Spotify Hits 306M Subscribers on Price Rises. What Premium Costs Now

Spotify ended its third quarter with 306 million Premium subscribers, up 9% from a year earlier, and €4.97 billion in revenue, up 16%, according to its Q3 2026 update filed with the SEC on Oct. 22. Premium revenue per subscriber rose 9.3% to €4.95 a month, and Spotify says the main reason was higher prices. For Q4 it guides to 316 million subscribers and €5.2 billion in revenue.

So what does Premium cost now? Spotify Premium Individual is CA$13.99 a month in Canada, US$12.99 in the US and £12.99 in the UK, according to Spotify’s own plan pages. At the Bank of Canada’s Oct. 19 rate, the US price is about CA$18.31, roughly 31% more than Canadians pay, even after Canada’s May increase.

We took every Premium price from Spotify’s Canadian, US and UK sites and converted the foreign prices to Canadian dollars at the Bank of Canada Oct. 19 rates: US$1 = CA$1.4097 and £1 = CA$1.8767. All converted figures are approximate. Spotify reports its results in euros, and we’ve left them in euros.

Spotify Q3 2026 results: price increases did the lifting

The headline numbers, from the 6-K:

• Monthly active users: 788 million, up 11% year on year, and up from 777 million in Q2.
• Premium subscribers: 306 million, up 9%, from 300 million in Q2.
• Ad-supported users: 499 million, up 12%.
• Revenue: €4,969 million, up 16% (14% at constant currency). Premium brought in €4,487 million, up 17%, and advertising €482 million, up 10%.
• Gross margin: 33.0%, against 31.6% a year earlier and 33.4% in Q2.
• Operating income: €672 million, a 13.5% margin. Free cash flow was €735 million.

The sentence that matters for anyone paying a Spotify bill is about average revenue per user (ARPU), the average a Premium subscriber pays each month. The release says Premium ARPU was “€4.95, up 9.3% Y/Y (or 7.5% Y/Y constant currency).” It then explains why: “Excluding the impact of FX, ARPU growth was driven by price increase benefits, partially offset by product/market mix.”

“ARPU growth was driven by price increase benefits, partially offset by product/market mix.” Spotify Q3 2026 update

In plain terms, revenue grew 16% while the subscriber base grew 9%. Most of the rest is higher prices: ARPU rose 7.5% even with currency swings stripped out. Spotify doesn’t break ARPU out by country, so the release can’t show how much any one market, Canada’s May increase included, contributed. The “product/market mix” offset means more of the growth is coming from cheaper plans and lower-priced countries.

Spotify also mostly hit the guidance it set in August. The Q2 update forecast 788 million users, 305 million subscribers, a 32.9% gross margin and €670 million in operating income for Q3. Spotify matched or narrowly beat each of those. Revenue was the exception: the guide was €5.0 billion, and the result was €4,969 million, just under.

Spotify Premium price in Canada, the US and UK

On sticker price, Canada is the cheapest of the three on every plan. The US is 29% to 34% dearer on the three main plans once converted, and the Student plan, which Spotify bundles with Hulu access in the US, costs about 54% more.

Britain looks worst, and it is the least fair comparison. UK consumer prices include 20% VAT, while US prices are quoted before sales tax. Strip the VAT out and a British Individual plan is about CA$20.32, still 45% above the Canadian price. The Family plan, ex-VAT, is about CA$34.39 against Canada’s CA$23.99.

Why Canada still looks cheap after the May increase

Canadians didn’t get off lightly. Spotify raised Canadian prices in May 2026, and CA$13.99 for Individual is where they landed. The Duo and Family plans, at CA$19.99 and CA$23.99, are where Canadian households pay the most in absolute terms.

The gap is a currency story more than a pricing gift. Spotify sets prices market by market, in local currency, and changes them in steps. The Canadian dollar’s weakness does the rest: US$12.99 was always going to convert to more than CA$13.99 at a rate above 1.40.

The Q4 guidance tells you which way this goes. Spotify expects 818 million users, 316 million subscribers, €5.2 billion in revenue and a 33.8% gross margin. Revenue guided up about 5% on the quarter, subscribers about 3%. Our read: the difference is expected to come from the same place Spotify says Q3’s did.

Per-person cost of Spotify Family and Duo

Split the plans by seat and the gap between countries widens. A full Canadian Family plan, six accounts at CA$23.99, comes to about CA$4.00 per person a month. The US equivalent is about CA$5.17 per person, and the UK about CA$6.88 including VAT.

Duo halves neatly. In Canada each person pays CA$10.00, against about CA$13.39 in the US and about CA$16.88 in the UK. In all three markets, a filled Family plan is the cheapest way to pay for Spotify that isn’t a student discount.

The catch is the word “filled.” A Family plan with two people on it costs a Canadian household CA$4.00 more a month than Duo for the same two people.

What to do if you pay for Spotify in Canada

• Check which plan you’re on. Duo at CA$19.99 is cheaper than two Individual plans at CA$27.98. Read Spotify’s eligibility rules for Duo and Family before switching.
• Students, check eligibility. CA$6.39 is less than half the Individual price, and Spotify limits Student plans to students at eligible accredited institutions.
• Don’t chase a cheaper country. Among these three, there isn’t one.

For more on what streaming and subscription prices have done this autumn, see our Discovery Plus price increase story and our X subscription price tiers explainer, plus everything on our consumer apps page.

The average Spotify subscriber paid €4.95 a month in Q3. A Canadian on a full Family plan pays about CA$4.00.