The Best Free Video Streaming Services for 2025

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Most people don't think about how much they spend per month, let alone per year, on video streaming services. Between watching the latest on-demand originals, popular movies, and live TV streaming channels, you can easily pay $50 or more per month. However, you can save on costs using one or several free video streaming options. Granted, these free options aren't as sophisticated as paid streaming services, nor do they have as much or as high-quality content. If you consider them complementary entertainment, you can get by watching free services. Tubi is our top pick, but all the platforms highlighted below are worth exploring.

What Can You Stream for Free?

As with paid services, there are two main types of free video streaming services: on-demand and live. Some free options, like PBS Video, offer both content types.

Crackle, Kanopy, Midnight Pulp, Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, and Tubi all have on-demand movies. Amazon Prime Video has the most popular movies, while Kanopy and PBS Video distinguish themselves with top-notch documentaries. Serious cinephiles should check out dedicated movie streaming services like The Criterion Channel or Mubi. You may be surprised that Crackle and Tubi's movie libraries are larger than many paid services, but paid services have higher-quality titles. Anecdotally, many of the free services share the same movies, too. Crackle, PBS Video, Pluto TV, and Tubi all offer on-demand TV shows.

Paid video streaming services, such as Max and Paramount+, use popular current and classic shows to build up their catalogs (often with exclusives), so it makes sense that there aren't many marquee titles for free services to grab. Still, free streaming is becoming an increasingly important part of the streaming landscape.

Amazon and Crackle are unique among free options in that they produce original series. Don't expect the production value or quality storytelling of Amazon Prime Video's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Netflix's Stranger Things, or Paramount+'s Star Trek: Picard. The Roku Channel also has a surprising amount of original shows acquired from the defunct Quibi.

PBS Video is the closest thing to a free live TV service of everything we've reviewed here, as it lets you watch a live feed of your local PBS station. Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, and Xumo occupy a weird hybrid space. These services primarily offer continuous streaming channels of preprogrammed clips and commentary, but they do have a select few live news and sports commentary feeds. Meanwhile, free "live TV" offerings on Screambox and Shout Factory TV are basically 24/7 marathons of existing content.

For streaming services that can replace cable, check out our top picks for the category, Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV. You aren't likely to find live coverage of popular sports leagues on the free services, either, so sports fans should consider a paid sports streaming service.

Speaking of YouTube, the popular video platform lets you watch full seasons of select, ad-supported TV shows. Enjoy more than 4,000 episodes of Andromeda, Heartland, and Hell's Kitchen. YouTube has free movies, too, such as Gone in 60 Seconds and Legally Blonde.

Anime streaming services are another subset of free video streaming services. Crunchyroll offers a robust free tier, while RetroCrush is totally free.

Media server applications, such as Kodi and Plex, are free and enable you to stream your content from a personal or shared server. Plex now includes an on-demand streaming library of movies and shows you don't need to host (largely because it integrates Crackle's whole library).

Of course, you can always fill your time by watching videos on Vimeo and YouTube. And who could forget about video game live streaming services, such as Twitch?

Is Free Video Streaming Actually Free?

Nothing in life is truly free. Although free video streaming services may not cost money, you are almost certainly paying with the personal data that the services collect. In the case of most free video streaming services, your ad views are what matter. Kanopy is an exception; it doesn't show ads.

The specifics of ad behavior vary across services. For instance Crackle and Xumo include markers on the playback interface to show you exactly where to expect ads to play. It's a safe bet that you'll sit through ads about every 10 minutes or so, at least for on-demand content. Plex does not insert ads into streams, though Crunchyroll, RetroCrush, and Tubi all include ads.

In our experience, it's sometimes possible to get around ads on the services' web versions by using a combination of ad-blocking and privacy-enhancing extensions. However, we've had less luck blocking commercials when using Hulu's ad-supported base tiers. To get rid of ads, you need to pay for a higher tier. Services that don't include ads at all are becoming increasingly rare. Disney+, Max, Netflix, and Prime Video all now have ad-supported tiers.

