From early 2023, Netflix users will not be able to share their account passwords with friends or anyone outside their household. Here’s all about it.

By Sneha Saha: If you share your Netflix account password with your friends and colleagues, there’s bad news for you. The streaming platform has long been trying to crack down on the password sharing business and it seems it’s going to be a reality soon. Starting next year, Netflix will not allow its users to share passwords with people outside the household.

According to a report coming from The Wall Street Journal, from early 2023, Netflix users will not be able to share their account passwords with friends or anyone outside their household. Netflix has been exploring multiple ways to end password sharing business for several months now.

Password sharing has been an issue ever since Netflix launched subscriptions, but the company didn’t address it until it lost subscribers. The company realized the need to end password sharing after Netflix’s revenue fell earlier this year and the platform lost subscribers for the first time in 10 years. Earlier this year, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said that soon the company will crack down password sharing, which has long been due.

As per reports, Netflix will soon disable the option to share passwords with anyone outside the household. With the aim of cracking down on free password sharing, Netflix may start charging per head. It simply means, if you share your Netflix password with anyone outside your household, the person will need to pay a fee to use the profile. So, there will be no way one will use their friend’s Netflix profile without paying.

Netflix has been testing the new password sharing option in some Latin American countries, including Costa Rica, Chile, Peru, and some more. In these markets, the streaming platform is charging $3 (Rs 250 approx) for people who wish to use their friend’s Netflix account. The company hasn’t revealed how much it will charge per head in India but we believe the amount should be almost at par with the global pricing. Netflix will enforce the new password sharing rule through IP addresses, device IDs, and account activity.

Netflix is trying new ways to increase its subscriber base and cracking password sharing is one of them. The company recently introduced a new affordable ad-supported plan at $6.99 in the United States with the hope of attracting users who do not wish to pay a lot to get Netflix subscription.

In India, Netflix offers four plans – mobile-only plan, basic plan, standard plan, and premium plan. The mobile-only plan comes at a price of Rs 149, while the basic, standard, and premium plans are priced at Rs 199, Rs 499, and Rs 649, respectively.