Hulu is a streaming service owned by Disney that offers on-demand videos as well as live TV for networks such as ABC, CNN, TNT, and MSNBC. There’s not doubt that Hulu is a great option for cord cutters, but unfortunately it’s not currently available in Canada. 

However, you can get Hulu in Canada with a simple tried-and-true method that we have verified. Let’s get to it!

Steps to Getting Hulu in Canada

The main issue with Hulu working in Canada, is that it doesn’t allow Canadian-based computers or credit card billing addresses to sign-up or view content. Both of these are fairly easy to get around.

Just follow these simple steps to get your Hulu set up in Canada.

Step 1: Download a VPN software. This will route your internet traffic through a location of your choice, and can make the Hulu servers think you’re physically in the United States. 

You can do a quick Google search to see the ones available. We tested our method using ExpressVPN and it works very well and without any lag. However, it is a paid service. If you use a free VPN, then it is likely that the videos will lag and be choppy.

Step 2: Get an American Express credit card. This is one of the ways to get around the Canadian billing address issue. Even though American Express has been offering credit cards in Canada for many years, their billing process doesn’t seem to verify the zip/postal code. Check out the American Express Canada site for a suitable card: https://www.americanexpress.com/ca/

When using your American Express card for a site like Hulu that requires a US zip code, you can convert your Canadian postal code to a placeholder US zip code by taking all of your postal code numbers and adding “00” to the end.

Here’s an example. Let’s say your Canadian postal code is A1B2C3. Then your placeholder US zip code will be “12300”. We have personally verified that this works.

Step 3: Sign-up for Hulu. This is where all of the magic happens.

Activate your VPN and select a US location. If you’re using ExpressVPN, then it will automatically select the fastest US server near you.

Go to hulu.com and create an account.

When it asks you for a payment method, use your American Express credit card with the placeholder US zip code that is derived from your Canadian postal code (see Step 2 for the postal code to zip code conversion).

You’re now ready to start enjoying Hulu!

Step 4: Enjoy watching Hulu. All you have to do is make sure your VPN service is activated before you go to Hulu.com. With the VPN service we used, we can download it for any computer, iOS, or android device.

Hulu Canada: Troubleshooting

There are certain situations where your browser tries to remember your location and defaults to Canada – which will mess up your Hulu. To fix this, all you have to do is clear the browser cookies and data from Hulu.com to reset this.

If you’re on your mobile device, then just empty or reset the app storage to fix any issues associated with it trying to default to Canada. We usually just use a completely separate browser for viewing US content (yay finally a use for Microsoft Edge!).