Should You Worry About Password Sharing?
Password sharing is normal. Netflix estimated more than 100 million households were using shared passwords, and The New York Times asks some readers to verify their accounts when a login shows up on too many devices. For your site, the bigger cost is the reader behind the shared login who never gave you an email address. This post covers how many devices to allow (four or five for consumer publishers, tighter for B2B and financial content), why tighter limits bring more support tickets, and how family plans and bonus seats turn sharers into named readers. See how the Times, The Washington Post and Mexico News Daily do it, plus one login test to run this week.
Episode Summary
- The New York Times asked Pete, a paying subscriber, to verify his account after a LinkedIn in-app browser counted as one device too many.
- Password sharing is normal. Netflix estimated more than 100 million households were watching on someone else’s account.
- The bigger cost for your site is the reader behind the shared login who never gave you an email address.
- Consumer publishers should start generous, at four or five devices. B2B and financial publishers can justify tighter limits.
- Family plans and bonus seats turn sharers into named readers with their own logins.
What Happened When The New York Times Flagged a Paying Reader
A login check can lock out your best subscribers.
I pay for The New York Times, and my wife and I share the account.
She reads in the app. I read in the app and sometimes on the web. That’s about three logged-in sessions.
Then I clicked a Times link inside LinkedIn. Social apps open links in their own built-in browser, so I had to log in again. The Times counted that as another device and asked me to verify my account with a one-time code sent to my email.
It took a minute, and I didn’t cancel. But as a paying subscriber, I felt a little frustrated.
Nieman Lab has reported that the Times appears to be cracking down on login sharing, with the same email-code prompt for accounts used on too many devices. A Times spokesperson told Nieman Lab the company is “always monitoring and testing new approaches with our audience.”
Is Password Sharing Normal?
Yes. Many households share a subscription, and the largest subscription businesses plan around it.
Netflix estimated that more than 100 million households were using shared passwords. Then it rolled out paid sharing to more than 100 countries, including the US. That quarter it added 5.89 million paid subscribers, and Netflix said sign-ups were already outpacing cancellations.
You aren’t Netflix, and your readers won’t put up with the same squeeze. But one part of the Netflix playbook carries over: every block came with a paid way for sharers to stay.
What Does Password Sharing Really Cost You?
A reader you can’t identify.
A shared login gives you one email address for two or three readers.
The person reading on their partner’s account never registered. They aren’t on your newsletter list. You don’t know what they read, and you have no way to offer them their own plan.
Why does that matter? AI answers keep more readers on search and chat platforms, so your list of known readers is the audience you still reach directly.
It’s the same reason we push registration walls. Across nine Leaky Paywall publishers using a registration wall after one free article, 3.2% to 6.7% of readers who saw it signed up.
Newsletter popups convert 0.9% to 1.45%. A popup only asks. A registration wall requires.
A shared password lets a reader skip that step entirely.
How Many Devices Should You Allow?
Set your limit by who’s sharing and what it costs you.
A concurrent login limit caps how many browsers or devices can be signed in to one account at once. If your site uses native WordPress logins (Leaky Paywall does), a free plugin like Loggedin can set that cap.
Where to start:
- Consumer publishers (local news, niche titles, magazines): be generous. Four or five devices covers a couple with phones, a laptop, and the odd in-app browser.
- B2B publishers: tighter limits make sense, since one login can end up shared across a whole team. Pair the limit with a group plan so the company has a way to pay for every reader.
- Financial and premium data publishers: a hard paywall and strict limits can be worth the trade, because the content is the product.
Whatever you pick, watch your inbox. Tighter limits mean more “I can’t log in” emails, and every extra login prompt adds friction for someone who’s already paying. If those tickets climb, loosen the limit.
How Do You Turn Shared Logins Into Subscribers?
Give every sharer a login of their own.
The New York Times uses the stick and the carrot. Alongside the login check, it sells All Access Family: four individual logins for $20 every four weeks at full price. Each person can save articles, get newsletters, build recipe boxes, and follow teams.
On an earnings call, Times CEO Meredith Kopit Levien called the family plan “almost like the carrot version of password sharing.” She also said it “is priced at a premium.” Ben Cotton, the Times’ head of subscription growth, told Axios that family subscribers are “much more likely to stay with us.”
The Washington Post takes a different route. Premium subscribers get three bonus subscriptions to share.
Each recipient activates access through their own email and gets a separate login. Premium and home delivery subscribers can also send one 30-day digital pass a month to anyone.
Smaller publishers do this too. Mexico News Daily sells a Family Plan for “You + 2 more” at $16.99 a month, next to a $9.99 individual plan. That’s $7 more for two extra readers.
For your site, a family or group plan can be simple:
- Offer three or four seats for a little more than your individual price.
- Give every seat its own login, invited by email.
- Show the family plan next to the individual plan on your subscribe page.
Leaky Paywall’s Group Accounts extension handles this: you set the number of seats, the subscriber invites members by email, and each person gets their own login.
Key Takeaways
- Password sharing is normal. Start with generous device limits (four or five) on consumer sites, and tighten only where sharing clearly costs you, like B2B and financial content.
