Plex Launches 5-Year Plex Pass for $250 After Lifetime Option Jumped to $750

The popular media center Plex is introducing today a new 5-year Plex Pass membership priced at $249.99. The company quietly announced the new plan in an update to the May 19 blog post announcing a 200% price increase for the Lifetime Plex Pass, which takes effect today, July 1, 2026 (via Ars Technica).

As a reminder, a regular Plex Pass subscription costs $6.99 per month or $69.99 per year. By paying $249.99 for 5 years of Plex Pass, users can save $100.

To be clear, $249.99 is the price of what used to cost the Lifetime Plex Pass before the company raised it to $749.99 today. To justify the 200% price increase, the company said in May that the new $749.99 price “reflects the real, ongoing value of the software we’re committed to building and maintaining for years to come.”

Plex remains free to use for all users, and a Plex Pass unlocks power user features such as remote streaming, hardware transcoding, offline downloads, and more. The new 5-year recurring Plex Pass gives Plex users “one more way to enjoy the benefits of Plex Pass for an extended period,” the company said today.

As Ars Technica pointed out today, the original price of the lifetime Plex Pass in 2012 was $75. While a x10 price increase in 14 years is a tough pill to swallow, the company said in May that it had considered eliminating this lifetime membership option in the past to prioritize recurring revenue sources, but the company ultimately considered that its Lifetime pass is “still a valuable option for many in our community.”