Does Netflix have a family plan?

For years, Netflix was the go-to streaming service. It paved the way for the streamers that came after, and served as easily the best, most affordable option on the market.

Then its competition got better, and Netflix had to pivot. What started as a lowered quality in original projects slowly transformed into a lower-quality service, as Netflix not only dropped the ball on numerous releases but also gradually hiked up plan costs. First it was a few extra dollars, then a few more, then ad-supported plans and the family sharing cut off.

It was that final sin, more than anything, that made Netflix an unnecessary expense to many people. When it was completely ad-free and easily shareable, even those low-quality adaptations were forgivable. With the elimination of multi-household sharing and the gradually rising price, however, Netflix is in danger of becoming a relic of the past.

If Netflix were to change just a few elements of its approach, however, all that ill-will that has been building up against it could turn around. Sure, it wouldn’t save Shadow and Bone or Avatar: The Last Airbender, but at least the inclusion of a family plan would allow people to save a few bucks, and it might be enough to keep Netflix afloat after Stranger Things polishes off its final season.

Did Netflix finally add a family plan?

The lack of a family plan on Netflix honestly makes no sense. Streaming services are frequently shared across family members, as we try to juggle the dozens of options without too much of a strain on our wallets. Without the ability to share them across households, those stacked subscription fees just don’t make sense.

Despite this fact, Netflix eliminated the option of sharing between households in 2023. That means that a Netflix subscription will only provide access to the streamer on a few devices within the same household, nixing the previous option to share passwords with family and friends living in other homes, cities, or states.

There’s no bringing back the old way of sharing Netflix, and the streamer has yet to properly debut a family plan, but there are a few options that make it possible to share a single Netflix account across multiple households. Skipping past the ad-supported plan, which doesn’t provide any sharing options, subscribers can instead go up a payment tier or two and select either the standard or premium plans. These each come with several perks over the ad-supported plan — and a price increase to match — and one such perk will allow you to share your password with at least one other household.

With the standard plan, which will run subscribers $15.49 a month, users get access to the full Netflix library, ad-free, along with the ability to add one extra member who lives in a different household. One tier up, the premium plan offers the same selection of content, no ads, an uptick in downloads, and the ability to add two separate people outside the household to the plan. That one is the most expensive of Netflix’s plans, at $22.99 a month.

If you’ve got a big family and some cash to spare, you can even expand on that. Netflix additionally offers the option to add extra family members to either standard or premium plans for an additional $7.99 a month, and there’s no clearly stated cap. That could allow a generous family to share a single Netflix account across dozens of households, but it won’t come cheap.