10 Best Cloud Gaming Services of 2026

GeForce NOW ranks first because it streams the games players already own instead of renting a fixed catalog. NVIDIA says its cloud library covers over 4,500 games across Steam, Epic Games Store, Xbox, Ubisoft Connect, Battle.net, EA app and GOG, and paid members can add thousands more Steam titles through Install-to-Play. Ultimate members get first access to GeForce RTX 5080 rigs with up to 5K at 120 FPS, or 360 FPS at 1080p in competitive mode, while Performance members stream at up to 1440p at 60 FPS. Apps cover Windows, Mac, Chromebook, Linux, phones, tablets, smart TVs, Steam Deck and VR headsets. The free tier lets anyone try it with up to two minutes of ads before a session. The trade-offs: paid tiers now cap playtime at 100 hours a month, and you still need to buy the games. Our location showed local currency on the membership page, so the USD price is pending.

Xbox Cloud Gaming is the simplest way to get a big catalog of games on a screen you already own. Cloud play is part of every Game Pass tier except PC Game Pass: Essential costs $9.99 a month and lists 50+ games, Premium is $14.99 with 200+ games, and Ultimate is $22.99 with 500+ games, day-one releases, EA Play, Fortnite Crew and Ubisoft+ Classics. Games stream in supported browsers, in the Xbox PC app, on Xbox consoles, on select LG, Samsung and VIDAA TVs, Fire TV, handhelds and VR headsets, and touch controls work in supported titles. You can also stream select games you own, including most Xbox Play Anywhere games. The main limit is time: Microsoft caps cloud playtime at 5, 10 or 15 hours a month by plan, which suits casual play more than daily sessions. Microsoft does not state a maximum resolution on its plan pages.

Boosteroid takes third place for value. Its help center lists three plans: Ultra with up to 4K, up to 120 FPS and ray tracing, Ultra Pro which adds manual server selection, a 15 minute idle window and a three minute reconnect window, and a bundle with World of Tanks rewards. Unlike GeForce NOW and Xbox, the homepage promises no session time limits, with smart queueing when servers are busy. You launch games you already own from popular PC stores, so the catalog depends on your library, and Boosteroid says it runs hundreds of titles. Apps cover Windows, Mac, Linux, Android TV, webOS, Tizen, Android and ChromeOS, and iPhone users play through the browser. Mobile and TV apps stream at a fixed 60 FPS. Our location showed prices in euros only, so the USD price is pending; check the billing page in your region.

PlayStation Plus Premium is on this list because it is the only way to stream Sony's catalog, but it serves a narrower group than the services above it. Premium costs $19.99 a month, $54.99 for three months or $159.99 for a year in the US. On top of the Extra tier's Game Catalog, monthly games and Ubisoft+ Classics, it adds cloud streaming of select PS5 titles, streaming of Game Catalog games and hundreds of PS3 and PS2 classics, game trials and up to 100 Sony Pictures movies. Sony's page describes PS5 streaming to a PS5 console and the PlayStation Portal, so the realistic buyer owns PlayStation hardware and wants to skip downloads, or uses a Portal away from the console. Sony does not publish the streaming resolution on the membership page. For players without any console or PC, Xbox and GeForce NOW reach more devices.

Shadow PC is a different product from a game streaming service: you rent a full Windows PC and install whatever you like on it. The US offers page starts at $29.99 a month for Shadow PC Lite, with Shadow PC from $37.99 and Shadow PC Pro from $44.99, all with no commitment. Because it is a normal Windows machine, it runs games from Steam, Epic, Battle.net, Ubisoft Connect and GOG, plus mods and tools that catalog services do not allow. Shadow publishes benchmarks such as Counter-Strike 2 at 1440p at 140 FPS on its Neo configuration and says it streams games to a TV in up to 4K. Apps cover Mac, Apple TV, Android TV, Chromebook and a browser version. You pay more, setup takes about an hour, and some publishers block their games on cloud PCs.

Maximum Settings is a smaller host that stands out for selling dedicated hardware. Its Bare Metal plan gives you a physical machine with an AMD RX 7900 XTX and a Ryzen 9 X3D processor for $29.95 CAD a month, about $21.75 USD, with up to 4K at 120 FPS and ray tracing in supported games. The Starter plan at $9.95 CAD, about $7.25 USD, targets 1080p on a virtual machine, and Enthusiast at $19.95 CAD targets 1440p. Every plan includes daily peak and off-peak hours, and extra time is charged per hour. You install games you own from Steam, Epic, GOG, Ubisoft, EA app and Itch.io and connect through the Maximizer app. The company says it has run its own facility since 2019. Billing is in Canadian dollars, the virtualized plans run Linux Mint only, and kernel-level anti-cheat can block games on the virtual tiers.

Antstream Arcade fills a niche the big services ignore: legally licensed retro games streamed from the cloud. The catalog lists over 1,300 games across arcade machines, Amiga, Amstrad, Atari, C64, Game Boy, SNES, DOS, Windows, ZX Spectrum, Mega Drive and the original PlayStation, with no ROMs or emulator setup. Antstream adds more than 300 original challenge modes with global leaderboards, weekly tournaments, couch co-op and cross play, and progress follows you across PC, console and mobile. A membership covers the full library, and you can create a free account to look around first with no card. It scores low on capabilities here because it has no modern games and no published resolution figures, but it is easy to start and cheap compared with the services above. Prices showed in euros from our location, so the USD price is pending.

Blacknut is built for households rather than enthusiasts. The subscription includes a catalog of more than 1,000 games, with new games added every month and no playtime limit, which is a clear contrast with the hour caps at Xbox and GeForce NOW. Up to five profiles each keep their own saves and optional parental controls, and up to four controllers can play at once; you can also use a phone through the Gamepad Companion app or a smart TV remote. Pass add-ons bring in Ubisoft+ Classics, Ubisoft+ Premium, SNK and Focus Entertainment games. Blacknut does not publish a maximum resolution, and the catalog leans toward family, casual and older titles more than new releases. Prices showed in Polish zloty from our location, so the USD price is pending; availability also varies by country.

AirGPU is a cloud PC sold by the hour instead of by the month. You buy credit and start a Windows machine when you want to play: the cheapest options are a Tesla T4, which AirGPU compares to a GeForce GTX 1080, and a Quadro RTX 4000, both at $0.65 an hour, while an L40S compared to an RTX 4080 starts at $1.20. Storage costs $3.50 a month per 50 GB from 100 GB, and prices exclude VAT. You install games from Steam, Epic or any other store and connect through Parsec or Moonlight at up to 4K. Data centers span North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Cape Town. AirGPU does not offer a free trial, its site footer still reads 2021 to 2023, and some anti-cheat games block cloud PCs. For a few hours a month it can cost less than any subscription here.

Vagon closes the list because it is a general cloud computer with gaming as a side use. You pay a monthly storage plan from $7.99, which keeps 75 GB of your files and installed software, plus per-minute usage for the machine you start. The Planet option with a Tesla T4 costs $0.99 an hour, and RTX A10G machines start at $1.67 an hour. Gaming support appears in the plan feature list, so you can install a launcher and play, but the pricing calculator's use cases are digital art, CAD, video editing, game development and AI work. Data sent out of Vagon past 10 GB a month costs $1.50 per 10 GB. A trial from $0.99 includes an hour on Planet. For pure gaming, AirGPU is cheaper per hour and GeForce NOW is simpler.