Plex officially ends its free remote streaming service

Media server Plex announced in March that it would put an end to free remote streaming, but hasn't yet put the new changes into effect. That changes this week as Plex plans to pull the plug on free remote streaming from the Roku app first, with the rest of its supported platforms coming in early 2026.

The change impacts people who use the company’s personal media servers. Until now, a person could set up a server, set it to stream remotely, and access that server from anywhere. In addition, that person could give their credentials to friends and family members and they could stream from the remote server as well. This was all free of charge.

Under the new system, people can still do all of the above, they just need to have a subscription in order to do it. Customers have two subscriptions to choose from. The first is the typical Plex Pass subscription, which just saw a price increase in April to $6.99 per month. Plex’s second option was made just for this occasion. It’s called the Remote Watch Pass, and it costs $2 per year.

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For the Remote Watch Pass, each person who wants to access the remote server needs to have one. Thus, if you’re sharing your personal server with four people, each of those four people need a Remote Watch Pass. Remote streaming from within your home network is still free, so you can still set up a server on your PC and stream it to your phone from across the house.

“This price increase will ensure that we can keep investing dedicated resources in developing new features, while supporting and growing your favorites,” Plex said in a blog post.

The inclusion of a subscription may chase away some users who used Plex for the free personal media server. For those folks, your best bet at a replacement is Jellyfin. It’s a free, open-source media server that you can stream remotely, but it does take a little extra configuration than something like Plex.