Coursera Plus Review: Is the Subscription Worth it for $399? [Updated in December 2025]

Stacey M. December 25, 2025 2319 0

Coursera is one of the leaders in the e-learning market. It’s been operating since 2012 and currently has over 100M learners worldwide. Coursera offers courses from leading universities like Harvard, Stanford, Duke University, The University of Illinois, the University of Michigan, and also partners with some of the biggest corporations like Google, IBM, and Meta for course creation.

Having different program types with different fees you need to choose from, there is a universal solution Coursera Plus, a subscription offered by Coursera. According to Coursera’s 2025 financial reports, Coursera Plus subscriptions are growing, while the platform is keeping introducing new partnerships and features.

So, let’s review Coursera Plus and what it offers as we head into 2026.

verdict

Is Coursera Plus worth it in 2026? Overall, Coursera Plus is a good investment to cover your online learning goals. While Coursera Plus doesn’t include everything, it gives you access to 90% of all Coursera courses just for $59/mo or $399/year. However, if you only plan to take one or a couple of Coursera courses, you’ll be better off purchasing an individual course instead. If you’re an active learner, who enjoys taking new courses regularly, you should consider the subscription as a cost-effective solution.

Good for active learners

Coursera Plus Review

Go to Coursera Plus

PROS

Unlimited courses and certificates
Ability to save money for active learners
Easy switching between different courses

CONS

Online degrees and MasterTrack programs are not included
Not a cost-effective solution if you just take a couple of courses per year

Now that you know our take on the value of Coursera Plus, let’s get into the details.

You’ll be better off in the following scenarios.

You are planning to take more than one course per month or more than 10 per year and you want to get certificates upon completion. In this case, you will save money as each certificate costs around $50. However, if you usually take one-two courses per year, there is not much sense to buy the subscription.
You want to take more than three Specializations or more than two Professional Certificates during a year. In this case, you’ll definitely spend more than $399 per year.
You want to be able to switch between different programs and take courses simultaneously. This way, even a monthly Coursera Plus subscription is a good deal as you’ll save at least $20.

So, the Coursera Plus subscription is the best option for active learners who would like to complete many courses and be able to move between multiple courses at any time.

Go to Coursera Plus

What is Coursera Plus

Coursera Plus is a subscription offered by Coursera. You don’t pay for each course individually–instead, you for a period of time (month or year) and take as many courses as you want. The subscription provides access to the majority of Coursera’s courses (over 10000 courses). Moreover, you get unlimited certificates for all the courses you complete.

Online courses usually have a pay-per-course model and this subscription model by Coursera is an opportunity for the most active learners to get more content for a fixed price. The price of the subscription is very simple–let’s check how much it costs.

In the last two years, Coursera has been actively expanding content and features to increase the value of the subscription. In 2024, Coursera welcomed 25 new content partners, including big names like Amazon Web Services, Adobe, or NVIDIA. Moreover, Coursera recently also rolled out over 1300 new courses and programs, with many of them being around AI.

Read more on What is Coursera?

Coursera Plus price

There are two pricing options available for this subscription: with billing per month or per year.

Monthly-billed subscription is $59
The annual subscription is $399 ($33.25 per month)

In the first case, you’ll be automatically billed each month on the same date but you are more flexible as you can cancel anytime and renew it later without losing money. In the second case, you will be billed once per year and save money; however, if you want to cancel it after the first two weeks, you won’t get a refund.

Additionally, the annual subscription comes with a 14-day refund window, whereas the monthly one has a 7-day free trial included.

Location	Price per year	Price per month	Price of a single learning program per month
United States	$399	$59	$49 – $79
United Kingdom	£350	£51	£43 – £69
Europe	€399	€59	€49 – €79
Canada	CA$537	CA$79

In the table, you can see Coursera Plus cost for different locations–if you pay on a monthly or annual basis. For all locations, you pay less by going for the annual Coursera Plus subscription. For instance, if you pay in US dollars, you save $300 (if you pay on a monthly basis for 12 months (12*59), you’ll spend $708 per year).

However, keep in mind that if you have existing subscriptions to Coursera Specializations, you need first to cancel them. Otherwise, you’ll be charged twice, for your Coursera Specialization and for a Coursera Plus subscription separately.

What Coursera Plus includes

Coursera Plus subscription includes over 90% of all Coursera’s content.

More specifically, here is what Coursera Plus gives you:

Access to over 10,000+ courses and 700+ Specializations. While courses are shorter and focused on a single topic, specializations are a series of courses to master a specific skill. For instance, there is Business Foundations Specialization consisting of 6 single courses like Introduction to Marketing, Introduction to Financial Accounting, etc.
Access to over 15 Professional Certificate programs. These are programs of longer duration designed to prepare a student for a job or a particular industry. An example is Data Analytics Professional Certificate offered by Google which is estimated to take 6 months to complete.
Access to over 1,000 applied projects. These are usually 2-hour interactive courses to practice a specific skill.
Unlimited certificates, including Specializations, or Professional Certificates.

