Amazon’s ad-free Prime Video Ultra costs $4.99 a month in the United States and allows up to five concurrent streams, up from three on the plan it replaced. The tier is an add-on that requires a Prime or Prime Video subscription, and Amazon says the price of Prime itself did not change.
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Ultra is the rebranded version of the ad-free option, and for existing subscribers it amounts to a $2 monthly increase. What the extra money buys is a longer list of limits and perks, from offline downloads to 4K picture quality, along with a few carve-outs that matter to sports fans.
The price and the annual option
Amazon’s own announcement of Prime Video Ultra lists the service at $4.99 a month in the United States, replacing the previous Ad Free subscription. An annual plan costs $45.99 for customers on an annual Prime membership, which the page describes as a 23 percent discount from paying monthly. The page states plainly that there is no change in cost for Prime, and the posting is credited to Amazon Staff rather than to a named executive.
The old price is not on Amazon’s page. TheWrap reports that the ad-free add-on had cost $2.99 a month, making Ultra a $2 increase effective April 10. It also quotes Amazon’s explanation for the higher price: “Delivering ad-free streaming with premium features requires significant investment.” The same report cites Amazon’s advertising reach of more than 315 million monthly active users globally, including more than 130 million in the United States, figures that show how large the ad-supported audience is.
Prime membership itself remains $14.99 a month or $139 a year, according to Amazon’s Prime benefits page. Because Ultra sits on top of that fee, a household that adds monthly Ultra to monthly Prime pays $19.98 a month in total, and one that pairs the annual Prime fee with the annual Ultra upgrade pays $184.99 a year.
Prime is priced differently for some groups, and Amazon’s benefits page lists a Family option at about half the standard cost, a young-adult and student rate of $7.49 a month or $69 a year after a six-month trial, and a Prime Access rate of $6.99 a month for qualifying customers. The announcement page does not say how Ultra is priced for those memberships, so the $4.99 figure should be read as the standard U.S. price on top of a regular Prime plan.
Five streams, 100 downloads and 4K
The standout feature for shared households is the stream count. Ultra allows up to five concurrent streams, up from three, while standard Prime Video now permits four, also up from three. Offline downloads rise too: up to 100 at a time on Ultra, against 25 before, with standard Prime Video moving to 50. For a family with several children and a long road trip ahead, the downloads ceiling may matter more than the stream count.
Picture quality is the other dividing line. Amazon says 4K/UHD streaming, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos belong to Ultra, while standard Prime Video covers HD, HDR10, HDR10+ and now Dolby Vision. Amazon also warns that the actual quality depends on a customer’s internet bandwidth and device, and that not every title is offered in every resolution.
Stream and download limits apply across all profiles on an account, and Amazon notes that sub-limits can apply per title, device or provider. That fine print is worth reading before counting on five simultaneous screens: a household sharing one login across several televisions and phones could still hit a per-title or per-device ceiling that the five-stream figure does not show.
What stays the same, including some ads
Ultra does not remove every ad. According to Amazon, live television and events, including sports, and some other ad-supported content may still carry advertising. Amazon’s page says the same selection of titles is available with or without Ultra, so the add-on changes how the service looks and sounds and how many people can watch at once, not what is on offer. The catalog includes Amazon MGM Studios originals such as Fallout, Reacher, The Boys and The Rings of Power alongside live sports from the NFL, NBA, WNBA, NASCAR and NWSL and The Masters.
A subscriber who pays for Ultra mainly to skip commercials during live games should therefore read the carve-out before signing up, since neither the $4.99 monthly fee nor the $45.99 annual plan removes every interruption from a game broadcast.
The rollout started in the United States first. 9to5Mac reported on April 10 that Ultra had replaced the old plan after Amazon’s March announcement, and that members can sign up through a button labeled “Go ad free with Ultra.” Pulse 2.0, a technology news outlet whose report on the launch places the announcement on March 15, confirms the U.S.-only start and notes that the Prime fee stayed at $14.99 a month or $139 a year, also lists the same Ultra stream, download and 4K changes as Amazon’s page, which gives a second independent confirmation of the numbers in the Amazon announcement.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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