Plans available
What is Apple TV+
Apple TV+ is Apple's streaming service, launched in November 2019. Unlike Netflix, Max, or Disney+, Apple TV+ is purely an originals service — there's no licensed back-catalogue, no movies from other studios, no library content. Everything on Apple TV+ is something Apple produced or commissioned.
This makes it a fundamentally different kind of streaming product. Where Netflix has a catalogue of tens of thousands of titles to scroll through, Apple TV+ has dozens. Apple's strategy has been quality over volume — they spend heavily on a small number of productions and aim for prestige rather than market saturation.
The strategy has worked critically. Apple TV+ shows have won multiple Emmys (Ted Lasso, The Morning Show), Severance is widely considered one of the best new TV shows of the past five years, and Slow Horses, Silo, For All Mankind, and Pachinko have strong cult followings. Whether the catalogue is enough depends on you.
Plans available
Apple keeps the standalone subscription simple — one tier, no ads, optional bundles:
- Apple TV+ Monthly — single subscription, no ads, all content available immediately. Same content as the bundles.
- Apple TV+ Annual — same content, paid up front for the year. Meaningful discount over the monthly cadence.
- Apple One Individual — bundles Apple TV+, Apple Music, iCloud+ (50GB), and Apple Arcade.
- Apple One Family — same services with iCloud+ (200GB), shareable across up to 6 family members through Family Sharing.
- Apple One Premier — adds Apple News+ and Apple Fitness+, with iCloud+ at 2TB. The full bundle.
The Apple One bundle math is straightforward: it's worthwhile if you'd want any two of its included services. Apple Music alone plus standalone TV+ usually costs more than Apple One Individual. If you're paying for both, you should be on Apple One.
Why Apple TV+ is the streaming service most likely to be a "trial conversion"
Apple has a unique distribution advantage: they include free Apple TV+ trials with hardware purchases. Buy a new iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV box — get 3 months of Apple TV+ free. Trade in for a new device — sometimes another 3 months. This means a meaningful share of people "subscribed" to Apple TV+ are technically subscribed because a trial converted to paid and they didn't notice or didn't get around to cancelling.
This is the single most important thing to understand about Apple TV+ subscriptions: track when your trials end. The auto-conversion is silent — Apple charges your card on file when the trial date passes, no email reminder, no warning. People typically discover they've been paying for Apple TV+ for months when they review their statements at tax time.
The flip side: if you're going to use Apple TV+, those trials are real value. Watch the shows you wanted during the trial period, then deliberately decide whether to keep it. The whole reason it's worth tracking is that the option to opt out is the whole value of "free trial" — losing the option to opt out turns the trial into stealth conversion.
When Apple TV+ is worth keeping
It's worth it if:
- You're invested in current Apple TV+ shows (Severance, Slow Horses, Silo, The Morning Show, For All Mankind)
- You're already paying for Apple Music — at which point Apple One Individual probably saves you money even ignoring TV+
- You're already paying for iCloud+ storage — same calculation
- You watch streaming deliberately rather than habitually — Apple TV+ rewards "I want to watch X" more than "what's on tonight"
- You like the curated experience and don't miss having a vast library to scroll through
It's worth reconsidering if:
- You scroll the catalogue, don't see something you want to watch, and close the app
- You signed up for a hardware-bundle trial that converted and you haven't watched anything since
- You're paying Apple One but only ever use one of the bundled services
- The shows you joined for have all finished and the new releases haven't grabbed you
How to track Apple TV+ and the hardware-trial conversion problem
Apple TV+ has the highest "I didn't realise I was paying for this" rate of any major streaming service, almost entirely because of the hardware-bundle trial pattern.
GetRenewal tracks Apple TV+ alongside your other subscriptions:
- Annual cost projection — TV+ is small individually, but stack a few streaming services and the total adds up
- Renewal reminder for direct subscriptions
- Trial-conversion tracking — when you log a free trial, the tool reminds you before it converts to paid so you can deliberately decide whether to keep it
- Apple One bundle awareness — you can mark Apple TV+, Music, iCloud+, and Arcade as a single subscription so you don't double-count what's already included
If you bought any Apple hardware in the past year and got a TV+ trial as part of it, you should specifically check your Apple ID subscriptions right now. There's roughly even odds the trial converted and you've been paying since.
