Sony’s PlayStation Plus is a widely popular service that the majority of PlayStation console owners are subscribed to. But PlayStation Plus is more than just a subscription service.
It comes with numerous benefits that you definitely want to be able to take advantage of if you own a PS4 or PS5. There are a ton of benefits that make it worth having, whether you go for a higher tier plan, pay month to month, or buy a whole year in advance. But what exactly is PlayStation Plus? In this guide, we break the whole thing down. Explaining your different subscription options, pricing, features, and more.
What Is PlayStation Plus?
Sony’s PlayStation Plus is a service that you subscribe to for your PlayStation console. It’s available for both PS4 and PS5 owners and serves as a way to get free games every single month just for subscribing to the service.
One of its other benefits is online play. PlayStation Plus is required for online gaming on PS4 and PS5. Meaning if you want to connect to the internet for multiplayer games like the latest Call of Duty, Fortnite, and more, you need to be subscribed to PlayStation Plus.
Beyond being a prerequisite for accessing online gaming capabilities, PlayStation Plus will afford you at least one or two free games every single month. And as long as you stay subscribed, you will get to keep access to those games.
PlayStation Plus subscribers also get special discounts on games that non-subscribers don’t get. Overall, you want to be subscribed if you want the best online PlayStation experience.
What does PlayStation Plus cost?
The cost of PlayStation Plus varies based on which package you go with. For a long time, Sony only offered one PlayStation Plus plan. The difference in price simply came from whether you paid for subscriptions month-to-month, every six months, or annually. Now, however, Sony offers PlayStation Plus in three different tiers: PlayStation Plus Essential, PlayStation Plus Extra, and PlayStation Plus Premium. Now that these new tiers are available and have been for a few years, the price of PlayStation Plus not only varies by how many months you buy at once, but which tier of the membership you’re on.
For instance, if you go with a 1-month subscription, the normal cost of the Essential plan is $9.99 a month. This should be the cost regardless of where you get your subscription, except for when you may be able to find the subscription gift cards on sale, which does happen sometimes.
If you go with the three-month sub, it usually costs $24.99. And if you go with the 12-month sub, it usually costs $79.99. Again, though, those are the normal prices for the service. And you can sometimes find the subscriptions on sale.
Even if you don’t find them on sale, the 12-month subscription is the best value. Because you’re spending $80 for 12 months’ worth of the service. If you buy that in 1-month amounts, you spend a total of $120. So if you know you’re going to keep it for a year at the least, going with the 12-month option saves you the most money.
If you want to bump things up, you can go for the Extra plan at $14.99 a month, $39.99 for three months, and $134.99 for 12 months. Lastly, the Premium plan will be $17.99 a month, $49.99 for three months, or $159.99 for 12 months.
What are the free games PlayStation Plus gets every month?
This will change from month to month. You have the whole month to claim them, as well. So if you don’t grab them right away, don’t worry. As you won’t be rushed to claim your free games the moment they go live.
That being said, as long as you claim the title that’s being given away each month, you’ll have access to it forever. Even if you cancel your subscription at any point in the future, the games never leave your library. You won’t be able to play them, however, unless your subscription is active.
These days, Sony tends to give away three games every single month. Usually one for PS5 and two others that are geared towards PS4, but can also be played on PS5. In particularly good months, Sony will give away more than three games. Though this is less typical than the former, and hasn’t happened in a while.
You can read about the most recent games added to the service below.
PlayStation Plus monthly games for August 2025
For the month of August 2025, Sony is giving away three games to those who are subscribed to PlayStation Plus. These monthly free games are available for any of the membership tiers. So, don’t worry if you’re not subscribed to the most expensive membership tier. As for the three titles that are available, Sony is giving away My Hero One’s Justice 2, DayZ, and Lies of P.
My Hero One’s Justice 2 is a 3D arena fighting game that lets you choose from a ton of different characters from the My Hero Academia anime and manga.
DayZ is a hardcore survival game where players take on the role of humans trying to carve out a living in a post-apocalyptic world. As the name suggests, the world is populated by infected that are more or less zombies, and of course, other human players. It takes place on a massive map, so there’s a lot to explore. Players will want to be careful, however. Death in this game is permanent, and if you die, you restart from scratch and have to acquire everything again, like it’s a fresh playthrough.
Lastly, there’s Lies of P. Souls likes have become immensely popular since the success of games like Dark Souls. They’ve only become more popular since Elden Ring. Lies of P is a souls-like game, so if you like grueling challenges and boss fights that will have you gritting your teeth, then you’ll love this game. It’s a stellar pickup for free, so don’t miss out on this one.
