Spotify is the leading music streaming app with over 100 million songs, podcasts, and audiobooks. The free version comes with ads and a limited number of skips, whereas Spotify Premium gets rid of ads, allows offline downloading, provides on-demand listening and has lossless audio quality. Available plans vary in price from $6.99 for students to $21.99 for a family plan.
It is more functional than many people assume. Since late 2025, the mobile version allows choosing any song on-demand (shuffle restriction is gone). Features sacrificed: ad breaks after several songs, no offline downloading, worse audio quality and lack of audiobook hours. If you listen via the desktop or do not care about ads, free version of Spotify is fully functional.
By early 2026, Spotify increased prices for all its plans. Individual is $12.99 per month, Duo is $18.99 per month (two persons from one address), Family is $21.99 per month (up to six people from one address), Student is $6.99 per month. All the Premium versions come with ad-free listening, downloading songs offline, on-demand feature, and 15 hours of audiobooks per month.
For just $6.99 per month, Spotify Student Premium is the same as Spotify Individual with an additional feature of Hulu (with ads) for no additional money. To get this plan you have to be verified by SheerID and must be a student in the accredited higher education institution. You can maintain it up to 4 years with yearly verification renewal. After your graduation or inability to verify yourself as a student, the plan will automatically convert into the Individual one.
If you have never been a Premium user, you can test the app for 3 months on Individual or for 1 month on Student plan. You should have a credit card to sign up for the trial which auto-renews to the regular price unless you cancel it before trial expiration. Gift cards cannot be applied to activate the trial period. It is available only to first-time users of Premium plans.
Spotify is subscription-based service with monthly plan and no commitment. You can cancel whenever you want and still will enjoy Premium features until the end of your billing cycle. Your playlist, library and listening history remain untouched. At any point in time, you can renew the subscription, though maybe you won't be able to try it again.
Family plan at $21.99 per month can accommodate up to six people from the same address, thus costing about $3.67 per person, what is the cheapest tier. Every member gets his/her own profile, recommendations and offline downloading possibility. Spotify occasionally checks whether the members live in the same address by analyzing geolocation, thus Family plan is for actual families and not for groups of friends living in the different parts of the city.
Everyone having Spotify Premium gets 15 hours of audiobooks listening from Spotify catalogue at no extra cost per month. Once the maximum is reached, you can purchase more hours. There is also a separate Audiobooks Access plan at $9.99 per month that gives audiobooks only. Thus, Spotify is partially competing with Audible and it is a little-known fact.
Yes, the free trial is available to new users who haven't been Premium subscribers yet. New users get 3 months free trial on Individual and 1 month free trial on Student plan. A card is required to sign up for it and the trial will automatically renew to the standard price unless cancelled prior to the end of the trial.
Yes, the free tier is permanently available with no time limits. You get on-demand playback on all devices, ad breaks, standard audio quality and no ability to download songs offline. It is a fully functional plan for casual listeners.
Since 2023 Spotify increased prices in the USA for three times due to the music licensing fees, podcast investment and new features such as lossless audio and audiobooks. The Individual plan was $9.99 in 2023 and now in 2026 it is $12.99.
Nothing. Your playlist, saved songs and listening history will remain in place. You lose ad-free playback, downloading songs offline, and lossless audio quality, but nothing from your library will disappear.
Yes, Spotify Student Premium at $6.99 per month includes Hulu (with ads) at no extra cost. You have to activate it separately after signing up. The access to Hulu will stop working once your student status will expire.
It is impossible via Family plan as Spotify requires all the members to live in the same address and occasionally checks this fact. As for friends' sharing, the Duo plan is designed for two persons in the same address at the cost of $18.99 per month. There is no legal plan for friends in the different places.
All the Premium subscribers have 15 hours of audiobooks listening per month included. The meter is reset on the date of your billing. If you use all the minutes, you can purchase more. Extra minutes are not rolloverable.
There is no annual plan discount via Spotify website in the USA at the moment. You can try to save by buying gift cards with discount in the retail stores during the promotion period.