Pro tips: Get Netflix for free and save as much as $240 per year

Netflix is one of the more expensive video streaming services available, costing as much as $20 per month. That translates to around $240 per year, which is no chump change. You get access to tons of titles, including new movies and shows every week, but you could do a lot with that money, including saving it for a rainy day or buying a new smartphone, to name a few.

Luckily, you can get it for free! With a little bit of time, effort, and creativity, you don’t have to spend a dime to watch the latest Netflix shows and movies. In this short guide, we’ll show you exactly how to get Netflix for free. Let’s get started.

Sharing is caring

To get Netflix for free now that free trials are history, you’ll have to be super friendly to friends and family who are already paying for the service. Two of Netflix’s four subscription plans allow for streaming on multiple devices at the same time. You can also make separate profiles that let you create your list of movies and TV shows you want to watch, set a language preference, and get personalized recommendations.

Now, this used to be a lot easier to pull off until some changes at Netflix. Sharing accounts requires that you live with the person you’re sharing an account with. Strictly speaking, that was always the case, but Netflix now enforces the rule, and you can get booted from your account if you’re using it from a different address.

If you have roommates, a generous sibling, or parents who live with you and can foot the bill for a household account, all you have to do is ask them to hook you up with the login info for their Netflix account. Once you have that, create your profile and start binge-watching for free.

Unfortunately, you can’t assign a different password to each profile, which means that the owner of the Netflix account will be able to see exactly what you have been watching. If it includes movies or TV shows you’re not exactly proud of, you can delete your Netflix history for peace of mind — here’s how to do it.

This isn’t ideal, and it’s not really free, since someone is paying, but it’s one option that’s open to you.

Take advantage of free Netflix offers from carriers, ISPs, etc.

A few mobile carriers are offering free Netflix access to their customers. Yes, I know, this method of getting free Netflixc technically isn’t free either, since you have to sign up for one of the carriers’ plans, but it’s a great option if you already plan on doing that. Netflix is then a bonus at no extra cost.

You can get Netflix for free on eligible plans from T-Mobile, which includes Magenta and Magenta Max. Terms and conditions apply, though, with one of them being that you’ll need two or more lines on your account to get Netflix for free. The MVNO carrier also offers free Netflix for customers who sign up for three or more unlimited lines.

We’ve seen similar offers from carriers outside the U.S. as well. In the UK, O2 offered free Netflix to its subscribers in the past, as did Vodafone. Airtel did the same thing in India.

Deals like these change quickly, so we might see more of them somewhere down the line. We’ll be sure to update this post when that happens. And if we’ve missed any major ones, please do let us know in the comments.

Get (some of) Netflix for free if you’re from Kenya

If you happen to live in Kenya, good news. Netflix has offered a new way to access the service completely for free. Well, sort of. Netflix’s announcement says that about a quarter of its content in that country can be accessed for free. All you have to do is sign up with your name and email address. There’s no credit card info needed, and once you sign up, you can check out the free content without ads.

There are limits. The free tier can only be accessed by Android mobile phones for now, and you can’t download or cast any movie or TV show on the free plan. However, this is likely an experiment to see if Netflix can bring in new paid subscribers in developing markets by offering them a taste of the service. If the plan works, we may see Netflix expand this offer to a bunch of other countries. We’ll keep you posted.

Bonus tip: Try competing streaming services

Netflix is the biggest and arguably the best video streaming service out there, but it’s not the only one. To save money, you could try competing services, including Amazon Prime Video and Hulu, both of which offer free trials.

Each of these streaming services offers loads of great content. For example, Amazon’s Prime Video features excellent original series, including The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Boys, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, A League of Their Own, and Reacher. Hulu is known for releasing new episodes of some of the most popular shows around a day after they are aired on TV, along with its own originals like The Handmaid’s Tale, Only Murders in the Building, and more.

So switching from one streaming service to another, taking advantage of free trials when they are available, might be a better option than focusing just on Netflix.

FAQs

There you have it, folks — that’s how you can get Netflix for free. 

I’d also like to add that although we all want to save money, consider paying for the service if you enjoy it and can afford it. Netflix uses part of that money to create new shows and movies for its customers, so if everyone stopped paying a monthly subscription, there would be no new content to look forward to in the future.