HBO Max has a massively impressive roster of award-winning shows on offer for you to catch up on, from historic greats like The Sopranos to more recent fare such as House of the Dragon.

However, it sadly doesn't have a free trial, after briefly allowing users a free week when it first launched. This doesn't quite mean that there's no way to use it for free, though, as we'll detail below.

Does HBO Max have a free trial?

There's no free trial for HBO Max in the traditional sense, although HBO did offer one for the first seven months of the service's lifespan back in 2020 when it launched.

Even as the streaming platform expands to more territories and countries, these locations haven't been given access to any free trials either, sadly.

In the US, there are a couple of small workarounds - if you subscribe to HBO Max through your Hulu plan, you can get a free week at first by going to Account and then Manage Add-ons and activating the offer.

Similarly, Cricket Wireless unlimited plans throw in HBO Max membership as a bonus, although you'll be paying $60 monthly for the plan so it's far from technically free.

How to get HBO Max cheaper

There are a few ways to bring down the cost of an HBO Max membership, with one being to commit to annual billing instead of monthly plans. This means you can't cancel as promptly if you want to, but is 16 per cent cheaper over the course of a year.

Similarly, HBO Max offers plans with ads for lower totals, so if you don't mind watching ads during your TV you can save some money that way.

Also, if you're a subscriber to HBO through cable then make sure to log in with your HBO credentials, as that should grant you free HBO Max access - don't pay extra unless you need to!

Finally, if you want to sample some HBO content without paying a dime, you can visit the Free Episodes section to check out a selection of episodes from its shows that are available to watch for free. This is a great way to get a sense for whether you're interested in one of the shows on offer.