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Fortune
Fortune
Dave Smith

Apple just indirectly boosted the value of its all-in-one subscription service

Apple CEO Tim Cook shares some giggles with Ryan Murphy and Stephen Nedoroscik (Credit: David Paul Morris—Bloomberg/Getty Images)
  • Apple increased the price of its stand-alone Apple TV+ subscription this week. But since Apple One rates remain unchanged, this means the all-in-one bundle offers much greater value compared with paying for individual services, especially for families, as you can save hundreds of dollars a year.

Apple’s all-in-one subscription bundle, Apple One, just quietly became an even better value for consumers after the company raised the price of Apple TV+ on Thursday, but kept Apple One’s rates steady. This means the monthly bundle is now more affordable relative to purchasing each service separately—even if consumers maximize annual plan discounts elsewhere.

On Thursday, Apple increased the price of its stand-alone Apple TV+ subscription from $9.99 to $12.99 per month; it’s the third price hike Apple has made to Apple TV+ since it launched the service in 2019 for just $4.99 per month in the U.S. The monthly price went up to $6.99 in 2022, and again in 2023 to $9.99.

However, Apple did not touch the pricing for its Apple One subscription, which continues to offer its Individual tier for $19.95 per month. Subscribers to Apple One benefit not only from Apple TV+ but also Apple Music, Apple Arcade, and iCloud+ (the first tier with 50 GB of storage), all at one bundled rate.

Paying à la carte, even if you also take advantage of discounted annual subscriptions where you can, can still be costly. Here’s how it all breaks down:

  • Apple TV+ (annual): $99.00
  • Apple Music: $10.99/month, totaling $131.88 per year (no annual plan offered)
  • Apple Arcade (annual): $49.99
  • iCloud+ 50 GB: $0.99/month, totaling $11.88 per year

Paying separately for all four services adds up to $292.75 per year. In contrast, the Apple One individual tier costs $19.95 a month, or just $239.40 annually. That means you’ll save $53 for the year. So long as you actually plan on buying each of these services, the math is clear: Apple One offers a substantial advantage over getting separate subscriptions.

It’s an even more compelling deal for families, as Apple’s Family and Premier Apple One tiers further increase savings for households using more cloud storage or wanting access to Apple News+ or Fitness+.

The Family tier of Apple One, priced at $25.95 per month, allows up to six family members to share Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and 200 GB of iCloud+ storage. Over a year, this adds up to $311.40 if paid monthly. When the same services are purchased à la carte at current rates—$16.99 per month for Apple Music Family, $12.99 for Apple TV+, $6.99 for Apple Arcade, and $2.99 for iCloud+ 200 GB—the total annual cost surges to $479.52. That leaves families with an annual savings of $168 by opting for the Apple One Family plan instead.

If you like those savings, they’re even greater at the Premier tier. At $37.95 per month, or $455.40 annually, this plan bundles all Family-tier services while adding Apple News+, Apple Fitness+, and a massive 2 TB of iCloud+ storage. Meanwhile, separate subscriptions for all these services tally up to $839.28 per year—a difference of nearly $384. For households keen on Apple’s expanding media library and fitness programs, and with ample cloud storage needs, the Premier bundle offers premium access at a lower price point than acquiring each service individually.

The move to boost pricing only for select stand-alone services makes sense: Apple wants to incentivize users to choose its bundled plans, as that not only drives revenue but also helps lock customers into its vast ecosystem. So if you value all four core Apple services, Apple One isn’t just more convenient, it’s easily the most cost-effective option.

For this story, Fortune used generative AI to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing. 

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