Is PUBG Free to Play? Battlegrounds Plus Explained

Short answer: yes, PUBG: Battlegrounds is free, and has been for four and a half years. The longer answer is the one worth reading, because the thing that is not free — the Battlegrounds Plus account upgrade that gates Ranked, custom match creation and clan creation — changed its price structure this June, and the new version is genuinely better for anyone who did not want to hand KRAFTON a credit card. The $12.99 cash price is gone. You can now buy Plus with BP, the currency the game pays you for playing it.

This is the account-and-money side of PUBG that none of our gameplay guides cover: what a free account can do, what Plus adds, what it costs after Update 42.1, and the full stack of requirements between a fresh account and a Ranked lobby.

Yes, PUBG is free — since January 2022

PUBG launched in 2017 as a paid game and stayed one for almost five years. That ended on 12 January 2022, when Update 15.2 took the game free to play on PC and console — Steam, PlayStation and Xbox alike. Nobody has needed to buy PUBG since.

The F2P transition split accounts into two kinds:

• A Basic account — what every new player gets. KRAFTON's own wording at the time: new players "will have access to most in-game content."
• Battlegrounds Plus — an optional one-time account upgrade holding the features KRAFTON kept back, launched at $12.99 USD.

"Most in-game content" is doing honest work in that sentence. The core game — normal matches on the full map rotation, every weapon, arcade modes, progression, the store — is identical on a free account. What sits behind Plus is a specific short list, and it has stayed remarkably stable since 2022.

What a free Basic account gets you

Everything you need to actually play PUBG, is the honest summary. Where the line falls:

The asymmetry to notice: free players can join customs and clans, they just cannot create them. In a squad where one player has Plus, that one player hosts and everyone else piles in.

What Battlegrounds Plus unlocks

The official Plus page lists the current package, and it matches what shipped in 2022 with one subtraction we will get to:

• Ranked matchmaking — the headline item, with its own prerequisites covered below.
• +100% Survival XP boost — you level Survival Mastery at double speed, which matters more than it sounds because Ranked eligibility is tied to Survival Mastery level.
• Custom match creation — private lobbies with your own ruleset. Also the only way to play Haven, which lives exclusively in custom matches.
• Clan creation and player recruitment.
• The Career Medal tab — earn and display Chicken Dinner medal achievements.
• Cosmetics — the Captain's Camo hat, mask and gloves, plus the Survivor Base with customizable presets.

It is a one-time upgrade, not a subscription — buy it once and the account keeps it.

The June 2026 change: no more cash price

From launch in 2022 until this June, Plus was a $12.99 direct cash purchase, and it originally sweetened the deal with 1,300 bonus G-Coin folded in. Update 42.1 rebuilt that:

The change went live with Update 42.1 — PC on 17 June 2026, console on 25 June — after being announced in the May 2026 Store Update. KRAFTON's stated goal: "lower the entry barrier to Ranked play and allow more players to access PLUS benefits through gameplay progression." The upgrade is bought in the game lobby, not on a platform store page.

Two currencies, two very different meanings. G-Coin is PUBG's premium currency — the one bought in packs with real money. BP is the currency the game pays out for playing matches. Which brings us to the part that changes the answer to this article's title question.

The BP route: earning Plus by playing

The 20,000 BP option is the quiet headline of Update 42.1: a player can now reach Ranked without spending any money at all. Play normal matches, accumulate BP, buy the upgrade in the lobby.

That reframes what Plus is. From 2022 to mid-2026, Plus was a paywall in the literal sense — Ranked sat behind a cash purchase. Now it works more like a progression gate that money can skip. Free players grind BP toward it; anyone impatient pays 500 G-Coin and is done. Losing the 1,300 bonus G-Coin stings if you were planning to buy Plus with cash under the old structure, but the trade is access: the door now opens from the inside.

One caution while you save: BP has other uses, so if Ranked is the goal, treat 20,000 as a floor to protect, not a balance to dip into.

What Ranked actually requires

Plus is necessary for Ranked, but it is not sufficient. The full stack, per the official Plus page and PUBG Support's Ranked FAQ:

1. A Battlegrounds Plus account — 500 G-Coin or 20,000 BP, as above.
2. Survival Mastery level 80, reached in normal matches. The FAQ's wording: players "need to reach a minimal Survival Mastery level of 80 before they qualify for ranked." This is where the Plus +100% Survival XP boost feeds itself — the upgrade halves the grind to its own headline feature.
3. SMS verification, on some platforms and regions.
4. Five placement matches per queue — "at the end of the fifth placement match, players will be given an initial rank for the season."

There is also a squad rule once you are in: two placed players more than 10 divisions apart cannot queue together. If you are gearing up for the climb itself, our Ranked guide covers how RP and the tiers work once the gate is behind you — and note that the Survival Mastery 80 requirement is one reason new accounts spend their early hours in bot-seeded normal lobbies first.

If you bought PUBG before 2022

If your account bought PUBG back when it cost money, you already have Plus and have had it since day one of F2P. KRAFTON's announcement granted every prior owner a Commemorative Pack containing:

• An automatic account upgrade to Battlegrounds Plus
• The Battle-Hardened costume skin set
• The Shackle and Shanks Legacy Pan
• The Battle-Hardened Legacy nameplate

The legacy cosmetics are permanent markers that an account predates free-to-play — the closest thing PUBG has to a veteran's stripe. If you owned the game and do not see Plus features, that is a support-ticket situation, not a purchase situation.

So, should you bother with Plus?

Work backwards from the feature list rather than the price:

• You want Ranked: Plus is mandatory, so the only question is 500 G-Coin now or 20,000 BP eventually. Start banking BP either way.
• You host private matches or run a community: custom match creation and clan creation are the two organizer features, and one Plus account per group covers match hosting.
• You only play normals with friends: the honest answer is that Plus buys you almost nothing you will feel — an XP boost toward a mode you are not entering, a medal tab, and three camo cosmetics. The free account plays the same game on the same maps with the same guns.

The 2026 version of this decision is gentler than the 2022 one. It used to be "is Ranked worth $12.99?" Now it is "do I spend money or just keep playing?" — and for a free-to-play conversion, that is about as reasonable as the genre gets.

Quick Action Checklist

• PUBG itself is free on Steam, PlayStation and Xbox — it has been since 12 January 2022, so never pay for base access
• Battlegrounds Plus costs 500 G-Coin or 20,000 BP since Update 42.1 (PC 17 June 2026, console 25 June) — the $12.99 cash purchase is gone
• Buy Plus from the game lobby, not a platform storefront
• Ranked needs the full stack: Plus, Survival Mastery 80, possible SMS verification, then 5 placement matches per queue
• Saving BP for Plus? Treat 20,000 as untouchable — BP leaks fast if you spend it elsewhere
• Free accounts can join custom matches and clans — only creating them needs Plus, so one Plus player can host a whole friend group
• Owned PUBG before 2022? You already have Plus, plus the Battle-Hardened legacy cosmetics that prove it