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No single app carries every NFL game. The one you need this week depends on when your team plays, and the breakdown below shows which app carries each window.
Rights are spread across more services than at any point in league history, so the useful question is not which app is best but which window your team plays in. Once you know the window, the rest of this page tells you which app carries it.
Which one fits you
You follow one team. An antenna covers your local CBS, FOX and NBC affiliates, which carry the bulk of your market's games. Add the NFL app for scores and highlights in the windows your market doesn't get.
You want Thursdays and Sundays without a cable bill. Prime Video for Thursday night, Paramount+ or FOX One for Sunday afternoons, Peacock for Sunday night. Each starts with a trial; pick the one worth keeping by October and let the others lapse.
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You want everything, every week. Plan on $60 to $90 a month for a live TV bundle, or around $40 a month assembling the networks app by app. NFL+ adds every game on phone and tablet for far less, with the screen size as the trade-off.
The apps, one by one
Digital antenna and your local stations
Not an app, and still the only route that delivers complete live games with no monthly bill. Local CBS, FOX, NBC and ABC affiliates broadcast over the air and carry most of the weekly schedule. Expect $20 to $40 once.
How to use it
- Check which broadcast towers reach your address on the FCC coverage map.
- Buy a flat indoor antenna if the towers are under 25 miles away, an outdoor model if farther.
- Plug it into the antenna input on the back of the TV.
- Run “Channel Scan” or “Auto Program” in the TV settings.
- Note which channel numbers map to CBS, FOX and NBC before Sunday.
Reception depends on distance, terrain and building materials. Picking an antenna that actually works at your address is its own decision, and it's worth making on a weekday rather than 20 minutes before kickoff.
The NFL app and NFL+
The NFL app is the league's own product. Without a subscription it runs the NFL Channel: live game-day coverage, replays, highlights and Next Gen Stats. NFL+ ($6.99 a month or $49.99 a season) adds every local and primetime game live on phones and tablets, and NFL+ Premium ($14.99 a month or $99.99 a season) adds full replays and RedZone.
How to use it
- Install the NFL app on a phone or connected TV.
- Open the Watch tab and select NFL Channel for coverage, or sign in to NFL+ for the live game.
- Start about 30 minutes before kickoff for the pregame build-up.
- Keep the Scores tab open to follow drives in real time.
- For NFL+, watch on the phone or tablet: live games don't cast to a TV.
The league says it plainly: there are no live games on the NFL Channel itself. Coverage means scores, stats and highlights, not the broadcast feed.
Tubi
Tubi is ad-supported and owned by FOX. It carries the NFL Channel, a set of sports channels, the NFL Films archive and classic games, and FOX streamed Super Bowl LIX through it at no charge in February 2025, so it's worth checking whenever a marquee FOX game comes around.
How to use it
- Install Tubi on TV, phone or browser.
- Open the Live TV tab.
- Search the guide for NFL Channel.
- Create an account only if you want a watchlist across devices.
- Check the Sports row on any weekend with a big FOX broadcast.
The sports lineup shifts as licensing changes. A channel labelled FOX Sports doesn't mean every FOX game sits inside it.
Pluto TV
Pluto TV works the same way: no account, no card, NFL Channel and a sports section inside the guide. The ad load is heavier than Tubi's.
How to use it
- Install Pluto TV or open it in a browser.
- Scroll the channel guide to the Sports category.
- Select NFL Channel.
- Add it to Favorites so it loads first next time.
- Use it for pregame and postgame rather than kickoff windows.
Same limit: coverage and replays, not live games.
Prime Video
Amazon holds Thursday Night Football. Prime is $14.99 a month, and new members get a 30-day trial, which covers four or five Thursday nights if it starts early in the season.
How to use it
- Start a Prime membership before the first Thursday you care about.
- Open Prime Video and find the Sports tab.
- Select the Thursday night game and set a reminder.
- Note the renewal date the day you sign up.
- Keep it or cancel under Account & Lists before then.
The trial is one per customer, so it won't be there again next season.
Paramount+
Paramount+ carries NFL on CBS. The Essential plan is $8.99 a month with a 7-day trial.
How to use it
- Sign up on the Paramount+ site.
- Confirm your market on the NFL schedule so you know which CBS game you're getting.
- Open the app on Sunday and pick the live game from the Sports row.
- Set a reminder for day six.
- Decide then whether to keep it.
The Essential tier carries the NFL games. The step-up tier adds your local CBS station's full live feed, so check which one your market needs before paying.
Peacock
Peacock has Sunday Night Football and the season opener. It no longer runs a direct trial, but Walmart+ ($12.95 a month or $98 a year) includes Peacock Premium and opens with a 30-day membership trial.
How to use it
- Start Walmart+, or subscribe to Peacock directly.
- In Walmart+, open the membership benefits page and pick Peacock as your streaming choice.
- Activate the Peacock account through the link Walmart provides.
- Watch Sunday Night Football in the Peacock Sports tab.
- The Peacock benefit lasts exactly as long as the Walmart+ membership does.
