Plex will increase the price of its monthly, yearly, and lifetime memberships on April 29th. The company is also revoking remote access for free accounts, though this only affects server owners, not viewers.
This is the first Plex Pass price hike since 2015. And, unfortunately, it’s a fairly sizable price hike. Monthly Plex Pass subscriptions will be $6.99 (up from $4.99), annual memberships are leaping to $69.99 (up from $39.99), and lifetime Plex Pass is more than doubling in price—it will soon cost $249.99 (up from $119.99). If you’re a dedicated Plex user, I suggest that you lock in a lifetime subscription before the price increase is implemented on April 29th, as I doubt that Plex’s annual Black Friday discount will dip below $120.
As for remote access—well, if you’re a Plex Pass member, you have nothing to worry about. Plex says it will paywall remote playback, but only for server hosts, not guests. There will also be a new $2 monthly (or $20 annually) Remote Watch Pass subscription for server owners who do not want or need a full-fat Plex Pass membership. (Remote Watch Pass also works in reverse. If a server host doesn’t want to pay up, their guests can pony up $2 a month to remotely access their media.)
“For users who already have an active Plex Pass subscription or subscribe before these changes go into effect, remote playback will continue to be available to you without interruption from any Plex Media Server. 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.”
On the bright side, Plex is finally getting rid of its mobile unlock fee. Local playback from a media server will no longer be paywalled on iOS or Android, and your guests will no longer be faced with a fee when accessing your media server from their phones. If you or a guest already paid this fee, you will receive “an extended trial for the new Remote Watch Pass subscription;” it ain’t a refund, but at least you’ll get some restitution.
The mobile unlock fee will be discontinued when Plex rolls out its redesigned mobile app. Plex hasn’t announced a launch date for the new app experience, though it will presumably come sometime around the April 29th price change. Android users can test the new app today, but Plex’s iOS Testflight program probably reached full capacity a few months ago.
Related
Plex has also revised its Privacy Policy and Terms of Service to provide more details about data collection. The company does not collect or sell information related to personal media servers—so, these Privacy Policy and ToS changes are only important to those who stream Plex’s free on-demand and linear content.
On that note, I should clarify that the Plex Pass price hike has no impact on Plex’s free content.
If you don’t own a Plex Pass lifetime membership, now’s a good time to buy one. A one-time purchase of $120 is a lot easier to stomach than a $7 monthly fee—if you lock in before the April 29th price hike, your $120 Plex Pass lifetime membership will pay for itself after September 2026.
Plex Pass
A Plex Pass subscription takes your media server to the next level, with remote streaming, hardware transcoding, offline downloads, and more. Grab a lifetime subscriptoin today to avoid the price hike on April 29th.
Source: Plex
