Plex: Free vs Paid
Plex works by connecting your media, the Plex Media Server, and the various apps for all your devices—browsers, mobile devices, game consoles, streaming devices, home theater PCs—but, what parts are free to use and what parts are paid for?
The basic functionality of Plex is completely free, which includes playback of anything on your server, as well as Movies & Shows and Live TV (from Plex). Plex mobile apps require being unlocked (through an in-app purchase or a Plex Pass subscription), and premium features are restricted to those with an active Plex Pass subscription.
The “Free to Use” Parts: The Server and Apps
There are some details to get into, but the summary of “free” is simple:
- The video/music/photo media you own is yours. Of course, we don’t charge you in any way for that.
- The Plex Media Server is free to use.
- Our ‘Movies & Shows’ streaming service is free to all users and ad-supported.
- Free TV streaming is available from our ad-supported Live TV on Plex service
- Connect a compatible tuner and antenna to your server to let you watch over-the-air broadcasts available at your location live. (Recording of broadcasts requires a Plex Pass subscription.)
- All of our non-mobile, public apps are free (with the exception of Plex Labs apps). These include Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, Plex HTPC, Roku, Smart TVs, Windows & macOS computers and game consoles (PlayStation and Xbox).
- Plexamp and basic streaming of personal music.
- 30-second previews of songs from TIDAL are available to anyone in the app.
- Our mobile apps (Android and iOS) can be used for free, but have limitations.
- Until the mobile app is unlocked (through an in-app purchase or a Plex Pass subscription), video and music streamed from a Plex Media Server has a 1 minute playback limit, and photos will be watermarked.
Related Page: Plex Downloads
Related Page: Plex Media Server
Related Page: Unlocking or Activating Plex for Android
Related Page: Unlocking or Activating Plex for iOSThe “Paid For” Parts: Mobile Apps and Subscription Services
There are really two categories of things that are “paid for” within Plex:
Subscription Services
Plex Pass
The Plex Pass subscription includes free activation/unlocking of our mobile apps as well as other features and benefits:
- Activate/unlock our Android and iOS mobile apps simply by signing into your Plex account within the app.
- Access to Plex Dash (a Plex Labs app)
- Skip Credits in your personal library.
- Skip intros in TV episodes in your personal library.
- Hardware-accelerated streaming/transcoding.
- DVR Recording: Record over-the-air broadcasts available in your area, using a compatible tuner and digital antenna.
- Stream trailers and extras (interviews, behind the scenes, etc.) for content in your movie or TV show libraries.
- Add lyrics from LyricFind to your music libraries to follow along whenever you want.
- Invite full Plex accounts (not just managed users) of family members to be a part of your Plex Home, allowing easy switching between accounts, and restrict what content you share from your server.
- Premium music features in Plexamp, like Sonic Analysis, Sonic Sage, Guest DJ, Track & Album Radio, Artist & Album Mix Builders, and more.
- HDR to SDR tone mapping when transcoding, to help preserve colors for playback.
- Get early preview access to new apps and features.
- And even more!
TIDAL Music Streaming
- Stream over 80 million tracks, anywhere you are.
- Paid TIDAL plans support lossless music quality streaming.
- Enhance and expand a library of your own personal music by integrating TIDAL streaming.
- Stream music tracks that appear in your favorite movies and TV shows.
Related Page: TIDAL Music through Plex
Related Page: TIDALRemoving Playback Limitations from Mobile Apps
As mentioned above, our mobile apps offer in-app purchases that activate/unlock the app to remove playback limitations when streaming from a Plex Media Server:
- Android and iOS mobile apps offer one-time, in-app purchases.
- Again, a Plex Pass subscription will activate these features without additional purchase.
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Free Live TV Streaming on Plex Overview
Live TV on Plex brings an exciting collection of free live TV channels you can watch—anywhere in the world, at any time. And best of all, it doesn’t require any tuner hardware or antenna! Great ad-supported content across a large variety of genres is only a click or tap away. Personalize the channel guide so you see only what you’re interested in and enjoy channel surfing bliss!
Supported Apps
The following Plex player apps can currently access the free, ad-supported Live TV on Plex content:
- Amazon Fire TV
- Android mobile
- Android TV
- Apple TV
- Chromecast
- iOS
- macOS (desktop)
- PlayStation
- Plex HTPC
- Plex Web App
- Roku
- Fully supported Smart TVs
- Windows (desktop)
- Xbox
By default, the Live TV (on Plex) source will appear in your app sidebar/navbar. Simply select that source to access the free, streaming content from Plex.
Personalizing Your Channel Lineup
You can personalize your live TV viewing experience by favoriting channels in which you’re interested. You can favorite channels from any source (in supported apps), and those favorites are all displayed together, for easy access.
Your list of favorite channels can be reordered and managed, under the … menu at the top of the guide screen.
Similarly, if you have more than one source of live TV (e.g. you have your own DVR set up on your Plex Media Server as well as having Plex’s free live TV channels), you can manage those sources from the same menu.
Enable/Disable Access
You can control whether the Live TV (on Plex) source is available for your account at all. Parents or administrators of a Plex Home can also control whether it’s available for managed users they’ve created.
- Open the web app when signed in to your Plex account
- Under the user menu on the top right, choose Account
- Select Online Media Sources under the account settings
- Edit the desired online source
You can choose from the available options:
- Enabled – The administrator account as well as all managed users and accounts with preset profiles can access the content
- Disabled – Neither the administrator account nor any managed users or accounts with preset profiles can access the content
- Disabled for Managed Users – The administrator can access the content, but no managed users or accounts with preset profiles can access it
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