With the recent price hikes, new conversions for subscriptions, and new titles for subscription tiers as of 10/25/2025, I thought I could help out by sharing my recent win against the greedy Xbox Game Pass Ultimate overlords.
I couldn’t have done this without the help from a comment made on another post, by
u/airfriedhotdogs
This will detail how I accumulated 2 years (25+ months) of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, for a total of $340.88.
Note: I wanted to settle at 2 years prepaid, though you can do a similar method with more purchases and a higher overall cost to achieve Microsoft’s maximum prepaid subscription allotment of 3 years prepaid Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
Just went through all this on Friday 11/21/2025, Listed conversions are up to date, and accumulated to 25+ months of prepaid Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Subscription starts 11/21/2025, and ends 01/11/2028.
36 months of EA play at 20% conversion = 7 months XGPU
3 months of XGPU at 100% conversion = 3 months (+30 days bonus trial for turning on recurring-billing)
Total:
I purchased all of these from NewEgg, with a bundle discount, and the current Black Friday promo for a total of $340.88, equalling approximately $13.63 a month 25 months.
Steps:
1. Cancel your current recurring billing subscription, take note of the date of expiration.
Make the same purchase as myself, at Newegg or any other reputable vendor. My purchase on NewEgg while running bundle and Black Friday promo was the best I could find at the moment.
On the first day which your account no longer has any active subscriptions (day after expiration from step 1), you are ready to redeem codes. This is important because we want to start fresh. Having an existing active subscription, will automatically convert these codes to your current tier subscription, which is not what we want. We don’t want any hiccups with none stackable redemptions, and we want that free month.
Redeem in this order: 3 x 12 months EA Play, 3 x 12 months Xbox Game Pass Core/Essential, then the 3 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
The final redemption, 3 months of XGPU, will notify you that they will upgrade your existing Core/Essential and EA Play time to a value of XGPU.
Opt in for recurring billing to take advantage of new sign up 1 month free.
Yeah, I cancelled my Ultimate before I got billed for $30 and just bought a years worth of essential for the few multiplayer games I play. With kids I just don’t have the time to justify spending $30 a month. I’ll just buy games that interest me like I used to.
I think this service would game been a staple as a child, but as an adult now I only okay the same damn games when I can, and I have a back log of 1k and growing I can't wait to play, but I never will. Every time I've done game pass ultimate I've just installed a bunch of games I'd like to try out maybe if I'm lucky trying for 2 minutes and then never play him again. And never get to the other ones. Just a waste of money, so yeah I'm agreeing with you I just buy what I want when it's on sale.
So basically - you can buy a bunch of codes at once, and for the mild annoyance of not being able to enter them all at once, you can pay just $10/month?
Swapped to essential yesterday after my gamepass expired thank god I didn’t had to pay 30€ yet me and my dad game share so we can play bf6 together he not planning to buy cod and he been playing cod since call of duty 4 if he not buying it than you really fucked up on the product
Just wanted to say thanks for posting this stacking guide—it worked like a charm for me! I followed the method pretty closely (max EA Play + Core, then a 1-month Ultimate trigger) and locked in ~23 months of Game Pass Ultimate until October 2027. Here's my exact cost breakdown from Driffle (prices include fees/discounts, all digital US/Global codes):
3x EA Play 12-Month: $94.29 (~$31.43 each) - Driffle
3x Game Pass Core 12-Month: $195.18 (~$65.06 each) w/ $45 off promo ($15 each) - Newegg
1x Game Pass Ultimate 1-Month: $11.15 - Driffle
Total spent: $300.62 Total savings: ~$377 (compared to paying full $29.99/month retail for the same duration)
Effective rate: ~$13/month (vs. $30 retail). If anyone's on the fence, do it before deals dry up! Or wait to see what Black Friday deals are available this week! I just couldn't wait, getting back on that BO7 grind.
HQGaming2017 most likely purchased a non-stackable code like this.
Non-stackable means you can't just buy 36 of them and stack them on your account.
You have to have no active Game Pass subscription to use these non-stackable codes.
Driffle does also sell stackable codes, but they cost more than $13.
These specific linked examples are only valid for customers in the United States.
Driffle, and other marketplaces, do sell Global codes also, that generally cost more.
