Is PUBG free, and what does Battlegrounds Plus give you?
PUBG has been free since January 2022. What's locked without Battlegrounds Plus, what it costs in G-Coin and BP after the June 2026 change, and whether you need it at all.
Yes, PUBG: Battlegrounds has been free since January 12, 2022 on PC and console. You download it and go straight into normal matches on a Basic account. Battlegrounds Plus is a separate purchase that mainly opens ranked play, and it has no effect on gunfights.
On PC you install it through Steam, and you need at least 8 GB of RAM. Anyone who bought PUBG before the free-to-play switch got Plus automatically.
What Battlegrounds Plus gives you
| Feature | Basic | Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Normal matches | yes | yes |
| Ranked matches | no | yes, from Survival Mastery level 80 |
| Create a custom match | no | yes |
| Create a clan | no | yes |
| Survival XP | standard | +100% |
| Chicken Dinner medal | no | yes |
| Captain’s Camo and Survivor Base items | no | yes |
Ranked is the main reason to care, but Plus alone won’t get you there. Krafton also requires Survival Mastery level 80, which you earn in normal matches. The double XP speeds that up, so if ranked is the goal, buying early makes sense.
One point isn’t spelled out officially. Krafton only talks about creating a custom match or clan, and its pages don’t say whether a Basic account can join someone else’s.
What Plus costs
Since June 17, 2026 on PC and June 25 on console, Plus is bought in the lobby for 500 G-Coin or 20,000 BP. Before that it cost $12.99 and came with 1,300 bonus G-Coin. The bonus is gone. Krafton says the change is meant to lower the barrier to ranked play.
A 500 G-Coin pack costs $4.99 on the PlayStation Store, with different prices in other stores and regions. So Plus got almost $8 cheaper. To be fair, you used to get 1,300 G-Coin back, more than two of those packs. If you were going to spend coins on skins and passes anyway, the old deal gave you more. If you only want ranked, the new one is better.
There’s also a free route. BP comes from matches: kills, damage, final placement and time played. Krafton doesn’t publish an exact formula, so how many matches 20,000 BP takes depends on how you play.
Do you need Plus?
Often, no. If you drop in a couple of times a week for normal matches, Basic is enough. The guns and maps are the same, and double XP and medals don’t change how a match ends.
If you want ranked, you need Plus, and the terms are mild compared with the neighbors. In CS2 the equivalent Prime costs $14.99, and you haven’t been able to earn it by playing since 2021. Here you can grind your way in, so we’d save BP first and only pay real money if you’ve reached level 80 and are still short.
