While Netflix no longer allows you to share your password with other people to give them free access, you can still share your Netflix account with someone outside your house by adding them as another member. But is this something you should do?

Let’s take a look at the reasons for and against sharing your Netflix account to help you consider your approach to this issue.

You Can No Longer Share Your Netflix Password

In May 2023, Netflix started cracking down on password sharing in many regions of the world, so you can no longer share your Netflix password with a friend to let them watch for free. If you share your Netflix password with someone outside your home, Netflix will recognize that they are not on your primary network and will block them from accessing the service.

Instead, those who subscribe to Netflix's Standard or Premium plan can add one or two people (respectively) who live outside their home to their account—for $8 each. Those extra members can only watch Netflix on one screen at once, and can only download content on one device at a time.

Extra members each have their own profile (you can transfer your Netflix profile to another account if needed) and enjoy the same quality as the account owner. Notably, the account owner pays for the extra person.

Since you can't share your Netflix password anymore (without taking more drastic measures), let's look at the reasons for and against adding a member to your account, rather than telling them to sign up for their own account. We'll also examine how these reasons have changed with the removal of password sharing.

Reasons to Share Your Netflix Account

We’ll start with the pros; why might you share your Netflix account with a friend?

1. To Cut Down on the Overall Cost

friends looking at a screen together

The biggest reason you'd want to share your Netflix account is to reduce the price that each person pays. If a friend wants to watch Netflix in 4K and doesn't need multi-screen access, it makes more sense for them to pay you $8 a month than for them to pay for their own $20/month subscription. This is also more cost-effective with the Basic ($10/month) and Standard ($15.49/month) plans.

Since all but the Standard with Ads plans let you watch Netflix on multiple screens at once, you could argue that the other screens are “going to waste” if someone isn’t using them. But Netflix doesn't see this as a justifiable reason for password sharing; those other screens are only for use in your household.

2. They're Technically Part of Your “Household”

Netflix is OK with you sharing one account with multiple people in your home, as evidenced by the option to have multiple profiles. And while “household” refers to people living under one roof, there are some situations where you'll still want someone else associated with your account.

For example, most people would prefer to have a long-distance girlfriend as an extra user on their account, rather than making her get her own. It's a similar situation for a parent paying for their daughter to use their Netflix account when she moves to college.

If you’re close enough with someone that they could live with you, you'd consider them part of your “household" even though Netflix doesn't define it this way. But it will cost you more now.

A Reason Not to Share Your Netflix Account: Awkward Payment Situations

In the past, when sharing your password, you needed to consider security concerns around sharing your Netflix password and make sure you were OK with going against Netflix's terms on account usage (which it didn't enforce). Since neither of those points is relevant now, the main drawback to Netflix account sharing is the potential to introduce uncomfortable scenarios around the extra cost.

As the account owner, you have to pay for the extra member(s) each month no matter what. If your friend(s) don’t send you their share, you’ll have to eat the cost or demand that they pay. Assuming they don’t change their ways, you'll be forced to remove them from your account. There's also a less drastic concern: if you cancel your account, their slot goes with it, so they'll be forced to sign up for their own plan or join someone else's.

Financial issues like this can tear friendships apart, so consider carefully if you trust people to pay their share, or to be understanding if you have to remove them.

Share Your Netflix Account at Your Discretion

With all this considered, whether you share your Netflix account is up to you. You might draw a distinction between family members and non-family, or choose to only add people who used to live in your house.

Each service has its own way of limiting how many people can use an account. If you're annoyed by Netflix's restrictions, there are lots of shareable accounts that aren’t limited to people in your household.