How much do antivirus prices increase at renewal? (2026 data)
The increases as printed on the vendors' pages, September 30, 2026
Largest to smallest: Norton 360 Deluxe +150% ($49.99 to $124.99), Bitdefender Total Security +83.3% ($59.99 to $109.99), Avast One +58.9% ($49.08 to $77.99), Intego Mac Internet Security +33.3% ($29.99 to $39.99), TotalAV 0% ($99 to $99), F-Secure Total 0% ($84.99 to $84.99), G Data Total Security -30% ($49.95 to $34.95). Average 42.2%, median 33.3%, over 7 vendors.
ESET HOME Security, Trend Micro Maximum Security, Aura, LifeLock, Webroot Essentials print a first-year price but no renewal amount, so they cannot be placed in this list and are left out of the average. Amounts are in the currency each vendor bills in; nothing is converted.
Figures from the vendors’ own pages, read September 30, 2026, in the currency each vendor bills in. Every vendor with its source link is in the Renewal Price Index; the entry prices per month are in the Price Index.
The short answer
The block at the top of this page lists, largest to smallest, how much each vendor’s renewal price rises over its first-year price, as printed on the vendors’ own pages on the date shown, with the average and median across the vendors that print a renewal amount; the vendors that print none are named there too. The full table with sources is the Renewal Price Index on this site. The single most effective response is to turn off auto-renewal the day you buy.
In detail
Antivirus pricing runs on one trick. A deep first-year discount that renews at full list price. To put numbers on it, we take the advertised first-year price and the stated renewal price for every paid product on our list, as printed on the vendor’s own page, and calculate the increase; each figure carries the date it was read and the page it was read from.
Free products like Microsoft Defender stay out, and so does any vendor that prints a first-year price but no renewal amount, because an increase you cannot read is not a number.
An earlier version of this page carried a typed list from a June 2026 reading of sixteen brands. That list is retired. The block at the top of the page now replaces it with the figures read directly from the vendors’ pages, largest increase first, and the same figures with their sources are in the Renewal Price Index.
Two patterns stand out on the current reading. The steepest markups sit with the most heavily advertised consumer brands, where the cheap first year is the hook. The honest end is small, and includes a European old-timer that does not play the game at all, G Data, whose printed renewal is lower than its first-year price. Bitdefender, our overall pick, is neither the steepest nor the mildest; its row is in the block above.
The fix costs nothing. The day you buy any antivirus, open the account and disable auto-renewal. You keep protection for the full term you already paid for. Set a reminder for one week before it expires. Then ask support for the new-customer price (often granted to keep you), switch to a competitor at their first-year price, or rebuy the same product through a fresh checkout. In this market, loyalty is simply the most expensive option.
Relevant to this question
Bitdefender