Technologies

How Much Does Each Xbox Game Pass Plan Cost and Which One Is Right for You?

With prices and features constantly changing, it can be difficult to decide which Xbox Game Pass plan to subscribe to. Here’s what you need to know.

Editors’ note, Dec. 20: Xbox Game Pass offers a slew of benefits, like the ability to play on a myriad of devices — not just consoles — and access to games on Day 1 of release on certain plans, making this a convenient gaming subscription service for a wide range of people. Every Xbox Game Pass plan costs less than the price of a new AAA game each month, yet gives access to dozens — if not hundreds — of titles, which is why the service as a whole earned a CNET Editors’ Choice Award. The original article follows.

New AAA video games, the industry’s flagship titles, used to cost $50 apiece, but it’s not unusual to see a similar game cost $70 now. That price might make you pause before you buy a game, but with an Xbox Game Pass subscription, you could game for anywhere from $10 to $30 a month — less than half of that price.

Microsoft launched Game Pass in 2017, and since then, the gaming service has evolved into a good value for many gamers. All Game Pass plans offer member discounts for non-Game Pass titles and other perks, but figuring out which plan is right for you can be challenging.

That choice can be especially tough after Microsoft increased the price of Game Pass Ultimate from $20 to $30 a month and changed the names of some other Game Pass tiers. While Ultimate may not be the best choice for most folks, it’s still a good pick for gamers who want to play all the latest games.

I’ve covered the service in the past, including regular releases and whether Game Pass Ultimate will save you money compared with buying single games. With the new plan names, price increases and upgrades — like PC, console and cloud gaming for most plans — you might be wondering what the difference is between each Game Pass tier. Note that online multiplayer is standard across all tiers.

Here’s what you need to know about the Game Pass plans so you can decide which one is right for your needs.

Xbox Game Pass tiers

	Game Pass Essential	Game Pass Premium	PC Game Pass	Game Pass Ultimate
Game library size	50+	200+	400+	500+
Console gaming	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Cloud gaming	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
PC gaming	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Day 1 releases	No	No	Yes	Yes
EA Play	No	No	Yes	Yes
Ubisoft Plus Classics	No	No	No	Yes
Fortnite Crew	No	No	No	Yes
Monthly price	$10	$15	$16.49	$30

For more on Xbox, discover some of the games available on Game Pass now and check out our hands-on review of Game Pass Ultimate. You can also learn about recent changes to Game Pass.

Technologies

Ultrahuman Ring Pro Brings Better Battery Life, More Action and Analysis

The company’s new flagship smart ring stores more data, too. But that doesn’t really help Americans.

Sick of your smart ring’s battery not holding up? Ultrahuman’s new $479 Ring Pro smart ring, unveiled on Friday, offers up to 15 days of battery life on a single charge. The Ring Pro joins the company’s $349 Ring Air, which boosts health tracking, thanks to longer battery life, increased data storage, improved speed and accuracy and a new heart-rate sensing architecture. The ring works in conjunction with the latest Pro charging case.

Ultrahuman also launched its Jade AI, which can act as an agent based on analysis of current and historical health data. Jade can synthesize data from across the company’s products and is compatible with its Rings.

«With industry-leading hardware paired with Jade biointelligence AI, users can now take real-time actionable interventions towards their health than ever before,» said Mohit Kumar, CEO of Ultrahuman.

No US sales

That hardware isn’t available in the US, though, thanks to the ongoing ban on Ultrahuman’s Rings sales here, stemming from a patent dispute with its competitor, Oura Ring. It’s available for preorder now everywhere else and is slated to ship in March. Jade’s available globally.

Ultrahuman says the Ring Pro boosts battery life to about 15 days in Chill mode — up to 12 days in Turbo — compared to a maximum of six days for the Air. The Pro charger’s battery stores enough for another 45 days, which you top off with Qi-compatible wireless charging. In addition, the case incorporates locator technology via the app and a speaker, as well as usability features such as haptic notifications and a power LED.

The ring can also retain up to 250 days of data versus less than a week for the cheaper model. Ultrahuman redesigned the heart-rate sensor for better signal quality. An upgraded processor improves the accuracy of the local machine learning and overall speed.

It’s offered in gold, silver, black and titanium finishes, with available sizes ranging from 5 to 14.

Jade’s Deep Research Mode is the cross-ecosystem analysis feature, which aggregates data from Ring and Blood Vision and the company’s subscription services, Home and M1 CGM, to provide historical trends, offer current recommendations and flag potential issues, as well as trigger activities such as A-fib detection. Ultrahuman plans to expand its capabilities to include health-adjacent activities, such as ordering food.

Some new apps are also available for the company’s PowerPlug add-on platform, including capabilities such as tracking GLP-1 effects, snoring and respiratory analysis and migraine management tools.

Technologies

The FCC Just Approved Charter’s $34.5B Cox Purchase. Here’s What It Means for 37M Customers

Technologies

Spotify Expands Into Audiobook Rankings With Weekly Charts

The feature is available to both free users and Premium subscribers. Wuthering Heights is reaching the heights on both the US and UK charts.

If you’re a Spotify user, you may be familiar with features like the year-end summary Wrapped, as well as your daily usage stats. Now, the service has a new popularity chart tracking audiobooks.

Spotify’s audiobook charts are now available to free and Premium users within the service’s Audiobooks hub. While only Premium users receive 15 hours of audiobook listening per month, the company offers a larger selection of titles you can buy.

US charts and UK charts are both available now.

Read more: Best Music Streaming Services for 2026

Spotify says that the audiobook charts will help customers discover new and popular titles in real time.

«As we’ve proven with Music and Podcasts Charts, when content is easier to access, discover, and enjoy, the demand grows,» said Duncan Bruce, Spotify’s director of audiobook partnerships and licensing, in a statement on Friday.

Spotify launched audiobooks in 2022, and has since added features such as the AI catchup tool Recaps and PageMatch, which lets you swap more easily between a printed book and the audio version.

Spotify Premium currently costs $13 a month and includes more than 100 million songs, as well as audiobooks. Spotify Premium is currently CNET’s Editors’ Choice for best music streaming service.

The current US audiobooks chart lists Emily Brontë’s romantic classic Wuthering Heights as the top listen, followed by James Clear’s self-help book Atomic Habits and Freida McFadden’s psychological thriller The Housemaid. Audiobook popularity is also broken down by genre, with charts for romance, mystery and thriller books, self-help, science fiction and fantasy, biography and memoir, business and careers, teen and young adult, religion and spirituality, history, and parenting and relationships.

Powered by its blockbuster movie adaptation starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, Wuthering Heights also leads the overall chart for the UK.