Cracking down on password sharing on Netflix: What it means for you

If you’re sharing your Netflix password with friends or family, it’s time to make a choice: Do you want to pay extra or have them politely boot from your account?

Netflix has made account sharing changes for US customers who share passwords with anyone outside their household. Subscribers on a standard or premium plan can choose to pay an additional $8 per month for each additional member.

However, there are limits to the number of additional users allowed. Premium subscribers ($20 per month) can add two more people to their account, while those on the Standard plan ($15.50 per month) are only allowed one additional member. Netflix defines a household as one in which everyone lives under the same roof. Members of that household can still view content while traveling and the additional charges will not apply. At this time, the additional member option is only available to those billed directly by Netflix.

How to add or remove additional users

When you open the Netflix app and navigate to your account page, you’ll see a Additional members choice. From there, subscribers can buy a lock for the person outside their household. If they accept the invitation, the additional member will have their own separate account, profile and password, and the fee will be paid by the main subscriber household.

The rules? Additional member accounts can only stream on one device at a time and can only have one profile. The additional member must also be in the same country as the account holder.

A preview of where you can find Additional Members on your account page.

Screenshot by Kourtnee Jackson/CNET

Subscribers can also choose to remove users outside their household from their accounts and then encourage them to sign up for their own Netflix subscriptions. In this case, anyone who is removed from an account can transfer existing profiles to a new membership that they pay for themselves.

Here’s an overview of the monthly costs for each plan:

The streaming service rolled out its new policy for Canada, Spain, Portugal and New Zealand in February. Netflix first announced its intention to crack down on password sharing last year. In April, Netflix said it would introduce a fee for US customers by the end of the second quarter, i.e. the end of June, but the changes went into effect at the end of May.