Neither Microsoft nor Sony publishes a page that prices its subscription against the other one. This piece is that page. Every figure below was read on 2 November 2026 from a plan page or store listing owned by the company charging the money, in US dollars.
The two price lists are shaped differently, which is where most “which is better” arguments go wrong. Microsoft quotes four plans by the month. Sony quotes three plans by the month, the quarter and the year, and the yearly rate is where its prices fall furthest. Comparing one side’s monthly figure against the other side’s annual one produces a verdict that reverses as soon as you match the terms.
What this covers: current US base prices for all seven plans on Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus, what each tier actually gates, and how the answer changes for four specific players. Why it matters: twelve months of Game Pass Ultimate at the monthly rate is $275.88 against $159.99 for twelve months of PlayStation Plus Premium, while the cheapest online door is $79.99 on PlayStation against $119.88 on Xbox. Paying for the wrong term costs more than picking the wrong brand. Who should care: anyone about to renew, anyone deciding between a PS5 and an Xbox, and PC-only players who have assumed both services are console subscriptions.
This piece prices the platform fee and leaves the cost of MMO subscriptions to the article that already did it.
The price lists, side by side
| Service | Plan | Per month | Per 3 months | Per 12 months | 12 months as a monthly rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Xbox Game Pass | Essential | $9.99 | not listed | not listed | $9.99 |
| Xbox Game Pass | Premium | $14.99 | not listed | not listed | $14.99 |
| Xbox Game Pass | Ultimate | $22.99 | not listed | not listed | $22.99 |
| Xbox Game Pass | PC Game Pass | $13.99 | not listed | not listed | $13.99 |
| PlayStation Plus | Essential | $10.99 | $27.99 | $79.99 | $6.67 |
| PlayStation Plus | Extra | $16.99 | $43.99 | $134.99 | $11.25 |
| PlayStation Plus | Premium | $19.99 | $54.99 | $159.99 | $13.33 |
Read the last column and the comparison stops being close. PlayStation Plus Premium at $159.99 for twelve months is the same money as roughly seven months of Game Pass Ultimate at $22.99, and PlayStation Plus Extra at $134.99 undercuts Game Pass Premium’s annualised $179.88. Xbox lists no 12-month price on the pages checked, so a subscriber who stays all year pays the monthly rate all year.
Microsoft’s own announcement establishes these are current prices. On 21 April 2026 the company wrote that “Game Pass Ultimate drops from $29.99 to $22.99 a month” and “PC Game Pass will also drop from $16.49 to $13.99 a month”, adding that “Prices may vary by region.” The four store listings match the post-drop figures exactly.
Sony’s plan page is less forthcoming: it tells visitors to “Sign in to see your membership plan options.” The numbers above are the base prices that page carries for the US store, and the page states that “The cost of PlayStation Plus varies by membership tier and whether you are enrolled in a one-month, three-month or 12-month subscription plan.” The recurring fee is charged “at the then current PS Store price”, so a price captured on one date is a snapshot, not a contract.
What each tier actually gates
Price means nothing until you know what stops working at the cheaper tier. The two published lists are not symmetrical.
| Feature | Xbox Game Pass | PlayStation Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Downloadable library size | Essential 50+, Premium 200+, Ultimate 500+; PC Game Pass 300+ (PC only) | Game Catalog on Extra and Premium (“hundreds of games”); Premium adds Classics Catalog |
| New releases on release day | Ultimate and PC Game Pass; Premium gets Xbox-published games “within 1yr of launch” | No tier description promises release-day titles |
| Cloud streaming | Included on Essential, Premium and Ultimate — 5, 10 and 15 hours a month respectively; not included with PC Game Pass | Premium only, to PS5 console and PlayStation Portal |
| Monthly games you keep while subscribed | No claim mechanic described; access runs until the subscription ends or a title leaves the library | Monthly Games on all three tiers, “yours to keep for as long as you’re a member” |
| Ubisoft+ Classics | Ultimate | Extra and Premium |
| EA Play | Ultimate and PC Game Pass | Not listed on any tier |
| Trials of new releases | Bundled with EA Play on Ultimate (“trials of select new games”) | Premium (Game Trials on select titles) |
| Film catalogue | Not listed on either plan page | Premium (Sony Pictures Catalog, up to 100 films) |
| Devices | Console, Windows PC, handhelds, phones and tablets, Samsung/LG/Amazon Fire TVs, Meta VR headsets, web browser | PS5 console and PlayStation Portal for streaming; console for downloads |
The asymmetry is structural. Microsoft sells its library by size and by release timing: 50, 200, 500 and 300 games, with “new games on day one” printed on two of the four plans. Sony sells by catalogue access and by what it does with old games — Classics, trials, films, streaming — with “new titles added regularly” as the strongest cadence claim on the page.
