Xbox Game Pass is Microsoft's gaming service including consoles, PC, and cloud streaming and divided into four tiers — Essential, Premium, PC Game Pass, and Ultimate. In response to widespread criticism regarding an October 2025 price raise, Microsoft has rolled back pricing on its two highest tiers in April 2026 but removed one of the perks in exchange.
Ultimate's price was increased from $14.99/month to $29.99/month in October 2025 and received wide-spread criticism for being too expensive. In April 2026, Microsoft's new Gaming CEO Asha Sharma publicly stated that Ultimate was "too expensive" and reduced its price to $22.99/month; PC Game Pass was reduced simultaneously from $16.49 to $13.99/month. Pricing for Essential and Premium tiers remained unchanged throughout the process and are currently at $9.99 and $14.99/month, respectively.
Also as part of the April 2026 change, Microsoft revealed that new Call of Duty releases would no longer launch on Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass on the same day of release anymore — starting from April 2026, new Call of Duty releases will be added to Game Pass roughly one year after launch and usually during the next holiday season. Existing Call of Duty games in Game Pass remain unaffected — it's the new games that lose the day-one subscription access, which was one of the key selling points of the Ultimate subscription.
Essential (formerly Game Pass Core) is a budget service with a smaller game library. Premium (formerly Game Pass Standard) includes a larger library of games and Xbox Cloud Gaming. PC Game Pass is a Windows-only service, featuring day-one first-party releases and EA Play but surprisingly lacking Xbox Cloud Gaming despite having a full set of features otherwise. Ultimate offers console and PC access, Xbox Cloud Gaming, EA Play, Ubisoft+ Classics and Fortnite Crew bundles — it's the only service that literally includes everything.
Unlike traditional Game Pass subscriptions that require an additional Xbox registration, Game Pass "Starter Edition" (50+ games + 10 hours/month Xbox Cloud Gaming) is offered as a bonus perk in the paid Discord Nitro subscription (which also offers unrelated benefits). For users already subscribing to Discord Nitro, that Game Pass access is provided automatically, for free, and is worth keeping in mind.
At $13.99/month, PC Game Pass offers the entire library of 500+ games as well as day-one releases of Microsoft's first-party games and games from EA Play without console, Ubisoft+ Classics and Fortnite Crew bundles (included in Ultimate), which PC-only players won't ever use anyway. If you play games only on Windows, the price difference between PC Game Pass ($13.99/month) and Ultimate ($22.99/month) equals roughly $9/month extra you'd spend for unused features.
Retailers such as CDKeys, Eneba and even Amazon have often offered Game Pass Ultimate code discounts at 20-40%, and codes can be stacked to make a single subscription last up to 13 months. Buying codes for a whole year has effectively reduced the price to roughly $260/year versus $360/year paying for subscription directly every month — a substantial difference for those planning to subscribe for a long time.
Though the April 2026 changes were global, they were implemented with different pricing in each particular region — for example, Ultimate is priced at £16.99 in the UK compared to $22.99 in the USA, and these are not mere currency conversions but independent regional pricing decisions. Always check the price in your specific country/region, rather than making assumptions based on US figures.
Like most other subscription game catalogs, games expire from Game Pass after a certain period of time, as their license agreements with Microsoft expire — for most third-party games, there is no visible schedule for games expiring from Game Pass in advance, so completing the game before it leaves Game Pass is recommended.
In April 2026, Microsoft's Gaming CEO said that the October 2025 price of $29.99/month for Ultimate is "too expensive" and reduced it to $22.99/month. PC Game Pass was reduced to $13.99/month along with Ultimate as part of the same April 2026 price roll back.
Starting from April 2026, new Call of Duty releases no longer launch on day one in Game Pass — they are added to Game Pass approximately a year after their initial launch, usually during the next holiday season.
Unlike Ultimate, PC Game Pass does not include console access, Ubisoft+ Classics and Fortnite Crew packs. Interestingly enough, unlike in Essential, Premium and Ultimate, PC Game Pass does not include Xbox Cloud Gaming (even though it is a feature included in three tiers).
A limited version of Game Pass called "Starter Edition" (50+ games + 10 hours/month Xbox Cloud Gaming) is included as a bonus in the Discord Nitro subscription. For users already using Discord Nitro, this access to Game Pass is provided for free without any additional Xbox-related costs.
Third-party retailers offer discounts on Game Pass Ultimate codes and provide the ability to stack them for a maximum of 13 months for a single account. Buying codes from retailers, however, is more risky compared to subscribing through the official Microsoft store and always requires verification of the retailer's reputation.
Each region has its own independent pricing for Game Pass, and it is not based on the US dollar pricing and is not just converted to another currency — for example, in April 2026, the price for Ultimate has changed differently in the UK and the USA. You should always check xbox.com for pricing in your particular region.
Day-one access to Microsoft's first-party console releases is locked to the two highest tiers (PC Game Pass and Ultimate) — Essential and Premium do not have day-one access to first-party releases and receive them after some time as part of the rotating catalog.
No immediate indication of upcoming price increases is available after the April 2026 rollback, but Microsoft has already increased prices in October 2025 and rolled them back in April 2026, so it's worth periodically checking for price changes.