Instrument 04 · Protect
Subscription Cost Calculator Small Charges. A Large Decade.
The true cost of your subscriptions is the monthly total times twelve, plus yearly price rises, plus what the money would have earned if invested. Convert every charge to monthly (yearly ÷ 12, weekly × 4.333), then divide each by how often you actually use it. The highest cost per use goes first.
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These add a row with an empty price on purpose. We don’t quote other companies’ prices — they change, they differ by country, and a wrong number is worse than no number. Type what you actually pay.
Defaults are ordinary long-run assumptions, not predictions, and every one of them is yours to change. Set the return to 0% and the tool simply stops counting forgone growth. This is arithmetic that illustrates a trade-off — it is not investment advice, and no return is guaranteed.
Bleeding every month
Add a charge to begin.
The long shadow
03 — Cost Per Actual Use
Price Is Not The Problem. Price Per Use Is.
A service you open every day at a high price can be the best value on this list. A cheap one you have not opened since spring is not cheap — it is infinite. Sorted worst-first.
| Service | Per month | Per year | Per use | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nothing added yet. | ||||
04 — The Escape Plan
Add your charges and this becomes a to-do list.
Every recommendation below is generated from your own numbers, in your own browser. Nothing here has been sent anywhere.
Reading Your Result
What The Number Is Telling You.
- Used weekly or more
- Probably earning its place. Check the price, not the habit.
- Used once or twice a month
- Compare cost per use with paying only when you need it.
- Not opened this month
- Cost per use is infinite. The decision has made itself.
The Model
The Formula, In Full.
The arithmetic this instrument runs, with a worked example. Its test cases are published on the methodology page
Monthly = price normalised (yearly ÷ 12, quarterly ÷ 3, weekly × 4.333)
Cost per use = Monthly ÷ uses per month
Opportunity cost = each payment invested at the start of its month at rate r, the payment rising by g each year (annuity-due with escalation)Worked example. A 14.99 service used twice a month costs 7.50 per use. The same 14.99 left unopened costs infinity per use.
Assumptions and edge cases
- Uses per month are your honest estimate.
- Price rises and investment return are rates you choose; neither is a forecast.
- Taxes and exchange fees on foreign subscriptions are not modelled.
| Edge case | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| Uses = 0 | Cost per use shows ∞ and the row is flagged as never opened. |
| Weekly billing | Normalised at 52 ÷ 12 = 4.333 charges per month. |
| Free trial at 0 | Included in the count, excluded from totals. |
| Growth rate 0 | Opportunity cost equals the escalated sum of payments. |
Questions
Subscriptions, Answered Plainly.
How do I calculate the true cost of a subscription?
Add three things: the price over the time you keep it, the yearly price rises, and the growth that money would have earned if invested. Normalise every charge to monthly first: yearly ÷ 12, quarterly ÷ 3, weekly × 4.333. A 10-a-month subscription is not a 10 decision: over ten years it is 120 payments, and with prices rising 5 per cent a year it totals about 1,509 rather than 1,200.
How do I find all my subscriptions?
Read three months of card and bank statements rather than relying on memory, because annual renewals and small charges are the ones people forget. Then check the subscription lists in the Google Play and Apple app stores, which bill through the store rather than under the service's own name, and search your email for words such as receipt, renewal and trial. Add each one to the audit as you find it.
How do I cancel a subscription on Google Play?
On your Android phone, open subscriptions in Google Play, select the subscription, tap Cancel subscription and follow the instructions. Uninstalling the app does not cancel the subscription — the charges continue until you cancel in Google Play itself. Subscriptions bought through Apple are cancelled from the subscriptions list in your Apple account settings instead.
What is a zombie subscription?
A zombie subscription is a recurring charge for a service you no longer use but have not cancelled. They survive because each charge is small enough to ignore and because cancelling requires an act of attention that renewing does not. The test is cost per use: divide the monthly price by how often you open the service. If you never open it, the cost per use is infinite.
What is the opportunity cost of a subscription?
Opportunity cost is the return the money would have earned in its next-best use. For a recurring payment it compounds, because you give up not only each payment but every later year of growth on it. This audit models it as an annuity-due — each payment invested at the start of its month at a rate you set — with the payment rising each year. It illustrates a trade-off; it is not a forecast or investment advice.
How much does the average person spend on subscriptions?
Published averages vary so widely that they are close to useless as a personal benchmark, and we will not invent one. The number that matters is yours, and people consistently underestimate it because memory drops annual renewals and small charges first. Reading three months of statements, rather than recalling from memory, is the reliable method — this page turns that list into one figure.
Should I switch to annual billing to save money?
Only for services you have already proven you use. Annual billing typically discounts the monthly rate, but it turns a decision you revisit twelve times a year into one you revisit once — the exact mechanism that creates zombie subscriptions. Run the audit first, pay annually for what survives it, and stay monthly on anything you are still deciding about.