Reprinted from TidBITS by permission; reuse governed by Creative Commons license BY-NC-ND 3.0. TidBITS has offered years of thoughtful commentary on Apple and Internet topics. For free email subscriptions and access to the entire TidBITS archive, visit http://www.tidbits.com/ Do You Use It? Audit Your Subscriptions Adam Engst Few topics get computer users more exercised than subscriptions. We shake our virtual fists in the air and reminisce about the good old days when you owned the software you bought (effectively, if not literally true). There's no going back, but how deeply have subscriptions become part of our lives? To tease out the answer to that question'and provide color for when I write more about the topic later'I've developed a five-question poll that asks about your experience with subscriptions. How to Identify Subscriptions Although you could quickly guess at the answers, part of the impetus for this poll is to help you audit your subscriptions to see how many you have, how much you're spending on what, and if they're worth continuing. Counting subscriptions and calculating how much you spend will take some time, so I recommend starting a simple spreadsheet to list all your subscriptions as you find them. Here are a few ways to help you speed up the data collection: * On the Mac, navigate to System Settings > Your Name > Media & Purchases > Subscriptions to see all your Apple-managed subscriptions. You can also do this on the iPhone or iPad. * Some bank accounts and credit cards flag recurring payments or let you filter for monthly/annual transactions. Alternatively, you can scroll through the transaction list to find subscription payments. Don't forget about PayPal transactions. * If you're comfortable asking a chatbot for help (best with paid accounts set not to train on your conversations), download several years' worth of transactions and ask it to identify likely subscriptions. * If you maintain an email folder for receipts, scroll through and look for ones that repeat monthly or annually. I have long had such a folder, with filters set to capture receipts for regular expenses and vendors, and I find it invaluable for tracking down transactions of all types. * Numerous apps and services can help you track subscriptions and recurring payments. I haven't used any of these, but you might look at [1]Rocket Money, [2]TrackMySubs, [3]Bobby, [4]Subscriptions, and [5]SubTrack. What to Include and Exclude Deciding what counts as a subscription is somewhat complex. I've built a list of 14 categories with examples'it also serves as the fourth question'to help you think through the possibilities: * AI (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) * Cloud storage/backup (iCloud+, Dropbox, Backblaze) * Creative/utility/dev tools (Adobe CC, Setapp, Cursor) * Education/courses (Coursera, Skillshare, language apps) * Finance-related (Quicken, QuickBooks, Xero) * Fitness/health (Apple Fitness+, Strava, Peloton) * Gaming (Apple Arcade, console/PC passes) * Internet (Email, domain registration, hosting) * Music streaming (Apple Music, Spotify) * Networking/communications (Zoom, SRFax, Slack, VPN) * News/info (Apple News+, NYT, Substack, Patreon, TidBITS) * Passwords/security (1Password, Proton Pass, antivirus) * Productivity suite (Microsoft 365, Google Workspace) * Video streaming (Apple TV+, Netflix, Prime Video) However, to keep the numbers comparable between people in very different situations, let's exclude some types of subscriptions and recurring payments: * Business subscriptions: Stick with personal subscriptions, not those that primarily exist to support a business. I have various subscriptions that are necessary for TidBITS and the TidBITS Content Network (Cloudways, DigitalOcean, Cloudflare, Paid Memberships Pro, Jetpack Search, iStock, Xero, and more), but they're qualitatively different from things I use personally, like Apple Music, CARROT Weather, Netflix, and Planta. * Infrastructure costs: Exclude unavoidable monthly connectivity costs, such as cellular and broadband plans. At this point, nearly everyone pays for cellular service and Internet connectivity. * Non-technical memberships and donations: It's fine to include a TidBITS membership, where you're essentially paying for Apple news, but don't include your Planned Parenthood or NRA memberships. Also, don't include the full cost of Amazon Prime, but do include the Amazon Prime TV component ($8.99 per month with ads, $11.98 per month without). Even after excluding those categories, there are some edge cases: * Family subscriptions: For subscriptions shared among a family, include the full amount rather than prorating by person. However, if your spouse subscribes to something you don't use, don't include that. * Collections: Include the full price of offerings like Apple One, but in the first question, count only the number of individual subscriptions that you actually use. Setapp is also special; list the number of its apps you use along with its monthly cost. * Bundles: If a subscription like Netflix is bundled with an excluded category, such as a T-Mobile cellular plan, break it out and take either the amount you pay within the larger plan or, if that's unknown, the list price of the equivalent standalone subscription. * Insurance: Since plans like AppleCare are optional, let's include them. * Contributions: Definitely include voluntary recurring payments, such as for TidBITS and content received via Patreon or Substack. Also include subscriptions that are part of tax-deductible donations, such as getting Passport with a donation to the local PBS channel. * Hardware: Some devices require subscriptions to use them; make sure to include those in your answers. Poll Questions With that out of the way, here are the five questions. 1. How many subscriptions do you currently pay for? 2. About how much per month do you spend on these subscriptions? 3. How does that amount split between productivity/utility and entertainment/content? 4. Into which of the following categories do your subscriptions fall? 5. Over the last 12 months, I have added/canceled'¦ [6]Respond to these poll questions on the TidBITS Talk site. References 1. https://onboarding.rocketmoney.com/subscriptions 2. https://trackmysubs.com/ 3. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bobby-track-subscriptions/id1059152023 4. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/subscriptions-track-expenses/id1577082754 5. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/subtrack-track-subscriptions/id1519946553 6. https://talk.tidbits.com/t/do-you-use-it-audit-your-subscriptions/32728#:~:text=in%20your%20answers.-,poll%20questions,-With%20that%20out .