If you enjoy streaming your own content via Plex to devices like Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, or Android TV, some bad news is coming your way: it’s going to start costing money soon.
Back in April 2025, a change came into effect that affected Plex users who remotely accessed the content on their Plex media servers from anywhere. For example, anyone who stored their media content on their home server and wanted to watch it from their second home or while on vacation now had to pay for that remote streaming feature.
Previously, people outside a Plex server owner’s network could also access the server owner’s media library for free. After the April changes, a server owner now needs a Plex Pass subscription—which costs $6.99 per month—to grant outside users remote access to their server. (Alternatively, someone can remotely access another person’s Plex server by purchasing their own Remote Watch Pass for $1.99 per month. This subscription plan has fewer features than a Plex Pass.)
According to a statement by Plex employee, spotted by How-To Geek:
This requirement change for remote streaming will come to all other Plex TV apps (Fire TV, Apple TV, Android TV, etc.) and any third-party clients using the API to offer remote streaming in 2026.
In other words, if you want to stream your Plex media content to your Roku or other streaming device via the Plex TV app or some other third-party client, you won’t be able to do so anymore without a Remote Watch Pass or Plex Pass subscription starting in 2026.
The goal of this change is to increase profitability, reports Ars Technica.
