The Subscription Audit
Find every subscription you forgot you were paying for
A subscription audit is a 15-minute review of every recurring charge: find them all, decide which subscriptions to cancel, and cancel before the next renewal. It's worth doing because people guess low: in a 2022 C+R Research survey, the real monthly spend was more than 2.5× what people estimated. No bank linking, no app required.
- ✓ Every place forgotten charges hide (including annual ones)
- ✓ The 5 questions that decide keep-or-cancel in seconds
- ✓ How to cancel before renewal so you're never charged for a month you didn't want
Want the number first? Use the free subscription cost calculator to add up what you're paying, then work the checklist to cut it down.
Free checklist
Where to send your Subscription Audit Checklist
Enter your email and the full checklist unlocks instantly on this page — every step to find, judge, and cancel the subscriptions quietly draining your account.
No spam — just the checklist and the occasional tip on cutting subscription waste. Unsubscribe anytime.
The audit in ten steps
About fifteen minutes the first time. The download above has the detail and the decision questions; this is the outline.
- 1. Scan 90 days of statements. Every card and PayPal. Flag identical amounts at regular intervals, including cryptic names like APPLE.COM/BILL.
- 2. Check your phone's subscription page. iPhone: Settings → your name → Subscriptions. Android: Play Store → Payments & subscriptions.
- 3. Write everything in one list. Name, price, billing cycle, next renewal date. Don't judge anything yet.
- 4. Convert to a monthly cost. Divide yearly prices by 12, multiply weekly ones by 4.33 — or let the cost calculator do it.
- 5. Total it. Seeing the real number, usually for the first time, is what makes the next steps easy.
- 6. Apply the 30-day rule. Not used in the last 30 days? Cancel. Re-subscribing later takes two minutes.
- 7. Ask the re-subscribe question. If you saw this today at full price, would you sign up? "I've had it forever" isn't a reason.
- 8. Cut the overlap. Two music services or three streamers you watch one show on each: keep one per category.
- 9. Cancel now, not tonight. Do the cancellations in the same sitting — every delay risks another renewal.
- 10. Track what survives. Keep the keepers somewhere that warns you before each renewal and shows when prices rise.
What subscriptions should I cancel?
Review unused subscriptions first, then the ones you use but wouldn't buy again. A subscription is usually worth cancelling when:
- You haven't opened it in 30 days. Most services let you rejoin in minutes, often with your history intact.
- It duplicates something else. Two music services, two cloud drives, a streamer kept for one finished show.
- The price went up and the value didn't. Check what it cost a year ago on the price history pages.
- It's a trial you meant to stop. Cancel now; on most services access runs to the end of the period you already paid for.
- You're paying monthly for something you use all year. That one isn't a cancel; switching to the annual plan is often cheaper.
For the cancelling itself, the cancellation guide covers where each kind of subscription is cancelled and what to keep as proof.
Repeat it every quarter
An audit is a snapshot; new trials and price rises erode it within months. Put the next one on your calendar for three months out. Rounds two and three take five minutes, because the list already exists — especially if it lives in a subscription tracker that reminds you before each renewal.