Best free option
DIRECTV
DIRECTV's trial is the quickest free route to CNBC: five days of the full lineup, cancelled before it renews, costs nothing.
Start free trial →
You don't need a cable bill to keep watching CNBC. Here's every way to stream it online, and how to do it for free.
Reviewed and updated October 2026 by our cord-cutting team · 5 options
You can get a CNBC live feed on Fubo, DIRECTV, Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV, Youtube TV Sports + News Plan, YouTube TV Sports + News + Entertainment Plan, Youtube TV News + Entertainment + Family Plan , YouTube TV, or CNBC+.
The cheapest option to watch CNBC is CNBC+ for $14.99/month.
This new streaming option debuted earlier this year and only recently added apps for Apple TV and Roku. It includes data streams and other features for an advanced market outlook.The fastest ways to watch CNBC without cable, at a glance
DIRECTV's trial is the quickest free route to CNBC: five days of the full lineup, cancelled before it renews, costs nothing.
Start free trial →
Sling is the least expensive live CNBC on this page. The trade is a thinner lineup and no free trial to test it with first.
Get Sling TV →
A week is the longest free stretch of CNBC on this page, and the DVR keeps recording the whole time.
Start free trial →The widest lineup of the services carrying CNBC, which is the one to pick if you are replacing cable rather than chasing a single channel.
Get YouTube TV →
Hulu + Live TV carries CNBC live.
Start free trial →
Spectrum TV Choice carries CNBC live.
Get Spectrum TV Choice →| Service | From | Free trial |
|---|---|---|
 DIRECTV |
$89.99/mo | 5 days |
 Hulu + Live TV |
$89.99/mo | 3 days |
 YouTube TV |
$82.99/mo | 7 days |
 Sling TV + News Extra |
$51.99/mo incl. $6 pack |
None |
 Spectrum TV Choice |
$53.19/mo | None |
We have been covering streaming services for over 14 years, at first recommending movies and shows. Quickly, we realized that the question of "how to watch?" matters just as much as "what to watch?". We started monitoring and reviewing the over a hundred live TV and streaming services available in the US. All of that work lives on our cord-cutting hub.
This CNBC guide has been up since 2021, and we come back to it whenever something we wrote has stopped being true, which is more often than it should be. No company pays us to move it up the list, and we hold no stake in any of them.
DirecTV Stream is the most expensive streaming service in this list, but that price tag comes with plenty of features, including unlimited DVR, great picture quality, and regional sports networks (RSNs). For the price, it could have a smoother interface, but we digress. If you’re looking for an all-around, comprehensive cable alternative, DirecTV Stream is the way to go. But if you’re on a budget, there are plenty of other affordable options.
DIRECTV plans
If you want a little bit of everything, then Hulu with Live TV is a worthy contender. It has live sports (though not a lot of RSNs), hefty entertainment catalogs from Disney+ and Hulu, and local channels. It also has Fox Business and Bloomberg if you want to check CNBC alternatives. Oh, and Hulu carries all seasons of Shark Tank on-demand, in case you were wondering.
Hulu + Live TV plans
Our breakdown of Hulu + Live TV →
There was a time YouTubeTV’s price was half of what it currently costs, but with that price increase came a lot of features and channels, including cable news and local channels. Paired with unlimited DVR and a near-seamless interface, it’s no wonder YouTube TV is a favorite among cord-cutters. It doesn’t have as many on-demand titles as other services, though, especially when compared to Hulu with Live TV.
YouTube TV plans
Yes, but it costs extra. CNBC isn't in Sling TV's base lineup, so a plan on its own won't get you it. You need the News Extra pack, $6/mo on top of any Sling base plan, which puts the real cost at $51.99/mo once you add it to the cheapest $45.99 plan. That's still the cheapest way to watch CNBC on this list.
At just $6/month, Sling’s News Extra is an affordable way to boost your news lineup. But it comes with a caveat: CNBC, MSNBC, and Fox Business are only available with a Sling Blue plan, while HLN is only available with a Sling Orange plan. Either way, you get a variety of channels since the add-on also carries weather channels and international channels like France24 and BBC World News, among others.
Sling TV plans
The pack isn't just CNBC. News Extra also unlocks Fox Business Network, so it's better value if you'd watch a few of those too. See every Sling Extra explained.
If you’re a Spectrum customer, you know the provider has been pushing a lot of TV-internet deals. Still, TV Choice remains the most interesting because it allows you to select your preferred channels and change them every month. Among your options are other business and news channels like FOX Business, CNN, and HLN.
Spectrum TV Choice plans
Our breakdown of Spectrum TV Choice →
The honest way to watch CNBC for free is a free trial, and the trick is not to spend them one at a time. Start one, then start the next when it ends, and you can string together a few weeks of free live TV back to back, usually enough to cover a tournament or a playoff run without paying for a month.
CNBC and the US services that carry it are geo-locked to the United States, so your login stops working the moment you leave the country. A VPN fixes that: connect to a US server and the service sees a US address again. The catch is that streaming platforms actively block most VPN traffic, so the VPN you pick matters far more than the service does. These three reliably get back in:
A huge US server network (thousands of IPs across 15-plus cities) with SmartPlay DNS baked into every server, so streaming just works without extra setup. The best value of the top tier on a two-year plan.
Best for streaming CNBC with: Hulu + Live TV
Get NordVPN →The budget pick, and the one to get if the whole household travels: it allows unlimited simultaneous devices on one account, plus a Smart DNS for TVs. Reliable with the on-demand and lifestyle services.
Best for streaming CNBC with: Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV
Get Surfshark →Whichever you pick, connect to a US city first, then sign in to CNBC or the service that carries it as normal. Choose a VPN with a money-back window so you can confirm it un-blocks CNBC before you commit.
No. CNBC is a cable channel and doesn't broadcast over the air, so an antenna can't pick it up. An antenna only gets the free broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS, The CW), which pair nicely with one of the services above; check which of those reach your address here.
Here are the bundle packages that include CNBC
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The people who test, price-check, and update our cord-cutting coverage.
Five criteria, each scored out of 10. The overall score is their weighted average: content 50%, value 20%, apps 20%, streaming quality 10%. Live TV packages are also scored on customization and add-ons (20%), with the other four scaled to 40%, 16%, 16% and 8%.
Value for money
0The most expensive service of its kind.
10The cheapest service of its kind, with full content.
Content quality
0None of the 20 most-watched cable channels, or nothing from our recommended list.
10All 20 channels, or the deepest catalog of titles we recommend.
Apps and devices
0A one-star app that runs on none of the 12 major devices.
10Five-star apps on all 12 major devices.
Streaming quality
0Below 720p.
104K on the plan we price.
Customization and add-ons
0A live TV package with no add-on packs to build on.
10Eight or more add-on packs at $15 a month or less.