Recurring charges become easier to review when each one has a name, an owner, and a next charge date. Start there. You do not have to decide what to cancel while you are still figuring out what the household pays for.
Use the free Subscription Audit to estimate the scale of the list. Then work from actual billing records before making changes. The difference matters because the calculator uses a service count and an average price rather than connecting to each account.
Build the list from the places that charge you
Review bank and card statements, app-store subscription screens, and known provider accounts. Monthly charges may appear quickly. Quarterly and annual charges require a longer lookback, so mark the period you reviewed instead of calling the first pass complete.
Record who uses each service. A family member may depend on something you have not opened. A backup subscription may work in the background. A lack of visible use is a reason to ask a question, not evidence that a service has no purpose.
The FTC's subscription guidance advises checking renewal terms, cancellation instructions, and statements. Keep any cancellation confirmation and check later charges. This guide does not assume a particular provider offers refunds or the same cancellation route for every customer.
A fictional six-service example
Imagine two video subscriptions, music, cloud storage, a fitness app, and gaming. Their fictional monthly invoices are $12, $18, $10, $8, $22, and $20. Together they total $90, so the average is $15 across six services.
Select those six categories in What you pay for. Enter $15 for Average price of each and $10 for Anything else, total per month. The modeled monthly total becomes six times $15, plus $10, or $100. The annual total is $1,200.
Suppose the $10 music service and $20 gaming service were unused during the reviewed month. Set How many you have not used this month to 2. The tool estimates $30 a month, or $360 a year, for the unused group. In this example that matches the actual two invoices. It would not match if the unused pair had a different combined cost.
Do not call the $360 saved yet. It assumes both charges stop for a full twelve months, no cancellation cost applies, and no replacement purchase takes their place. Write the actual effective dates beside the invoices before projecting a cash change.
Turn the recurring charges into a review list
The tool estimates a total from a count and an average. Keep the actual invoices beside it so the estimate does not replace the evidence.
Work through the list
Most streaming and app subscriptions land between 10 and 20 dollars.
Your progress
You listed 4 subscriptions averaging $14.00 each, which is $56 a month. Over five years, with prices rising about 7% a year, that is $3,864. The 3 you have not opened this month account for $504 of it a year.
Including normal price rises.
Year 1: $672. By Year 5: $3,864.
Cancel the 3 you have not opened this month and you keep $504 a year without changing anything you actually use.
Check your app store subscriptions screen and two months of bank statements. That finds nearly all of them.
What this assumed
- Uses typical prices for the services listed. Override the average if yours are higher or lower.
Runs in your browser. Your entries are never uploaded, never saved on our servers, and never put in a shareable link.
How to run it, step by step
- 1Select What you pay for. For the example select Main video streaming service, Second video streaming service, Music streaming, Cloud storage or backup, Gym or fitness app, and Gaming service.
- 2Enter Average price of each. Use $15 for six fictional services totaling $90 monthly. Enter $10 in Anything else, total per month.
- 3Mark the unused count. Set How many you have not used this month to 2 after checking with other users. Lack of a recent login does not establish that a backup or protective service is unnecessary.
- 4Choose a price-rise scenario. Set Typical yearly price rise to 5% for a hypothetical comparison, then 0% to see a constant-price baseline.
How to read what it gives you
- The example totals $100 per month and $1,200 per year. The $360 unused-service estimate is two times the $15 average times twelve.
- Five years at the assumed 5% annual rise totals $6,630.76 before display rounding, compared with $6,000 at unchanged prices.
- The tool does not identify the provider, cancel a service, verify contract terms, or confirm a future charge has stopped.
The tool is free, it does not expire, and you can put it on your own website if you want it there. Nothing on this page is locked.
Not ready to talk? Browse the rest of the free tools
Treat future increases as a scenario
Set Typical yearly price rise to 5%. This is a made-up planning assumption, not a provider announcement. The tool applies it once each year to the whole yearly total, including the additional $10 monthly line.
The five annual amounts are $1,200, $1,260, $1,323, $1,389.15, and $1,458.6075 before rounding. Their sum is $6,630.7575, displayed as $6,631. At 0% increases, five years cost $6,000. The difference between those scenarios is about $630.76.
That is useful for understanding compounding. It does not establish what your providers will charge. A temporary promotion, a downgrade, a one-time credit, or ending a service changes the path. Keep confirmed prices separate from the assumption.
Copy this renewal decision sheet
- Service and actual billing provider:
- Household user or owner:
- Current price and billing frequency:
- Monthly equivalent for comparison:
- Next charge date and any notice deadline:
- Last meaningful use or ongoing purpose:
- Data, coverage, or access that could be lost:
- Keep, review, downgrade, or cancel decision:
- Action completed and effective date:
- Confirmation saved and later statement checked:
For an annual subscription, divide the annual fee by twelve for comparison but keep the real charge date visible. Paying $120 once is different from paying $10 each month when you are checking cash available next week.
Close the loop on one decision
Choose one service to resolve. Ask the relevant household user, read the provider's current terms, and complete the chosen action through the genuine account or billing channel. If you keep it, that is a completed review too. Record why and when to look again.
If you cancel, distinguish a request from a confirmed end date and from a later statement with no renewal charge. The audit has done its job when you know what happens next, who checked it, and what evidence supports the decision.
Questions people actually ask
Does checking an unused service cancel it?
No. The tool only estimates costs. Cancellation happens through the actual billing provider, and you need to verify its effective date.
What if the unused subscriptions have different prices?
Use the actual invoices to calculate the amount you might avoid. The tool multiplies the unused count by the overall average, which may not match those particular services.
Is the annual price-rise figure a prediction?
No. It is an assumption you choose. Run 0% as a baseline and use known provider terms for an actual renewal decision.