Plex ups pricing and restructures subscription fees

Online video/media hosting service Plex is setting up for a big year of exciting updates with a slate of new pricing tiers that make things a little confusing.

The main thing that most Plex server owners should know functionally, nothing will change for existing Plex Pass subscribers beyond the price of the subscription. If you have a Lifetime subscription, then nothing will change.

The new pricing will apply to people joining Plex in 2025, existing monthly/yearly subscribers, or people who don’t use a server hosted by a Plex Pass holder.

As of the time of writing a lifetime Plex Pass is $159 in Canada, but it will increase on April 29. Plex hasn’t shared Canadian pricing yet, but it will cost US$250 — if Plex does a simple exchange rate conversion, the new pass will be around C$350.

These new changes are geared towards making sure all server owners subscribe to Plex Pass, and while the push to pay is annoying, I think that $159 for lifetime access is a really fair deal. I bought mine years ago when it was even cheaper and I use it daily, so it’s more than paid for itself.

What are the new changes?

To usher in the new app that’s coming out later this year, Plex is rolling out a slate of price increases on April 29. While it does suck, it is worth pointing out that this is the first Plex price increase in ten years.

Plex hasn’t shared exact new pricing for Canada yet, the exchange rate on the U.S. pricing is as follows.

• Monthly: US$6.99 (roughly, C$10)
• Yearly: US$69.99 (roughly, C$100)
• Lifetime US$249.99 (roughly, C$350)

If the server owner isn’t a Plex Pass subscriber, users now need to buy a new ‘Remote Watch Pass’ to stream content outside of their home. This will be US$1.99 per month or US$19.99, or around C$2-3 per month or C$25-$30 per year in Canada.

I expect this to affect few people since most server owners already subscribe to Plex Pass for existing features like hardware video transcoding.

That said, you can still run a free Plex server in your home and it will be free to use it on your local Wi-Fi. However, if you want to stream your content outside of your home, or share it with friends, there is now no way to do that for free.

The one perk of this new pricing structure is that it removes the annoying mobile watch unlock fee. Right now, on Android and iOS, you need to pay $6.99 to watch content on Plex, but that cost will go away after the new mobile apps roll out later this year. Instead, the server owner will need to pay for Plex Pass or the user will need to buy a Remote Watch Pass.

Other updates coming this year include a partnership with Common Sense Media to help provide ratings and additional context to help parents know what shows and movies aren’t appropriate for children.

One interesting tidbit that Plex buried in its FAQ is that these new remote streaming changes will only apply to users of its new app experience that’s coming out later this year. “In the short term, platforms running an app that has not yet received an update to our new experience will not be affected,” reads the FAQ answer. I expect this won’t last forever, but it seems like people running the existing Plex apps after the new versions are released will still be able to stream remotely for free.

Source: Plex Blog