What is the cheapest way to get Xbox Game Pass? (2026 Guide)

Last Updated on 2 June 2026 by Dan Wilderness

Hello everyone! I’m something of an avid gamer, and recently acquired Microsoft’s excellent Xbox Game Pass Ultimate service, which gives you access to both online play as quite an extensive catalogue of games to play. I think it represents fantastic value for those into gaming, so I thought I’d write an article on the cheapest way to get Xbox Game Pass.

Xbox has had something of a wild ride with Game Pass in the last couple of years – after being incredibly cheap for a long time and one of the best deals in gaming, XBox then increased the prices and complexity of the structure quite significantly. It led to quite a bit of fan backlash, and as a result XBox was forced to pull back their prices a bit.

(Note: All prices are correct at the time of writing this article but they’re always subject to change, so do check before making any decisions!)

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What does Xbox Game Pass include?

Game Pass is a subscription based service from Microsoft which allows you to play games online and (with the Ultimate version) also get access to an extensive back catalogue of games.

Let’s run through the options – please note that all subscriptions include the availability of online multiplayer which is where these services started, so the comparison focuses on what else you get.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate

Ultimate features the most content for your XBox, but also the highest price. The biggest draw of XBox Ultimate is that many first-party XBox games will be included and go live on the service from Day 1. (Note: Microsoft has said this will now exclude the Call of Duty releases as the new ones come out until a year later, although the older games will remain on the services).

With many of the particularly big games on the XBox coming either from Microsoft themselves or a studio they own, this is a big selling point.

You also get EA Play and Ubisoft+ Classics, which gives you access to the back catalogue of some of their many games, including those from the Star Wars series, Fifa, Madden etc.

And beyond the big names there’s many great games from smaller independent developers as well – I’ve discovered some really interesting games that I wouldn’t otherwise have tried.

You can also stream games from the cloud with a subscription – what this means is that you can use a device like an IPad or a PC to play your console games without having the console there, offering some flexibility. On the Ultimate tier your streaming is prioritised.

It’s pretty amazing to do this, because you no longer actually really need a XBox console to play anything and most games can be streamed. I suspect this will be the future of gaming.

Finally, you can also play the PC Game Pass we reference here included, getting access to a wider range of PC games as well.

You can see all included games with Ultimate on the Microsoft website here.

XBox Game Pass Ultimate is right for you if: You want access to a large library of games and to play the latest major releases online immediately.

XBox Game Pass Premium

XBox Game Pass Premium is a new tier introduced by Microsoft as part of their shakeup of Game Pass

There is still a substantial number of included games, but the biggest difference at the Premium level is that Day 1 released are not included – but generally will be posted to the Premium tier after a year of release.

Other than that the services are pretty similar – it does include the cloud gaming service, but your connection is not prioritised to the same degree as Ultimate. (I have found little tangible difference when testing this in practice).

XBox Game Pass Premium is likely to be right for you if: You want a large library of games to play and enjoy but don’t necessarily need immediate access to all Day 1 releases.

Xbox Game Pass Essential

Game Pass Essential is a cheaper service which is primarily right for you if you want to play games online against friends.

It does give access to some games, however I will note these do tend to be more of the basic variety rather than in-demand games.

XBox Game Pass Essential is likely to be right for you if: Your primary focus of a subscription is simply that you want to play online.

PC Game Pass

The PC Game Pass does include the functionality of most of the games included in the XBox Game Pass Ultimate list, including EA Play. However, it only enables you to do so on PC, not on console.

It does not include the Cloud gaming service.

A couple of notes on this one – in this case the PC will have to have Windows, as you’ll need the XBox Game Pass app to play this.

You can see all included games on the Microsoft website here.

What Price is Xbox and PC Game Pass?

These are the official prices per Microsoft for subscribing directly on the Xbox.

Whilst this is the easiest way to subscribe and get running, you can get better prices than these (more below), although I’m listing these as a benchmark.

• Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is £16.99 a month
• Xbox Game Pass Premium is £10.99 a month
• Xbox Game Pass Essential is £6.99 a month.
• PC Game Pass is £10.99 a month.

