Nintendo Switch Online costs $19.99 a year for one person or $34.99 a year for a family of up to eight, and the Family plan is the one to buy. Those are Nintendo’s own published annual prices. Adding the Expansion Pack takes it to $49.99 individual or $79.99 family. That is the whole price list, and everything below is about which line of it you should actually put on a card.
The reason the question gets typed so often is that the four tiers are not laid out like a price list in a shop. You find out what a membership costs at the point where somebody is already annoyed — a child cannot join a friend’s race, a save file has gone, a game wants a code. By then you are not comparing plans, you are fixing something.
The four prices, in Nintendo’s own words
Nintendo’s own membership page lists the standard tiers as including online play, cloud saves and the classic NES, Super NES and Game Boy libraries, and the Expansion Pack tiers as adding the Nintendo 64, GameCube, Game Boy Advance and SEGA Genesis libraries plus select DLC on top.
| Membership | Price / year | Covers | What you get |
|---|
| Individual | $19.99 | 1 account | Online play, cloud saves, NES / Super NES / Game Boy libraries |
|---|
| Family | $34.99 | Up to 8 accounts | Everything in Individual, for up to eight Nintendo Accounts |
|---|
| Individual + Expansion Pack | $49.99 | 1 account | Adds Nintendo 64, GameCube, Game Boy Advance and SEGA Genesis, plus select DLC |
|---|
| Family + Expansion Pack | $79.99 | Up to 8 accounts | The Expansion Pack libraries and DLC, for up to eight accounts |
|---|
The arithmetic that decides it
Two Individual memberships cost $39.98. One Family membership costs $34.99 and covers up to eight people. So the Family plan is already cheaper at two players, and from there it never gets more expensive — the third, fourth and eighth person are free.
The same shape holds one tier up. Two Individual memberships with the Expansion Pack come to $99.98; the Family version is $79.99. The only case where Individual is the right buy is a genuinely single-player household: one person, one account, nobody else in the house who plays.
This is the part that makes it a good present rather than a chore. If you are buying for a family with two children, the $34.99 card is a gift to four or five people at once, and it is the kind of cost a parent keeps meaning to sort out and never does.
What the membership actually unlocks
Online play. The main event. Playing Mario Kart or Smash Bros against other people over the internet needs it; playing them on the sofa does not.
Cloud saves. Backups of save files, which matters more than it sounds for a child who has put sixty hours into one game on a console that lives in a bag.
The classic libraries. NES, Super NES and Game Boy on the standard tiers; Nintendo 64, GameCube, Game Boy Advance and SEGA Genesis on the Expansion Pack. For a parent who played these the first time around, this is often the part they enjoy most.
Family-group sharing. On top of a Family membership, Nintendo’s virtual game card system lets a digital game be lent to a family member for 14 days, with up to three lent at a time and one borrowed at a time — and the borrower “must be part of your Nintendo Account family group”. Our can you share Nintendo Switch games guide covers all three sharing routes in full.
On a Switch 2, the chat features. Nintendo states plainly that “internet, Nintendo Switch Online membership and Nintendo Account required for online features, including GameChat”. If the household has a new Switch 2 and somebody has been trying to use the C button to talk to friends, this is why it is not working.
Which to buy as a gift
Buy the 12-month Family membership card unless you know for certain the recipient lives alone with their console. It is the cheapest plan the moment a second person is involved, it arrives as a code you can hand over or print, and it does not quietly renew on somebody’s card the way a console-store subscription does.
If you are not sure which tier they want — and the Expansion Pack question really does come down to taste — an eShop card is the honest alternative. They can put it toward whichever membership they prefer, or toward a game instead. Our Nintendo eShop cards explained guide covers how the balance works, including the region rule that catches people out.