When Netflix takes the stage just about anywhere, it’s a good bet that the company is about to make some news. That was true at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, where the world’s largest streamer took the opportunity to announce that its ad-supported Standard with Ads plan has grown by 8 million customers in just the last two months.

• Netflix’s total ad-supported customer base now stands at 23 million.
• Viewers were slow to adopt the plan, which was first introduced in November 2022.
• The onset of ad-supported plans at other streamers has likely aided Netflix in gaining subscribers on the plan.

How Many Subscribers Does Netflix’s Standard With Ads Plan Have?

According to Netflix advertising president Amy Reinhard, the streamer has increased the total number of consumers on its ad-supported plan to 23 million. That means that the company has added 8 million subscribers to the plan since October when it last updated the public in its third quarter 2023 earnings report. The additions mean that Netflix now has at least 250 million global subscribers, and the actual number — when factoring in new ad-free customers, while also accounting for churn — is likely much higher.

The success of Netflix’s Standard with Ads plan is a marked turnaround from the slow start the plan saw following its initial launch. Data from Antenna showed that as of June 2023, seven months following the plan’s premiere, Netflix lagged well behind Disney+ in terms of sign-ups to their respective ad plans. However, Netflix’s decision to implement rules against password sharing spurred more enthusiasm for the $6.99-per-month plan as people who had previously been piggybacking off of someone else’s account were apparently willing to put up with commercials in order to keep access to the service.

In August, the company touted record sign-ups for the Standard with Ads plan. As consumers started to increasingly warm to the plan, Netflix began to update its features, such as the recent decision to allow subscribers on the plan to start downloading content for offline viewing.

Why Is Netflix’s Standard With Ads Plan So Popular Now?

The upgrades in features for the Standard with Ads plan have no doubt helped Netflix attract subscribers to it, but the reason for its increase in popularity is likely a response to wider trends within the streaming industry. Netflix was not a leader in introducing ad-supported streaming, and in fact, resisted incorporating ads for a long time because audiences had grown so accustomed to thinking of it as an ad-free brand.

But the trend of increasing prices hit the streaming marketplace hard in 2023, with ad-free plans seeing the majority of increases. Netflix was one of the few streaming providers that did not raise prices on either ad-free or ad-supported plans in 2023, and its Standard with Ads tier is just $6.99 per month — less expensive than Disney+ Basic, ad-supported Hulu, and Max with ads. It’s only $1 more than the ad plans of Paramount+ and Peacock, which helped bring customers back around to the fact that the plan is actually a good value.

The elimination of Netflix's cheapest ad-free tier in July also enhanced the value of the ad-supported plan. Now, audiences who want to go ad-free on Netflix have to pay almost $10 per month more than they do to put up with limited ads, as the premium Standard Plan runs $15.49 monthly. A few minutes of ads per hour seems a small price to pay to avoid such an upcharge, particularly when ad-supported Netflix customers still get access to the streamer’s full catalog.

All of these factors have contributed to the building success of Netflix’s Standard with Ads. The company has to be thrilled with the progress of the plan, particularly considering the slow speed at which it was adopted by streaming consumers.

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Netflix is a leading subscription-based video streaming service that offers on-demand access to an extensive library of over 3,000 movies, 2,000+ TV shows, and a growing collection of acclaimed Netflix originals. Renowned for producing groundbreaking content, Netflix has become a cultural powerhouse with hit originals like “Stranger Things,” “Wednesday,” “Squid Game,” “The Crown,” “Tiger King,” “Bridgerton,” “The Witcher,” and “Black Mirror.”

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The platform constantly updates its catalog, introducing fresh content alongside timeless classics and international hits. Netflix’s commitment to storytelling has also earned critical acclaim, with award-winning exclusives such as “Roma,” “Marriage Story,” “The Power of the Dog,” “Mank,” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” In 2023, their animated film “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, further solidifying Netflix’s reputation for high-quality content.

Recently, Netflix has expanded beyond standard movies and TV titles with the addition of video podcasts, and is also exploring a digital store that would offer third-party streamers within the app.

Netflix offers three plans – stream on 2 devices in HD with the “Standard with Ads” ($8.99) plan, on 2 devices in HD with the “Standard” ($19.99) plan, and 4 devices in up to 4K on the “Premium” ($26.99) plan.

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