Plex Announces Plex Pass Price Increase and Makes Remote Access a Paid Feature

Plex announced today some important changes to its service and a first price increase for its Plex Pass subscription. Starting April 29, the monthly price will go from $4.99 to $6.99 and the annual plan will go from $39.99 to $69.99.

The price of a lifetime Plex Pass subscription, which is currently $119.99, will also be bumped to $249.99 on April 29. If you’re a free Plex user, you may want to consider a lifetime subscription as a Plex Pass will soon be required for streaming your personal media remotely.

Plex explained that it was raising the price of Plex Pass and making remote access a paid feature to guarantee its ability to develop new features. “The reality is that we need more resources to continue putting forth the best personal media experience, and as a result, we will no longer offer remote playback as a free feature. This—alongside the new Plex Pass pricing—will help provide those resources,” the company said today.

As of today, a Plex Pass subscription gives more features to users who stream personal media files, including advanced streaming controls, the ability to download media, and hardware transcoding support. While a Plex Pass subscription will soon be required for remotely streaming personal content from a Plex Media Server, this will only apply to video media and not music or photo streaming.

While the upcoming price hikes may give Plex users an incentive to get a lifetime Plex Pass subscription at the current $119.99 price, Plex will also launch a cheaper Remote Watch Pass subscription on April 29. At $1.99/month or $19.99/year, this new subscription will let users remotely stream media from their own Plex media server or any other personal media server to which they have access.

“This is a great option for users who don’t run their own server and are looking to stream from a server belonging to a friend or family member who does not have a Plex Pass. It’s also a good alternative for server owners who may not need the full feature offering of a Plex Pass, but are looking for a more cost-effective option to access their media remotely,” the company said about its new Remote Watch Pass subscription.

While these Plex updates are certainly going to cause some backlash, the company also announced today that it was removing the one-time activation fee required to play content on a local network from its Plex mobile apps. The company will also give users who have already paid this one-time activation fee an extended trial for its new Remote Watch Pass subscription when it becomes available.

Lastly, Plex said that its free, ad-supported streaming movies, shows, and Live TV will remain free to watch for all users. The company also announced that it was updating its Privacy Policy and Terms of Service today but made it clear that it doesn’t collect or sell any information about users’ personal media and how they use their personal media servers.