The Free Crunchyroll Tier Is Gone. Here Is How to Pick the Right Paid One.
For years, plenty of anime fans used Crunchyroll without paying a cent. The free tier had ads and a delay on new episodes, but it worked. That option is gone: Crunchyroll announced in December 2025 that it was ending its free, ad-supported tier. Watching now means picking a paid plan, and the three tiers are different enough that choosing the wrong one either wastes money or leaves you short of something you use every week.
What Crunchyroll is now
Crunchyroll started in 2006 and is now owned by Sony. After Funimation’s catalog was folded into it in 2022, it became the largest dedicated anime streaming service in the West, with more than 1,000 anime series plus East Asian dramas, films, music and games. It reported 21 million subscribers in 2026.
Its big draw is simulcasts: new episodes of current Japanese series appear shortly after they air in Japan, so fans can follow a season as it happens instead of waiting months for a dub or a box set.
The three tiers, in plain terms
All paid plans remove ads and give you new simulcast episodes at premiere. The differences are about how many people watch, whether you watch offline, and how much you buy merchandise.
- Fan is the entry plan: ad-free streaming and simulcasts. It suits one person who mostly watches at home.
- Mega Fan adds offline viewing and up to four streams at once, plus a store discount and free shipping over a set order value.
- Ultimate Fan raises that to six streams and a bigger store discount, and adds an annual member gift and access to exclusive merchandise.
One recent change matters if you buy figures or apparel: from August 2026, the Crunchyroll Store became exclusive to Mega Fan and Ultimate Fan members. Prices for all tiers also rose in 2026, so check the current figures on Crunchyroll’s site before you choose.
Choosing without overpaying
- Count the screens. If more than one person in the house watches at the same time, Fan will cause arguments. That alone often settles it for families and roommates.
- Think about your commute. Offline viewing starts at Mega Fan. If you watch on trains, planes or anywhere with patchy signal, it is the feature you will miss most.
- Be honest about merchandise. The store discounts and free shipping only pay back if you actually buy from the Crunchyroll Store. If you do not, the extras on the top tier are mostly decoration.
- Consider annual billing once you are sure you will stay. For people who watch all year, paying monthly while dipping in and out between seasons is often the more expensive habit.
When Crunchyroll is not the right subscription
- You only watch one or two big shows. Some popular anime also sit on general services such as Netflix, which you may already pay for. Check where your show streams before adding another subscription.
- You watch in bursts. If you binge one season and then stop for months, subscribing only during the season you are watching, and cancelling afterwards, is cheaper than keeping a plan running.
- You want physical media. Collectors who prefer Blu-ray editions may get more from buying the releases they love than from a streaming plan.
For anyone who follows several shows each season and wants episodes as they air, Crunchyroll remains the obvious home for anime. The only real decision now is which tier matches how, where and with whom you watch.
