How to convert your Xbox Live subscription into Game Pass Ultimate

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

If you want to play all kinds of games via subscription, Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass offer a lot of value. The service normally costs $14.99 per month for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which covers both Xbox and PC, or $9.99 per month for PC Game Pass, which covers major third-party games and independents.

If you want to try it out, there is an introductory price of $1. You can use the trial as a way to save money on Game Pass Ultimate for up to three years.

You can order up to 36 months of Xbox Live Gold from Microsoft. The $1 trial will convert future months of Gold service to the more expensive Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, saving you hundreds of dollars. It costs about $180 for three years of Xbox Live Gold, so you can save a lot of money. If you paid the full price for Game Pass Ultimate, you would get three years of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for about $540, whereas with the $1 promotion, you would get three years for about $181.

This is a one-time offer. If you've already used the offer to get a month for $1, you've used up your opportunity to convert Xbox Live Gold to Game Pass Ultimate without fully canceling Game Pass. You have to turn off auto-renewal on your account. The first month will cost the full price, instead of the $1 introductory price.

If you haven't used this conversion yet, here's how to get the biggest bang for your buck.

How to convert your Xbox Live service to Game Pass Ultimate

• To get in on this complimentary conversion, you’ll first need to buy an Xbox Live Gold subscription (assuming you don’t have one already). Microsoft may end the sale of Xbox Live Gold at some point as it funnels players into buying Game Pass Ultimate. But, for now, you can still buy digital codes for the service from Amazon and other retailers in three-, six-, or 12-month increments.
• The next step is to activate the Xbox Live Gold codes on your account, either through Microsoft’s website or directly through your Xbox One or Series X / S console. Microsoft states that the terms of this promotion are subject to change, so I’d do this sooner than later as there’s no indication if it may one day stop converting Xbox Live Gold into Game Pass Ultimate.

• It’s now safe to take advantage of the $1 Game Pass Ultimate trial. Once you redeem the offer, you’ll see something similar to the image above when you click the “Services & subscriptions” tab of your account on Microsoft’s site.

The Xbox Game Pass Ultimate plan can be used for both PC and XBOX. If you play on both platforms, this conversion from Xbox Live Gold is even better.

This article was originally published on June 18th, 2019, and has been updated to reflect the current offer.