Amazon has notified customers via email that the company will be raising the price on its Kindle Unlimited (KU) subscription effective May 11th, 2023. The price will increase from $9.99 to $11.99, effective on the subscriber’s next month’s renewal date, effectively giving subscribers one month’s notice before the change takes effect.

Subscribers have the option to keep their current prices for a limited time. Until July 31, 2023, subscribers can lock in the current $9.99/month price by purchasing upfront 6 months or 12 months of Kindle Unlimited. According to Amazon, “The lock-in price will take effect on the next billing date after the offer is purchased.” To learn more about this offer, click here.

This is Amazon’s first price increase since the program’s inception in July 2014. The program began with over 600,000 titles and audiobooks, with a limit of accessing ten items at a time. Nine years later, the program includes over 4 million titles, and has expanded to include digital magazine subscriptions and comics. Subscribers can now access 20 items per month at one time.

It is interesting that Amazon is choosing to raise the price for this program now, given the fact that Kobo has recently introduced their Kobo Plus Read and Listen service for $9.99 per month. Kobo’s service features over 1.3 million books and over 100,000 audiobooks. Competitor Scribd’s subscription service is already priced at $11.99/month.

Since most users of the service are avid readers, it will be interesting to see if the price increase will affect the number of KU subscribes. How about you? Is $2 a deal breaker for you?