Subscription Cost Calculator

Small recurring charges are easy to forget, and they add up. List your subscriptions with their price and billing cycle, and this calculator converts every one to the same footing and shows your total per day, per month and per year, the cost over several years, and which subscriptions cost the most. Weekly, monthly, quarterly, twice-yearly and yearly plans can be mixed freely. A chart ranks them by yearly cost so the biggest savings stand out.

yearly cost = price × payments per year

A year has 12 monthly payments, 4 quarterly payments and 2 twice-yearly payments. Weekly is trickier because a year is not exactly 52 weeks: the calculator uses the average Gregorian year of 365.2425 days, which gives 52.1775 weekly payments a year. Monthly cost is the yearly cost divided by 12, so a yearly plan is shown as its true monthly equivalent.

A household with video streaming at $15.49 a month, music at $11.99, cloud storage at $2.99, a $12 weekly gym plan, a $139 yearly shopping membership and a $49.99 yearly news app spends $98.40 a month, or $1,180.76 a year. Over five years that is $5,903.80 at today's prices. The gym alone costs $626.13 a year, because 52 weekly payments add up faster than they seem.

Many services discount yearly plans. A $9.99 monthly plan costs $119.88 over a year, while a $99.99 yearly plan saves $19.89. Yearly billing only saves money if you would have kept the service all year; if you tend to cancel after a few months, monthly billing is cheaper. Enter both options here to compare them over the period you expect to use the service.

• Go through two or three months of bank and card statements and list every recurring charge, including app store subscriptions and annual renewals.
• Mark each one keep, downgrade or cancel. Ask whether you used it in the last month.
• Look for overlaps, such as two music services or storage plans bundled with a phone plan.
• Set a reminder before free trials end and before yearly renewals.
• Check for shared family plans that cost less per person.

In the United States, many states have automatic renewal laws that require clear disclosure and an easy way to cancel, and the Federal Trade Commission has acted against companies that make cancelling difficult. If a service makes cancellation hard, keep a record of your requests and contact your card issuer if charges continue after you cancel.

Many subscriptions start with a free month or a discounted first year and then renew at the full price automatically. Enter the full price, not the introductory one, so the totals reflect what you will pay once the offer ends, and note the renewal date somewhere you will see it. Price increases on existing plans are also common, so check your statements each year and update the list here when a price changes.

Once you know the monthly total, treat it as a single budget line rather than many small ones. Setting a cap, such as a fixed amount per month for all entertainment subscriptions, makes it easier to rotate services: subscribe to one for a few months, cancel, and switch to another. The budget calculator can show how the total fits alongside your other spending.