The cost of Tesla's Full Self Driving has changed over the years since it was revamped in 2019. Those lucky enough to buy FSD in April 2019 got it for $5,000. Since then, the price has risen as high as $15,000 only to be lowered later.
Elon Musk warned consumers through X/Twitter that FSD would become more expensive. On August 21 2022, he tweeted:
After wide release of FSD Beta 10.69.2, price of FSD will rise to $15k in North America on September 5. Current price will be honored for orders made before September 5 but delivered later.
Tesla reorganized its Autopilot and FSD packages three years ago; Basic Autopilot was introduced and became standard on every vehicle, while FSD was priced at $5,000. Enhanced Autopilot was removed as an option in North America at the time, but was later reintroduced as a $6,000 option in 2022 when the price of FSD rose to $12k.
Before 2019, FSD was an add-on that also required buying Enhanced Autopilot. Enhanced Autopilot cost $5,000 and FSD was a $3,000 option on top of that if ordered with the vehicle. If you ordered FSD after taking delivery, then it cost $4,000, which later also went up to $5,000.
It can only be assumed that there were a lot of buyers for FSD when Tesla rearranged their offerings in 2019, as the price for FSD went up the following month and has been on the rise since.
In fact, Tesla raised the price again three months after the first release, and eighteen months later, it had doubled to $10,000. 2022 started with another jump to $12,000 in January, and nine months later, the price went up again.
However, it looks like the buy-rate may have dipped as Tesla started dropping the price of FSD in September 2023.
Historical FSD Prices
Historical prices of Tesla's Full Self-Driving add-on since the revamp in 2019.
Date | FSD Cost |
|---|---|
April 2019 | $5,000 |
May 2019 | $6,000 |
August 2019 | $7,000 |
July 2020 | $8,000 |
October 2020 | $10,000 |
January 2022 | $12,000 |
September 2022 | $15,000 |
September 2023 | $12,000 |
April 2024 | $8,000 |
February 2026 | Option to purchase removed in N. America |
Tesla's CEO has made no qualms about the value of the program. At a shareholders' meeting in August, he said Tesla's engineers are producing breakthroughs in artificial intelligence. "We're solving a very important part of AI and one that can ultimately save millions of lives. And prevent 10 of millions of serious injuries by driving just an order of magnitude safer than people," said Musk. Since its inception and to this day, Musk believes that Teslas will be fully autonomous. He sees a future where your car would drive you to work, then operate as a ride share until you need to go home.
While Musk said the price would increase to $15,000 in North America, it skyrocketed to $19,500 in Canada, more than a 50% boost from what it cost in August. Although there is a monthly subscription offered in the U.S., there currently isn't one offered north of the border.
Although the price of FSD has continued to climb since Tesla revamped their FSD pricing structure in 2019, we witnessed Tesla's first price drop in the driver assist feature in September 2023. On the first of September, Tesla lowered the price of FSD by 20% in the U.S., down to $12,000. This brought FSD back to the price it was back at the start of 2022. However, in April 2024, Tesla once again lowered the price of FSD to $8,000, making it much more affordable, although the trend is unlikely to continue. Tesla may be testing the waters to find the optimal price. It'll be interesting to see where Tesla goes from here.
Purchase Option Removed
On February 14th, 2026, Tesla removed the option to purchase FSD outright in North America. As Tesla inches toward true autonomy, it realizes the much larger value FSD brings as a service, and it now only offers FSD as a monthly subscription of $99 in the United States and Canada. While that monthly price is in line with the purchase price, Tesla has said it will increase this price as FSD capabilities improve and the vehicle eventually becomes capable of being autonomous.
In Europe, Tesla is also removing the option to buy FSD, leaving buyers only the option to subscribe to the monthly service.
