Ask someone how much they spend on subscriptions each month and most people will give you a number. Ask them to name every subscription they have and list the prices, and you'll get a different, higher number.
That gap is well-documented in research. Multiple large surveys have found that people systematically underestimate their subscription spending by 40–80%. This article looks at what those surveys actually found, why the gap exists, and how to audit your own spending.
What the Research Actually Shows
The most widely cited data on subscription spending comes from a few major sources:
West Monroe Partners (2022 Consumer Subscriptions Survey) found that US consumers underestimate their monthly subscription spending by an average of $133. Survey respondents estimated they spent about $86/month on subscriptions. Their actual average, based on reported subscriptions, was closer to $219. The survey covered over 2,500 US adults.
C+R Research (2022) found that 42% of respondents had forgotten they were still paying for a subscription service. Among those with forgotten subscriptions, the average monthly waste was $50. The same study found that the average US consumer has 4–5 paid subscriptions and underestimates their total monthly spend by about 40%.
Chase Consumer Banking Data has consistently shown that recurring subscriptions are one of the fastest-growing categories in consumer bank transaction data. Based on Chase customer transaction analysis published in 2023, the average Chase account with subscription activity shows between $150–$200 in monthly recurring charges across all services.
These numbers shift year over year as new subscription services launch and prices increase. The specific dollar amounts matter less than the consistent finding: people underestimate.
The Gap Between Estimates and Reality
The gap between perceived and actual spending isn't random. It's driven by a few specific things:
Annual subscriptions that don't feel like monthly expenses. If you paid $119 for Amazon Prime in October, that charge doesn't factor into most people's mental accounting for "monthly subscriptions." Same for annual VPN subscriptions, software licenses, and news site renewals.
Subscriptions billed to a second card or shared account. If your iCloud storage is charged to your Apple Card and your main bank account is Chase, you're tracking those separately and may not add them together.
Free trials that became paid. You signed up during a promotion, forgot about it, and the monthly charge started. If you never noticed it, it's not in your mental estimate.
Small charges that don't register. $1.99/month for extra iCloud storage. $0.99 for an app subscription. $4.99 for an expanded feature in a free app. None of these feel like "subscriptions" in the way that Netflix does, so they don't get counted.
Breakdown by Category
The subscription market breaks down roughly into these categories, ordered by how frequently they appear in consumer bank data:
Video streaming
Netflix ($15.49–$22.99), Disney+ ($7.99–$13.99), Hulu ($7.99–$17.99), Max ($9.99–$15.99), Peacock ($5.99–$11.99), Apple TV+ ($9.99), Paramount+ ($5.99–$11.99). The average subscriber to all major streaming services would pay over $80/month in streaming alone. Most people have 2–4 services.
Fitness
Gym memberships ($10–$80/month depending on the gym), Peloton ($44/month for connected membership), ClassPass, Apple Fitness+, Whoop. Fitness subscriptions have a high "forgotten" rate because people stop going to the gym but don't cancel.
News and media
The New York Times ($17–$25/month with add-ons), Wall Street Journal ($9.99–$38.99), The Athletic (now part of NYT), Washington Post, local news digital subscriptions. These often start as free trials or heavily discounted introductory offers, then bump to full price after 1–3 months.
Productivity and software
Microsoft 365 ($9.99–$12.99/month or $69.99–$99.99/year), Adobe Creative Cloud ($54.99/month or $599.88/year), Dropbox, Notion, Slack, and dozens of niche SaaS tools. The annual versions of these are frequently forgotten.
Cloud storage
iCloud+ ($0.99–$9.99/month), Google One ($1.99–$9.99/month), Dropbox. These are often on autopay with no active usage trigger, so people forget they're running.
Music and audio
Spotify ($10.99–$16.99), Apple Music ($10.99–$16.99), Audible ($14.95), SiriusXM. Audible in particular has a high forgotten-subscription rate because credits accumulate and people don't notice the monthly charge.
Why Subscriptions Replaced One-Time Purchases
The shift toward subscription pricing happened for a straightforward reason: it generates more revenue per customer over time than a one-time purchase.
Adobe is the clearest example. When they sold Photoshop as a one-time purchase at $699, that was the total revenue from that customer for several years. When they moved to Creative Cloud at $54.99/month, they collect $659.88/year from each subscriber — indefinitely, as long as the subscriber stays enrolled.
The same math applies to every software, media, and service company that has moved to subscriptions. It's a better business model for the company. For customers, it means access to software you don't own and continuous charges that require active management to stop.
How to Audit Your Own Subscription Spending
The most reliable way to know what you're actually spending is to look at your transaction data rather than try to recall from memory.
The manual approach: Pull 6 months of bank and credit card statements. Go through every transaction and flag anything that repeats at the same amount. Group them by merchant and add up the monthly total. Don't forget to annualize charges that come through once a year and divide by 12.
The faster approach: Kaleran connects to your bank via Plaid (read-only, can't touch your money) and identifies every recurring charge automatically. It typically surfaces subscriptions that people didn't know they had — especially annual renewals and charges from unfamiliar merchant names.
Most people who connect to Kaleran find at least one subscription they'd forgotten about. The average discovered forgotten charge is $14–$18/month.
Once you have your actual number, you're in a position to make real decisions about what to keep. The mental accounting version — "I think I pay about $80 a month" — is almost never accurate enough to act on.