Important 2025 Plex Updates

Personal Media and Beyond

You’re going to be hearing a lot from us this year—we’ve got a ton of exciting things to roll out, with even more in the planning stages. But first, we have to share some important upcoming changes to our personal media offering and our Privacy Policy that are necessary to make all this great stuff happen. We’ve done our best to provide as much detail around these updates as possible, including a hefty amount of FAQs that you can find at the end of this post. Before we dive in, we want to emphasize that it’s your support that makes it possible to do what we do, making the best experience possible, all while remaining independent.

Ok, here goes.

Upcoming Plex Pass Price Increase

As of April 29, 2025, we are increasing the price of our Plex Pass subscription. While this is pretty common for most subscription services, it’s not for us. We’ve held out for more than 10 years, keeping good company with AriZona Iced Tea (tall-boy legends) and Costco (we love a good deal on a hot dog and soda.) But now, in order for us to keep up with rising costs and remain committed to ensuring both Plex Pass and our support for personal media continue to thrive—it’s time.

The price increase applies to new and existing subscriptions, with the exception of existing Lifetime Plex Pass holders. The good news is that you can still purchase a Lifetime Plex Pass subscription at the current price of $119.99 USD* before the increase goes into effect on April 29, 2025.

New USD prices as of April 29, 2025 will be:
Monthly: $6.99
Yearly: $69.99
Lifetime: $249.99

*Exact pricing in other currencies may vary.

We are all in on the continued success of Plex Pass and personal media. This price increase will ensure that we can keep investing dedicated resources in developing new features, while supporting and growing your favorites. Ahead this year on the roadmap is:

A valuable integration (parents, we see you!) with Common Sense Media featuring extras for Plex Pass holders.
A new bespoke server management app that works on browsers or mobile clients for a better curation experience with more visibility into who is on your server, and how.
An open and documented API for server integrations, along with the ability to create custom metadata agents.

Believe us when we say we’re not slowing down on personal media.

Got questions? Take a look at the FAQs at the end, where we might just have your answer.

Upcoming Change to Remote Playback for Personal Media

We are also changing how remote playback works for streaming personal media (that is, playback when not on the same local network as the server). The reality is that we need more resources to continue putting forth the best personal media experience, and as a result, we will no longer offer remote playback as a free feature. This—alongside the new Plex Pass pricing—will help provide those resources. This change will apply to the future release of our new Plex experience for mobile and other platforms.

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR CURRENT PLEX PASS HOLDERS:
For users who have an active Plex Pass subscription, remote playback will continue to be available to you without interruption from any Plex Media Server, after these changes go into effect. When running your own Plex Media Server as a subscriber, other users to whom you have granted access can also stream from the server (whether local or remote), without ANY additional charge—not even a mobile activation fee. More on that later in this update.

Beginning on April 29, 2025, users will be able to stream from personal media libraries on a remote network in one of two ways:

Option 1: Remote playback with a Plex Pass

Upgrading to any Plex Pass subscription is a great option for server owners, as it ensures all users accessing the Plex Media Server can stream remotely, without an additional charge. Even if you don’t run your own Plex Media Server, a Plex Pass subscription will not only allow you to stream remotely from any server to which you have access, but also lets you make use of other Plex Pass functionality like Skip Intro and Skip Credits.

Option 2: Remote playback with a Remote Watch Pass subscription (New!)

Our brand-new subscription offering, Remote Watch Pass, allows individual users to remotely stream media from any personal media server to which they have access. This is a great option for users who don’t run their own server and are looking to stream from a server belonging to a friend or family member who does not have a Plex Pass. It’s also a good alternative for server owners who may not need the full feature offering of a Plex Pass, but are looking for a more cost-effective option to access their media remotely. Beginning April 29, 2025, Remote Watch Pass will be available for an introductory price of $1.99/month or $19.99/year.

For more on how Remote Watch Pass works, skip to the FAQs below, where we break it down in detail.

So Long, Mobile Unlock Fee

Our Android and iOS mobile apps previously required a one-time activation fee or Plex Pass to remove the one-minute playback limitation when streaming content from a Plex Media Server. As part of these changes, there will no longer be any such one-minute playback limitation. Playing content on a local network will be free in the new mobile apps. These changes will go into effect when the new mobile Plex experience exits the preview period and launches publicly.

Last (But Not Least)…

We are also making changes to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service (ToS). In this revised policy, we provide more detail about the data we collect and why, how we may use it, and how we may share/sell it. For anyone that created a Plex account before March 20, 2025, there is no change. At a later date we will ask for your consent to these additional uses. Please see the Privacy Policy for complete details.

Personal media users: We do NOT, and will not, share or sell any information about your personal media or use of a personal media server, and, as we’ve consistently stated, we don’t even collect information about content or titles in your personal media library or what content is played from a personal server.

