With Tesla Ending FSD Purchases, Should You Buy It Now? Pros and Cons List

In many regions, Tesla now offers Full Self-Driving (FSD) in two ways: a monthly subscription or a one-time purchase that remains with the vehicle for its lifetime.

That creates a choice for owners: subscribe month-to-month, or pay upfront for a permanent license. Below we outline the key points of each approach so you can weigh the options.

Costs

Cost is the main factor for most people. The table below shows current FSD purchase and subscription prices in regions where Tesla offers a subscription, and the approximate time it takes for the subscription cost to equal the purchase price.

FSD subscriptions are not currently available in China, South Korea, or Mexico.

Subscribing

Looking at price alone, a subscription can be attractive, especially if you expect to keep the car for a shorter period or need flexibility in your budget. Subscriptions allow owners to pause service during times they won’t use it, such as winter months in colder climates where FSD performance can be reduced.

Subscribing also lets you try FSD without committing to the full purchase price. Tesla’s mobile app now indicates which FSD version you’ll receive when you subscribe, helping ensure you get the current branch. Vehicles with an active subscription remain on the latest FSD branch; however, repeatedly subscribing and unsubscribing can return a vehicle to the primary non-FSD software branch during off-months, which may delay FSD updates.

Overall, subscription makes the most financial sense if you plan to keep the vehicle for less than roughly six years. Subscriptions are also transferable to a different Tesla you own when you sell the old car, without requiring a special purchase transaction.

Purchasing

Buying FSD outright assigns a permanent license to the vehicle’s VIN and stays with the car if it is sold. That permanence can be valuable if you plan to sell the vehicle, since the buyer receives the feature with the car.

Tesla has previously agreed to provide FSD hardware retrofits to owners who purchased FSD for vehicles with Hardware 3 (HW3). In prior generations (HW 2.0 and HW 2.5), some owners received free updates to meet HW3 specification while others paid between $1,000 and $1,500 USD for the upgrade.

Purchasing also locks in a fixed price, protecting buyers from future subscription price increases or changes in terms. For owners who believe Tesla will raise prices as it approaches unsupervised FSD, buying upfront can be a hedge against higher future costs.

That said, subscription prices have changed historically: in the U.S. the monthly fee was once $199 and was later reduced to $99, which led some buyers to question whether the upfront purchase remained worthwhile. Financing the purchase across a loan term can make buying FSD more manageable, and because the license is tied to the car, owners who keep their vehicles long-term get more value from an outright purchase.

Buy Option Going Away

Tesla recently announced it will remove the ability to purchase FSD outright in February. The change likely serves multiple company goals: subscriptions reduce Tesla’s obligation to retrofit or upgrade hardware if unsupervised autonomy cannot be achieved on existing vehicles, and subscriptions give Tesla ongoing control over pricing and terms.

Moving to subscription-only could enable Tesla to introduce tiered pricing or higher monthly rates in the future—for example, different tiers for more capable or commercial use. It also gives Tesla the flexibility to raise monthly prices as its autonomy features advance toward unsupervised operation.

If FSD reached a point where drivers no longer needed to pay attention while traveling, the economic value could be substantial: owners might work during commutes, take longer remote jobs, sleep while traveling, or create new business models like automated delivery that replace costly human drivers.

The Decision

There is no one-size-fits-all answer. Subscribing provides flexibility and a lower short-term cost, while buying guarantees a permanent license for the vehicle and protection from future price increases.

For owners planning to keep a car long-term and who expect to continue using autonomy features, purchasing is likely the better choice—particularly for HW3 vehicles, where buying has included hardware-upgrade assurances in the past. For those who prefer lower upfront expense or expect to change vehicles within a few years, a subscription may be preferable.

With Tesla set to remove the purchase option soon, owners have a limited window to decide which route best fits their situation.