If you’re hoping for a Netflix free trial this year, you’d better cross your fingers. And toes. And maybe rub a few bellies.
According to the official Netflix Help Center, “Netflix does not offer free trials“. But they graciously remind you that “you have the freedom” to cancel your plan (or downgrade or upgrade it) whenever you want. You’ll only be billed for your current billing period. And, seeing as the company doesn’t offer a Netflix annual plan, your billing period can’t be longer than month.
That means if you try out the cheapest ad-supported Netflix price plan, it’ll cost you a penny under 7 bucks. However, there are still a few ways to get Netflix for free—or rather almost-free. But they all require spending money elsewhere.
When was the last Netflix free trial?
As far as we know, there hasn’t been a real Netflix free trial in the United States since October 2020. Back then, you could get Netflix free for a month, which is well above the current industry average of 7 days.
A few streaming services—such as Peacock—have recently done away with their free trials, but most major streaming services still offer customers a try-before-you-buy option.
If you catch it on a good day, YouTube TV sometimes offers a entire month for free, and Amazon Prime Video always offers a month free as part of its Amazon Prime trial. With most other streaming services, you’re mostly looking at 3, 5, or 7 days.
But… you can still get Netflix for “free” by buying something else, namely a phone plan from T-Mobile.
Get Netflix for free from T-Mobile
The word “free” often does a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to marketing, especially with corporate collaborations. However, if you’re already one of T-Mobile’s 114 millions subscribers, or you’re looking for a new mobile provider, you might be able to get Netflix for free.
The current offer, according to T-Mobile’s Terms of Service in August 2023, gets you either Netflix Basic (which actually no longer exists as of last month) or Netflix Standard. You just have to subscribe to 1 or 2+ qualifying phone lines and keep your account active and in good standing.
Get Netflix for free with Verizon
As with T-Mobile, Verizon isn’t just giving away free Netflix subscriptions to people. You obviously need to be a Verizon customer and sign up for the right plan.
The right plan in this case is Verizon’s Unlimited Plus plan that costs $45/line. This lets you add Netflix and Max to your mobile phone plan for just $10/line. Of course, those are both the cheapest Netflix and Max plans and come with commercials. But seeing as Max With Ads is already $10/month, you’re essentially getting Netflix for free.
If you have already have a Netflix account, you can link it to your Verizon deal. Just read the fine print and make sure you link it properly to avoid getting double-charged by Netflix.
And no, there is no option to upgrade to ad-free plans.
Get Netflix for free with Xfinity
Depending on where you live, Comcast’s Xfinity brand offers Netflix for free. The key point here is depending on where you live. Xfinity’s so-called “Help” page states that “Xfinity packages with Netflix are only in only available in select markets.”
It then asks you to “visit xfinity.com” (ie: the entire website) to check availability. Of course, being a cable company, there’s no page or list that informs customers which markets are included. It’s as opaque and confusing as a cable TV bill.
In some areas, Netflix is also offered as part of Xfinity packages along with premium channels.
Xfinity
But if you want to spend time searching Xfinity’s website, start with its Netflix FAQs and go from there. You might be able to find a Netflix deal you can actually use. But it’s definitely the most annoying and time-consuming way to find a Netflix free trial.
Does Kenya still have a Netflix free trial?
No.
If you lived in Kenya—or had a VPN with Kenyan servers—you were able to get Netflix for free, no strings attached. It actually wasn’t even a trial, it was just a free plan.
There were 2 big caveats with Netflix’s free plan in Kenya. According to Netflix’s press release, you could only sign up—and watch it—on Android mobile devices. Also (and obviously), you could only watch it in Kenya.
Today, we’re launching a free plan that allows people to enjoy Netflix ad-free on Android mobile phones in Kenya. When you sign-up, no payment information is required. All you have to do is enter your email, confirm you are 18 or over and create a password.
Netflix, Dec. 8, 2021
You didn’t even need to give them your credit card information, which is required by nearly every single free trial in America.
Netflix rolled out the free mobile plan hoping that viewers would migrate to a paid plan to watch on their big screen TVs or computers. And after 2 years, they had collected enough market information to kill the Netflix free plan in Kenya. So on November 1, 2023, Netflix’s free plan in Kenya came to an end.
Other ways to get Netflix for free
Unfortunately, as far as we’re aware, there currently aren’t any other ways to get Netflix for free. As soon as we learn of any, we’ll check out whether they’re legit, then add them here.
If you know of any other ways to get Netflix for free, please drop us a comment below or a private note through our Contact Page.
How to pay less for Netflix
Go global
While Netflix price hikes are about as surprising as higher gas prices, unlike the filling up your tank, you can shop around the world for a better prices. Of course, this again requires a VPN. And if all the core benefits of a VPN aren’t good enough reasons to have one, do the math and figure out what you can save — if anything — by moving your digital subscriptions overseas.
According to VPN Wiki in May 2023, the cheapest Netflix plan is $2.80/month in Pakistan. After that, you’ve got Turkey at $3.14/month, Argentina at $2.93/month, Colombia at $6.07/month, and India for a whopping $6.03/month.
On the converse of that, the unlucky folks in Switzerland Liechtenstein pay the most expensive Netflix fees at $20.95. Denmark is in a distant second at $16.41, followed by the good ol’ USA at $15.49/month, and Israel at $14.79/month.
All of the above prices are for the Standard plan, which means ad-free and HD quality streaming. They’ll also change depending on currency rates, so double check before making any decisions. (For example, the Netflix Standard plan in Turkey is 97.99 Turkish lire, which on August 25, 2023 converted to $3.84.)
Get friendly
Aside from taking the Carmen Sandiego route to discounting Netflix, there’s also a more “official” way to pay less for Netflix. As it walked through the swirling dust of its Password Crackdown, Netflix quietly introduced the Extra Members feature. It allows Netflix account holders to add an additional sub-account for $7.99/month. Unlike the main profiles included with your account, the Extra Member does not need to be part of your household.
While it may sound good on the surface, it comes with limitations. They can only watch 1 device at a time, can only download to 1 device at a time, and cannot create additional profiles. It also can’t be a Kids profile and must activate in the same country as the main account.
Take a break
One of the quickest and easiest ways to cut your Netflix bill is by not paying it. No, we’re not suggesting you just don’t pay your bill. We’re saying that you can put it on “hold” without losing all of your profiles, favorites, preferences, or any account information.
Netflix used to offer a pause feature that allowed you to simply put your on account on hold for a few months. They did away with that (of course), so now you need to actually cancel your account. However, if you log back in within 10 months using the same login info and update your payment info, it’ll be like you never left.
Final thoughts
Netflix is the most expensive on-demand streamer on the market. It’s also the most well-known, so it’s not surprising that the Netflix free trial is a thing of the past. However, it’s no longer the King of Must-See Streaming that it once was. There’s a lot of competition out there and consumers have a lot more high-quality streaming services to choose from.
If you’re not in the market for a new mobile plan and want to avoid Comcast like the plague, taking a month-by-month or quarter-by-quarter approach to streaming is a good way to cut down on streaming fees. Just mark down your cancellation dates on the calendar and set reminders so you don’t pay for unwanted extra months.
If you’re really just waiting for the final season of Stranger Things, there’s no need to be paying for it now. Put that sucker on hold.
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