Max Has Unveiled a Clever Way of Cracking Down on Password-Sharing
No one wants to interrupt their grandma’s The Righteous Gemstones binge-watch, but Max is onto the fact that your nana is using your password. And they’ve come up with a clever way to stop it: “Extra Member” accounts.
As Variety reports, Warner Bros. Discovery—Max’s parent company—is tired of seeing how much money is being left on the table due to people sharing their login info with friends and family. So on Tuesday, they launched a unique way to combat the problem by introducing “Extra Member” accounts.
Related: Max, Formerly Known as HBO Max, Changed Its Logo
Rather than forcing your freeloading friend to purchase their own subscription to the streaming service, Extra Member accounts let them continue to log on through yours—but at a cost of $7.99 per month. Given that the cost of an individual account starts at $9.99 for a basic subscription, including ads, and tops out at $20.99 per month for its Premium package, it’s a bargain any which way you look at it (though certainly more money than “free” has been).
The Extra Member incentive allows a user outside your household to set up their own individual account with their own preferences, which means your pal won’t interrupt your The Pitt marathon, and you don’t have to question why they’ve watched Chernobyl 10 times in one month. So really, everyone wins.
Max isn’t the first streamer to take this kind of sugar-coated approach to password-sharing. Netflix launched a similar program in 2023, and Disney+ followed suit in late 2024. In both cases, it has shown to be a revenue-booster.
Just be warned: you’ll only be allowed to add one Extra Member to your account. So you’ll need to think carefully.