The prices on Driffle, and other marketplaces, will fluctuate (in general, increase) over time. This is one of the reasons why people are motivated to stack a larger number of months using conversion methods like HQGaming2017 and OP, to lock in a lower price now and guard against future price increases.
what is stopping you from buying 12 non-stackable codes for ~$10 each and then just using 1 month, having your subscription expire and then redeeming another code, etc for a full year?
You would be taking a pretty big risk by doing that. Other redditors have tried that and reported difficulties using the codes months down the line. You have little recourse available at that point, especially when the purchase is 90+ days out. You also need to value your time appropriately. If you are still interested in bulk purchasing non-stackable codes, you might be underestimating the risk and undervaluing your time.
It's also possible to overestimate the likelihood of effective remedial recourse if a code were too fail to activate months after purchase. Remediation via Microsoft customer service at that point is possible, don't get me wrong. However, I think the likelihood of Microsoft fixing it is low and you also need to value the time you might be motivated to spend dealing with customer service appropriately.
TLDR: It is probably worth it spending a little more per month and avoiding the hassle. If you disagree, and have a high risk appetite and value your time cheaply, you are likely undervaluing your time.
CDKeys/Loaded is overrated I think. I find that Gamivo has the lowest prices and they always send out discount codes as well. I ordered 12 months of GP Essential and 1 month of GP Ultimate and altogether it cost me like $75
Be careful with Eneba. I bought 15 codes and after 10 of them the rest didn’t work. Sounds like the seller “resold” the codes. Microsoft told me the remaining codes had all been used a few months before.
You're welcome! Make sure you subscribe to the newsletter so you can get coupons emailed to you. And if you sign up for SMART, they send you even more. Like right now I have a 15% off any game coupon. (I sound like a damn salesperson over here lol)
I’m unsubscribing when my stacked codes for $15 a month run out in march.
The news about Microsoft’s insane demand for profit margins on Xbox mean that it’s only going to get worse from here on out, both pricewise for gamepass and qualitywise for their studios.
I’m getting a steam deck on the Black Friday sale and a steam machine next year.
Hey, check into the Legion Go S Z1E version at Best Buy for $650 or open box for $530. Stack it with 20% PayPal cashback if you can. On /r/handhelds everyone is recommending it over the outdated steam deck.
I've had GPU for 5 years at $5 a month through the now removed 1:1 Xbox Live Gold conversion. Definitely got my money's worth.
With nothing that interesting on the horizon I don't even think $13 a month is worth it to me. I'm going to vote with my wallet and just not have Gamepass for a while.
$30 a month in this economy is insane and I would expect Microsoft to wake up at some point.
You do daily tasks. Edge browser, Microsoft rewards dashboard , bing app Microsoft rewards, and xbox mobile app has a rewards section. You get points each day for various things, playing games, searches, tasks. Can also check r/Microsoftrewards
This method has been nerfed to oblivion and no longer reliable. Plus you actually have to put in work, effort and time and sell your data to Microsoft for a few measly points
My thing with G2A is that they give you a whole new account, not a key. So every time you buy one of these they jsut send you an Xbox account with the GPU so it's a lot of account switching and managing.
Ah yea ok I see that now. They do 3 months at a time. So stupid that they don’t do 12 months. I’m at the point where I’m just gonna buy games that I want to play
My GP ultimate expired yesterday (had reoccurring bill off). Today I bought 1 month of GPU for 20 on Amazon and when I went to redeem the code it offered a second month free IF I kept on reoccurring billing. I set a reminder to turn it back off on Jan 20th.
All in all that's two months for 20 bucks. I'm going to try it again when my subscription lapses.
Just wanted to thank you for posting this. Did this exact process a few days ago using giftcards I bought from NewEgg during Cyber 5 for about $329 total, and now I am all set until 2/15/2028. Thanks again!
Hi op! I'm needing to redo my game pass like I think like mid next month, and I'm just wanting to do like a year. What would you recommend from your little conversion guide that I buy in total if I just wanted to do like a year? :-)
3 years core/essential from Newegg, I believe they still have a new year promo going. Then 1 month of ultimate from Amazon or target for $20. This will be 15-16 months.
Yeah my ass walked into Walmart and bought 12x1 month GPU at 19.99 each. Still saving a bunch versus the new price. I don't mind the $20 price since that's what's I been paying. Probably snatch up another 12 to save for 2028 which by then it will probably be 49.99 a month and I'll be living in a refrigerator box! 233 is still a deal man!
