Netflix Plans: The Three Types of Netflix Subscription
In most countries Netflix sells three plans: Standard with ads, Standard, and Premium. They differ in three things. Whether advertising plays, the highest video quality, and how many screens can watch at the same time.
The older Basic plan had no ads and one screen. Netflix has retired it for new members in several countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Some markets still sell it.
Prices differ by country and change over time. Check the Netflix sign-up page for your own country before you decide.
The three Netflix plans compared
| Feature | Standard with ads | Standard | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advertising | Yes, about 4 to 5 minutes an hour | None | None |
| Top video quality | 1080p Full HD | 1080p Full HD | 4K Ultra HD with HDR |
| Screens at the same time | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Downloads | 2 devices | 2 devices | 6 devices |
| Extra member slots | None | 1 | 2 |
| Audio | Stereo and 5.1 | Stereo and 5.1 | Spatial audio |
| Price | Lowest | Middle | Highest |
A small number of titles are missing from the ads plan. Netflix does not hold advertising rights for every film and series it licenses.
Which plan suits which household
- One person, one screen, price first. Standard with ads. The ad breaks are short and the picture is still Full HD.
- One or two people who dislike ads. Standard. It also lets you add one person outside your home.
- A family, or anyone with a 4K television. Premium. Four screens and 4K with HDR are the two reasons to pay more.
- A phone-only viewer in a market that sells it. A Mobile plan, where Netflix offers one.
Video quality also depends on your device and your connection. A 4K plan does not give 4K on a Full HD screen.
Plans, profiles, and extra members are three different things
People often search for Netflix account types when they mean one of these.
A plan is what you pay for. It sets the quality and the screen limit.
A profile is a separate space inside one account. It keeps its own watch list, history, and recommendations. Every plan allows up to 5 profiles, and a kids profile limits titles by age rating.
An extra member is someone outside your household. They get their own profile and their own login, and you pay a small extra fee. Standard allows one, and Premium allows two.
Profiles do not add streams. If your plan allows two screens, a third profile still cannot play at the same time.
Plans differ by country
Netflix does not sell the same set everywhere. The ad-supported plan launched in a limited list of countries and is still not offered in all of them.
Markets such as India sell a cheaper Mobile plan. That plan plays on one phone or tablet at a lower resolution.
Some countries also keep the Basic plan on sale. The sign-up page for your country is the only reliable list.
How Netflix uses these tiers
The tiers are a pricing design, and they follow a pattern you can see in many products.
The cheapest tier trades money for attention, because advertising pays the difference. The middle tier removes ads. The top tier sells quality and scale, meaning 4K and more screens.
Each step adds something a specific household already wants. That is why three tiers work better than one price.
How to Prepare for a Netflix Interview
- Know the product as a system. Work through designing a Netflix-like streaming service so you can explain how tiers affect delivery.
- Learn the culture memo. Netflix tests it directly, so read the culture of Netflix.
- Understand the strategy. What Netflix's main objective is explains why the plan lineup keeps changing.
- Build the fundamentals. Grokking System Design Fundamentals covers CDNs, caching, and storage.
- Know the loop. See what Netflix's interview process looks like for software engineers.
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