Short answer: yes, TiviMate has a genuinely free version, and you can watch live TV with a programme guide on it without paying anything. But the features people actually recommend TiviMate for (recording, catch-up, multi-view, several playlists) sit behind Premium, which has cost around $9.99 a year or roughly $34 for a lifetime licence in 2026. And neither version includes a single channel: the playlist you load into it is a separate cost.
At a glance
What TiviMate costs
| Free version | $0: one playlist, live TV, basic guide |
| Premium yearly | About $9.99 a year |
| Premium lifetime | About $34, one-off |
| Devices per licence | Up to 5 on one account |
| Channels included | None, in either version |
What the free version actually does
Plenty of "free" apps are trials in disguise. TiviMate's free tier isn't: it doesn't expire, and you can use it indefinitely.
With it you can add one playlist, whether that's an M3U link, an Xtream-style login or a Stalker portal. You get the channel list, the TV-style grid guide, basic favourites and normal playback with the remote. For someone with a single legitimate playlist who just wants to flick between channels, that's a usable live-TV app.
What you'll miss quickly is everything that makes TiviMate feel like a cable box rather than a channel list. There's no recording, no catch-up into past programmes, no picture-in-picture or multi-view, and only one playlist. Several of the tidy-up tools, such as reordering channels and building custom groups, are Premium too. A long-running forum complaint sums up the gap: the free version works, but "almost nothing useful happens" in it if you came for the features you'd read about.
Free vs Premium, feature by feature
Feature splits have shifted a little between versions, so treat this as the 2026 picture rather than a contract.
| Feature | Free | Premium |
|---|---|---|
| Live channels and grid guide | Yes | Yes |
| Number of playlists | One | Several, with a combined guide |
| Extra EPG (guide) sources | Limited | Several sources |
| Recording (scheduled and instant) | No | Yes, to device, USB or network storage |
| Catch-up (if your provider supports it) | No | Yes |
| Multi-view (2 to 4 channels at once) | No | Yes, hardware permitting |
| Favourites, custom groups, reordering | Basic | Full |
| Backup and restore settings | No | Yes |
| Use on several devices | Each device is its own free install | Up to 5 on one account |
If you only ever watch live and never record, the honest answer is that the free version may be all you need. The moment you want to pause for a doorbell and come back, or record a match while you're out, it isn't.
What Premium costs in 2026
Prices quoted online vary a lot, partly because some pages haven't been updated in years. You'll still find articles quoting $4.99 a year and $19.99 for life; those were the early prices and are long gone.
| Option | Typical 2026 price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Yearly | About $9.99 | Renews automatically unless cancelled |
| Lifetime | About $33.99 to $37.99 | Varies by region and payment route |
| Trial | Usually 5 to 7 days | Length has varied; check before starting |
Both options cover up to five devices signed in to the same TiviMate account. That's devices, not people: a household with a Shield in the lounge, a Google TV in the bedroom and a 4K Max in the kitchen uses three of the five.
Prices are set by the developer, Armobsoft FZE, and appear in local currency at checkout. Always confirm the figure there rather than trusting a blog, this one included.
Yearly or lifetime: the arithmetic
At around $9.99 a year against roughly $34 once, lifetime pays for itself in the fourth year.
| You use it for | Yearly total | Lifetime | Better deal |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | ~$10 | ~$34 | Yearly |
| 3 years | ~$30 | ~$34 | Roughly even |
| 5 years | ~$50 | ~$34 | Lifetime |
Our view: start yearly. TiviMate's future on some hardware is less certain than it was. The newest Fire TV sticks run Vega OS and can't install it, and its Google Play listing has come and gone during 2026 (see TiviMate's status on each device). "Lifetime" means the life of the app on hardware you own, and a $10 year is a cheap way to find out whether it suits your setup before committing.
How you pay, and where not to
Premium isn't bought inside TiviMate on the TV. It's been sold through the TiviMate Companion app on an Android phone and through the developer's website, then unlocked by signing in to the same TiviMate account on each TV device. Our TiviMate setup guide walks through the activation.
Places not to buy it:
- Resellers offering "lifetime Premium" for less. Licences resold on marketplaces or messaging apps can be revoked, and you'll have no refund route.
- "Premium unlocked" or mod APKs. These are modified copies of the app. They don't update, they can carry malware, and they'll be holding your playlist login.
- Playlist sellers bundling "free TiviMate Premium". The developer doesn't partner with sellers, and the bundle usually tells you more about the seller than the app.
If Premium lapses, nothing is deleted. Your playlist and layout stay; recording, catch-up, multi-view and extra playlists simply switch off until you renew.
The cost that isn't the app
This is the catch most "is TiviMate free" pages skip. TiviMate is a player. It contains no channels. Free or Premium, it shows you a blank screen until you add a playlist or login from a TV service.
So the real cost of "watching TV on TiviMate" is the app plus that service. Two things follow:
- Licensed services rarely need TiviMate at all. YouTube TV, Sling, Fubo, Philo and the rest have their own free apps on every major platform. A third-party player mostly matters for services that hand you an M3U or Xtream login, such as some ISP and international TV packages, or your own home tuner.
