Discovery Plus plans, price and shows: all about the premium streaming service

Discovery Plus on Apple TV
(Image credit: WhatToWatch.com)

If you want to learn more about the real world, whether it's by finding out about historical civilizations, learning about the true crimes of evil people or following the romances of total strangers, then Discovery Plus likely has something for you.

Discovery Plus countless hours of 'edu-tainment' — that is, factual and educational entertainment on topics including nature, science, the paranormal, true crime, food and more. The streamer has one of the largest libraries of any video service, with plenty more being added all the time.

Discovery Plus offers content from Food Network, HGTV, TLC, Animal Planet, ID, Discovery channels and more; when it launched it offered the largest library of any streaming service and it continues to get new releases all the time.

Discovery Plus is home to over 2,500 shows in total, with 55,000 episodes to sink your teeth into, including exclusives from some of your favorite Discovery personalities, like Chip and Joanna Gaines' Magnolia Network.

You can now get access to all of Discovery Plus' catalog on Max (formerly HBO Max) if you live in the US, but you can still sign up to Discovery Plus without Max, if you only care about this informational content.

Here's everything you need to know about Discovery Plus right now, including the different plans, which countries it's available in and the Discovery Plus price.

How much does Discovery Plus cost?

In the US, the Discovery Plus price is broken down into two categories: the ad-lite version which runs at $4.99 per month and the ad-free version at $6.99 per month. If you choose to sign up via Max, it'll cost you $9.99 for ad-lite or $15.99 for ad-free (or $19.99 for the 4K plan but this doesn't affect Discovery Plus videos).

In the UK, it's a little different. There's an Entertainment package for £4.99 or an Entertainment and Sports one (which bundles in coverage of sports like cycling, tennis and snooker) for £6.99 — that's per month, but you can pay £39.99 / £59.99 for a year. You can sign up in the UK here.

If you want to wrap Discovery Plus into an existing subscription, you can get it as an Amazon Prime Video channel which costs exactly the same and includes the same shows. UK- or Ireland-based Sky TV subscribers get Discovery Plus bundled with their plan for no extra cost.

Discovery Plus discounts and deals

  • Subscribers to Verizon Wireless (Unlimited plans) can get Discovery Plus for free for six months. After the six month free period the cost will be $6.99 per month. Visit Verizon.com/discoveryplus to find out more.
  • Students, veterans and military get 40% off the standard (Ad-lite) Discovery Plus plan, costing just $2.99 per month. Check out the Discovery Plus website for more info on the student and military discounts.

Does Discovery Plus have a free trial?

Discovery Plus has a seven-day free trial for both the ad-free and the ad-lite (with ads) plan in the US. In the UK, the trial is for Discovery Plus Entertainment tier.

After that free trial period has expired, you'll start paying your standard monthly fee. If you want to double that time, you can separately sign up for the 7-day trial for the Prime Video channel.

Shows on Discovery Plus

With a Discovery Plus subscription you'll be able to watch more than 55,000 episodes from more than 2,500 shows across the Discovery portfolio. That includes the likes of HGTV, Lifetime, Food Network, TLC, ID, OWN, Travel Channel, Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. You'll get non-stop streams of your favorite shows — like 90 Day Fiancé, Miami Ink, Dance Moms, Queen Sugar, Married at First Sight, House Hunters, Chopped, Fixer Upper and more — available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Discovery Plus includes a CNN tab on August 19 that gives subscribers access to CNN original series, films and HLN original series. That means Discovery Plus subscribers can watch shows like Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown and more.

Discovery Plus originals and exclusives

In addition to all the standard programming you'd expect from Discovery, the streaming service also features originals and exclusive shows. That list is pretty extensive. Here's the short version:

Love and Relationships

  • 90 Day Bares All
  • 90 Day Diaries
  • 90 Day Journey
  • The Other Way Strikes Back!

Lifestyle

  • Amy Schumer Learns to Cook: Uncensored
  • Bobby and Giada in Italy
  • Cakealkies
  • Clipped
  • Dr. Pimple Popper: This is Zit
  • Duff's Happy Fun Bake Time
  • Foodways with Carla Hall
  • Frozen in Time
  • House Hunters: Comedians on Couches Unfiltered
  • Home Town: Ben's Workshop
  • Long Island Medium: There in Spirit
  • Luda Can't Cook
  • Mary McCartney Serves It Up
  • Say Yes to the Dress: In Sickness and In Health
  • What's Eating Sebastian Maniscalo

True Crime

  • Queen of Meth
  • American Detective With Joe Kenda
  • Onion: In Real Life

Adventure and Nature

  • Route 66
  • Pushing the Line
  • Mysterious Planet
  • Six Degrees with Mike Rowe

Documentaries

  • P.S., Burn This Letter
  • The Impossible Row
  • My Beautiful Stutter
  • Beyond Borders
  • The Parachute Murder Plot

What devices can you watch Discovery Plus on?

Discovery Plus is available on all major devices. That includes:

In which countries is Discovery Plus available?

Discovery Plus is available in countries around the world. The US version of Discovery Plus is only available to those residing in the US and its territories.

Outside of the US, Discovery Plus is available in the UK, Ireland, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, India, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Spain, Sweden, United Arab Emirates.

More countries and regions are expected to be added in the future.

Discovery Plus UK

<a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=110014&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.co.uk%2Fgp%2Fvideo%2Fstorefront%2Fref%3Datv_hm_hom_c_7hOnbS_72%3FcontentType%3Dsubscription%26contentId%3Ddiscoveryplusuk%26benefitId%3Ddiscoveryplusuk%26tag%3Dhawk-future-21%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-21" data-link-merchant="Amazon UK"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Discovery Plus UK on <a href="https://www.whattowatch.com/news/ten-amazon-prime-video-channels-you-need-know" data-link-merchant="whattowatch.com"" data-link-merchant="Amazon UK"">Prime Video Channels costs £4.99 per month for the Entertainment package and £6.99 per month for the Entertainment plus Sport plan.

Discovery Plus and HBO Max merger

Warner Media Discovery, the parent company to Discovery Plus, has announced that Discovery Plus and HBO Max are going to merge into a single streaming service in the summer of 2023. No details have been provided on this new streaming service (price, name, etc.), but until the merger officially happens, Discovery Plus should work as normal and all subscription and pricing details remain the same.

Phil Nickinson

Phil spent his 20s in the newsroom of the Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal, his 30s on the road for AndroidCentral.com and Mobile Nations and is the Dad part of Modern Dad.

With contributions from