Crunchyroll Beginner’s Guide: What It Is, What’s Included, and How to Sign Up

✦ Edited and fact-checked by Mia Carter, our Contributing Writer with over 27 years covering tech and mobile apps.

What is Crunchyroll?

Crunchyroll is a streaming service built entirely around anime, along with a growing slate of manga and mobile games. It has become the default home for anime in the U.S. largely because it absorbed most of its former competition, including Funimation and VRV, and now houses their combined libraries under one login.

The service streams simulcasts within hours of their Japanese broadcast, alongside a deep catalog of classics and originals. If you want a broad, ad-free anime library without hunting across multiple apps, Crunchyroll is built specifically for that job.

For a full breakdown of Crunchyroll’s plans, ratings, and content depth, see our complete Crunchyroll review. This guide is meant to get first-timers oriented before diving into the finer print.

Who Owns Crunchyroll?

Crunchyroll is owned by Sony Group Corporation and operated as a joint venture between two of its subsidiaries: Sony Pictures Entertainment and Aniplex, the Japanese anime production and entertainment company behind hits such as “Demon Slayer” and “Solo Leveling.” Sony completed its $1.175 billion purchase of Crunchyroll from AT&T in August 2021, merging it with Funimation and VRV to form the current, unified service.

There’s no new ownership shakeup to report for 2025-2026, but newcomers should know Crunchyroll is currently facing an active class-action lawsuit alleging it shared subscribers’ viewing history with a marketing firm without consent, a claim that’s similar to one it settled for $16 million in 2023. The case is still pending, so nothing has been proven in court, but it’s worth knowing before you hand over your email and viewing habits.

How Much Does a Crunchyroll Subscription Cost?

Crunchyroll dropped its free, ad-supported tier at the end of 2025, so viewers now need a paid membership to watch. Though Crunchyroll’s free on-demand tier is gone, it still operates the free Crunchyroll Channel, a 24/7 curated stream that requires no signup and no paid subscription.

All three current paid tiers are ad-free and they mainly differ in terms of device limits, offline downloads, and extras such as games and merch discounts.

• Fan – $9.99/mo.: Full ad-free anime library, simulcasts, and offline downloads on one device at a time.
• Mega Fan – $13.99/mo.: Everything in Fan, plus streaming on up to four devices simultaneously and access to the Crunchyroll Game Vault.
• Ultimate Fan – $17.99/mo.: Everything in Mega Fan, plus streaming on up to six devices, and full Crunchyroll Manga access.

Notably, Crunchyroll’s help center says the membership store discounts ended August 14, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. PT.

For a deeper look at how these tiers compare feature-by-feature, visit our Crunchyroll pricing and Crunchyroll plans pages.

Is There a Crunchyroll Free Trial?

Yes. Crunchyroll offers a seven-day free trial on any of its three paid tiers, whether you sign up directly through Crunchyroll or via Amazon Prime Video Channels. You’ll need to enter payment information up front, and the trial converts into a paid subscription automatically once the week ends. Notably, Amazon only offers Fan or Mega Fan tiers, but not the Ultimate Fan tier, which is available exclusively via Crunchyroll.

If you’re testing the waters, cancel a day or two before the trial expires to avoid getting billed. Our Crunchyroll free trial page walks through the sign-up and cancellation steps in more detail.

Does Paying Annually for Crunchyroll Save Money?

It does, and the discount is consistent across every tier. Paying for a full year up front works out to roughly 16% off the monthly rate. The Fan tier runs $99.99/yr. (about $8.33/mo.) instead of $119.88 if billed monthly. The Mega Fan and Ultimate Fan tiers see similar annual discounts.

If you already know you’ll be watching regularly for a full season or more, annual billing is the simplest way to trim the cost. Check our Crunchyroll deals page for current annual promotions, which occasionally drop even lower during seasonal sales.

What Can You Watch on Crunchyroll?