Some of the services in this roundup are offered only at the free level, with no option to pay for an upgraded experience. Among those are Crackle, Pluto TV, RetroCrush, The Roku Channel, Tubi, and Xumo. You can still set up an account with those services, but doing so does not grant you extra content or remove ads. Instead, accounts generally let you track what you watch and customize other aspects of the experience.

Other free services are more like free samples that lock their full library and features behind a paywall. Crunchyroll and PBS Video offer paid plans that unlock ad-free streams, premium content, and other perks. Plex, too, has a premium tier option, called Plex Pass. This upgraded plan gives you extra library management features but doesn't expand the available on-demand content.

Common Limitations of Free Video Streaming

Don't expect free services to include all the top features that you'd associate with paid services. The most apparent limitation may be the maximum streaming resolution available, with few services supporting full-HD streams. Crunchyroll and Kanopy are the only services that support 1080p streaming at their free tiers. Most other on-demand content on the other services is capped at 720p or lower. For example, many of the popular movies on Tubi are available to stream at about 540p, which is disappointing. That said, the base Netflix plan caps the streaming resolution to SD quality, so subscribers to that plan will see an improvement with free services. Still, most paid services generally provide a better viewing experience. Apple TV+, for example, supports high-end Dolby audio and video standards, plus 4K streaming.

Most free on-demand services don't support offline downloads on mobile devices, though the paid options of some anime streaming services have this capability. You can sync media offline from your Plex server, with a Plex Pass, but if you already own that media, you can skip Plex altogether and transfer files to your device's local storage.

Kanopy has a limitation that no other streaming service does: It caps the number of titles you can watch each month. Every other streaming service offers unlimited access. Kanopy's restriction at least does not apply to its kid-friendly content.

Free live TV options don't include DVR recording capabilities or storage. You don't have to pay much for these features. Inexpensive options, such as Philo and Sling TV, have DVR and storage capabilities.

Video Streaming Parental Control and Accessibility

A few free services include parental control options, though most are extremely limited in functionality. Tubi is unique in that it lets you specify what is allowed by content rating. Others use a simple on or off toggle, or in the case of many anime streaming services, provide an option to filter mature or explicit content. Kanopy includes a dedicated section for kid-friendly content. However, most free services have an implementation problem; there's nothing to prevent your kid from signing up for the service on their own or not using an account at all.

All the free services we've reviewed include Closed Caption (CC) options for most of their content. Amazon Prime Video, Crackle, Kanopy, PBS Video, Tubi, The Roku Channel, and Xumo let you customize their subtitles' appearances. We won't get into the heated anime sub vs. dub argument here, but after acquiring Funimation's dubbed content, Crunchyroll is now the best of all worlds. Amazon provides limited support for audio descriptions and is the only free service we reviewed that offers this accessibility feature.

Should You Use a Free Streaming Video Service?

If there's something on any of these services that you want to watch, you should take advantage of the fact that they are free. The limited resolution options and ads may diminish the experience, but if you weren't going to pay for the content anyway, that's a fine compromise. You won't find any of the latest releases, either, so ensuring you have the best viewing experience is likely not important.

You won't find many worthwhile series if you seek new shows to binge-watch. As mentioned, originals and popular classic shows are unlikely to leave their content holders' services. As with most things in life, you get what you pay for (or don't pay for, in this case).

The cord-cutting audience won't likely find a suitable replacement in the free category either, as most live content on the free options is from a handful of news networks. Still, if cable's appeal was just to have something on in the background as an audial or visual distraction, then these might fit the bill. For live cable channels and sports, you need to pay up.

Free vs. Paid Video Streaming

You don't have to exclusively use paid or free services. Nor do you have to use the same services every month. You may find that you can get by just fine with one or two paid options, and a free live TV option to fill the void left by cable. Even if you pay for a full-fledged, live TV streaming service (which likely includes a significant amount of on-demand content), you may find that free offerings fill an occasional gap.

For more on streaming, check out five reasons to ditch your video subscription and keep cable. In addition, you should read how streaming has ushered in a new trash TV golden age. If you don't know what you want to watch, these apps will help you figure it out. Learn why we must preserve streaming video before it's too late. And if you want to stream video while staying secure online, check out the best VPNs for video streaming.

Kim Key contributed to this article.

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