Back in the day, it was enough for one person in your family or group of friends to have a single Netflix account that got shared around. However, all of that changed in May 2023 when Netflix cracked down on password sharing, making it much more difficult to share an account outside of your home.

Netflix is one of the most popular streaming services out there, and with good reason. It delivers a massive library full of old favorites and new movies and shows like Stranger Things, Bridgerton, and Will & Harper. The sudden shift away from Netflix password sharing meant everyone from old roommates to college students were left trying to figure out what the new rules meant, and whether they’d need to pick up their own Netflix account.

We’ve got the details on everything you need to know about how password sharing works, and what you need to know before snagging a Netflix subscription. Let’s dig in.

At one point, everyone either had a Netflix account or had access to a Netflix account. Maybe it was yours, or your parents, or your ex-boyfriend’s. The thing is, Netflix knew millions of people were sharing accounts, and a whole lot of them didn’t live together. So password sharing had to go.

Netflix says that it cut down on password sharing, because the missing revenue from all of those accounts made it harder to invest in new original movies and TV. It was also about competition. Unlike the earlier years of streaming when there weren’t many options, the landscape has become increasingly more crowded each year. That means that Netflix is competing against the likes of Amazon Prime Video and Disney+.

As the streaming landscape has gotten more competitive, Netflix’s opinion shifted away from simply having as many eyeballs on the screen as possible. Instead, it needed consumers to pay for subscriptions so it could afford to keep existing movies and deliver new exclusive shows like Stranger Things, and Bridgerton. By cracking down on password sharing, Netflix was hoping to capitalize on the millions of users who were sharing passwords.

A Netflix account may be shared, but is meant to be shared only among the users who live in the same household. This means you can still split an account with your roommates, or have a single family subscription … until someone moves out. That’s where things become more complicated.

Under the current Netflix rules, you’ll have to set a primary location for your account. Once it’s set, Netflix will check the users accessing the service through your account to the IP address, and if it doesn’t match, you won’t be able to access Netflix.

This leaves you two basic options if you want to keep Netflix but don’t live with the person you were sharing an account with. A Netflix account can add an extra member to its Household for $8 per month. This extra account can only access Netflix on one device at a time, and must be in the same country as the account it’s being added to. Otherwise, they have access to everything Netflix has to watch.

If that doesn’t quite work for you, then you’re left with only one other option: You’ll need to pay for your own Netflix subscription. The bright side is that you don’t need to completely start over, and can transfer your Netflix profile to a new account.

One of the biggest perks of going with a streaming service over cable is the ability to watch your shows no matter where you happen to be. Thankfully even though Netflix is cracking down on password sharing, you’ll still be able to watch whether you’re curled up on the couch or relaxing on vacation. The big caveat here is that if you go to a different country, you should expect to see a different library, and you might be unable to access certain downloaded programs.

Things can get tricky if you’re constantly traveling or living a nomadic lifestyle since the new password rules are mostly based on physical location. So long as you have a home base where your router is located, you should be fine since its IP address won’t change. However, if you’re constantly jumping between states or using public Wi-Fi, eventually you are going to run into issues from Netflix. In these cases, it may be worth routing through a VPN.

Netflix has always had different content available in different regions. While you still can use a VPN to access Netflix, you’re not going to get access to everything.

A VPN (virtual private network) works by disguising your location. This is a great way to keep your private information away from advertisers, but it’s also got the perk of allowing you to view websites as through you’re browsing from another country. When it comes to streaming services, this means you might be able to access certain programs that aren’t otherwise available in your home country.

Unfortunately, that’s not how it works with Netflix. While you still have the option to use Netflix with a VPN, you won’t have access to the full catalog for any specific region. Instead you’ll only be able to access the shows and movies that Netflix has worldwide rights for, like Squid Game or Stranger Things.

If you’re watching Netflix primarily for the original programming, then you should be good to go. However, if there is a specific comfort show in mind, you may want to check on whether you’ll be able to watch it through a VPN before you pick up that subscription. It’s also possible to run into issues on Netflix where it will ask you to turn off your VPN for some region-locked content.