Share a VPN with family: devices and seats

Yes, in two different ways: put your family's devices on one subscription, or share one of your exits with a person you name. The first shares your plan; the second lends your connection.

• One subscription on many devices: your phone, your partner's phone, the living-room TV.
• Sharing an exit: one of your own devices, listed under My exits, is switched on so a person you name can send traffic out through its internet connection. It carries a consent trade-off the first does not.

To cover every device at home, router VPN or app compares the two.

Can I share a ForestVPN subscription with my family?

Yes, up to ten devices on the account, on every plan, and ten is the cap (devices and linking). Each phone, tablet or computer signs in with the same account number. That is the optional 32-character number that is ForestVPN's only sign-in, with no email or password. The Free plan works without it. Each device that signs in takes a seat.

A device seat is a device's permanent key attached to an account. Every device makes that key the first time the app opens, before any sign-in. A family member who never typed a number still has the Free plan on their own, and takes no seat on your account. The seat is taken only once the device signs in with your number or is paired.

Sharing is meant to happen inside that limit. The terms forbid reselling access or sharing it outside the device limits of your tier. A household of six, with spare seats for an Apple TV and a router, fits. A number posted in a forum does not.

Seat

A device's permanent key, attached to an account number. An account holds ten seats, and signing a device out frees one.

What does one subscription cover in a household?

One subscription covers every device on the account. Each household situation maps to one route, one help page and, when the app refuses, one code. The table is built from ForestVPN's help pages, its per-message help pages and its plan data as they stood on 2026-10-16.

The rows are not equal in cost. The first six touch only your own devices. The last lets another person use your connection: you can see which sites the guest visits, and the guest can see your device's public address. It has its own section further down.

What is a seat, and what frees one?

A seat is freed when a device signs itself out or is removed, either from another device on the account or from the console at fvpn.net (devices and linking). At ten seats, the app shows how many are in use and asks you to choose one to sign out before another can join.

Four rules apply, and each stops one specific misuse.

• The new-device rule. A device that joined in the last 7 days cannot remove older devices (devices and linking). Do it from one of the older ones. The point is that a stolen or resold number cannot lock out the people already on the account (terms).
• The cooldown. A device that was removed cannot sign back in to the same account straight away. The app shows the date to wait for. An Apple TV or router can instead be brought back with a Pair code (cp.link_cooldown).
• The join limit. If many devices joined lately, the account refuses another until a date the app shows. A Pair code still works for an Apple TV or router (cp.seat_changes_limited).
• The router rule. A router can sign itself out. It cannot remove other devices, so that is done from a phone, a computer or the console.

A removed device is not locked out of the app. It keeps working on the Free plan, unless it paid for the subscription itself.

The private network

Devices on an account also form a private network: your own devices that can reach one another and each other's exits. Only a fixed number of the account's devices can be in it at once.

A device waiting for a slot shows cp.member_pending. Remove a device from the account, then connect again. Older apps instead ask you to tap Allow on another of your devices.

How do I add a family member's phone to my VPN account?

You need the account number, which the app shows once when you create it, and the family member's phone with ForestVPN installed.

1. On a device that already has your subscription, open Account. If you never created a number, choose Create and write it down; it is shown once.
2. On the family member's phone, open Account, choose Sign in, and type the number.
3. Check that Account on the new phone now shows the subscription. Both devices see the same one.
4. If the app refuses, read the code. For cp.seat_limit the account already has the most devices it allows: choose a device to sign out and the new phone can join (cp.seat_limit). For cp.link_cooldown the phone was removed from this account lately: wait for the date the app shows (cp.link_cooldown).

A phone signs in with the number. A pairing code is for an Apple TV or a router, which shows it under Pair.

Treat the number like a password, because anyone who holds it can attach a device. If you are unsure who has it, remove the devices you do not recognise and change the number. Why your sign-in is a number covers the design and its cost.

Does a store purchase reach my family's other devices?

Only through the store account that paid, unless you link the devices with the account number. The store account pays: a subscription bought in the App Store is paid by that Apple Account, and one bought in Google Play by that Google account. On a new device signed in to the same store account, install ForestVPN, open Account and choose Restore Purchases (restore on another device).

A family member on a different Apple Account will not see your purchase that way. For them, use the account number route above.

If the app finds a subscription but Premium stays off, the subscription is attached to an account number this device is not signed in to. Sign in with it. A purchase made on a device already signed in to your account number moves onto the account and reaches every device on it (terms).

Is there a family plan?

No. ForestVPN has no family plan, no per-seat price and no household tier. The plans are the Free plan and Premium, every plan has every feature, and ten devices fit on either. Premium changes the allowance on each device; the plans table below has the numbers.

On the Free plan the allowance belongs to each device, so a family on Free does not pool anything. Four phones on Free are four allowances. On Premium the subscription reaches every device on the account. If a device runs out of its allowance, what to do when a VPN data limit is reached covers it.

Can one router cover the whole family?

A router is one device, so everything behind it shares one plan and one location. On the Free plan that is one allowance for the whole home (whole home or chosen devices on OpenWrt). The router seat counts as one of the ten.

Anything that cannot run an app, such as a smart TV with no ForestVPN app, suits a router. A game console may need to be set to Direct instead (device modes). The OpenWrt WireGuard guide covers the setup.

When each family member wants a different location, a router is a poor fit. One that tries to remove another device or claim a code gets cp.router_limited (the help page), which says to do it from a phone, a computer or the console. The whole-home router guide on the use cases page covers the other side of that choice.

Can I share my VPN connection with someone?

Sharing an exit lets a person you name use your connection, and you can see which sites they visit. Settle that first. The family sharing page lists the other trade-offs, such as the guest looking like you online.

It differs from linking your own devices. Linking a phone does not by itself show you what it does. If a phone uses one of your devices as an exit, its traffic leaves through that device.

The facts, from the family sharing page:

• Sharing is open on every plan.
• You usually share from a device that has been on the account for a week or more.
• Up to 5 people can use one exit, and you can remove anyone at any time.
• An iPhone can accept a share and connect, but sharing your own connection works from desktop and router platforms.
• If the sharing device sits behind carrier-grade NAT, port forwarding behind CGNAT explains what still works.

If you share internet through a device, you can always see the sites the person visits, and their address when the connection is direct. Say this to the person before you send the invite. This is not a tool for watching someone; it is a connection lent to a person who agreed to it.

Your own exits sit under My exits in the app, and three messages belong to this half:

• cp.share_limit: the exit already has as many guests as it can. Remove one or share a different exit.
• cp.invite_invalid: the invite was used, expired, unknown, or is the account's own code. The app gives one answer for all four so nothing can be probed. Ask for a new invite.
• session.share_ended: for the guest, the shared exit stopped being shared. Nothing leaves the device until you open Locations and choose another (the help page).

How many devices do other VPNs allow?

Each figure is the vendor's own, from its own page (ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Surfshark), read on 2026-10-16. None is a claim about ForestVPN. Counts change, so every row carries its read date.

Read "simultaneous" closely. It means how many devices may be connected at once. ForestVPN's ten counts devices on the account, connected or not, so the two numbers are not the same measurement.

How should a family set up one VPN subscription?

Link the devices that belong to you, and share an exit only with a person who has agreed to be seen.

1. Put the phones on one account number.
2. Pair an Apple TV by code.
3. Decide separately whether a router earns a seat.
4. Keep the account number out of group chats.

How was this post checked?