Apple Music just got a lot more expensive in India

I had gotten pretty comfortable with Apple Music’s India pricing in recent times. I’ve been a long-time Spotify user, long before it launched in India (thanks, Ronak). However, I’d grown increasingly annoyed at them for pushing their podcasts into their music app, and their recommendation engine — something that had worked incredibly well for the longest time — had become terrible. But I still maintained an active Apple Music subscription, because it costed just ₹99 a month. So some time last year, I switched to Apple Music full-time and ditched the Spotify subscription I’ve held for so long.

The Apple Music subscription was active long enough that I’d stopped noticing the monthly deduction altogether. That changed this week. Apple has raised Apple Music subscription prices in India by up to 28 percent, while leaving its Apple One bundle completely untouched (so far).

The new Apple Music India pricing in July 2026

Individual: ₹119 → ₹139/month (~17% hike)

Family: ₹179 → ₹229/month (~28% hike)

Student: ₹59 → ₹69/month (~17% hike)

The Family plan takes the biggest hit by far. For context, the US Individual plan only went up about 9 percent ($10.99 → $11.99), so India’s getting a noticeably steeper increase this time around — not the first time regional pricing hasn’t scaled 1:1 with the US, but a bigger gap than usual.

Apple hasn’t put out an India-specific statement, but the new prices are already live on Apple’s India pricing page. This is also the third time Apple has increased their pricing in the country in recent times, following the MacBook and Pro price hikes in June over rising memory costs, and the AppleCare+ price hikes earlier this week by roughly ₹3000.

As for the reasoning, Apple told Music Business Worldwide:

“As a result of rising licensing costs, Apple Music is increasing its subscription price beginning today.”

Same explanation Apple’s given before — more of the fee is supposed to flow through to artists and rights holders, not just Apple’s margins. Licensing costs genuinely have been climbing across the industry, to be fair, and Apple isn’t alone here: Spotify raised its own India and global pricing earlier this year too, and Apple’s marketing team happily took a jab at them for it on social media at the time.

BTW, we’re still the same price.
— Apple Music (@AppleMusic) February 13, 2026

Apple One in India hasn’t changed — and that’s the interesting bit

Globally, Apple did revise Apple One pricing too — the Family and Premier tiers went up in the US, though the base Individual tier there was left alone. In India, though, Apple One isn’t budging at all: it’s still ₹195/month for Individual and ₹365/month for Family, the same pricing the bundle has had since it launched here in 2020. Also worth remembering: India still doesn’t get the Premier tier at all — that’s stayed US/UK/Australia/Canada-only since launch.

Practically, that makes the bundle a noticeably better deal than it was a week ago. Apple Music Individual alone is now ₹139/month — just ₹56 short of the ₹195 Apple One Individual plan, which also gets you Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and 50GB of iCloud+ storage on top. If you’re already paying for two or more of those separately, it’s worth doing that math this week.

I don’t know if Apple’s planning to eventually bring India’s Apple One pricing in line with this Music hike, or if it’s deliberately holding the line to keep the bundle looking like the smarter buy while everyone absorbs the standalone increase. Either way — if you’re an Apple Music subscriber in India who’s never bothered looking at Apple One, this is probably the week to.

But my gut says Apple One pricing in India is increasing too.