Gold membership; sharing with family members?

It can. Just have the gamertag that has the Gold membership mark the console as their Home console and add the other members to their family and the membership will share out.

1. You can add other members to your Family on the console to share the gold membership. Go to Settings and scroll right to Add to Family then follow the instructions.

2. There are child restrictions to younger accounts. The parent can adjust them as needed

3. The shared Gold on the X1 cannot be shared on the 360. Each tag would need their own Gold membership for that account.

4. The cost of Gold memberships vary by retailer but are usually priced between $40 - $60.

In order to share your Gold membership with other members of your family your gamertag must be set as Home on the console. If anyone else has their tag set as Home then you cannot share the membership with them.

They either remain a free member but put up with usage restrictions, share a single Gold account (which is technically against the Terms of Use) or pay for a Gold membership of their own.

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However you have a fourth option, the Gold Family pack. This offers four Gold membership at a reduced cost
www.xbox.com/.../family.

Your friends may be pulling your leg. Although some services no longer require a gold membership (access to some apps and chat) you still need gold to play online multiplayer. Odds are they had added a trial membership which allows limited access to gold
features including multiplayer but it doesn't show up as a gold membership.

Also, on the Xbox One a gold membership can be shared through the family. This means that if one person has a membership then they can share it with family members on the same console. This may also be the case here.