On the face of it, a subscription — whether to a streaming service, a newsletter or a food delivery app — may seem like it would not make or break your budget. But those small, recurring charges can quickly add up, especially if you have a lot of them.
Many money experts recommend subscriptions as one of the first places to look if you want to trim back. More than half of U.S. adults (55%) “plan to significantly decrease the subscriptions they have in 2026 in order to save money,” said NerdWallet, citing its recent survey. However, you do not necessarily have to go cold turkey and cancel everything to reap some savings. Here are four ways to save on your subscriptions.
1. Regularly reassess
One of the smartest ways to prevent subscriptions from taking too large a bite out of your budget is fairly simple: Keep track of what subscriptions you have, then revisit that list on a regular basis. Most Americans “likely couldn’t list all their subscriptions and prices off the top of their heads — not due to carelessness, but because they have so many, and they’re easy to forget about on autopay,” said NerdWallet.
Article continues below
Sign up for The Week’s Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
By doing an audit, you may find you have been paying for a service you do not actually use anymore or even that you are accidentally paying for one twice. You can do this work manually, by going through bank and credit card statements, or there are also budgeting apps that can do the work of tracking, and sometimes even canceling, your subscriptions for you.
2. Commit for longer
This may seem counterintuitive if you are trying to cut back on subscriptions. But for those you really want to hold onto, making a longer-term commitment can make a difference, since “paying annually rather than monthly will usually work out cheaper,” said The Guardian. Just make sure to watch out for auto-renewal, when a price hike will sometimes sneak in.
3. Share with family or friends
When it comes to subscriptions, it is usually the more, the merrier. So if you have friends or family members who also use the same subscriptions you enjoy, ask if they want to go in on a plan together.
For instance, “Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Premium and some live TV bundles all have family or group options that cost much less than what you’d pay on your own,” said GoBankingRates. Sometimes, though, there is fine print to be aware of — for example, some “services’ family plans might require all members to live at the same address.”
4. Pause and rotate
Just because you like to have a subscription does not mean you must have it all the time. Another hack that people sometimes use to save money is pausing (or totally canceling) one subscription, then picking up another for a bit.
How would this work? For saving on streaming services, you would “pick a couple that have shows premiering this month or shows that you’ve been meaning to watch,” then “keep those for a few months while you catch up on everything you want to watch,” said Kiplinger. After that, “cancel your subscription and move on to your next batch of two or three streaming services.” Once you are “caught up on movies and TV series on those, rinse and repeat.”
If you opt for a pause instead of a full cancel, you can keep your account there, frozen and waiting for you. Just make sure to maintain tabs on when it starts back up.