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Max introduces monthly fee for password sharing outside your household

HBO Max app icon.
Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends

Looking to finish up the last season of The White Lotus on your friend’s Max account? You may be paying for your own before long. Max is officially cracking down on password sharing. Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming service will soon begin charging users $7.99 per month for every additional person accessing the platform outside of their household.

The company is introducing a new “Extra Member Add-On” that lets primary account holders invite one person who lives elsewhere to use Max under a separate login. This user won’t get their own subscription; instead, they’ll piggyback on the main account while streaming on a single device at a time. The option is available across all Max subscription tiers but is currently restricted to those who subscribe directly through Max. Customers using third-party billing or bundled plans won’t be able to add extra members at launch.

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Alongside the new sharing policy, Max is also rolling out a profile transfer tool. This lets users migrating to a new paid account, or being added as an extra member, bring their watch history, personalized recommendations, and other settings with them. That means no starting over from scratch if you’re kicked off the main account or decide to go legit.

The move follows a wave of similar password-sharing crackdowns across the streaming industry. Netflix introduced its own paid sharing plan last year, while Disney+ started rolling out an ad-tier version of the feature earlier in 2025. Both companies cite account sharing as a major contributor to lost revenue, and Max is now following suit with its own monetization model.

Warner Bros. Discovery previously signaled this change was coming back in February during an earnings call. Now, with the new feature confirmed and rolling out to users, Max joins a growing list of services tightening access rules and pushing subscribers toward individual accounts, or at the very least, paying more to keep sharing going.

Brittany Vincent
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Brittany Vincent has covered gaming, anime, tech, and entertainment for over a decade. When she’s not writing, she’s…
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