Where Hulu is offered
The help centre: “The videos on Hulu are only available in the U.S.” The Subscriber Agreement: the service is “only available in the United States and certain of its territories.”
Short answer: U.S. Hulu is sold in the United States and nowhere else, and it judges your address, not your speed. Costa Rica’s internet is among the strongest in Central America, but on kölbi, Liberty, Telecable, Tigo or Claro the address Hulu sees is Costa Rican — so an American account meets a location error.
This page is for someone who already has a U.S. Hulu account: someone who lived in the States, or still spends part of the year there. To watch it here you need that account, on a plan that covers the title, and a connection Hulu reads as a U.S. household. USip supplies the connection. The account, the plan and the rights stay Hulu’s.
Below: what the Hulu section of Disney+ Costa Rica already gives you, what SUTEL’s 2025 figures say about each provider, why a strong network does not settle the question, a four-step test, and plain answers about Starlink, the app stores and the rules.
Costa Rica’s internet is well built. The Internet Society scores its resilience at 63 out of 100, against 51 for Central America and 55 for the Americas, and ranks it first in Central America for infrastructure. None of that is what Hulu looks at.
| What Costa Rica’s network has | The figure | Does it help with Hulu? |
|---|---|---|
| Resilience | 63/100, first in Central America for infrastructure (Internet Society, January 2026 data) | No — Hulu does not measure it |
| Fibre at home | 64.41% of 1,328,543 fixed internet subscriptions in 2025 (SUTEL) | Only for picture quality, once the address is accepted |
| Local interconnection | 88% of 85 active networks connect through an exchange point (Internet Society, 2026) | No |
| IPv4 addresses | 2,333,440 registered to Costa Rica (LACNIC data, 28 September 2026) — about 45 for every 100 of its 5,191,823 people (INEC, mid-2025) | Indirectly: more addresses per person than Colombia or Guatemala |
| IPv6 | About 16% of users, against 45% across the Americas (Internet Society, 2026) | Rarely a factor, but worth one look |
What Hulu checks is narrower: which country the address belongs to, and what kind of address it is. A fibre line in Escazú and a mobile hotspot in Limón give the same answer, because both are Costa Rican. The fix is the address, not a faster plan from your provider.
The address supply is worth knowing about, but it is not a solution. Costa Rica has roughly one IPv4 address for every two people — more room than Colombia or Guatemala — yet none of the registry figures says how any provider shares its addresses, so we draw no conclusion from it. Whatever the sharing, the address is still Costa Rican.
The public address matters in one more way if you watch on a television: USip’s Smart DNS recognises your home by that address, so if your provider changes it, the new one has to be registered.
Where Costa Rica’s strong network does help is afterwards. Once Hulu accepts an address, a stable fibre line makes the stream itself easy: Hulu asks for about 3 Mbps on demand and 16 Mbps for 4K.
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Hulu writes its limits plainly. Read in this order, four passages explain most of what follows on this page.
The help centre: “The videos on Hulu are only available in the U.S.” The Subscriber Agreement: the service is “only available in the United States and certain of its territories.”
“Only residents of the countries and territories where we offer the Services … are eligible to subscribe.” For signing up, Hulu’s help centre lists “To be located within the U.S.” And a subscription “is intended for use by members of a single U.S. household.”
On-demand subscribers “are able to stream anywhere in the U.S. — including Puerto Rico and U.S. military bases.” Live TV subscribers are “not able to stream in U.S. territories, on U.S. military bases, or internationally.” Costa Rica is outside both.
Subscribers are asked not to use “any technology or technique to obscure or disguise your location.” A residential U.S. IP changes the location Hulu reads. We quote the clause so you can weigh it — not to sell around it.
Put together: Hulu is a U.S. product, sold to U.S. households, with on-demand travel limited to the U.S., Puerto Rico and U.S. military bases — plus a request not to disguise location. Decide with all four in view.
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Disney+ arrived in Costa Rica on 17 November 2020, with the rest of Latin America. Its general-entertainment shelf has been renamed since, and the current name is Hulu.
Disney+ launched on 17 November 2020. Star+, a separate app, carried general entertainment and ESPN sport until Disney folded it into Disney+ on 26 June 2024; La Nación reported that the Star+ app itself would stop on 24 July 2024.
