Appworthy
Price keeps rising
Reported by 41 usersPrice keeps rising: raised by 41 distinct reviewers (about 1 in 27 reviews we read)
Definition
The price of the paid tier has been raised on existing users.
Pandora - Music & Podcasts
Pandora gives you a personalized listening experience that continually evolve…
PandoraGoogle Play rating3.9★3.3M ratings
PriceFreeIn-app purchases
Age12+Store age rating
CategoryLifestyle
DeveloperPandora
What we found
Full reportSerious warnings 1 confirmed warning, and users report 2 more things. Checked: 1,116 reviews, the Android app’s code, the store listing and the privacy label.
Money
- Free to download · in-app purchases. Google Play doesn’t publish per-purchase prices.
- Price keeps risingConfirmed · reported by 41 users
- 5 users report trouble cancellingNot confirmed · about 1 in 223 reviews we read
- If you subscribe through the store, cancel in Google Play → Payments & subscriptions → Subscriptions. Deleting the app doesn’t cancel a subscription.
Ads
From our automated analysis, 20 Oct 2026. Every label links to its evidence in the full report below.
This analysis describes version 2610.1 of the app (the version number recorded inside the package we inspected), analyzed 2026-10-20 .
The store lists the version as varying by device, updated 2026-10-06.
Preview
Store screenshots supplied by the developer.
About this app
Pandora gives you a personalized listening experience that continually evolves with your tastes.
Create stations from your favorite songs, artists or genres, search or browse to find recommended stations for your mood or activity, and discover podcasts that speak to you. Download today and get instant access to your favorite artists and podcasts, while staying up to date on the most recent singles and releases. From rap and pop to rock and country, play your favorite artists and stay up to date on today’s top hits and releases. Start streaming all of the current global hits and enjoy your own personalized music experience.
Take Pandora with you wherever you go with Android Auto for your daily commute or your next road trip. Enjoy your own personalized music or podcast experience from anywhere on the world’s most powerful music discovery platform.…
From the developer’s store description.
For developers and the curious
The full report
The evidence, sources, measurements and versions behind every label above.
Findings and evidence
Things to watch for 1
Findings that met the published evidence standard.
Open evidence
Positives 1
Specific evidence of a useful property, within the stated scope.
Developer says data deletion can be requested
MeasuredThe developer's store data-safety disclosure states that data deletion can be requested; we have not seen a deletion control in the app's own text
Definition
The developer's data-safety disclosure on the store states that users can request deletion of their data, or the app's own text offers a way to delete the account. This restates what the developer declares; it is not a test of whether deletion works. Apple publishes no equivalent disclosure, so on an Apple-only listing only the app's own text can support it.
One source only — shown, not confirmed 2
Open observations that have not cleared the evidence bar.
Hard to cancel
One source onlyHard to cancel: raised by 5 distinct reviewers (about 1 in 223 reviews we read)
This observation has not cleared the required evidence standard.
Definition
Cancelling the subscription is blocked, hidden, multi-step, or simply does not take effect.
How we know
Aggressive ad load
One source onlyAggressive ad load: raised by 26 distinct reviewers (about 1 in 43 reviews we read)
This observation has not cleared the required evidence standard.
Definition
Advertising volume or placement that interrupts normal use: ads between every action, unskippable or forced full-screen ads.
How we know
What reviewers report
1,116 reviews read for this analysis. Each observation keeps the sample and store it was based on.
Price keeps rising
Published findingRaised by 41 distinct reviewers — about 1 in 27 reviews we read on this store leg (Google Play).
Thank you for giving me the initiative to CANCEL PREMIUM!! You dare to say the price increases are to "improve listening experience, BUT YOU ***** NEVER LISTEN TO FEEDBACK!! For an app that costs money AND KEEPS GOING UP, Shuffle has…
the price keeps going up an up but the app is still the same you people are getting greedy an money hungry it's sad really. is your private jet fuel getting expensive or what.. just greedy is all I see.
Stops on its own all the time. This, along with price increase = canceling. Tired of babysitting it.
Hard to cancel
Shown, not confirmedNo sampled quote is attached to this observation.
Aggressive ad load
Shown, not confirmedToo many ads. Music starts up automatically when connected to Android Auto. There is no setting to prevent it.
Good to use too many ADS to use good
May as well listen to the radio if you're not going to pay, too many ads!
A sampled review illustrates one person’s experience. It does not establish a finding on its own.
Measurements
“Not assessed” means we could not measure it. It is never a zero and never a pass.
From store data and reviews
Developer replies to reviews
Replies to at least 1 review in 20
Price in the store description
The store description lists a price and how often it bills
Cancelling, in the store description
The store description says how to cancel
Themes reported by reviewers
3 or more themes reported
Counted from the reviews we have read for this app. "No theme reported" means no theme reached our reporting threshold — it is not a finding that nothing is wrong with this app, and we do not say it is.
