Xbox Cloud Playtime price: 10 hours for $3.99, 25 for $7.99 and 50 for $11.99, no Game Pass needed

Xbox has put a price on cloud gaming without Game Pass: $3.99 for 10 hours. Here’s what each Cloud Playtime pack costs, what you get and when everyone can buy one.

How much does Xbox Cloud Playtime cost? Xbox announced three packs on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026:

• 10 hours$3.99, about 40 cents an hour.
• 25 hours$7.99, about 32 cents an hour.
• 50 hours$11.99, about 24 cents an hour.

Xbox calls these introductory launch prices. The biggest pack costs three times as much as the smallest and gives five times the hours, so heavy players save the most per hour.

What you get with a Cloud Playtime pack. Xbox sums up the offer plainly: “Cloud playtime packs provide an ad-free cloud gaming experience.” Beyond no ads, the packs come with shorter wait times and high-quality streaming, and the hours stay on the account until they’re used, with no expiration date in the announcement.

The packs cover cloud-playable games you own, plus select free-to-play games, on supported devices. Xbox says available games, devices and features vary by market.

From Oct. 21, the packs are a preview for Xbox Insiders without an active Game Pass subscription. Players join the program through the Xbox Insider Hub app on Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One and Windows PCs, and access also depends on the market, the device, the account and the preview ring.

The packs roll out more broadly in November. Xbox hasn’t given an exact date.

The launch lines up with the end of unlimited cloud gaming on Game Pass. From November, Game Pass Ultimate includes 15 cloud hours a month, Premium 10 and Essential 5, as our Xbox Cloud Gaming limits page explains. PC Game Pass doesn’t include cloud gaming at all.

Per hour, the packs come out far cheaper. Ultimate costs $22.99 a month, as our Game Pass price guide lists, which works out to about $1.53 for each included cloud hour, against 24 cents with the 50-hour pack. Game Pass still adds its full game library, while Cloud Playtime streams only games you own or select free-to-play games. Members who use up their monthly hours can buy more on the Xbox Store, and Xbox hasn’t said whether those top-ups use the same packs and prices.

The packs sell on the Xbox Store, the same place Game Pass members buy extra hours once the November limits kick in. Xbox promised more details before the wider launch: how players check the time they have left, which games qualify and which countries get the packs first. Owners of 2020 Samsung Smart TVs lose the Xbox app on Nov. 3, 2026, so cloud play on those sets ends before the packs reach everyone.

On July 23, 2026, Xbox started testing a free, ad-supported way for Insiders to stream games they own. Ads play before each session, and sessions last up to one hour. Cloud Playtime is the paid step up, with no ads and shorter waits.

This page is updated as soon as Xbox announces the November launch date or the final prices for Cloud Playtime.