Disney renamed its Star section Hulu across its international markets, Latin America included. The Costa Rican site now lists Hulu among its brands in both plans, Standard and Premium, with ESPN on Premium only.
The American service — its U.S. library, Live TV and add-ons — is sold only in the United States. Sharing a name does not mean sharing a catalogue.
Costa Rican households are changing how they watch as well. SUTEL counted 811,482 pay-TV subscriptions in 2025 — 45.2% of them over IPTV, 42.8% by satellite and 12.0% by cable — and noted that families are moving from traditional television towards independent streaming platforms.
Search the Hulu section for the exact title before anything else. If it is there, you are finished: no U.S. account and no U.S. address needed.
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In May 2026 SUTEL’s data on home internet was published provider by provider for the first time. The spread is wide — and for Hulu it makes no difference at all.
| Provider | Home internet, 2025 | Mobile market, 2025 | What Hulu sees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Telecable | 24% — the largest | — | A Costa Rican address |
| Liberty (Movistar and Cabletica, one brand since June 2022) | 22% | 40.2% — the largest | A Costa Rican address |
| kölbi (ICE) | 20% | 38.1% | A Costa Rican address |
| Tigo | 12% | — | A Costa Rican address |
| Claro | 8% | 21.8% | A Costa Rican address |
| Starlink | 33,353 customers, up from 19,000 in 2024 | — | Starlink’s own address — check it |
The two markets look different. On phones, Liberty and kölbi are almost level; at home, Telecable and Liberty lead, with kölbi close behind. But whichever Costa Rican provider is on your contract, the public address belongs to a Costa Rican network, and that is the part Hulu reads.
Home figures are SUTEL’s for 2025 as reported by El Financiero on 14 May 2026; mobile shares come from SUTEL’s own statistics report of July 2026. Other, smaller providers make up the rest of the home market.
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Starlink started operating in Costa Rica in 2024 with 19,000 customers and had 33,353 by the end of 2025, according to SUTEL’s figures as reported by El Financiero. If yours is one of them, it raises one question for Hulu.
A Starlink dish takes its public address from Starlink’s network, not from a Costa Rican cable or fibre company. What country a checker shows for it depends on Starlink’s routing, which Starlink decides — so check it, and assume nothing either way.
Bring the residential U.S. IP up on top of Starlink, read the address, then open Hulu in a private window. The steps are the same when the signal comes from a satellite.
A satellite link can vary more than fibre. Hulu asks for about 3 Mbps on demand; if the picture drops, test the speed with the connection up before blaming the address.
USip does not replace Starlink or any Costa Rican provider. It runs over whatever line you have and changes one thing: the address Hulu reads.
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Many U.S. addresses fail on Hulu for a reason unrelated to the country. Hulu’s help centre names “a VPN or VPS” among the causes of its location error, along with an address “block listed because of previous anonymous proxy use”.
| Option | How it looks to Hulu | Honest verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Your Costa Rican line alone | A Costa Rican address, from whichever provider you use | The starting point, and the reason for the error |
| A free VPN | A handful of server addresses shared by very large numbers of users | Often block-listed, rarely stable |
| A commercial data-centre VPN | A hosting-company address — what Hulu calls “a VPN or VPS” | Right country, wrong kind of address |
| A residential U.S. IP from USip | An everyday address on a U.S. internet provider | One consistent U.S. household identity; the account and the rights are still Hulu’s |
Once a plain on-demand episode plays in a private window, the network side is done.
If the test passes and one title still fails, it is the plan or the licence. Another address will not fix either.
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A good test ends with a sentence you can act on: the address is fine, or the account is not. This order gets you there.
Disney+ Costa Rica has had a Hulu section since 8 October 2025. If you subscribe, look for the exact title there before anything else — a hit ends the job. If it is missing, make sure your U.S. Hulu account is active and that its plan includes the title.
Sit at a laptop on your home connection — Telecable, Liberty, kölbi, Tigo or Claro — rather than the phone, the television or a hotel network. The Windows and Mac guides cover the setup; Android, iOS and the television come after a pass.