Five-star share of ratings
Under 65% five-star
Arithmetic on the stores' own published rating counts. It says nothing about why the ratings fall where they do.
In the app package we scanned
Android package 2610.1, scanned 20 Oct 2026. These describe that package, not the current store version.
Sensitive permissions
3–5 requested
Counted against a fixed list of eighteen sensitive Android permissions: sixteen runtime permissions, among them location, camera, microphone, contacts and SMS, and two the user must switch on in system settings, drawing over other apps and usage access. Requesting one is not itself a finding.
Analytics or tracking SDKs in the scanned package
3 or more found
Advertising SDKs in the scanned package
1–2 found
Counted as distinct SDKs in the package we scanned. One mediation bundle can contribute several, so this is not a count of advertisers.
How we know
Supporting measurements: not a complete list of possible harms or positives. Measurement vocabulary 1.4 · how these are measured
Versions and dates analysed
This analysis describes version 2610.1 of the app (the version number recorded inside the package we inspected), analyzed 2026-10-20 .
The store lists the version as varying by device, updated 2026-10-06.
Store update history
Each store’s release notes, as the developer wrote them. They are the developer’s words, not ours.
Google Play
Version varies by device · 2026-10-06
No release notes were provided for this version.
Version varies by device · 2026-09-23
No release notes were provided for this version.
Assessment record
- Status
- Automated analysis
- App identifier
pandora-google-com-pandora-android- Assessment date
- 20 Oct 2026
- Sources used
- 6 independent signals: user reviews, SDKs in the app package, the app's own on-screen text, the app manifest, the store listing and the store privacy disclosure
- Reviews read
- 1,116
- Package examined
- Android · 2610.1 · scanned 20 Oct 2026
- Human inspection
- Not completed
Assessed 2026-10-20 from 1,116 user reviews, the app's package, the store listing and its privacy label.
How we know
- Measurement vocabulary
- 1.4
How this page was produced
Analyzed 2026-10-20 Version analyzed: 2610.16 independent signals1,116 reviews scannedConfidence: MediumNot human-reviewedVocabulary v1.13Methodology v1.3
Signals run: user reviews, SDKs in the app package, the app's own on-screen text, the app manifest, the store listing and the store privacy disclosure.
Store facts
What the stores publish. Store ratings are the stores’ numbers, not Appworthy’s, and are never averaged across stores.
Google Play
- Store rating
- 3.89 ★ · 3,299,473 ratings
- Version
- Varies by device
- Updated
- 6 Oct 2026
- Price
- Free · In-app purchases
- Age rating
- 12+
- Size
- Not supplied
- Developer
- Pandora
- Category
- Lifestyle
- Listing price
- Free · In-app purchases
Purchases the store lists
What this app sells
Google Play doesn’t publish per-purchase prices.
Method and limits
How the automated analysis works
This assessment is produced automatically. Six independent signals are read — user reviews, SDKs in the app package, the app's own on-screen text, the app manifest, the store listing and the store privacy disclosure — and each candidate finding is filed under the sources that support it.
No charge stands on one kind of evidence — with one published exception. A finding is either a measured fact that anyone can reproduce (an ad SDK is in the package; every subscription bills weekly; the privacy label omits a tracker we can see), or it is an interpretation — and an interpretation needs independent sources to agree before it reaches the catch list. The exception is a harm only users can see: a charge may publish from reviews alone, as “Reported by N users”, once enough reviewers raise it to clear that charge’s own published bar. That agreement rule is what replaced the human reviewer, not a model’s confidence.
There is no overall score, on purpose. A 0–99 number was published here until 2026-09-15. It was withdrawn because it discriminated too weakly to be the instrument — 44.7% of every pair of apps tied — and because a single number is a verdict where a count is an observation. What publishes instead is a row of measurements, each of which says what was counted and, where we could not look, says that instead.
Findings under One source only are real reports we do not stand behind as findings. They are shown because withholding them entirely would hide a genuine complaint, and labelled because publishing them as charges would be an accusation off a single source.
Limits of this report
- A package scan is static. It identifies code and text in one Android build. It does not measure a live ad session, test a deletion request, or count the steps needed to cancel.
- Reviews keep their sample. A review-only charge shows distinct reviewers, the share and the sample size, and is published only once it clears that label’s published threshold. Calibration labels are machine-drafted and not yet confirmed by a person.
- Not assessed is a state. It is never a zero and never a pass.
- A missing label is not a clean bill of health. It means the evidence did not support one, not that the app is problem-free.
Not yet human-reviewed. A hands-on test can confirm or contradict a finding and adds its own measurements; it does not change a measurement row. Hands-on inspections are not yet open.
Request a correction
Write to [email protected], or use the form. Name the finding, the app version and the evidence that needs correcting. Factual corrections are free and never depend on buying anything.