Methodology

What counts as a price change

We record an event when a service changes the US list price of a consumer plan, launches or retires a plan, or restructures packaging in a way that changes what existing subscribers pay (seat-model changes, free-tier cuts, ad-tier defaults). Promotional discounts, regional pricing, and student/military rates are out of scope.

Sourcing

Every one of the 115 events in the archive links to a source: a news report from an outlet of record, the vendor's own announcement, or an Internet Archive snapshot of the original pricing page — the same principle as the Wayback Machine, applied to your monthly bills. Where vendors quietly edited pricing pages without an announcement, the archived snapshot is the primary evidence.

Reference plans

Each service's chart tracks one reference plan — the plan most individual subscribers actually buy (e.g. Netflix Standard, Spotify Premium Individual). Changes to other tiers still appear in the timeline and the Hike Feed.

Corrections

Spotted an error? We treat pricing data like source code — file an issue or email us and we'll fix it with a visible correction. Accuracy is the entire product.

Affiliate disclosure

Some “alternatives” links are affiliate links that pay us a commission at no cost to you. They're marked, they never influence what the data says, and hikes get recorded no matter whose affiliate program it is.