The checker should now report the United States for IPv4. IPv6 is uncommon in Costa Rica — about 16% of users can use it — but if an IPv6 address appears, make sure it is not your Costa Rican provider’s. Then open hulu.com in a new private window, so no earlier visit from here sits in a cookie.
Pick an on-demand episode that your plan plainly includes — not live, not 4K — and let it play. If it stops, screenshot the message before you retry. Wording about location means the address; wording about your plan or an add-on means the account; a search that comes back empty means the licence.
Note which provider, device and browser gave you the pass. If a phone or television fails later, you can compare it with a setup you already know works.
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Every device puts a layer between you and the result: cookies in a browser, the store country on a phone, and on a television a separate Smart DNS setup, since a TV cannot run the connection app. Prove it on a laptop first. The four walkthrough videos were recorded in December 2022; the connection steps are current, Hulu’s own screens are not.
Nothing on Windows stands between you and the result except the browser. Import the USip OpenVPN profile, connect, and check the address: United States for IPv4, and no IPv6 address from your Costa Rican provider. IPv6 reaches only about 16% of users here, so most lines will show none. Then open hulu.com in a private window — Ctrl+Shift+N in Chrome and Edge, Ctrl+Shift+P in Firefox.
Step by step: the Windows setup guide.
If iCloud Private Relay appears in your Mac’s settings, switch it off before the test — it sends Safari through Apple’s relays rather than the connection you chose. Glance at IPv6 too: it is rare on Costa Rican lines, but a Mac that has it will use it first in Safari. If Safari and Chrome disagree, check these two before anything else.
Step by step: the Mac setup guide.
Google Play lists apps by the Google account’s country. If yours moved to Costa Rica, the U.S. Hulu app will not appear, whatever the connection; if it is still a U.S. account, the app may already be on the phone. Treat a country change as a separate decision, because it affects purchases. On mobile data you are on kölbi, Liberty or Claro — test on home Wi-Fi first — and exempt the connection app from battery optimisation.
Step by step: the Android setup guide.
The App Store follows the Apple Account’s country. If you kept a U.S. Apple Account after moving, the Hulu app may still be installed; a Costa Rican account will not offer it. Changing countries affects subscriptions and Family Sharing, and Apple’s own conditions apply. For the first run, switch Location Services off for Hulu and check the address in Safari.
Step by step: the iOS setup guide.
Much of Costa Rica’s pay TV arrives over the internet — 45.2% of subscriptions were IPTV in 2025, SUTEL says — so the box under your television may well be your provider’s; leave it out of the first test. Your own television, streaming stick or console cannot run the OpenVPN Connect app, so USip works there through Smart DNS: register your home’s public IP address with USip, then put the DNS addresses into the device’s network settings or set them once on the router. Do this last, once a laptop has played an episode.
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One residential U.S. IP — a consumer address on a U.S. ISP, not the “VPN or VPS” ranges Hulu’s help page names. USip and Hulu are separate services: the plans include the connection only — not a Hulu subscription, account, app-store region, home network or rights to a title.
1 Month Pass
€15.99
€9.99/month after a 3-day trial.
6 Months Pass
€39/semiannually after a 3-day trial.
12 Month Pass
€69/year after a 3-day free trial.
Separate services: these prices are for the USip VPN Residential U.S. IP service only. A Hulu subscription, a Hulu account and access to any particular title are not included.
If you spend some months here and some in the States, Hulu treats each side differently. These habits keep both sides predictable.
While you are in the U.S., on-demand viewing works as it always has — subscribers “are able to stream anywhere in the U.S. — including Puerto Rico and U.S. military bases.”
On a laptop or phone, bring the connection up in the OpenVPN Connect app before Hulu loads. If Hulu opens first, it records a Costa Rican visit and keeps it in a cookie or in the Hulu app’s data. A television has no app to start: it relies on Smart DNS, set up beforehand.
Live TV subscribers are “not able to stream in U.S. territories, on U.S. military bases, or internationally.” If you keep Live TV, it is for your time in the U.S.; on-demand is the part a U.S. address can help with here.
Downloads come with Hulu Premium, on phones and tablets. Save the next few episodes before the trip south and watch them offline on the way.