How to cancel Apple TV+
Cancellation goes through your Apple ID, not through Apple TV+ directly:
On iPhone or iPad:
- Open Settings
- Tap your name at the top → Subscriptions
- Tap Apple TV+
- Tap Cancel Subscription, confirm
On Mac:
- Open System Settings → Apple ID → Media & Purchases → Manage Subscriptions
- Click Edit next to Apple TV+
- Click Cancel Subscription
On the web:
- Sign in at appleid.apple.com
- Click Subscriptions
- Cancel from there
Your access continues until the end of the current billing period. If you're on Apple One, cancelling TV+ specifically isn't possible — you'd need to cancel the whole bundle or downgrade to a tier that doesn't include TV+.
Alternatives to Apple TV+
There's no direct equivalent because Apple TV+'s "all originals, no library" structure is unique. The closest streaming services people pick instead:
- Netflix — broader catalogue, much more volume, weaker average quality per release
- Max — strongest direct competitor for "prestige drama" specifically (Succession, The White Lotus, House of the Dragon)
- Disney+ — completely different focus, but the alternative most often picked for the "small premium streaming service" slot
- HBO via Max — for the prestige-drama-fan crowd specifically, Max's HBO catalogue is denser than Apple TV+'s on this dimension
For people who genuinely use Apple TV+, the alternative isn't really "another streaming service" — it's "no streaming service for a few months" and resubscribing when a flagship show drops. The catalogue's small size makes that pattern more practical here than it is on services like Netflix.
Frequently asked questions
Is Apple TV+ worth subscribing to?
It depends on whether the originals catalogue resonates with you. Apple TV+ has the highest hit-rate of any streaming service — almost every show that gets discussed is critically well-received — but the library is small and there's no licensed content to fall back on between releases. The honest test - browse the catalogue right now and count how many shows you'd actively watch. If it's 3+, Apple TV+ is probably worth it. If it's 1-2, you might be better off subscribing during the season of those shows and cancelling otherwise.
Should I subscribe directly or through Apple One?
Apple One only makes sense if you'd want at least two of its included services. If you're already paying for Apple Music and need iCloud storage anyway, Apple One Individual usually costs less than the standalone subscriptions combined. If you just want Apple TV+, the standalone subscription is the right choice.
How does Apple TV+ compare to Netflix or Max?
Different products. Netflix and Max are libraries — vast catalogues you scroll through. Apple TV+ is a curated channel — small, all originals, very high average quality. People who watch streaming as a habit (scrolling for "something to watch") often find Apple TV+ frustrating because the catalogue runs out fast. People who watch deliberately (specific shows they're invested in) tend to rate Apple TV+ highly.
Why does Apple TV+ have free trials more often than competitors?
Apple frequently bundles Apple TV+ free trials with hardware purchases — buy a new iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV box, get 3 months of TV+ free. They also occasionally offer extended trials to push specific shows. The catch — the trials auto-convert to paid subscriptions when they end, and a meaningful fraction of "subscribers" are actually paying because a trial they forgot about converted.
How do I avoid the trial-conversion auto-renewal trap?
This is Apple TV+'s biggest renewal-trap pattern. People get a 3-month free trial bundled with a hardware purchase, forget the date the trial ends, and find themselves paying monthly. A subscription tracker like GetRenewal handles this — set up the trial as a subscription with the conversion date, and the tool reminds you a few days before it converts so you can decide whether to keep it.
Related services
From the blog
Is Netflix Worth It in 2026? Plans, Price & When to Keep It
Honest take on Netflix plans and value in 2026 — when to keep it, when to pause, and how it fits a 3–4 service streaming stack.
Every Major Streaming Price Hike, and What You're Now Paying vs. Two Years Ago
Nearly every major streaming service has raised prices — often more than once — with the steepest increases on the ad-free plans long-term subscribers are on. Here's where things stand and what to do about it.
Track your Apple TV+ subscription alongside everything else you pay for monthly.
Start tracking — it's free