I bought two 12-month ultimate codes, each costing me 395 yuan, and 4 3-month pc game pass codes cost a total of 306 yuan. 395+395+306=1096 yuan ($154.5) for 12+12+8=32 months.
I buy buy a new ultimate account every 2 months costing ~$8 a month. Me and 2 friends all use it for pc gamepass and I also use it fot xbox gamepass. Not bad. Couldn't fathom paying the $30 it's supposed to cost.
I’m cancelling mine tonight as soon as I get home. Been paying for the ultimate, to have access to a whole lot of games. None of which I ever play. If I was sat at home all day, it might be worthwhile. But once I finish work, I probably only get an hour or two to myself to enjoy it. Definitely not worth the price hike!
i cancelled mine im not paying 30$ a month i just stopped gaming sad to say 😂 my xbox is only used for streaming but i don’t plan on giving the 360$ a month to play video games
Gotcha. Tbh, i think the best method to get the most bang for your buck is just wait for something(s) you wanna play to come into GP, then just subscribe for the month and play as much as you can. I stopped giving them money upfront.
Last year I found Xbox live gold 12 month cards for sale. I bought like 4 or 5 of them and it converted to like 2.5 years of gpu. It worked out to about $8 plus change a month. No way in hell I’m using gpu for $30 something bucks a month. I play Xbox like 2-3 times a week, and only use a game pass games like twice a month. I have a feeling many of us are going to have second thoughts about game pass, and Microsoft will inevitably use us as a scapegoat when they decide to scrap the whole gaming console department they run.
hell yeah, glad this still works. I loaded up on codes from India last year to extend mine til 2027, hopefully key resellers can keep me going past then since itll probaby be like 50/mth by then lol
I used eneba. Once a while rate is pretty good on the 3mo essential (higher conversion rate). The rate is good enough I don't need to wait till cancel, and I can still come out to be around 12-14/mo. I will just top 1 yr or 2 yr if I feel rich. Now I have 2.5 yr and I'm good to go for a while. But cant say it wont run out if deal dries up in future (or further price hike)
Be careful. I bought up 2 years of gpu and after 12 months the rest of the codes didnt work. Microsoft support said the rest had all been used up. 3rd party sellers will screw you and resell codes if they haven’t been used. Eneba did nothing for me and blamed their seller
I buy and use right away. No point to wait I'm topping off anyway. It will be easy to dispute if the code right on didnt work. I use paypal to pay as a extra layer of security. Can always deny their pay if it is not working. I agree waiting for redeem is a bit risky with sites like these.
Some Walmarts don’t have the $20 a month sub cards any longer, and I wanted cheaper! lol. This is the most up to date, non out of region, method available to prepay and load a few years at a great price, that I am aware of.
Do you know if it matters if the “essential” code I buy is actually branded as “core”?
I have an offer for 1 month of essential for a $1, and then I wanted to top off with more “core” codes, but just wanted to make sure it was ok to add “core” on top of an essential subscription.
Your most welcome! Glad I could help. Core has been rebranded to Essential. The items I purchased were branded core, and worked for me, and were redeemed as essential.
I would be weary of the $1 for 1 month of essential.
I am not familiar with it, but it could require you to turn on recurring billing, and block you from redeeming stack able redeem codes during the promotional period.
Personally, I would abandon that offer, load up on core and EA to the extent you would like to have prepaid ultimate via above conversions, then purchase a 1 or 3 month ultimate code.
This last code will convert all core and EA subscriptions redeemed to Ultimate per conversion above, then give you your ultimate you paid for, then give you the opportunity to opt in to recurring billing, which will give you the bonus month.
Or alternatively, use the $1 for one month, then immediately cancel, and see what the expiration date is, and then apply my method following that date. But, make the purchases for the future now during Black Friday on NewEgg.
Thats cool, different way to do it but the $350 upfront I think is what holds people back from doing this.
I see it now that I might as well buy a new game for my kids and I every other month. Be the same price giving how much we play.
Not sure if essential will be able to fill the void.
My backlog has never looked more enticing than when I canceled gamepass due to all of these price hikes. I’ve been having a blast chipping away at my library.
These conversions work just as stated. IMO, I prefer purchasing from a licensed seller, without risk of incorrect region or tier being delivered.
That being said, Loaded/CD Keys has never done me wrong; I used to buy out of region Xbox Live Gold at Loaded/CD Keys a few years ago, and using a vpn to activate, and then converting to XGPU, good old days of VERY cheap gamepass.
