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Subscription cost calculator

Work out what your recurring payments actually cost over a month, a year, and five years. Most people underestimate the total by about half — largely because monthly pricing is designed to feel small.

Per month$96
Per year$1,152
Over 5 years$5,760
YOUR ESTIMATED YEARLY SPEND
$1,152

Across 8 subscriptions at an average of $12 a month. Recurra works this out from your real list instead of an average.

Why the monthly number is misleading

A subscription is priced monthly because $11.99 reads as trivial and $143.88 does not. They are the same number. The category has grown on that gap: individually every subscription looks defensible, and it is only the total that is surprising.

The second thing the monthly view hides is duplication. Two video services with overlapping catalogues, a cloud storage plan on top of the iCloud+ you already pay for, an AI tool you subscribed to twice on different accounts. None of that is visible one line at a time.

How to use this figure

This calculator uses a flat average, which is fine for a rough figure but wrong in one predictable way: real subscription lists are lopsided. One or two services usually account for a third of the total. Working from your actual list — rather than an average — is the difference between an interesting number and an actionable one.

Next: find your real list

The Settings screen on your iPhone shows only the subscriptions Apple bills. This guide covers how to find the rest, including the card-billed ones that never appear there.

Get your real number

Add your subscriptions once and Recurra keeps the monthly and yearly total up to date — with reminders before each renewal. No bank login.

Download Recurra free