With free movies, documentaries, and TV content, Plex can help make your mediaverse bigger than ever. Plex users from almost every country are able to access free, ad-supported content to stream whenever they like. Awesome blockbusters, indie classics, cheesy B-movie action, and more are all ready for you to enjoy.

Related Page: Video on Demand Overview

Basic Info About Video on Demand

Why ads? Will having a Plex Pass remove them?

Our goal is to bring a wide assortment of content—from big studios, independent producers, and more—from around the globe to you for free. In exchange, we’re asking for a bit of your time to watch some ads. Even so, you can expect a notably lower ad-to-content ratio than you’d experience with typical broadcast television.

Since ad revenue is how the studios and distributors get paid, having a Plex Pass will not remove ads or reduce their frequency.

Does having a Plex Pass give access to additional titles?

To be clear up front, having an active Plex Pass subscription does not change what content is available on the free service in any way. You don’t suddenly get access to more or newer titles. For information about additional features available to Plex Pass holders, see our Plex Pass Feature Overview article and the Plex Pass marketing page.

Will the available content be changing?

Yes, the content available will change over time. Many items will continue to be accessible, while some other items may only be available for a limited time from a distributor. We’ll also continue working to bring in additional partners to add more content from around the world.

Are you putting ads into my personal content?

Absolutely not! That would be a really terrible idea for many, many reasons. Your media collection—including your recorded movies and TV shows, home videos, photos, music collection, and more—will continue to stream to all of your devices, ad-free.

Are there geographic restrictions?

Some distributors have very specific requirements for where their content is allowed to be played, due to various licensing parameters they have in place with everyone they work with. Though some content in our catalog will only be playable in certain countries, much of it can be played worldwide. We’re continuing to work with new and existing partners to bring even more titles for users all over the world.

Due to local regulations in a few countries, our on-demand content will not be available for users located in the following countries:

• Bahrain
• Cuba
• Egypt
• Iran
• North Korea
• Qatar
• Saudi Arabia
• Sudan
• Syria
• Turkey
• Turkmenistan
• United Arab Emirates

Is there content in [my language]?

While the majority of our content is in English, we do have non-English content, too. In addition, we’re working with new and existing partners to expand our catalog and bring in even more titles from around the world.

Will the studio partners know what content I have or watch in my personal library?

Absolutely not! In fact, we take pains to ensure that Plex doesn’t even know what’s in your personal media library in the first place. Neither Plex nor any of our partners will have any access or visibility into the content or metadata that our users have in their personal media collection.

Do I need a Plex Media Server? Do these stream through my server?

No, this service is independent of any Plex Media Server. You don’t need to run your own server or have one shared with you. The content streams from online and does not go “through” any Plex Media Server you have installed or shared with you.

Why am I seeing the same ad so many times?

Due to the way that the ad industry works, it’s possible that you may see the same ad more than once when watching content. Advertisers sometimes target different platforms, so the variety of ads available can vary depending on how you’re watching content. For instance, there are typically more ads available for “big screen” apps (Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, etc.) than there are for playback in a browser, so people watching on a big screen app are less likely to see repeat ads, since there is a bigger pool of ads available.

Accessing or Restricting the Content

Can my family watch this content?

Absolutely. Our ad-supported movie and TV content is available to all users for free. If your family members already have their own, regular Plex account, then they’ll have access directly, or they can choose to enable/disable the media source for themselves, as desired.

You can also create a managed user for a family member and add them to your Plex Home for fast user switching.

Related Page: Managed Accounts
Related Page: Plex Home

Can I restrict the content my child can access?

Yes! You can create a managed user for your child and apply one of the preset profiles to control what type of content the child’s account can access. Plex Pass subscribers can further customize the restrictions for what content is accessible.

Related Page: Parental Controls

How do I turn Video on Demand off so I don’t see it?

You can control whether the Movies & Shows (on Plex) source is available for your account as well as for any managed users you have set up. You’ll find instructions in our “Video on Demand Overview” article.

Related Page: Video on Demand Overview

Can I change the audio language?

Our desire is to source the title’s original language and provide English subtitles or captions, whenever this is available and possible for us to source through our distributors. For the vast majority of content, only a single audio stream will be available.

Are subtitles available?

When sourcing content from our partners, we do request subtitles for the content from them whenever it is available. Typically, this will be English subtitles, but not all content will have subtitles available or provided to us.

Why do some titles list the wrong audio language?

Some non-English titles still have English listed as the language, even though the spoken language is different. We are working hard at resolving this discrepancy.

Other Questions

Can I create a playlist or watchlist of items?

Absolutely! We offer a universal watchlist feature that allows you to add movies or TV content from anywhere. Whether it’s personal content from a Plex Media Server, a classic film we offer on our free Movies & Shows service, or even an upcoming movie that hasn’t even been released yet, you can add any of them to your Watchlist.

Related Page: Universal Watchlist

Can I add titles to my own personal library?

This capability is not currently available. However, we are exploring library augmentation that we may include in a future update.

Will I be able to browse the entire catalog or see titles by genre?

You can browse content available in different genres, but it is not possible to browse a single, consolidated free library. (There would be so many results that it wouldn’t be practical anyway.)

Will I see preview thumbnails when seeking content?

Yes! Preview thumbnails are available for our free content, so they can be shown when seeking within playback.

How can I request a title be added?

If it were only so straight-forward that we could pick and choose any title we wanted to add! Alas, content deals in this industry are complex and very nuanced. While you can give us suggestions in our forums, we can’t promise they will get added or commit to any timelines that involve content.

How do I report things like mismatched or incorrect metadata and playback issues?

You can visit our forums for detailed information on the best way to report issues to us. Keep in mind that in most cases, we won’t be able to provide an individual response for issues reported.

Related Page: Reporting issues with Video on Demand