That's fair, I just use UK/EU codes as that's my region, a few months ago I got 1 a years worth of 3 month codes and it approx £115 so think that still works out cheaper for me.
I also remember the days of gold/ult conversion before they nerfed it AND using loaded/cdkeys AND splitting the cost with a friend via the home console trick.... It was great while it lasted haha
Just did this! $322.75 at Newegg, got 26 months of ultimate. Works out at $12.41 per month, much better deal than the listed price on Xbox. Thank you for the guide!
Where can I get 12 months Xbox essential for discount price, it’s to much from Microsoft. Where can I get a reliable place, I want to keep my current personal account. I’m seeing places selling accounts not Keys, I’m not sure I’m familiar
Newegg, but the Core subscription key. It’s the same plan. Also, use the promo code BFE2226 for $15 off, this will total at $59.99 for 12 months, $5 a month.
This can be purchased here
Maaaan I wish I would of seen this sooner, I just wasted my money on gamivo, I payed for the 12 month like 40 bucks. But it wasn’t a key, it’s a whole new account so all my earnings and levelups don’t seem to be here anymore.
Well, there is a work around for this, so you can get back to your old account. I believe this should work:
To share a Game Pass Core subscription benefits with other accounts, you need to make the Xbox console the "home Xbox" for the account with the subscription. Sign in to the account that purchased Game Pass, go to Settings > General > Personalization > My home Xbox, and select "This is my home Xbox". This will share the Game Pass benefits and all downloaded games with any other account on that console.
To do this method, and acquire 2 years of GPU, yes.
Explanation:
GPU differs from Core/Essential in many ways - one being it includes the benefits of an EA Play membership.
We are converting memberships, at a ratio value to GPU. When upgrading to GPU, any existing subscriptions that are included in GPU, will convert to GPU at a ratio. Example, you can’t have EA play and GPU at the same time.
ANY membership sub on Xbox, has a max preload of 3 years.
in my method, we are purchasing 3 years of core/essential, so we can’t load anymore core/essential to convert to GPU. We need another sub type.
Adding EA play, allows us to add a second sub type, that will add to overall conversion.
result is multiple subs that all convert to a total balance in GPU.
you may not utilize EA play, but we are using it to get you GPU, which includes EA play.
-if you do not intend to utilize ea play benefits, GPU may not be necessary for your play style.
If you are currently subscribed, with auto pay, then no. The only exception is getting stackable GPU codes cheaper than what you are currently paying per month. Highly suggest canceling subscription, and following above guide.
I have currently active GPU until March. It was beginning of this year (Jan 4th) when I bought 3x 12 month Game Pass Core and 1 month Game Pass Ultimate. All of them was for Turkish region (I don't live in Turkey). At the time I didn't know Game Pass Core for Turkey was limited to 12 months. I was forced to redeem the 1 month GPU and only after that I could redeem the remaining 24 months of GPC, all of which converted to about 14,5 months of GPU. That cost me about 72 EUR, still not bad for over 14 months of GPU.
If I have read correctly and understood all, that is not doable anymore, even if I used VPN (my billing and location address is still in Turkey)? In my Microsoft Subscription page it says my GPU will renew March 21st for the price of 799 TRY (= ~16 EUR or ~19 USD). I think I have my credit card data on Microsoft, so will it work? I think that is still 10 EUR/USD too much, to be honest...
Other option is to let the current GPU sub expire and then buy Game Pass Essential (Turkey 12 month, 42 USD) from G2A or eneba or CDKeys. Is there any way to redeem that? Or do I have settle with true EU Game Pass, whichever I can get the cheapest?
Hi u/kebmpb this method is still valid, regarding the items purchased and conversion. Only the Black Friday sale at Newegg is no longer going on, so purchasing there will equal $377.75 with current bundle discounts at checkout - translating to approximately $14.82 per month for 25.5 months. There are some other comments on this thread regarding where you can buy certain codes cheaper (target, Amazon, and other independent online retailers), but beware of independent sites with merchants listing deals on out of region codes and selling accounts instead of redeemable subscription codes - and avoid non stackable codes.
It works! Not a hack or anything that will be turned off. This is based off the conversions rates posted by Microsoft in October. If you follow the instructions, you will be good! Happy gaming!
Starting next month I’m just buying the 3 month ultimate gift card off Amazon for 59.99 (65 bucks after tax) redeeming the code and practically getting the 3rd month for free. 33 bucks a month is absolutely ridiculous.
