If you’ve tried watching “No Sudden Move” or one of the other movies exclusive to HBO Max in Canada, you should be familiar with the error message that blocks you out. The problem isn’t hard to figure out: HBO Max is unavailable in Canada.
When HBO Max launched in 2020, it launched exclusively to US residents. However, you don’t have to move to the United States to watch HBO Max exclusives.
In this article, you’ll learn how to access HBO Max from Canada. While you’ll have to spend extra on a VPN, the expense is worthwhile if you need to access any HBO Max exclusive from Canada.
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Can You Use HBO Max in Canada?
At the moment, it is impossible to access HBO Max regularly in Canada. If you’re reading this article, you probably know this for a fact already.
Once you try to access the HBO Max service from Canada, you’ll see an error message stating that HBO Max isn’t available in your country yet. When you read the details, you will see how HBO Max states that they’re working to bring HBO Max to more countries.
However, not everyone is patient enough for HBO Max to bring its service to Canada. If you’re willing to cut corners, you can always use HBO Max by subscribing to a VPN service.
If you’re willing to wait for HBO Max to bring its service to Canada, you may be in for a pretty long wait. HBO Max hasn’t announced any plans to bring its service to Canada and it’s yet to hire workers in the country, making it unworthy to wait for when it makes it to Canada.
How to Use HBO Max in Canada
Since HBO Max is ordinarily unavailable in Canada, you’ll need some workarounds to be able to access the service from the country. In this section, you’ll learn how to buy a subscription to HBO Max and access the service without leaving Canada.
All these are possible, thank VPNs. VPNs will make it seem like you’re browsing from a different country when you enable them. The technicalities of a VPN are complicated, but it can be made to look pretty easy on the surface.
Ordinarily, the average VPN service will have hundreds of servers in different countries around the world. All of these servers will have the basic ability to access the internet, but they can be used by multiple people at a time.
When you open your preferred VPN app and choose to route your browsing through a specific country, all of your internet connection requests will be routed through a server in your country of choice.
Since these servers are physically present in the country, it will appear as if you’re browsing from that country. When you understand this basic premise of VPNs, you’ll understand how to access HBO Max in Canada.
While it’s already pretty evident, here are the steps required to use HBO Max in Canada with a VPN anyway.
- Choose a reputable VPN service.
The first step to using HBO Max in Canada with a VPN is choosing a VPN service. This should come before you even buy a subscription to the service at all. To be fair, there is no way you can even buy a subscription to HBO Max without a VPN.
There are many great VPN services, but they all come at a price. If you’re looking to do something related to streaming censored video, you want to stay away from free VPNs completely. With a free one, it’s only a matter of time before HBO Max kicks you out of the service, wasting your subscription.
If you have no idea how to choose a good VPN service for streaming HBO Max, stick until the last section of this guide where I’ll recommend some of the best VPNs for accessing the service from Canada.
- Connect to the VPN service and subscribe to HBO Max.
Once you’ve bought a subscription to HBO Max, you’ll need to connect to a US server to access HBO Max. Depending on what VPN you’re using, there might be a button that connects you to the fastest server available.
Using that button might connect you to a Canadian server which has its disadvantages, but is useless to us at this point. Scroll through the options and connect to the fastest US server available as you’ll be needing the speed.
Once you’ve connected to a VPN, you can proceed to download the HBO Max app. You can also purchase a subscription through the hbomax.com website if you’re on a PC device.
The regular ad-supported subscription to HBO Max costs $9.99, but the ad-free version will cost you an extra five bucks. Unless you want a severely limited experience, sacrificing the extra fiver is always worth it.
- Start streaming HBO Max.
Once you have a subscription to a pretty speedy VPN service as well as an HBO Max subscription, you can start streaming immediately. To watch any movie or show, you first have to fire up your VPN and connect to the US server, as that’s how HBO Max will think you’re not from Canada.
If you fail to connect to the VPN before streaming, you won’t be allowed to access the service. If you keep accessing the service continuously without using a VPN, HBO Max may choose to restrict your account permanently.
If you’re renewing your HBO Max subscription after the first month, you may also have to renew your subscription to the VPN service. If you don’t want to worry about tracking payments, you can simply pay for a one-year subscription to both the VPN service and HBO Max.
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Conclusion
HBO Max isn’t ordinarily available in Canada, but thanks to smart workarounds, we made it work. In this article, I’ve outlined how to watch any HBO Max exclusive without having to fly to the United States.
The only thing you need to do is to buy a subscription to a VPN service and keep it turned on whenever you want to stream. While that will add a few extra dollars to the cost of accessing the service, it’s surely lower than flying to the United States to stream HBO Max.