FOX One
FOX One streams FOX's Sunday afternoon games without cable at $19.99 a month. The trial has moved between three and seven days depending on where you sign up, so read the checkout screen rather than an old coupon page.
How to use it
- Compare the trial on fox.com against the Prime Video channel store.
- Sign up wherever the window is longer.
- Confirm your local FOX affiliate loads inside the app.
- Note the renewal date.
- Consider the annual plan if you'll watch all season.
FOX has run an annual promo at around $8.25 a month billed yearly, which beats any short trial for a full-season viewer.
ESPN, and Monday night
Monday Night Football belongs to ESPN, with part of the schedule simulcast on ABC. That detail matters: ABC is a broadcast network, so an antenna picks those weeks up. When the game is ESPN-only, the app is the way in at about $29.99 a month, the priciest single-network route here.
How to use it
- Check the fixture first. If it carries an ABC simulcast, use the antenna.
- If it's ESPN-only, open the ESPN app and sign in with a pay-TV provider or the direct subscription.
- Find the game under the Watch tab about 30 minutes before kickoff.
- Confirm the app runs on your TV before paying.
- Note the renewal date.
If Monday night is the only window you care about, a month of ESPN costs more than a season of NFL+, which carries primetime too, on a phone.
What apps to watch NFL live can and can't carry
Broadcast rights decide all of this, and most roundups walk straight past them.
The league sells its schedule in slices. Sunday afternoons belong to CBS and FOX. Sunday night is NBC. Monday night is ESPN, with part of the slate on ABC. Thursday night is Amazon. Netflix holds the Christmas Day games. Out-of-market Sunday games live inside NFL Sunday Ticket. No single app has permission to carry all of that, and none will while the rights stay split this way.
That leaves three honest categories:
- Live, no monthly bill — local broadcast stations, over an antenna.
- Coverage and replays, no bill — the NFL Channel inside the NFL app, Tubi and Pluto TV.
- Live, subscription — Prime, Paramount+, FOX One, Peacock, ESPN and NFL+, some with an introductory trial that rolls into the monthly price.
Two traps deserve a warning. DAZN streams NFL games in some countries and US readers land on those articles constantly, but the league points US users to NFL+ and sends everyone outside the US to DAZN, so it isn't a US option. And any site promising every game with no account and no payment is operating without rights: what you actually get there is fake play buttons, redirect tabs and card “verification” pages, not football.
Before Sunday
- Look up your team's next kickoff window first. The network decides the app, not the other way round.
- Check whether your market gets your team's game at all. Out-of-market coverage is a separate purchase.
- Test the antenna scan on a weekday.
- Start any trial on the day of the game you care about, never a week early.
- Note the renewal date the moment you type in a card number.
- Check whether your wireless carrier, Xfinity, Spectrum, Instacart+ or Walmart+ already includes a streaming app you're about to pay for.
- NFL+ live games play on phones and tablets only, postseason included.
- Confirm the app runs on your specific TV before subscribing. Casting is blocked for some live NFL content.
What it really costs
Antenna. $20 to $40 once, then nothing, for every game your local CBS, FOX, NBC and ABC stations carry. Add the NFL app for coverage of the rest. That covers most of a home-team fan's season.
Trials. Roughly two to four weeks at no charge if you stagger Prime, Paramount+ and Walmart+/Peacock. Three or four weekends of near-complete coverage, and a one-time trick, because the trials don't reset.
Full season. NFL+ at $49.99 a year, or Premium at $99.99 with RedZone, on a phone. Assembling FOX, CBS, NBC and ESPN app by app runs about $40 to $60 a month. A live TV bundle such as Fubo, DirecTV or YouTube TV lands between $60 and $90 a month. Across 18 weeks plus playoffs, that is $250 to $450, with Sunday Ticket on top for out-of-market games on a TV.
Common questions
Can I watch NFL games without cable?
Yes: the games on your local CBS, FOX, NBC and ABC stations, over an antenna. Everything else needs a subscription or a trial.
Does the NFL app show live games?
Only with NFL+, and only on phones and tablets. The NFL Channel inside the app runs coverage, highlights and replays.
Is Tubi showing NFL games this season?
Tubi carries the NFL Channel and library content, not the live schedule. It did stream Super Bowl LIX in 2025, so check it whenever the Super Bowl returns to FOX.
Which app has this week's primetime games?
Thursday on Prime Video, Sunday night on NBC and Peacock, Monday on ESPN with part of the slate on ABC. The current week's fixtures are on the official NFL schedule.
Does NFL+ have a trial?
The league hasn't advertised a standing trial this season and leans on discounts instead. Check the signup screen directly.
Will a VPN unlock foreign broadcasts?
It may load the page, but the services actively block it, and it gives no rights to that broadcast. Use the rights holder for your location.
Pick your window
Most people looking for apps to watch NFL live already own the cheapest answer without realising it: a television with an antenna input. Everything after that is a question of which window matters most this season — Sunday afternoons, Sunday night, Thursdays or Mondays — and the league standings will tell you which one your team is about to make interesting.