Subscription Cost Calculator: What You Really Pay per Year

A subscription is priced in small steps: a few euros a month, a few dollars a week. Each step looks harmless, so nobody adds them up. But a card is charged for the whole year, not for one month, and the total is usually larger than people expect.

This page has a calculator. Enter what you pay, and it shows the yearly cost of everything together and of each subscription on its own. The sum is worked out in your browser, and the prices are not sent anywhere.

The calculator

How the yearly cost is worked out

Each price is brought to a year, and the year is the sum of those:

• A weekly price is multiplied by 52.
• A monthly price is multiplied by 12.
• A price paid every 3 months is multiplied by 4, and one paid every 6 months by 2.
• A yearly price stays as it is.

The monthly, weekly and daily figures are the yearly total divided back down, so they are averages. A subscription that is charged once a year still shows a monthly share.

Some things are left out on purpose. Free trials cost nothing until they end, tax is already part of most prices you see on a statement, and a price that went up mid-year is not tracked. If a service raised its price, use the new one.

Where to find every subscription you pay for

The calculator is only as good as the list you give it. The ones you remember are rarely all of them. Look in these places:

• Your card or bank statements for the last three months. Look for the same name at the same amount, and for small amounts you never checked.
• The subscription lists of your phone. The App Store and Google Play each keep a list of what is charged through them.
• PayPal and other payment accounts, which keep their own list of automatic payments.
• Your email, by searching for "receipt", "invoice", "renewal" and "your subscription".
• Yearly charges. They are the easiest to miss, so look back twelve months, not three.

If a card is about to expire, this list is also the list of places where the new card has to be given.

What to do with the number

Once you can see the total, a few questions are worth asking about each line:

1. When did I last use it? A subscription you have not opened in two months is a candidate to cancel. You can usually start it again later.
2. Is there a cheaper plan? Many services have a plan with ads, a family plan that can be shared, or a student plan.
3. Is a yearly plan cheaper? Often it is, but only if you will keep the service for the whole year. Put the renewal date somewhere you will see it.
4. Does it overlap with another? Two services that store files or play video are rarely both needed.

Start with the biggest line. In most lists a few subscriptions are most of the total, and cancelling one of them does more than trimming ten small ones.

Make it a habit

The number changes as you add and drop services. Once every three months, open the list and ask the same four questions. It takes ten minutes, and it is how a total that crept up quietly gets back down.