Great Courses Plus, the online streaming version of The Great Courses company, offers dozens of free online classes. Or you can subscribe and get unlimited access to courseware.
Great Courses Plus (formerly known as Wondrium) provides educational videos and audio programs for lifelong learners. The company finds the best professors and experts in the world, and creates accessible courses that you can view or listen to on demand.
You can start by viewing some of the free lectures from the Great Courses library for free, with no registration, no fees, and no logging in. Usually this will be the first lecture in a course. The full courses usually contain about a dozen lectures. You can find these free lectures on the Great Courses Plus Youtube channel at:
Great Courses Free Video Lectures
You can learn everything from How to Play Guitar, Why Stars Shine, Statistics, French for Beginners, and the History of the Roman Empire. If you want to take a complete course, you can either purchase the course individually at The Great Courses, or sign up for a monthly online plan with Great Courses Plus.
Great Courses Plus Prices
Great Courses Plus offers three membership plans to choose from. All plans start with a free trial. If you sign up for a plan below, you won’t be billed until after your free trial. You can cancel during the trial and before the billing starts if you wish.*
Here are the regular Great Courses Plus membership plans. You can save by paying quarterly or annually. You can also save by waiting for a deal; several times a year you can find a half-price deal; the most recent offer expired on May 21, 2025.
- $20 per month billed monthly
- $15 per month billed quarterly ($45 quarterly)
- $12.50 per month billed annually ($150 annually)
To start, visit:
Great Courses Plus Membership Plans
*If you cancel, service access will terminate at the end of the current paid billing period. If you cancel during the free trial, access will remain until the end of the free trial period. There is no refund for early termination.
Great Courses Plus Half-Price Deal
Several times a year, Great Courses Plus offers this deal: Get your first two months for $0.99 / mo, then pay just $9.99 / mo. Regular price is $20 per month.
This deal was offered more recently in early July 2025. You can expect it to return for Black Friday or possibly sooner. Check the current Great Courses Plus prices at: Great Courses Plus Membership Plans
Great Courses Plus Benefits
Great Courses Plus offers:
- Unlimited access to thousands of hours of audio/video lectures taught by the world’s greatest professors
- New content every month
- Video, audio, and transcripts of every session
- Apps for desktop, laptop, tablet, phone and TV
- Exclusive access to beautifully produced documentaries that explore today’s most important ideas
- Free Digital Guidebooks available for many courses—simply download at no additional cost.
- Audio Streaming – Great Courses Plus offers seamless audio streaming in its mobile apps so you don’t have to stop learning, even if you can’t watch your favorite videos.
Sample Free Course
Below is a recent addition to the free courses titled, What Are Birds Actually Saying? | A Nature Lover’s Guide. You can find more videos like this on the Great Courses Plus Youtube Channel.
Great Courses On Sale
The Great Courses is the “offline” version of Great Courses Plus, selling physical DVDs and downloads. Every Great Course program goes on sale at least once a year at up to 70% off its retail price. This revolving sales approach allows you to get both great value and great service. You can view the current sale courses at: