Subscription Cost Calculator

Subscriptions are designed to be forgettable. Each one is small enough not to notice on a statement, they renew silently, and the annual ones renew so quietly that most people cannot name the date. This calculator adds them up and shows the yearly figure, which is the number that tends to change minds.

Why the annual number is the one that matters

A $15.99 monthly subscription does not feel like a decision. The same subscription described as $192 a year feels like one.

Nothing has changed except the framing, but the framing is the point — monthly pricing exists partly because it makes recurring costs feel smaller than they are. Looking at the annual total, and the five-year total underneath it, restores the comparison you would make for any other purchase of that size.

Finding the ones you forgot

The hard part of a subscription audit is not deciding what to cancel. It is remembering what you are paying for. Free trials that converted, annual renewals from eleven months ago, and anything billed through an app store are the usual blind spots.

Twelve months is deliberate. A monthly scan misses every annual renewal, which is where the largest single charges usually hide.

The keep-or-cancel test

Untick anything that fails this: would you sign up for it again today at today's price?

Not "have I used it recently" — plenty of useful things go unused for a month. Not "is it good value in principle" — almost everything is, in principle. The question is whether you would actively choose to start paying for it right now, knowing what it costs per year.

Anything you hesitate on is worth pausing rather than cancelling outright. Most services let you come back, and the ones that do not usually run a better joining offer than your current rate anyway.

Before you cancel

A few things worth doing first, in order:

1. Check the renewal date. Cancelling the day after an annual renewal usually means you have already paid for the year — you may as well use it and set a reminder.
2. Ask for a retention offer. Streaming services, gyms, and broadband providers routinely discount when you try to leave. A five-minute chat often beats cancelling.
3. Check for a cheaper tier. An ad-supported plan or a smaller storage tier is sometimes 90% of the value at half the price.
4. Look for a shared or family plan. Splitting one plan across a household beats several individual ones.

Then do something with the money

This is the step people skip, and it is why the same audit gets repeated a year later with the same result. Money freed up without a destination gets absorbed into ordinary spending within about two months.

Set up a standing transfer for the amount you freed, on the same day the cancelled subscriptions used to bill. The money was already leaving your account on that date — you are just changing where it goes. Send it to your emergency fund, or at a debt balance, where it will actually compound in your favour.

Read the full guide

For a repeatable process you can run twice a year, read our guide on how to review monthly subscriptions, or print the Simple Bill Review Checklist.