- A $10-a-month "every channel" playlist isn't a bargain. Those are almost always unlicensed, they disappear mid-season, and the app you paid for doesn't help when they do. Our guide to cheap live TV that's actually legal covers the realistic budget options.
What paying won't fix
A common reason people upgrade is a problem Premium doesn't touch. Before you pay to solve one of these, know where it really comes from.
Buffering and freezing. Playback quality depends on the stream your provider sends and on your network. TiviMate's buffer setting can smooth small dips in both versions, but no licence makes a congested server faster. Our buffering guide helps you find the actual bottleneck first.
Empty or wrong guide rows. The guide is only as good as the XMLTV data your provider supplies. Premium lets you add extra EPG sources, which helps if a good free source exists for your channels, but it can't invent listings that nobody publishes.
Catch-up that doesn't work. Catch-up needs the provider to store past programmes and expose them in a format TiviMate understands. Many playlists simply don't. Paying unlocks the button, not the archive.
"Too many connections" errors. TiviMate's five-device allowance is about the app licence. How many screens can stream at once is set by your TV service, and that's usually lower. Premium on five TVs with a two-stream service still means two TVs watching.
Device limits. If your stick struggles with a 10,000-channel playlist, Premium's extra features make it work harder, not less. Hiding unused groups helps more than any upgrade.
A useful test: use the free version for a week with your real playlist. If the guide fills, channels start quickly and the only thing missing is a feature on the Premium list, the upgrade will feel worth it. If the experience is poor for other reasons, fix those first, then start the trial.
Cancelling, refunds and moving devices
Because Premium is bought outside the TV app, people often can't find where to cancel it. Where you cancel depends on how you paid.
| You paid through | Cancel or ask for a refund in |
|---|---|
| Companion app via Google Play billing | Google Play on your phone: Profile → Payments & subscriptions → Subscriptions |
| The developer's website | The account or payment page you used there, or the developer's support address |
| A third-party reseller | The reseller, which is exactly why we'd avoid this route |
Yearly plans renew automatically. If you only want one season, set a reminder a week before the renewal date. Cancelling stops the next charge; Premium stays active until the paid year ends.
Refunds follow the payment route's rules. Google Play has its own refund window for recent purchases, and requests after that go to the developer. A lifetime licence bought a year ago isn't something you should expect to get back.
Replacing a device doesn't cost anything. Sign out of TiviMate on the old box, or remove it from your account, then sign in on the new one. Your five-device allowance is the only limit. If you use the backup feature first, the new device can pick up your playlists, favourites and hidden groups in one go.
Free players that do more for $0
If the free version feels too thin and you'd rather not pay, there are players whose free tier covers things TiviMate reserves for Premium. None is as polished on a TV remote, which is why people still pay for TiviMate, but they're worth knowing.
| Player | Cost | Free strengths | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kodi with PVR IPTV Simple Client | Free, open source | Guide, timeshift, recording with a backend | Fiddly setup, heavier on cheap sticks |
| VLC | Free, open source | Plays almost any M3U on almost any device | No proper TV guide |
| Plex or Jellyfin with a home tuner | Free tiers; some features paid | One guide and DVR across many devices | Needs a server or NAS running at home |
Kodi is the closest free match for TiviMate's feature list, and our Kodi IPTV Simple Client guide covers the setup. For playing a quick M3U on a laptop or phone, VLC is hard to beat. Neither changes the rule above: they're players, and the content still has to come from a service you're entitled to watch.
Is Premium worth it?
For the right setup, it's one of the better-value purchases in home TV: a year costs less than one month of most live TV services. Worth it if:
- you have an Android TV, Google TV or Fire OS device and a legitimate M3U or Xtream source;
- you want to record or use catch-up;
- you watch sport and would use multi-view on a Shield or Google TV Streamer.
Not worth it if you only use a big streaming service's own app, if your TV is Samsung, LG or Roku (TiviMate doesn't run there), or if you're about to buy a Vega OS Fire stick. For those, our best IPTV player app guide has options by device.
Quick answers
Is TiviMate free? Yes. The free version lets you add one playlist and watch live TV with a guide, without time limits. Recording, catch-up, multi-view and multiple playlists need Premium.
How much is TiviMate Premium? In 2026 it has typically cost about $9.99 a year or around $34 for a lifetime licence, varying by region. Check the price at checkout.
How many devices does Premium cover? Up to five devices signed in to the same TiviMate account.
Is there a free trial of Premium? Usually, of about five to seven days, though the length has varied over time.
Does TiviMate come with channels? No. Neither version includes any content; you add a playlist or login from a TV service you subscribe to.
What happens when Premium expires? Your playlists and settings stay. Premium features switch off until you renew.
Are "TiviMate Premium unlocked" APKs safe? No. They're modified copies that don't update and can contain malware. Buy Premium only from the developer.
TiviMate's prices, trial length and the exact split between free and Premium features have changed several times and may change again. Store availability also shifted during 2026. Confirm current terms with the developer before buying. Checked October 2026.