Do I have to install free PlayStation Plus games?
No. You aren’t required to install the games onto your PS4 or PS5 to ensure they stay with you. Claiming them for your library is all that’s required to keep those games.
Then you can routinely play them as you see fit. As noted above, if you ever cancel your subscription to PlayStation Plus, you lose access to the games that were offered for free as part of the subscription. But once you start it back up again, access to those games is immediately restored.
So, they stay with you forever. This is especially important for those with a PS5, given the console’s lower amount of available storage space on the SSD. You can help offset that if you install an M.2 NVMe SSD in the expandable slot. If you have a PS5 Pro, you also start with more storage.
Is PlayStation Plus required for all online gaming on PlayStation?
No. Some games will not require a subscription. Some will. For example, you don’t need a subscription to PlayStation Plus to play Final Fantasy XIV on PS4 or PS5.
You do need a subscription to that game specifically to play it. But, for example, if this is the only online game you play on PS4 or PS5, then you can simply pay for the sub to that game, and not worry about PlayStation Plus.
If you play other online games, like Call of Duty, Warframe, Destiny 2, The Division 2, and others that feature online multiplayer, you will need to be subscribed to PlayStation Plus if you want the online features for those games. Also worth noting is that Sony will generally list which games in the store require a PlayStation Plus subscription and which ones don’t.
So you can use that to determine whether to subscribe or download the game.
Does PlayStation Plus have a free trial period?
Sony does offer a trial period for PlayStation Plus. But there are a couple of things to know about that. First, the trial period lasts for 14 days. So you get the capability to test it out for two weeks before you need to pay for your first month of the service.
The trial period is also only available for first-time subscribers. That means if you’ve ever subscribed to it in the past, you won’t be able to utilize the trial when you resubscribe.
Rather, you will end up paying for the subscription to start up right away. And because these are tied to your PSN account, you can’t simply start up a new email account and sign up for the free trial that way, as you can with some streaming services.
What are some of the other PlayStation Plus member benefits?
In addition to special discounts, free games every month, and availability of online play, you also get a few more benefits with PlayStation Plus. However, this will also change based on which tier of the new plans you choose.
One of the more useful benefits is the increase in cloud storage for saved game data. If you subscribe to the service, you have 100GB of cloud storage at your disposal for your game save data. That is a lot for just game save files.
And it’ll come in handy if you have both a PS4 and a PS5 and end up with hundreds of games and saves for all of them. You also get exclusive in-game content that you wouldn’t normally get. Such as character skins and other loot. And there’s also a feature called Share Play.
As the name suggests, Share Play lets you share your gaming experience with a friend. A good example of how this works is inviting your friend to play a game you’re in with SharePlay. You can then let them control the game. This could be useful if you are stuck on a particularly challenging quest.
PlayStation Plus benefits per plan
As for plan-exclusive benefits, this varies. PS Plus Essential is exactly what you have with the original PlayStation Plus. Monthly free games, cloud storage for game saves, online play, and game discounts. If you bump up to PS Plus Extra, you get all that and a catalog of 400 games to play, including blockbuster titles from PlayStation Studios and third-party partners. These games can be downloaded for play.
PS Plus Premium meanwhile, will give you the most features. You get the benefits of both previous plans, in addition to another 340 games in the catalog. This new set of games will include PS3 games for cloud streaming as well as PS1, PS2, and PSP games for download and cloud streaming.
On top of all this, Premium members also get cloud streaming for PS1, PS2, PSP, and PS4 games where PS Now is currently available. Streaming will be usable on PS4, PS5, and PC. All tiers of PlayStation Plus will get the Game Help feature, which is a really neat feature to have. If you get stuck on a certain part of a game you’re playing, you can bring up the Game Help tips to give you a hint on what to do. This is only for PS5, however. So it won’t be accessible on PS4 or PS4 Pro.
If you’re an Extra or Premium member, you also get access to the Game Catalog and Classics Catalog. There’s also the Ubisoft+ Classics catalog, which is a collection of Ubisoft games that even includes some more recent titles. Although not necessarily the newest ones. Finally, if you subscribe to Premium, you will also get access to Game Trials and Cloud Streaming.
The Game Trials, in particular, can be great if you’re considering picking up a specific game. There won’t be trials available for everything. But it’s worth checking out the trials every so often to see what’s in there. As it might include something you’ve had your eye on.
How do the PlayStation Plus game trials work?