What is not included in Coursera Plus

One of Coursera Plus’s biggest selling points is that a Coursera Plus subscription gives you unlimited access to over 10,000 online courses across all subjects, along with 700+ Specializations, 75+ Professional Certificate programs, and thousands of hands-on Guided Projects. In practical terms, over 90% of Coursera’s entire catalog is included in Coursera Plus with no caps on enrollment and no extra fees for certificates.

The only significant exclusions now are the degree offerings and certain specialized content that partners opt to keep separate. Coursera’s partner agreements determine inclusion, so a handful of courses from particular institutions may not be in Plus – but these are the exception rather than the rule. For instance, some Stanford University offerings aren’t in the Coursera Plus.

To check the program you are interested in, go to a program page and check for the badge “Included with Coursera Plus” below the “Enroll” button. To see a complete list, go to this page.

Pros and cons of Coursera Plus

Let’s sum up what are the main benefits of Coursera Plus:

High-quality content from top institutions. Coursera Plus includes content from over 350 leading universities and companies worldwide, including Yale, Duke, the University of Michigan, Imperial College London, and many more, as well as professional training from industry titans like Google, IBM, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft. The overall course standard and quality is high – videos are well-produced and syllabi are robust, because content is vetted through Coursera’s partnership process.
Cost-effective solution. If you are an active learner and are easily interested in new subjects, online learning might get expensive. Let’s say you’d like to take two or even three courses per month–this will end up paying around $150. However, with Coursera Plus you pay $399 for a whole year and you don’t need to count how many courses you take.
Unlimited certificates. As you can take as many courses as you want, you can also get a certificate for each completed one.
Coursera Coach (AI Guide): a new feature introduced in 2023 that helps answer students’ questions about course material, provide study tips, and even quiz you with practice questions. For example, if you’re stuck on a concept in a Python course, you can ask Coursera Coach for clarification or a simpler explanation.

Now, it’s time to mention the disadvantages as well.

Not including online degrees. While Coursera Plus includes the majority of courses, it doesn’t provide access to online degrees and MasterTracks as these are the most expensive Coursera programs. Also, the subscription doesn’t include some programs offered by Stanford University, IBM, and some other recognized institutions.
Not a cost-effective option for some learners. If you are not an active learner who realistically takes less than three to five courses per year, you will end up spending more on the subscription than you would spend on individual courses otherwise.

Customer reviews on Coursera Plus

Let’s now see what users say about Coursera Plus. For this, we have collected Coursera Plus reviews from Reddit.

Here are brief answers to the main question: Is Coursera Plus worth it?

“It depends on your personality type. It depends on what you want to learn and how self-motivated you are. If you are highly self-motivated, have a good routine, and want to learn tech, math, and science then Coursera Plus is an absolute pleasure.“
“If you do a lot of learning on the side (the cost of the subscription per year comes out to about 8-10 months of average course fees), it’s pretty reasonable.“
“I say no, it’s overwhelming to start and stop and not have the accountability. I say just pay for the specialties or specific programs separately.”

Here are more reviews about the Coursera Plus subscription:

“I have the Coursera Plus subscription for 6 months. I fell in love with it. I’ve been taking time off from a career being a stay-at-home dad and ended up getting 29 certificates in those 6 months(early morning, nap, and after bedtime). I’ve paid $300 and have gained immense practical knowledge and skills, specifically in computer science and programming. Favorite single course is Medical Neuroscience from Duke. My favorite specializations are the ones UofM offers, particularly the Statistics, Data Science, and Python3 specializations are phenomenal.”
“I have it and its fantastic. Looking at LinkedIn, i see a lot of people add their certificates from coursera to their profile too.“

FAQ

What is Coursera Plus?

Coursera Plus is a subscription-based service offered by Coursera that gives users access to thousands of courses from top universities and organizations. With Coursera Plus, subscribers can take as many courses as they want, as often as they like, for a single annual fee.

What is the difference between Coursera Plus and Coursera?

Coursera’s main pricing means paying for a chosen course, whereas with Coursera Plus, you pay per month/year and get almost unlimited access to courses.

What is the difference between Coursera Plus and Coursera for Teams?

Coursera for Teams is a plan designed for a company or organization with a team of 5-25 people. Meanwhile, Coursera Plus is created for the individual. Coursera for Teams also provides additional tools for user management and messaging features, which are not available in Coursera Plus. Both plans offer an annual subscription for the same for both plans–$399. However, unlike Coursera Plus, Coursera for Teams doesn’t have a monthly fee option.

What does Coursera Plus cost?

The price of the subscription is $59/month or $399/year.

Does Coursera Plus include all courses?

No, it includes 90% of all courses and doesn’t include online degrees or MasterTrack programs.

What types of courses are included in Coursera Plus?

Coursera Plus includes a wide range of courses across various disciplines, including computer science, data science, business, personal development, and more. The courses are provided by top universities and organizations, and cover a range of skill levels from beginner to advanced.

How does Coursera Plus differ from regular Coursera courses?

With Coursera Plus, subscribers have unlimited access to thousands of courses, while regular Coursera courses are priced individually and may have limited access to course materials.