Netflix used to advertise that sharing your Netflix password with other people is true love. It now looks very different: As announced, measures are now taking effect that state that you can no longer share your Netflix account with people outside your own household. This means families and friends away from home will soon have to find their own ways to keep using the program.
If you’re the person who created a Netflix account and then shared the password with people outside your household so they can also access Netflix through your subscription, don’t worry about repercussions. After all, you are the one who pays monthly for the Netflix subscription. A cancellation because you have shared your account with others is excluded.
It is different if you are the user of an account outside the actual household: The message that your device “does not belong to the Netflix household for this account” will gradually appear on your TV (and probably also on your laptop or smartphone in the future). With the you will no longer have access to the account that a friend or family member previously made available to you.
You now have these options
To continue using Netflix, you now have the following options: For example, you can move into a household with someone who has a Netflix account and grant you access. This is the free version. But if this is not feasible, then you have to adapt to the cost. For example, you can set up your own Netflix account (The standard subscription with ads costs €4.99, the basic subscription €7.99, the standard subscription without ads €12.99 and the premium subscription €17.99 per month).
But if you found it so incredibly comfortable to share your account with other people without owning it yourself, you can also create a sub-account (a so-called additional membership) for a fee of € 4.99 per month. With the basic subscription, one sub-account is possible, with the premium subscription even two.
This is the additional fee for account sharing in Germany, which has been in effect since May 2023. If you haven’t received a message yet and still have access to the shared Netflix account, just enjoy the time. You will have to choose one of the mentioned steps in the future if you want to continue watching Netflix.
What exactly is a Netflix household?
If you’re still wondering how Netflix actually defines a household, it’s pretty simple: It’s a household if all devices using Netflix use the same internet access. This means smart TVs, smartphones, consoles or laptops like computers. Of course you can also continue to use Netflix while traveling, since the streaming service does not want to have any restrictions in terms of comfort.