More than you think, and all of it legal. Six services are free and ad-supported — no card, no trial, no subscription. Two more are free with a library card and have no ads at all. Below is what each one actually is, what it holds, and whether it makes you sign up.
The biggest of them by a distance — over 300,000 movies and TV episodes, including more than 400 originals. Owned by Fox. Deep back catalogue: whole runs of older network series, a large horror and action library, and a surprising amount of anime.
Free foreverFree account for some titlesWeb, iOS, Android, TVOwned by Paramount. Built around more than 200 live channels that run like cable — you turn it on and something is already playing. Best in class if you want the TV-in-the-background experience rather than a decision. On-demand library alongside it.
Free foreverNo account neededLive channelsOver 500 live channels plus thousands of on-demand films and episodes, and you do not need a Roku device — it runs in any browser. Carries a decent share of recent-ish premium series that have cycled off their original home.
Free foreverFree account for some titlesNo Roku device requiredBest known as personal media software, but the free ad-supported side carries a real film and TV library plus live channels. Worth checking when a title is nowhere else free — Plex often has the odd one out.
Free foreverFree accountComcast/Charter's free service. Smaller, but it starts instantly in a browser with nothing to sign up for, which makes it the lowest-friction way to just have something on.
Free foreverNo account neededNot just clips. YouTube licenses a rotating set of full feature films to stream free with ads — genuinely big titles turn up here, and it is the one most people forget to check.
Free foreverNo account neededThis is the most underused thing in streaming. If you have a public library card, two services open up, both fully licensed, both completely ad-free. Most people who have a card do not know these exist.
Arthouse, documentary, foreign-language, Criterion Collection titles and The Great Courses. Ad-free. Your library gives you a monthly allowance of credits or plays rather than unlimited viewing.
Library cardNo adsBroader and more mainstream than Kanopy — films, TV series, plus audiobooks, ebooks and comics on the same allowance. Also ad-free, also capped per month by your library.
Library cardNo adsA sample of titles we have confirmed are streaming free on one of the services above. Availability moves constantly, so each one links to a page we keep current.
| Title | Free on |
|---|---|
| The X-Files | Pluto TV |
| The Walking Dead | Pluto TV |
| Arrow | Pluto TV |
| Blue Bloods | Pluto TV |
| Stargate SG-1 | Pluto TV · Fandango at Home |
| Midsomer Murders | Pluto TV · Roku · Plex · Xumo · Hoopla |
| Doctor Who | The Roku Channel · Hoopla |
| Castle | The Roku Channel |
| Lioness | The Roku Channel |
| Conan | The Roku Channel · Tubi |
| S.W.A.T. | Tubi |
| Sesame Street | Tubi · Roku · Hoopla |
| Rugrats | Hoopla |
| Death in Paradise | Hoopla |
| Pulp Fiction | The Roku Channel |
| Titanic | Kanopy · Hoopla · YouTube |
| Inception | YouTube |
| Troy | YouTube |
| The Boys | Prime Video (free with ads) |
| Reacher | Prime Video (free with ads) |
| The Rings of Power | Prime Video (free with ads) |
| Off Campus | Prime Video (free with ads) |
Most people do not overpay for streaming because they chose badly. They overpay because they subscribed for one show, finished it, and never cancelled. The average household is paying for services it has not opened in months, and nothing tells it so.
It remembers where you are in every show, across every service. It shows you what each subscription actually costs you per hour you watch, and flags the ones you have stopped using. And it tells you when something on your list turns up free on one of the services above — so you do not renew a subscription for a show you could have watched for nothing.
Free, no account required to start, works in any browser. You can export everything you put in, any time.
Start tracking free →The services on this page are, without qualification. They are owned by Fox, Paramount, Roku, Comcast and Google, or funded by public libraries, and they pay for what they show. The revenue comes from the ads you sit through instead of a subscription you pay.
Not legal, and not safe. Apps that clone a paid service's interface and hand you its whole catalogue for nothing have no licence for any of it. They are sideloaded from mirror domains that rotate constantly, security scanners return malicious detections on the installers, and users report notices from their internet providers. There is no version of that trade that is worth it when the six services above are free and above board.
Pluto TV, Xumo Play and YouTube start playing with no account at all. Tubi, The Roku Channel and Plex want a free account for part of their catalogue. Kanopy and Hoopla need a library card number.
Track it. Rights move constantly — a series that costs money today can land on Tubi next month with no announcement. Help Me Binge watches for that and tells you, which is the difference between cancelling a subscription and forgetting you have one.