Game trials will be short demo-like offerings that will let you play a specific section of a game for the express purpose of checking it out before purchasing. Game trials will change from time to time, but for the most part, they stick around for quite a while.
If you decide to check out a Game trial, you’ll have access to anywhere between one hour and five hours of content. How long you can play and how much content the trial includes is at the discretion of the game studio. There are currently over 100 game trials you can access. Including some newer releases like Baldur’s Gate 3, Sonic Frontiers, Hogwarts Legacy, and A Plague Tale: Requiem.
When do the new PlayStation Plus plans launch?
These plans are already available, as Sony launched them back in 2022. There haven’t been many changes made to the plans, although, they do cost more than they did when the first launched a few years ago. Sony increased the prices for the Extra and Premium plans for the 1-month membership, and for the annual membership some time ago.
PS5 owners no longer get the PlayStation Plus Collection
Back when Sony rolled out the PS5, it initially had something available for PS5 owners who subscribed to PlayStation Plus called the PS Plus Collection. This was a collection of 20 or so games from the PS4 era that Sony was making available to PS5 owners completely free of charge, other than PS Plus subscription needed to claim these games, of course.
Outside of the membership, though, each game was made available to add to your library for free. Unfortunately, Sony discontinued this offering a while back and no longer offers the collection of games. That means new PS5 or PS5 Pro owners cannnot claim the PS Plus Collectrion. However, there are still several games available in the PS Plus Catalog that can be added to your library to play. While those titles rotate, they tend to be available for a while.
Where can I access PlayStation Plus games?
You’ll generally need a PlayStation console to access games from the PlayStation Plus library. This includes anything you’ve already claimed or would claim in the future. PlayStation Plus is currently available on PS4 and PS4 Pro, and on PS5 as well as the new PS5 Slim and PS5 Pro. However, you can also access PlayStation Plus games on a compatible PC. There is a catch to this, but it is possible.
First, the important bit. You’ll need to be subscribed to the PlayStation Plus Premium tier if you want to play these games on PC. Games you play on PC will also be streamable only and not ones you can download. This leads us to the games you have access to. Essentially, any game in the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog will be available to stream. Sony says that “select” games from the Classics Catalog will also be available to stream. There are currently a lot of titles available across both catalogs. So you’ll have a large number of titles to choose from.
Naturally, you will also need an internet connection to play these games since you will need to stream them to play them. As such, this isn’t a viable option for playing games where the internet isn’t available. Like on a plane or in extremely rural areas. Lastly, you will also need to download the PC PlayStation Plus app. Once installed, you will launch this anytime you want to play one of the games made available to Premium subscribers. You can also use both a DualShock 4 controller and a DualSense controller for games. Third-party PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 controllers should work as well.
What are some current games you can play in the cloud?
In terms of recent games, here’s what you can look forward to playing in the cloud if you subscribe to PlayStation Plus Premium. As of right now, you can stream Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut, Mortal Kombat 11, Remnant II, Fallout 4, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Control, Bloodborne, Demon’s Souls, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, Like A Dragon: Ishin!, Death Stranding, Cult of the Lamb, Steep, Shadow of the Colossus, Ride 5, and many, many more.
In fact, many of the games you can download from the regular Game Catalog are streamable in the cloud. However, there will be some differences.
What are some of the current games you can download?
In addition to cloud streaming, PlayStation Plus also offers additional downloadable games. These are different from the games you get for free every single month. Each month or so, Sony adds new games to the PlayStation Plus catalog that you can access at no additional charge. You do need to be subscribed to either PlayStation Plus Extra or PlayStation Plus Premium, however. There are tons of games added, and Sony is always changing things out.
Not all games will stick around forever. So it’s worth going in and looking at the current slate of games from time to time. Especially if you’re looking for something new to play. Some of the current games you can download from the catalog are Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, Sly 2: Band of Thieves, Blood Omen 2: Legacy of Kain, Dino Crisis, the Resident Evil 3 remake, For Honor, Coffee Talk, Ride 5, Remnant II, Like A Dragon: Ishin!, Wild Hearts, and tons of others. You can check the full list of PlayStation Plus Catalog games from your PlayStation console.
How can I sign up?
Signing up for PlayStation Plus is relatively simple. You will need a PlayStation Network account first. So if you don’t already have one of those, either go to the PlayStation website or set up a PSN account through your PS4 or PS5 console.
Once you’ve got the PSN account set up, you simply need to pay for a PlayStation Plus subscription digital code and then redeem that code through your PSN account. The subscription will automatically attach to your PSN account and then you’ll have all of the PlayStation Plus member benefits right away.
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