What HBO Max Becoming Max Means For Your Existing Membership

HBO Max's conversion into the new streaming service Max is set to take place this Tuesday, May 23. That, of course, raises the question of what will happen if you're an existing HBO Max subscriber. Do you need to newly subscribe to Max? Will you be paying more? We break down the key elements of this unusual change below.

Current HBO Max subscribers will not see a change in their subscription prices once that change takes place, and they'll get to keep their existing HBO Max plan features for at least six months after Max launches.

The With Ads tier will still be $10/month and the Ad-Free tier $16/month. But note that Warner Bros. Discovery has moved 4K streaming into a brand new Ultimate Ad-Free tier at $20/month--meaning after the six months is up, if you want to stream in 4K on Max, you'll need to pay for the more expensive tier. Check the list of subscription tiers below for full details.

Also note that if you subscribe to HBO Max through a provider and not directly through HBO, your provider will contact you with any price changes.

Max merges HBO Max with "Discovery favorites" like HGTV, the Food Network, TLC, ID, Magnolia Network, Discovery, and more. For more information, check out our explanation on everything you need to know about the new HBO Max.

When HBO Max transforms into Max, the change will happen automatically in the app. Subscribers will not need to take any specific action. Profiles and watch history information will also transfer over to Max.

Additionally, Discovery+ is not going away after Max is live. Discovery+ will remain as a standalone service, likely for those who just want Discovery+ content without HBO shows.

Max Subscription Tiers

• With Ads: $9.99/month or $99.99/year (16% savings)
  • HD quality
  • 2 concurrent streams
• Ad-Free: $15.99/month or $149.99/year (over 20% savings)
  • HD quality
  • 2 concurrent streams
  • 30 downloads
• Ultimate Ad-Free: $19.99/month or $199.99/year (over 16% savings)
  • Stream in 4K UHD and Dolby Atmos (as available)
  • Stream on 4 devices at once
  • Up to 100 offline downloads across devices (with some restrictions in content categories)