- The bigger loss is the reader you can’t identify. Every shared login hides someone who isn’t on your list.
- Pair any limit with a paid way to share. Family plans and bonus seats give each reader their own login.
Try This Week
Test your login the way a subscriber would. Sign in on your phone and your laptop. Then share one of your article links to LinkedIn or Facebook and open it inside that app.
Count every login prompt or verification step you hit. If it would frustrate a paying reader, loosen your device limit.
Resources Mentioned
What Happened When The New York Times Flagged a Paying Reader
A login check can lock out your best subscribers.
I pay for The New York Times, and my wife and I share the account.
She reads in the app. I read in the app and sometimes on the web. That’s about three logged-in sessions.
Then I clicked a Times link inside LinkedIn. Social apps open links in their own built-in browser, so I had to log in again. The Times counted that as another device and asked me to verify my account with a one-time code sent to my email.
It took a minute, and I didn’t cancel. But as a paying subscriber, I felt a little frustrated.
Nieman Lab has reported that the Times appears to be cracking down on login sharing, with the same email-code prompt for accounts used on too many devices. A Times spokesperson told Nieman Lab the company is “always monitoring and testing new approaches with our audience.”
Is Password Sharing Normal?
Yes. Many households share a subscription, and the largest subscription businesses plan around it.
Netflix estimated that more than 100 million households were using shared passwords. Then it rolled out paid sharing to more than 100 countries, including the US. That quarter it added 5.89 million paid subscribers, and Netflix said sign-ups were already outpacing cancellations.
You aren’t Netflix, and your readers won’t put up with the same squeeze. But one part of the Netflix playbook carries over: every block came with a paid way for sharers to stay.
What Does Password Sharing Really Cost You?
A reader you can’t identify.
A shared login gives you one email address for two or three readers.
The person reading on their partner’s account never registered. They aren’t on your newsletter list. You don’t know what they read, and you have no way to offer them their own plan.
Why does that matter? AI answers keep more readers on search and chat platforms, so your list of known readers is the audience you still reach directly.
It’s the same reason we push registration walls. Across nine Leaky Paywall publishers using a registration wall after one free article, 3.2% to 6.7% of readers who saw it signed up.
Newsletter popups convert 0.9% to 1.45%. A popup only asks. A registration wall requires.
A shared password lets a reader skip that step entirely.
How Many Devices Should You Allow?
Set your limit by who’s sharing and what it costs you.
A concurrent login limit caps how many browsers or devices can be signed in to one account at once. If your site uses native WordPress logins (Leaky Paywall does), a free plugin like Loggedin can set that cap.
Where to start:
- Consumer publishers (local news, niche titles, magazines): be generous. Four or five devices covers a couple with phones, a laptop, and the odd in-app browser.
- B2B publishers: tighter limits make sense, since one login can end up shared across a whole team. Pair the limit with a group plan so the company has a way to pay for every reader.
- Financial and premium data publishers: a hard paywall and strict limits can be worth the trade, because the content is the product.
Whatever you pick, watch your inbox. Tighter limits mean more “I can’t log in” emails, and every extra login prompt adds friction for someone who’s already paying. If those tickets climb, loosen the limit.
How Do You Turn Shared Logins Into Subscribers?
Give every sharer a login of their own.
The New York Times uses the stick and the carrot. Alongside the login check, it sells All Access Family: four individual logins for $20 every four weeks at full price. Each person can save articles, get newsletters, build recipe boxes, and follow teams.
On an earnings call, Times CEO Meredith Kopit Levien called the family plan “almost like the carrot version of password sharing.” She also said it “is priced at a premium.” Ben Cotton, the Times’ head of subscription growth, told Axios that family subscribers are “much more likely to stay with us.”
The Washington Post takes a different route. Premium subscribers get three bonus subscriptions to share.
Each recipient activates access through their own email and gets a separate login. Premium and home delivery subscribers can also send one 30-day digital pass a month to anyone.
Smaller publishers do this too. Mexico News Daily sells a Family Plan for “You + 2 more” at $16.99 a month, next to a $9.99 individual plan. That’s $7 more for two extra readers.
For your site, a family or group plan can be simple:
- Offer three or four seats for a little more than your individual price.
- Give every seat its own login, invited by email.
- Show the family plan next to the individual plan on your subscribe page.
Leaky Paywall’s Group Accounts extension handles this: you set the number of seats, the subscriber invites members by email, and each person gets their own login.
Key Takeaways
- Password sharing is normal. Start with generous device limits (four or five) on consumer sites, and tighten only where sharing clearly costs you, like B2B and financial content.
- The bigger loss is the reader you can’t identify. Every shared login hides someone who isn’t on your list.
- Pair any limit with a paid way to share. Family plans and bonus seats give each reader their own login.
Try This Week
Test your login the way a subscriber would. Sign in on your phone and your laptop. Then share one of your article links to LinkedIn or Facebook and open it inside that app.
Count every login prompt or verification step you hit. If it would frustrate a paying reader, loosen your device limit.
Watch the Episode
Resources Mentioned