Both sides carve something out. Microsoft’s day-one footnote reads “Select games. Excludes Call of Duty titles,” and the April price post spells out what that means: “future Call of Duty titles won’t join Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass at launch. New Call of Duty games will be added … during the following holiday season (about a year later).” Sony’s footnote is about cadence instead: from January 2026, PS4 games are “added only intermittently” to the catalogues and to Monthly Games.
Day one is the real dividing line
Everything else in the two lists can be matched on the other side. Release-day access cannot. Microsoft states it explicitly for Ultimate and PC Game Pass, and partially for Premium, where new Xbox-published games arrive “within 1yr of launch.” Sony states no equivalent, and nothing in the three tier descriptions on its plan page promises a release-day game.
The catch is that “day one” is not the same as “every game.” Xbox’s October catalogue post shows gating working per title: Scramble Knights Online arrived “Available on day one with Xbox Game Pass” on Ultimate and PC Game Pass only, while Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade went to Ultimate, Premium and PC Game Pass. A Premium subscriber gets some day-one titles, most Xbox-published titles within a year, and some third-party launches not at all. That release is covered separately on this site if you want dates rather than plan logic.
PlayStation sells something else instead: Premium includes Game Trials, which let you play a section of a new release before buying, and the Classics Catalog. If the releases you care about are new and third-party, that is not a substitute. If the games you keep meaning to play came out years ago, it is a better fit than a day-one promise you will not use.
What happens when you stop paying
Both companies answer it in their own words.
Sony’s FAQ asks directly: “Are PlayStation Plus games mine to keep?” The answer given is “Yes, for as long as you remain an active member,” followed by a caveat that “some games in the Game Catalogue and Classics Catalogue will have end dates when they leave the service, which will be publicised ahead of time.” So the Monthly Games accumulate in your library and remain playable while the subscription is live; a lapsed month costs you access to everything claimed.
Microsoft’s FAQ frames it differently: “Game Pass subscribers enjoy access to games in the library until either the subscription is canceled/expires, or a game leaves the Game Pass library.” No claiming step is described in the plan or FAQ copy. What Microsoft publishes instead is departure lists — the 20 October post names games “Leaving October 31,” including Deep Rock Galactic and Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, and a second batch “Leaving November 10” headed by Football Manager 26 and its Console Edition.
One refund asymmetry is worth knowing before you commit for a year. Microsoft’s terms state that “you’re still entitled to a refund of your most recent recurring billing charge if you cancel your subscription within 30 days after payment,” limited to “one time per Microsoft account, per subscription product,” and that recurring billing “is switched on by default.” Sony’s page documents plan changes rather than refunds: upgrades are charged pro rata for the remainder of the paid period, and downgrades take effect “at the end of your existing pre-paid (stacked) subscription period.”
The cloud hours change is live this month
This part is the most likely to change under a reader, so it needs a date.
On 3 September 2026 Microsoft wrote: “Beginning in November, we’re changing how cloud gaming is included with Xbox Game Pass.” The post lists the monthly allowances — Ultimate 15 hours, Premium 10, Essential 5 — and adds that “Today, eligible Game Pass subscribers can stream without these monthly hour limits,” that the change is expected “to impact 4% of Game Pass subscribers,” and that extra playtime will be purchasable through the Xbox Store with “pricing and further details” to follow. The live plan page already displays those hour figures, so the limits are the correct assumption for anything you buy this month; the price of extra hours was unpublished on 2 November 2026.
