You’re curled up on the couch, ready to dive into The White Lotus or catch up on House of the Dragon, when you get a notification from Max: “Want to keep sharing your account? It’s gonna cost you.” If you’re one of the millions who’ve been splitting a Max subscription with a friend, family member, or that cousin you haven’t seen since last Thanksgiving, brace yourself. Max, formerly HBO Max, is joining the streaming service clampdown on password sharing, and it’s hitting subscribers with a new fee to keep the good times rolling.

On Tuesday, Warner Bros. Discovery, the folks behind Max, dropped the news that sharing your account with someone outside your household will now come with a price tag: $7.99 per month, to be exact. They’re calling it the “Extra Member Add-On,” a polite way of saying, “Pay up or get your own account.” This move puts Max in the same league as Netflix and Disney+, who’ve already rolled out similar paid-sharing models. But what does this mean for you, the viewer who just wants to binge Succession without breaking the bank?

The Extra Member Add-On lets you officially invite one person outside your household to your Max account. This isn’t just giving them your login and hoping they don’t change your profile name to “DragonLord69.” Instead, your extra member gets their own separate account with unique login credentials, so they can stream on one device at a time without kicking you off mid-episode. They’ll also enjoy all the perks of your base plan—whether you’re on the ad-supported tier or splurging for ad-free 4K streaming.

Here’s the catch: you can only add one extra member per account. So, if you’re running a password-sharing empire with your college roommate, your sister in another state, and your neighbor’s dog, you’ll need to pick a favorite. The add-on is also only available to folks who subscribe directly through Max, not those who get it bundled with, say, their phone plan or cable package. For now, bundle subscribers are off the hook—but don’t be surprised if that changes.

Max is trying to soften the blow with a profile transfer feature. This lets your extra member carry over their watch history, recommendations, and settings to their new account, so they won’t have to start from scratch or lose their carefully curated “Continue Watching” list. It’s a nice touch, but let’s be real: it’s still an extra $7.99 a month, or nearly $100 a year, on top of your regular subscription.

Max isn’t breaking new ground here. Netflix kicked off the password-sharing crackdown, charging $7.99 per month for extra members (recently bumped to $8.99 for ad-free accounts and $6.99 with ads). Disney+ followed suit in 2024, with extra member fees starting at $6.99 per month for its ad-supported plan. Max has been teasing this move for a while—Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming boss, JB Perrette, hinted at it last December, promising the feature would roll out in Q1 2025. True to their word, here we are.

The timing isn’t random. Streaming services are in a cutthroat battle to stay profitable in a crowded market. After years of burning cash to build subscriber bases, companies like Warner Bros. Discovery are under pressure to show investors they can turn a profit. Max, which boasts hits like Dune: Prophecy and The Last of Us, reported 103 million global subscribers as of late 2024, but that’s still a far cry from Netflix’s 300 million. Cracking down on password sharing is an easy way to boost revenue without raising subscription prices—though, let’s be honest, those are probably coming too.

Let’s put Max’s $7.99 extra member fee in context. Netflix’s ad-free extra member add-on now costs $8.99, while its ad-supported version is $6.99. Disney+ starts at $6.99 for its ad-supported extra member plan, with higher tiers costing more. Max’s fee is squarely in the middle—not the cheapest, but not the priciest either.

• Max: $7.99/month for one extra member, any plan tier.
• Netflix: $8.99/month (ad-free) or $6.99/month (with ads) for one extra member.
• Disney+: $6.99/month (with ads) or $9.99/month (ad-free) for one extra member.

Max’s advantage is simplicity: one flat fee, no matter your plan. But it’s still a tough pill to swallow if you’re already paying $9.99/month for the ad-supported plan or $19.99/month for the Ultimate Ad-Free tier. For context, that $7.99 add-on is almost the cost of a full ad-supported Max subscription on its own.

Max’s password-sharing crackdown is a sign of the times. Streaming services are done playing nice, and they’re betting you’ll pay to keep sharing rather than cut the cord. At $7.99/month, the Extra Member Add-On isn’t outrageous, but it’s one more expense in a world where every app seems to want a piece of your wallet. For now, Max is making it easy with profile transfers and separate logins, but the real test will come when enforcement kicks in.