Subscription Tracker: a free app to see and cancel what you're paying for

Subscription Tracker is a free subscription tracker app that puts every streaming service, app, membership and box you pay for in one list, adds up what they cost you a month and a year, and reminds you a few days before each one renews. It never asks for your bank login. You type in your subscriptions yourself, which takes about ten minutes, and from then on the app keeps watch. You open Subscription Tracker in your phone's browser, add it to your home screen and get going.

Here's what it does, how to get it on your phone and how to use the Review screen to cut the ones you don't really use.

What Subscription Tracker does

You add each subscription with its name, price, how often it bills (weekly, monthly or yearly) and when the next charge lands. The home screen shows your total in big numbers, what you spend a month and what that comes to over a year, with every subscription listed below in order of what renews next.

If you're on a free trial, flip the trial switch and enter when it ends. The app keeps trials out of your monthly total and puts a "Trial ends in 5d" badge on them, so the day it flips to a paid plan doesn't sneak up on you.

There's also an Upcoming screen with everything that'll hit your card in the next 30 days, and a Review screen where you go through each subscription and decide whether to keep it or cut it. Cut ones move to a Cancelled list with a running total of what you're saving a year.

Why it's worth ten minutes

Most of us have no clue what we spend on subscriptions, and I don't say that to be snarky. In a 2022 survey, people guessed they paid about $86 a month. When they actually added it up, the average was $219, a gap of $133 a month, or close to $1,600 a year.

That same survey found that about four in ten people had stopped using a subscription and forgotten they were still paying for it. That's the gym you quit going to in February, the streaming service you signed up for to watch one show and the app trial that quietly rolled over into a pricey annual plan. Banks and companies are pretty happy for that to stay invisible. This app drags it into the light.

How to get Subscription Tracker on your phone

It's a web app, so there's no App Store or Google Play download. It installs from our site straight to your home screen.

On an iPhone:

1. Open 8dofwellness.com/apps/subscription-tracker in Safari.
2. Tap the Share button (the square with the arrow pointing up).
3. Tap Add to Home Screen, then Add.

On Android:

1. Open the same page in Chrome.
2. Tap the three-dot menu in the corner.
3. Tap Install app or Add to Home screen.

The purple card icon shows up with your other apps. It opens full screen and works offline.

How to find all your subscriptions

This is the part that takes a little digging, and it's worth doing properly. Open your banking app or credit card app and scroll back through the last two months of charges. Anything that shows up both months, or anything with a name you don't recognize, goes on the list. Do it for every card you use, including the old one you only keep for Amazon.

Then check the app stores. On an iPhone, go to Settings, tap your name and then Subscriptions. On Android, open Google Play, tap your profile picture and then Payments and subscriptions. Those two screens catch a lot of sneaky app subscriptions.

Don't forget the yearly ones. Amazon Prime, Costco, antivirus software, website domains and some news sites only charge once a year, so they won't show up in two months of statements. If you can, scan back twelve months for those.

How to use it, screen by screen

Subscriptions

Tap Add a subscription. There's a scrolling row of common ones (Netflix, Spotify, Disney+, Hulu, Max, Amazon Prime, iCloud+, ChatGPT Plus, Xbox Game Pass, the gym and more) to save you some typing, or you can type any name.

Enter the price, pick how often it bills and set the next charge date. If it's a free trial, tick the box and enter the trial end date. The app never fills in prices for you, since they change all the time, so type what your statement actually shows.

Tap any subscription later to edit it or delete it. Renewal dates roll forward on their own, so once a monthly charge passes, the app moves it to next month without you lifting a finger.

Upcoming

This shows the next 30 days in date order, with a total at the top. It's handy right after payday when you're figuring out what's already spoken for. Below the list is the button that sets up reminders, which is the feature that really earns its keep.

Review

This is where the savings happen. Each subscription shows what it costs you a year, which is a much more sobering number than the monthly price. Ask yourself two questions about each one: did I use this in the last month, and would I sign up again today at this price? If the answer to either is no, tap Cancel. I'd be pretty ruthless here, since you can always sign back up later, and I suspect a lot of services count on people never getting around to this step. Streaming especially is easy to rotate, one or two at a time, binge what you wanted and drop it again.

The app then gives you a quick rundown of where cancel buttons usually hide, plus a button that searches "how to cancel" for that service. Once you've actually cancelled it with the company, tap I cancelled it. It moves to the Cancelled list and your yearly savings tick up. Changed your mind? There's an Undo.

Reminders before every renewal

On the Upcoming screen, tap Add renewal reminders to my calendar. You get two choices. One downloads a calendar file for the iPhone Calendar app, Samsung Calendar or Outlook, and the other gives you one Google Calendar link per subscription.

Each subscription becomes a repeating event on its renewal date, with an alert at 9 AM three days before. Free trials get an alert the day before they end. That three-day heads-up is your window to cancel, downgrade or call and ask for a better deal. Our piece on cancelling subscriptions and negotiating bills has scripts for that call.

No bank login, on purpose

A lot of subscription apps want you to connect your bank account so they can spot charges automatically. I get the appeal, but handing over bank access to save ten minutes of typing never sat right with me. This app doesn't connect to anything. Your list lives on your phone, with no account and nothing sent to us.

Tap the gear icon to save a backup now and then, since clearing your browser or deleting the app would wipe the list. The same screen lets you change the currency symbol if you're not in the US.

What to do with the money you save

Cancelled two streaming services and an app you forgot about? Don't let that money just evaporate into everyday spending. Move the same amount into savings on the day the charge would've hit. A high-yield savings account is a good home for it, and over a year a couple of cancelled subscriptions can turn into a decent chunk of an emergency fund.

If you're working on a budget, your subscription total belongs in the "wants" bucket of a 50/30/20 budget, and seeing the real number tends to make the trimming a lot easier.

Frequently asked questions about Subscription Tracker

Is Subscription Tracker free?

Yes. No price, no ads, no sign-up and no bank login. It's one of eight free wellness apps on this site.

Can it cancel subscriptions for me?

No. You cancel with the company itself, and the app shows you where to look and keeps track of what you've saved.

Why doesn't it connect to my bank?

So your financial data never leaves your phone. You type subscriptions in once, and the app handles renewal dates from there.

How do I find subscriptions I forgot about?

Scroll back through two months of bank and card statements, then check the subscriptions screens in your phone's settings (iPhone) or Google Play (Android). Scan twelve months back for yearly charges.

Does it work outside the US?

Yes. Change the currency symbol in settings. The prices are whatever you type in.

Money is one spoke of the wellness wheel, and the free wellness wheel quiz shows how your other dimensions are doing.