Two consequences follow. From November, non-subscribers will be able to buy playtime hours and stream games they own, so streaming stops requiring a subscription in principle. And cloud is not included with PC Game Pass at all, per the plan footnote — a PC subscriber who wants to play on a TV is on the wrong plan regardless of hours.
Sony’s cloud offer is gated by tier rather than by meter. Streaming is Premium-only, delivered to a PS5 console or a PlayStation Portal at up to 4K and HDR at 60Hz, with a stated minimum of 5 Mbps and 15 Mbps for 1080p. The same tier streams “hundreds of PS3 and PS2 games from the Classics Catalog,” which is a different product from a PC-style cloud library: the draw is the back catalogue, not the frame rate.
Four players, four different answers
The tie dissolves as soon as you describe the player. These are the four cases the published terms decide.
| If you are… | The plan the terms point to | What it costs over 12 months | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Someone who only plays free-to-play multiplayer | Neither service | $0 | Microsoft’s comparison page says “access to multiplayer for free-to-play games is open to every XBOX player”; Sony’s FAQ says “Most free to play games such as Fortnite, Apex Legends and Call of Duty Warzone do not require a membership” |
| A PS5 owner working through a backlog | PlayStation Plus Extra, 12 months | $134.99 | Game Catalog access plus multiplayer, at $11.25 a month equivalent |
| A PC-only player | PC Game Pass | $167.88 | It is the only one of the two that sells a PC download library at all; 300+ games, day-one titles, EA Play, no cloud |
| Someone who wants new Xbox releases immediately | Game Pass Ultimate (or Premium if a year’s wait is acceptable) | $275.88 ($179.88) | Day-one access is stated only for Ultimate and PC Game Pass; Premium gets Xbox-published games within a year |
Two cases outside that table decide many renewals. If the subscription exists so you can play online with friends on a PlayStation, Essential at $79.99 for twelve months is the cheapest door on either platform — $39.89 less per year than twelve months of Game Pass Essential at $9.99 a month. And Sony’s Monthly Games are the only one of the two that behaves like a collection you built: October listed F1 25, Hunt: Showdown 1896 and Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2, all “to download with any PlayStation Plus plan.”
Where the two companies’ pages disagree
Two inconsistencies are worth carrying to a checkout page.
Microsoft’s April price post describes Ultimate as including “unlimited Xbox Cloud Gaming.” The September post and the current plan page both describe 15 hours a month. The newer document is the one describing what happens from November, so treat the April line as superseded wording rather than a promise still in force.
The plan page advertises Essential as “Get your first month for $1,” while the Essential store listing says “$1.00 for 14 days. $9.99/month after that.” Both are $1 promotions with different durations; the store listing names the price that follows.
What this piece cannot decide for you
None of this prices the thing that determines value: which games you will play. A 500-game library you ignore is worth less than a 50-game one you finish, and neither company’s page can tell you that. Regional pricing is also explicitly variable — Microsoft says so in the price post, Sony in its pricing FAQ — so a reader outside the US should treat every figure here as a ratio rather than a number.
One absence is worth stating: Sony’s plan copy lists console downloads and streaming to a PS5 or a PlayStation Portal. It does not describe a Windows download library. If your reason for considering PlayStation Plus is a gaming PC, the plan pages give you no PC download entitlement to buy.
Everything above assumes the plan structures, prices and cloud-hour rules published by both companies through 2 November 2026; Xbox’s hour limits take effect this month and Sony’s PS4 cadence footnote already applies, so re-read the two plan pages before you renew. Set against that, the decision reduces to one question. If you want new games the week they ship, the only plan that promises it is Microsoft’s most expensive one, and its own footnote excludes Call of Duty. If you want the most playable software for the least money, Sony’s twelve-month rates win on every rung — provided you own the console they run on.