Best Movies and TV Shows You Can Stream for Free

It’s easy to stream your savings away on subscriptions to Netflix, Max, Peacock, Prime Video, and other paid streaming platforms, but if you’re on a budget, you can save your dollars and sign up for accounts on free streaming services. 

Services like Pluto TV, Tubi, and The Roku Channel require nothing more than your email address to get started, and Kanopy only asks for your local library card info. Once you’re in, these platforms allow you to watch anything in their content library on demand for free—though you should be prepared to sit through a few ads on all of the services (except Kanopy).

To save you some time and trouble, we have hand-picked the best movies from each platform. Everything in this list is available on the first of the month unless otherwise noted. 

Before Midnight (Kanopy)

The third of the Before Sunrise series finds Céline and Jesse and their children at the end of a vacation in Greece. The couple get reflective about their lives together and all their could have beens while they fret over their future. Appropriately, it comes to Kanopy on Feb. 14.

This Time Next Year (Roku)

Emily in Paris has some competition for a love story set in a beautiful city from one of its own, Lucien Laviscount. He plays one half of a duo who were born in the same hospital on the same day, one minute apart, who are fated to meet up over three decades later. It comes to the Roku Channel on Feb. 10.

The Z-Suite (Tubi)

In this Tubi original series, a star Gen X advertising duo played by Lauren Graham and Nico Santos are sidelined by Gen Z colleagues, but they won’t go quietly.

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (Kanopy)

Sidney Poitier is the inimitable star of this film about a mixed-race couple who have a tense engagement dinner with both sets of their parents.

B.A.P.S. (Tubi)

Clueless might be the most mentioned comedy of 90s L.A., but B.A.P.S. should be mentioned in the same breath. Halle Berry and Natalie Desselle follow their dreams from Decatur, Georgia, to L.A., where they get scammed into perpetrating a scam.

Rocky + Creed Channel (Pluto TV)

Every single Rocky and Creed movie is streaming on Pluto’s latest channel that packs a punch.

Sonic the Hedgehog (Kanopy)

Has a hedgehog ever caused as much trouble, on and off screen, as Sonic? It took decades for this film to come into existence and the first look at it was do disastrous, that the whole look of Sonic was scrapped. He finally made it to the big screen with this story, where he uses his speed to stop a mad scientist.

The Great American Baking Show: Celebrity Big Game (Roku)

Days before Super Bowl LIX, you can get a bite of the Big Game with this special that features Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith setting out baking challenges for football fans. It premieres Feb. 3.

About Chandra Steele

Senior Features Writer

My title is Senior Features Writer, which is a license to write about absolutely anything if I can connect it to technology (I can). I’ve been at PCMag since 2011 and have covered the surveillance state, vaccination cards, ghost guns, voting, ISIS, art, fashion, film, design, gender bias, and more. You might have seen me on TV talking about these topics or heard me on your commute home on the radio or a podcast. Or maybe you’ve just seen my Bernie meme. 

I strive to explain topics that you might come across in the news but not fully understand, such as NFTs and meme stocks. I’ve had the pleasure of talking tech with Jeff Goldblum, Ang Lee, and other celebrities who have brought a different perspective to it. I put great care into writing gift guides and am always touched by the notes I get from people who’ve used them to choose presents that have been well-received. Though I love that I get to write about the tech industry every day, it’s touched by gender, racial, and socioeconomic inequality and I try to bring these topics to light. 

Outside of PCMag, I write fiction, poetry, humor, and essays on culture.

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