Changing U.S. addresses mid-session makes the account look as if it were hopping between American cities. Stay on one until you stop watching.
Changing an Apple Account or Google account country each season affects subscriptions and purchases every time. Decide once, and use the browser if the app is not on offer.
The plan prices, for reference: Hulu With Ads is $12.49 a month and Hulu Premium $21.49 in the U.S., since 23 September 2026, with no free trial on either. None of the habits above makes Hulu certain — Hulu can refuse any address — but they make the result the same from one week to the next.
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Answers drawn from Hulu’s and Disney’s own pages, SUTEL’s statistics and the address registry — with a plain “we don’t know” where no source settles the point.
Not to buy. Hulu is a U.S.-only service. In Costa Rica, Hulu is the name of a section inside Disney+, since 8 October 2025, with a catalogue licensed for the region rather than the American library.
Yes, as a section of the app. Disney’s Costa Rican site lists Hulu next to Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic in both of its plans, Standard and Premium, with the ESPN channels on Premium only. It is a regional catalogue, so search it for the exact title.
Because kölbi, ICE’s brand, gives your connection a Costa Rican address — exactly as Liberty, Telecable, Tigo and Claro do. Hulu reads which country the address belongs to, not how fast it is or whose name is on the contract.
The account keeps working in the U.S.: Hulu says on-demand subscribers “are able to stream anywhere in the U.S. — including Puerto Rico and U.S. military bases.” Costa Rica is outside that, so here the same active account meets a location error. A residential U.S. IP changes the address Hulu reads; it leaves the rules as they are, and Hulu can refuse any address.
Because speed is not what Hulu checks. Most Costa Rican fixed connections are fibre, and the country’s network rates well for resilience, but Hulu asks where the address is and what kind of address it is. A fast Costa Rican line is still a Costa Rican address.
Starlink is an internet provider like any other here: the dish gets an address from Starlink’s own network, and which country that address shows is up to Starlink’s routing. SUTEL’s figures show 33,353 Starlink customers in Costa Rica in 2025. Check what an address checker says on the dish, then test exactly as you would on fibre.
While you are there, yes: on-demand viewing works anywhere in the U.S., Puerto Rico included. Live TV is narrower — subscribers are “not able to stream in U.S. territories, on U.S. military bases, or internationally.” Once you are back in Costa Rica, the location check applies again.
No. Hulu keeps Live TV inside the U.S. — not in U.S. territories, not on U.S. military bases and not in other countries — and no connection changes that rule. On-demand is the part to plan around.
None of them changes what Hulu sees; all three give Costa Rican addresses, as do Tigo and Claro. Choose for stability and coverage where you live. For Hulu, what counts is the U.S. address on top and the account behind it.
We have not been able to check this against a Costa Rican government or court source, so we give no answer, and this page is not legal advice. Check locally if it matters to you. Separately, Hulu’s terms ask subscribers not to disguise their location, in Costa Rica or anywhere else.
The App Store offers Hulu’s app by the Apple Account’s country, not by address. A Costa Rican Apple Account will not offer it; a U.S. one you kept after moving may. Changing countries affects subscriptions, so treat it as its own decision and test in a browser first.
No — the two are separate. USip provides a residential U.S. IP address; Hulu provides the account, the plan and the rights to every title.
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Everything that applies to Hulu worldwide — the rules, the Disney+ changes, the error messages — lives on the hub. The Latin American guides below share Costa Rica’s Disney history; their networks differ.
Every other country — 53 guides across Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa — is listed on the Hulu hub.
Hulu’s and Disney’s words are quoted from their own pages; provider figures are SUTEL’s; address and resilience figures are LACNIC’s and the Internet Society’s. All of them can change.
The test takes about ten minutes: the Hulu section searched first, then a laptop on your home line, the U.S. address checked, a private window and one ordinary episode. If Hulu accepts the address, Costa Rica’s fibre is more than enough for the stream itself.
A pass means the location part is solved, and anything still missing is the plan or the licence. A failure is only useful with its exact wording, so keep it before you change anything.
USip supplies the residential U.S. IP connection only. Hulu accounts, plans and content rights are Hulu’s, and Hulu can block any address.