How can I get XBox and PC Game Pass Cheap?

Unfortunately since Xbox brought in further changes to Game Pass, there are less read method of getting Game Pass cheaply – based a core principle that vouchers for Game Pass from reputable third parties are generally cheaper than subscribing directly.

The Third Party Voucher method

As third party shops tend to buy their Xbox Live vouchers to sell in bulk, they tend to get them at a discount and some of them will pass as least some of this discount on to you.

As long as you buy from a reputable site, you lose nothing by doing this – they send you a code near-instantly so there’s no waiting for a physical voucher.

I’ve found Loaded and ShopTo are consistently sites I get the best deals on for Game Pass.

Important: Be sure to make you buy a voucher for the region you are in – they are location specific and not transferable. For avoidance of doubt, the EU region one includes the UK.

Via an EE mobile plan or add-on

Mobile network EE offers a couple of routes to get XBox Game Pass Ultimate at a discounted price.

If you’re on an All Rounder or Full Works plan, you’ll have the option of selecting an add-on bonus. Free XBox Game Pass Ultimate is one of those, and we would say one of the better options in the list if you use it.

(Note: Most people use much less mobile data than they need. Even as a heavier user, you may save more money going for one of the cheaper SIM only networks (like SMARTY, Giffgaff, Sky Mobile and Tesco Mobile) and getting XBox Game Pass separately – but still worth looking at EE’s deals just in case).

If you’re on EE but not on one of these packages, you can also get XBox Game Pass Ultimate as a £10 a month add-on. This is very slightly more expensive than the third party shops we mention above, but doesn’t tie you in to an extended period and is a considerably better deal than Microsoft directly.

Stacking XBox Game Pass

One option that can reduce your long term costs is the ability to stack any XBox Game Pass subscription.

What stacking in this case means is your redeem multiple subscriptions simultaneously. This has the effect of extending your membership.

As an example, if I cash in a 6 month Game Pass Ultimate voucher, and then cash in another one immediately, XBox will register than I am subscribed for a year.

I use this method myself to try and keep the costs down, and have found it very effective.

What are the advantages of stacking XBox Game Pass

Whilst stacking won’t save you money in the short term, it means you’ve already got a subscription and therefore if the price of Game Pass rises in future, you’ll also be protected from that.

If you get a particularly good deal on an XBox game pass subscription, it’ll also help you maximise the benefit of it.

How long can I stack XBox Game Pass for?

Up to 36 months (3 years).

Will vouchers from the discounted retailers you mention above work for stacking?

Yes, both the vouchers from Loaded and ShopTo will work for stacking XBox Game Pass.

Can you get XBox Game Pass for free?

Sort of but not really.

If you’ve never used Game Pass before, you’ll often find that if you go into related areas on your console you may get a pop-up offering you a free trial of the service for a month. Once you’ve used this, this won’t appear again.

The other route is to use Microsoft Rewards, a program that gives you redeemable points for searching with Bing and undertaking things like daily challenges.

You can redeem your points for a voucher for Game Pass – but we need to warn that it’s a slow method and really does take a while to build up the points for a reward you can cash in.

What Games are included in Xbox and PC Game Pass?

You can find a full list of the games included in both Xbox and PC Game Pass at the games library on the Microsoft website right here.

What else should I be aware of?

One note I’ll just make is that whenever you activate a game pass voucher or take out a new subscription, auto-renewal at full cost kicks in by default.

Our advice is always to switch this off at the point of subscription – it’s a reminder to look for a deal at a later point and you can always re-subscribe in the moment if you’re getting cut off.

Any questions?

If you have any questions on Game Pass, we’d absolutely love to hear from you! Just drop us a note in the comments below and we’ll be happy to get back to you. (We’d also absolutely love to hear what you’re playing at the moment and any particular recommendations you have).

What about other consoles?

A similar approach works to help get Playstation Plus cheaply as well as for Nintendo consoles – it’ll well worth going down the third party voucher method with these as well.

And that’s it!

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