You can read it in detail here.

Yes, That Was a Lot

We want to take a moment to sincerely thank everyone who has supported Plex—whether you’ve purchased a Lifetime Plex Pass or subscribe monthly or annually. Your enthusiasm and dedication to personal media have helped shape Plex into what it is today. These changes weren’t made lightly, and we’ve spent a lot of time weighing the best path forward to ensure we can continue to balance value with a best-in-class personal media experience for years to come.

If you’d like to lock in a Lifetime Plex Pass subscription at the current rate of $119.99 USD*, you have until April 29, 2025 to do so. Prices for existing monthly and yearly subscriptions will automatically increase with the next renewal after April 29, 2025.

Keep reading for more FAQs on these important updates.

With gratitude,
Your Friends at Plex

FAQs

How am I impacted by these changes?

I have a lifetime Plex Pass subscription:

I have a monthly or yearly Plex Pass subscription:

I do not have a Plex Pass, but stream remotely from a Plex Media Server:

Plex Pass Price Changes

Are you going to continue to invest in features for personal media + Plex Pass?

What features do I receive with a Plex Pass?

Can you tell me more about the new Common Sense Media features?

This is a feature we are super excited to bring to our users. Starting later this year (expected fall of 2025), we’ll be offering ratings and additional context from Common Sense Media on movies and TV shows, which will allow parents on our platform to find the best, most age-appropriate content for their kids. Common Sense Media rates titles for ages 2 to 18, from Elmo to Game of Thrones. They aim to inform, educate, and guide families so they better understand what kids can handle at every age.

Common Sense Media rates movies and TV shows so families can feel good about the entertainment choices they make for their kids, offering the most extensive, most trusted library of independent age-based ratings and reviews. When parents head to Plex, they can rest assured that they can make good choices on shows that their family is watching.

Here’s more on how they rate and review—all of which you’ll soon find on Plex:
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/about-us/our-mission/about-our-ratings

Does this affect Plex’s free, ad-supported movies & shows and Live TV streaming?

I’m already subscribed to a recurring Plex Pass. Do I get a credit if I change plans?

When upgrading an existing Plex Pass subscription, we automatically apply a prorated upgrade credit for the time remaining on your current plan. For example, if you’re halfway into a monthly subscription, you’ll receive an upgrade credit of about half the last monthly transaction. (It’s important to note that this only applies to recurring subscriptions originally started through our website and billed directly by us. It does not apply to subscriptions billed and managed through any app store.)

Remote Watch Pass

How is the Remote Watch Pass different from a regular Plex Pass?

You could think of the Remote Watch Pass as just being a super-specialized version of a regular, full Plex Pass:

Remote Watch Pass: This allows streaming personal content remotely from any Plex Media Server to which you have access. That’s all.
Plex Pass: It allows the same remote streaming, but also provides access to all the normal Plex Pass features and benefits our users have come to know and love. (Downloads, Skip Intro, Skip Credits, Sonic Analysis for music, and so much more!)

Do I need a Plex Pass AND a Remote Watch Pass?

Can I buy a Remote Watch Pass for someone else?

Which Plex apps/platforms will be affected by this remote streaming change?

The changes and limitation to remote streaming of personal content will affect users of apps that offer our new Plex experience (once they’re released). In the short term, platforms running an app that has not yet received an update to our new experience will not be affected. It’s possible that future system changes may affect even users who have not updated to an app offering our new Plex experience.

My mobile device can’t run the newest Plex app. How do the changes affect me?

In the short term, nothing will change for users still running our old, previous mobile apps. They will still have a one-minute playback limitation when streaming personal content from a Plex Media Server (including both local and remote streaming). That limitation can be removed either by having an active Plex Pass subscription on your Plex account or via a one-time, in-app activation/unlock purchase. (A Remote Watch Pass will not affect usage of our old, previous mobile apps, only new apps.) See our existing mobile Android and iOS articles for details.

Does this affect content from music and photo libraries?

What if I want to cancel renewal of my Remote Watch Pass or Plex Pass subscription?

What if I've already paid the one-time mobile app activation fee?

For users who have already paid a one-time, in-app activation for either our mobile Android or iOS app, an extended trial for the new Remote Watch Pass subscription is available. To make use of it, you need to:

Start your Remote Watch Pass subscription through our mobile app.
Make sure it is on the same mobile platform where the original purchase was made (e.g., iOS/iPadOS if your activation was through the App Store).
Ensure you’re using the same app store account that made the original purchase (e.g., the same Apple ID).

Example: If you originally did a one-time activation of our iOS app, then you need to use our new mobile app on an iOS/iPadOS device to start a Remote Watch Pass billed through the App Store, while signed in to the same Apple ID that made the original purchase.

Can I upgrade from Remote Watch Pass to Plex Pass?

Hey!

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