Curiosity Stream: Price, features and content

A niche streaming platform, Curiosity Stream gives users access to numerous documentary series and features that cover a wide variety of topics. Whether you're interested in the secret life of pets or ancient civilisations, technology breakthroughs or lifestyle topics, there's something on the service to satisfy your thirst for knowledge. Even better, you can explore new topics meant to both inspire and entertain.

Curiosity Stream is available to watch worldwide, which makes it a great resource for frequent travellers. It also comes with several features meant to make streaming a breeze, from solid device compatibility to offline viewing. Here's everything you need to know to get started with the service in Australia.

What is Curiosity Stream?

Curiosity Stream is an on-demand streaming platform like Netflix. However, it only hosts documentaries, both series and features, which is similar to iwonder.

You pay a set monthly price and you gain access to the entire library of content. There are no lock-in contracts so you can cancel your subscription at any time.

How much does Curiosity Stream cost?

A subscription to Curiosity Stream costs US$2.99 a month or US$19.99 a year. This is the standard plan that lets you watch videos in HD quality.

A 4K-quality plan is also available for US$$9.99 a month or US$69.99 a year. The platform often runs special promotions so you might score a discount when you sign up.

Curiosity Stream content is also available as an add-on option through Amazon Prime Video channels in the US, but it isn't in Australia at the time of writing.

Deal

Sign up to Curiosity Stream for hundreds of documentaries

Stream documentaries from across the globe from US$2.99 a month.

Get deal

Does Curiosity Stream have a free trial?

Not at the moment, but the service used to offer a 7-day free trial that may be available again in the future. At the time of writing, you can benefit from 40% off when subscribing to an annual plan.

What content is on Curiosity Stream?

As Curiosity Stream specialises in documentaries, you'll find thousands of titles from multiple categories available to stream, both as docuseries and movies. The available categories are science, history, technology, nature, society, lifestyle, kids and crash courses. The latter offers bite-sized information on various topics.

Popular docos include The History of Home, Butterfly Effect, Into the Jungle and more. The service streams content from various providers, but also produces originals such as Destination Pluto, Curious Minds and Big Picture Earth.

Curiosity Stream content

Love a documentary? Check out everything you can watch on Curiosity Stream.

See the list

The platform offers original productions that you won't be able to find anywhere else. These titles are always available worldwide while some of the licensed content may vary depending on the country you're visiting. You may prefer to access the National Geographic content via Disney Plus.

Curiosity Stream devices

Curiosity Stream lets you watch on unlimited devices at the same time so you can share your subscription with your family. You can also watch on small or big screens.

Here's the list of compatible devices:

• Smart TVs and devices

  • Android TV running Android version 5.0 and up
  • Apple TV third generation and earlier via AirPlay
  • Apple TV fourth generation HD and 4K Apple TV
  • Telstra TV
  • Available smart TVs' market apps (recommended devices from 2016 and later): LG, Samsung, Vizio and Sony/Android TV

• Mobile devices

  • Android device 5.0 and up
  • Apple iPhones, iPods and iPads iOS 11 and up

• Other devices

  • Any laptop, desktop, PC or Mac
  • Amazon Fire TV Stick
  • Chromecast
  • Xbox One
  • PS4

How to watch Curiosity Stream offline

Curiosity Stream lets users download content for offline viewing on mobile devices so you can keep up with your watchlist on the go without burning through mobile data.

Make sure you have the latest version of the app installed on your mobile device. Open the app and navigate to the show you would like to save to watch offline, then hit the save button (down arrow) located below the title. For a series with multiple episodes, you will have to select a specific episode to save.

You will find the saved show in the My stuff section at the bottom of the app under the Saved category. Users are allowed to download up to 10 hours of content at a time.

Background play and autoplay are also available on the Curiosity Stream OS and Android apps. Background play enables you to keep playing the video in the background while you access other apps on your device. Autoplay automatically plays the next episode in a series.

Curiosity Stream FAQs

• How do I cancel Curiosity Stream?

  To cancel your Curiosity Stream subscription, visit the Your account page, select Plan and Payment, then Manage Plan. Click on Cancel and follow the prompts to unsubscribe. If you signed up through iTunes, Google Play or another third-party app, you can only manage your account through their dedicated platforms.

• How much data does Curiosity Stream use?

  The minimum speed to stream content on Curiosity Stream is 0.5Mbps, but the recommended speed is 1.5Mbps. To stream in HD, it's recommended you have an Internet speed of 5Mbps and at least 25Mbps to stream in 4K quality. The data you will burn through can vary from 1GB per hour (HD) to 7GB per hour (4K).

• Does Curiosity Stream have ads?

  No, you won't see ads while streaming content.

• Does Curiosity Stream have closed captions?

  Approximately 99% of the Curiosity Stream library offers English closed captions (CC). These are available across all devices.