Going into 2025, Nvidia announced a significant change to the GeForce Now cloud gaming platform that could court some controversy, especially among power users.
Next year, everyone — including premium tier subscribers — will see monthly streaming time limited to 100 hours. For subscribers, that is quite a hefty number of hours but wipes out the unlimited playtime that has been available.
If you are unaware, Nvidia GeForce Now is a cloud gaming platform that lets you stream several games, including some of the latest AAA titles. It can be installed on your Steam Deck or streaming via the app on your TV or even on non-gaming laptops like a Chromebook. This year, they added the ability to stream Xbox games.
The limit was introduced in a Nvidia blog post (via PC World). However, if you are currently signed up or purchase an account between now and December 31, you will be grandfathered into unlimited streaming through 2025. That ends in 2026, though.
In the announcement post, Nvidia says the limit is being introduced to "continue providing exceptional quality and speed — as well as shorter queue times." Nvidia claims a 100-hour limit will be enough for "94% of members" who don't play more than that in a month. That number might include free tier members who only get access to "one hour per session." If you're a subscriber, you can see how many hours you've accumulated in a month in your account portal.
If you overrun the 100-hour limit, you'll need to pay an additional $3 for 15 extra hours on the Performance tier and $6 on the Ultimate tier. The difference between the two is streaming quality, where you get up to 1440 resolution on Performance and 4K on Ultimate, as well as more FPS and DLSS.
Additional changes are coming to the service. The standard Priority tier changes names to Performance and upgrades from 1080p to 1440p. The free tier stays, with Nvidia saying that those players "will now see they’re streaming from basic rigs, with varying specs that offer entry-level cloud gaming and are optimized for capacity.”
The free tier is extremely throttled, but it appears to exist to entice people to upgrade to at least the Performance level. Depending on how many people are sticking with the free level, it might explain why Nvidia is introducing new restrictions.
