Netflix will charge each “house” on subscription accounts used by multiple users

The days of “account sharing” on Netflix appear to be numbered, as the company has officially announced that it is starting tests to charge accounts for the number of “homes” in which they are used. The first of those who will be able to “buy” a new virtual home for their Netflix account will be those in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and the Dominican Republic, who will have to pay up to $3 per home in addition to the standard subscription they already pay.

Netflix introduces charging based on the number of homes an account is accessed in

The official Netflix Honduras page explains pretty well how this new system of charging those who use their account in more than one home will work. First of all, users who use their Netflix account only at one address, on one or more TVs, mobile devices or computers, will not have to pay anything extra. Besides, connecting a laptop to your TV won’t pay extra either.

But if you connect with the same account on multiple TVs at different addresses for longer periods of time, then you’ll need to activate another “home” on that account to continue accessing Netflix services from the official app on that device.

Here’s the official description of the service

“Add another house

Starting August 22, 2022, when you sign in with a Netflix account on a TV outside your home, you’ll see the option to add an additional home for an extra price per month.

If you use this TV for a limited time, you can watch Netflix for up to two weeks at no extra cost, as long as your account hasn’t previously been used there. After that time, the TV will be locked unless you add another home to your account.”

Basically, those who travel will be able to use their account on other TVs at no extra cost as long as they don’t exceed two weeks per year from each location.

The device detection method appears to be a fairly advanced one, taking into account more than just the IP or unique ID of the device, in a manner similar, perhaps, to what Netflix previously used to detect VPN usage for regions where the service was not yet available.

How Netflix detects homes

“We use information such as IP addresses, device IDs and account activity.

If you are using a device in your home already included in your subscription and you see a message saying there are too many homes on your account, you can:

Make sure your device is connected to the same internet connection as other devices in your home.

Make sure you’re not connected to a VPN or proxy or other unblocker-type service.”

Apparently the number of boxes that can be added is also limited depending on the type of subscription. Those on the basic plan, “Basic,” can add one extra home, while the “Standard” plan includes the ability to pay for two more homes. “Premium” accounts, with access to 4K and HDR streaming, can add up to three extra homes.

This is the second extra charging method Netflix is currently testing. It previously tested adding extra users to the same account in Costa Rica, Peru and Colombia.

Netflix’s reasons for only now taking such steps to charge those who share a Netflix account with other friends or family members is explained by the falling share price in 2022, as well as the first drop in subscribers in the company’s history this spring. Netflix also recently announced that it is working on a free, ad-supported subscription that it will launch in partnership with Microsoft.