.99 monthly price after the change, but Disney+ Premium and Hulu Premium were adjusted independently, with only the former getting a $3 increase.
The hike marked Disney's third price increase in three years, following hikes in October 2023 and October 2024, Variety noted.
The annual prices listed above, $189.99 for Disney+ Premium and $119.99 for Hulu with ads, are full-year commitments rather than a monthly rate multiplied by twelve. They're also a different category of plan from live-TV bundles: Hulu + Live TV with Disney+ and ESPN Select, for example, started at $89.99 a month with ads after the same round of increases, per TheWrap. That carries its own channel lineup and shouldn't be confused with the on-demand comparison below.
Disney Bundle with ads price vs. standalone Premium plans
The ad-supported bundle's discount came with conditions attached: ads on both services, plus a second content library a single-app viewer might not use. Based on the listed rates, it priced lower than a standalone Premium plan, not as a universal upgrade over it, Variety's reporting shows.
For an account that already used both libraries and accepted ads, the bundle cost $6 less a month, or $72 less a year, than a single ad-free Premium plan, and $10.99 less than buying both ad-supported apps separately, per the same pricing table.
Removing ads from both services through the $19.99 Premium bundle cost $7 more than the ad-supported bundle. It still landed $17.99 below the $37.98 total for two separate $18.99 Premium plans, according to Variety's figures.
| Scenario | Monthly cost |
|---|---|
| One service, ad-free | $18.99 |
| Both libraries, ad-supported bundle | $12.99 |
| Both libraries, ad-free bundle | $19.99 |
| Both libraries, ad-supported apps bought separately | $23.98 |
| Both libraries, ad-free apps bought separately | $37.98 |
Based on figures reported by Variety and TheWrap.
Disney+ ad-free vs. Hulu ad-free: which 2025 plan cost less?
The prices broke down differently depending on how many libraries an account actually used.
Based on the October 2025 rates, a Hulu-only account paid less on the annual Hulu-with-ads plan, $119.99 a year or about $10 a month, than on either the $11.99 monthly Hulu plan ($143.88 annualized) or the $12.99 bundle ($155.88 annualized), per TheWrap's pricing breakdown.
A single-library account that wanted no ads at all paid $18.99 a month for just Disney+ Premium or just Hulu Premium, avoiding a second library it wouldn't use.
For an account using both libraries and tolerating ads, the $12.99 bundle priced lower than both standalone Premium plans and the two ad-supported apps bought separately, Variety's table shows. It wasn't the only way to combine the two services, though. Disney also sold wider bundles pairing Disney+ and Hulu with ESPN Select ($19.99 with ads, $29.99 without) or HBO Max ($19.99 with ads, $32.99 without), according to Variety. Those cost more, a reminder that "cheapest way to combine libraries" applies only within the narrow Disney+/Hulu comparison, not across every Disney bundle sold at the time.
For an account using both libraries without ads, the $19.99 Premium bundle priced below the $37.98 combined cost of two separate Premium subscriptions, even though it wasn't the lowest Disney or Hulu price available overall.
What's still unresolved
Disney has said it expects to eventually shut down Hulu as a standalone app and fold it fully into Disney+, though the company has also said standalone Disney+ and Hulu plans will remain purchasable, Variety reported. That's a stated expectation, not a confirmed shutdown date.
A separate development is easy to confuse with the on-demand bundle covered here. Disney and Fubo closed a deal combining Fubo's business with Disney's Hulu + Live TV business on October 29, 2025, the companies announced, with Disney holding roughly a 70% stake in the combined company. Fubo and Hulu + Live TV continue operating as separate, distinct consumer services, with Fubo streaming through its own app and Hulu + Live TV staying inside the Hulu app as part of its bundle with Disney+ and ESPN, per the announcement. That's an ownership change on the business side, not a merger of the two apps, and neither live-TV product should be measured against the $12.99 on-demand bundle discussed above.
Before switching anything, check the account page for the actual plan name, billing date, and price attached to an existing subscription rather than assuming the standard monthly rate still applies.
What to do now
Everything above reflects pricing in effect as of October 21, 2025, now nearly a year old. Before changing plans, log into the Disney+ and Hulu accounts in question and check the current prices and plan names against this breakdown.
If the numbers still match, the comparison above offers a starting point rather than a final answer: look at how many libraries the account actually uses, whether ad-supported viewing is tolerable, and whether the current rate still reflects the same trade-off before committing to a switch.
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