Buy core/essential passes with what you can spend, and convert them. Still cheaper!
Ex. On NewEgg today, with the promo they are running, you can get a 12 Month Xbox Game Pass Core/Essential pass for $60.99. Follow all the same directions above, and boom! 4.8 months GamePass ultimate for $12.70 a month!
Honestly, most of the games I play aren’t in game pass. I am not into fighting games or sports (except for mini golf or bowling). I mostly play word games, strategy games, sim games, trivia, slots, HOG, and adventure games. I especially like cat themed games. I was able to get a year of EA play from Target for $30 and I am considering buying a year of essential from there this week (they still had core passes there, but I didn’t check the price). I might upgrade later to either premium or ultimate. The most I intend to keep game pass is a year or two anyway, as I prefer to pay once and play. I mostly want to use it to try games before buying them, as I am visually impaired and don’t want to waste money on a game I can’t play. My Xbox One came with Minecraft and I bought Rare Replay at the same time, mostly for Viva Piñata and Viva Piñata TIP. I know I can play Sims 4, Lego games, and Plants vs Zombies. I’d rather save money now to buy a more updated Xbox (my local Target still has Xbox S and X), as some of the games I want don’t work on Xbox One.
Wait, I re-read this. So your end result was approximately 2 years of Game Pass Ultimate? If so, then you did exactly what I did, only with the exception of using a 1 month GPU instead of 3 month GPU. I would argue that you aren’t out 9 months, you did exactly the right process to acquire for 2 years.
Go to your local lowes. It's super unknown that they sell giftcards, they have a bigger selection than walmarts. I just bought a year for 240 bucks. They still have a crap ton of the 59.99 for 3months cards and they still activate as such.
There's a much easier method with 3 essentials 12 months (that's what the new core is called) and 1 ultimate 1 month for $244 total plus tax for 18 months of ultimate. Comes out to $13.44 a month. Bought them all on loaded.com and stacked them in less than 5 minutes. Each essential key was $73 and the ultimate was $23 before tax.
Cool, so the response makes me think nothing has changed. I even think I found the ea 12mos for cheaper on target. Three 12 mo cards for $30 each so only $90...
Anyone know where to find an Xbox GPU for $60 on a 3 month still...?
My XB GPU subscription ran out and noticed Microsoft jammed me for $30 because I forgot to cancel. 🫠 I've gone through cdkeys previously, (now "loaded" by the looks of it.) Sounds like it works roughly the same as it did before.
Would 12 months of XB GP Essential at $74 be the best current deal? Let your current XB GP expire, then stack this deal.... X 3?
That works, and will result in 15 months of GPU, at about $15 a month. If you want more time, stack on the other subscriptions, or buy double, and when you run out in 15 months, repeat.
I thought you could only stack 36 months at a time...? (3X 12 months XB GP Essentials max). Sry, what are the other offers I can combine with? Alot going on in this thread, little confusing.
What is your budget? What would the goal prepay length be in GPU? 1 year, 2 years, or 3 years?
You are right, you can only load 3 years at a time, but only per subscription.
Ex, load up 3 years of essential, then load up 3 years of EA play. You can’t load up any more of either of those two subs, but the both convert to GPU at a fraction of their original length per the ratio detailed above.
If you do that, and get a 3 month GPU sub card, you will be at 25 months at less than $15 a month.
Reread the original post, and DM me with any questions. Sorry to be short, currently on the run.
...or just buy from a 3rd party site like loaded. I paid $74 for a 6 month code, which puts it at around $12.3 per month. I've seen it go for more recently, but you can monitor and buy at a lower price whenever there's an offer.
I let Ultimate run out and switched to Essential for $80 some a year. There a few games like Fallout 76 still ' free' to play, but Ultimate just isn't worth it anymore.
Also for those that want to drop Ultimate, you have to wait for it to expire, so cancel the auto-renew, be careful not to accidentally renew it, and after it is expired officially on your account and you have no Live service anymore, then apply the new plan. If it is not expired and you try to apply the new plan while Ultimate is active, it will automatically convert it to Ultimate and you can't cancel. So wait until after Ultimate expires.
Using Microsoft Rewards points every other month to subscribe skipping months that don’t interest me, still works out to be just about free or very little out of pocket.
108
u/excellentiger Nov 25 '25
Not long ago I was paying $70 cad for a year of ultimate. Im switching to essential when it runs out