Crunchyroll’s library leans on scale: more than 1,000 series and tens of thousands of episodes, spanning long-running shonen hits, seasonal simulcasts, and slice-of-life favorites. Popular titles across the catalog include “One Piece,” “Jujutsu Kaisen,” “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba,” “Attack on Titan,” “Chainsaw Man,” and “SPY x FAMILY.”

Because Crunchyroll absorbed much (but not all of) Funimation’s dub catalog in 2022, it’s also the strongest option if you specifically want English dubs alongside subtitled originals. Higher tiers add extras beyond video, including the Crunchyroll Game Vault (mobile games like “River City Girls” and “STEINS;GATE”) and, on Ultimate Fan, the relaunched Crunchyroll Manga library.

The tradeoff is choice: for the biggest anime library and fastest new-episode turnaround, Crunchyroll is hard to beat, though its user experience and caption accuracy on some dubs still draw fair criticism from longtime fans.

What Devices Support Crunchyroll?

Crunchyroll works across most major streaming hardware and apps, including:

• iOS and Android phones and tablets
• Web browsers on PC and Mac
• Apple TV (4th generation and 4K)
• Amazon Fire TV, Fire Stick, and Fire Cube
• Roku devices
• Chromecast and Chromecast with Google TV
• Android TV
• PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch
• NVIDIA SHIELD Pro TV
• Samsung TVs running Tizen 3+
• LG TVs running webOS 4+

For a long time, native Samsung and LG smart TV apps were omitted from this list, but anime fans with these TVs no longer need a streaming stick, console, or Roku/Fire TV device to watch since Crunchyroll now supports these devices.

How to Sign Up for Crunchyroll

Getting started takes only a few minutes on Crunchyroll’s official website.

1. Go to Crunchyroll’s official website and select a Fan, Mega Fan, or Ultimate Fan plan.
2. Create an account with your email address and a password.
3. Enter payment details to activate your 7-day free trial (or skip the trial and subscribe immediately).
4. Confirm your plan and start streaming right away.

You can also subscribe through Amazon Prime Video Channels if you’d rather manage billing through an existing Amazon account. For a side-by-side look at current offers, our Crunchyroll subscription page breaks down each sign-up path.

How to Cancel Crunchyroll

Cancellation depends on how you originally signed up, so check your billing source before you start.

1. If you subscribed directly on Crunchyroll’s site, log in, click your profile icon, and go to Settings.
2. Select Membership Info, then click Cancel Subscription and follow the prompts.
3. If you subscribed through Apple, Google Play, Amazon, Roku, or PlayStation, you’ll need to cancel through that platform’s account settings instead. Crunchyroll can’t cancel third-party billing directly.
4. You’ll keep access through the end of your current billing period even after canceling.

Google Play subscribers recently gained the ability to pause a Crunchyroll membership. But non-Google Play subscribers will need to cancel and resubscribe later if they need a break.

Crunchyroll vs. HIDIVE: Which is Right for You?

Crunchyroll and HIDIVE are the two most-discussed dedicated anime streamers, and fans tend to frame the choice around scale versus price. Crunchyroll’s library tops 1,000 titles with same-day simulcasts, while HIDIVE’s few hundred titles lean into niche, older, and less-censored picks through its Sentai Filmworks library.

Crunchyroll is the better fit if you want the widest possible anime selection, fast access to new seasonal shows, and extras like games and manga. HIDIVE is the better fit if you’re budget-conscious. Its single plan runs about $6.99/mo., well under Crunchyroll’s $9.99 entry tier. It’s a solid option for anyone who specifically wants curated, harder-to-find anime titles.

Plenty of dedicated anime fans subscribe to both at once, using Crunchyroll for volume and HIDIVE for the titles it doesn’t carry. If you’re only picking one to start, Crunchyroll’s bigger catalog makes it the safer first subscription for most newcomers.

Crunchyroll FAQ

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