# Subscription Price Index 2026: What 219 Subscriptions Cost

We track US list prices for 219 subscriptions and 440 plans across 14 categories. The median subscription starts at $10.00/mo, and 47% of them start under $10. This index breaks the numbers down by category, price band and plan spread, shows how to benchmark your own bills against it, and explains exactly how every figure is calculated. Data checked October 2026.

Updated 2026-10-13. https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/blog/subscription-price-index

- **219** Subscriptions (440 plans)
- **$10.00/mo** Median start (Mean $15.18/mo)
- **47%** Start under $10 (103 services)
- **21%** Offer yearly (Median saving 17%)

The 12 services shown first in our calculator start at $116.86/mo combined.

## Key findings

- **The typical subscription starts at $10.00/mo.** The mean is higher, $15.18/mo, because a small number of expensive services (live TV, professional tools, top AI plans) pull it up. When you compare your own bills, use the median.
- **Most prices cluster in one band.** The busiest band is $5 to $10 a month, with 71 services. 41 services (19%) start at $20 or more.
- **Learning is the priciest category** by median starting price at $17.95/mo. **Security & Storage is the cheapest** at $4.99/mo.
- **The plan you pick matters as much as the service.** For services with more than one plan, the top plan costs a median of 2.2 times the cheapest one.
- **Yearly billing is less common than you might think.** 45 services (21%) sell a yearly plan. On the entry plan, paying yearly saves a median of 17%.
- **113 services have a single plan.** For those, the only decision is whether to pay at all.
- **One of everything is not cheap.** Every subscription in the index on its cheapest plan would cost $3,323.51/mo, or $39,882.13 a year.

## Median starting price by category

The median is the middle service in each category: half start cheaper, half start higher. It is a fairer benchmark than the average, which one expensive outlier can distort.

**Median starting price, per month**

| Item | Value |
| --- | ---: |
| Learning | $17.95 |
| Design & Web | $16.00 |
| AI | $15.00 |
| News & Reading | $12.00 |
| Health & Fitness | $11.99 |
| Social & Dating | $11.99 |
| Productivity | $10.00 |
| Music & Audio | $9.99 |
| Streaming | $9.95 |
| Money | $9.08 |
| Shopping & Delivery | $8.17 |
| Dev & Cloud | $8.13 |
| Gaming | $6.67 |
| Security & Storage | $4.99 |

Starting price is each service's cheapest plan as a monthly cost. Click a category for every service in it.

| Category | Services | Median | Mean | Cheapest | Priciest start |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | --- | --- |
| [Learning](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/subscriptions/category/education) | 11 | $17.95 | $22.19 | MasterClass $10.00 | LinkedIn Premium $39.99 |
| [Design & Web](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/subscriptions/category/design) | 17 | $16.00 | $16.73 | Unsplash+ $8.00 | Shopify $39.00 |
| [AI](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/subscriptions/category/ai) | 22 | $15.00 | $14.96 | Kagi $4.50 | SuperGrok $30.00 |
| [News & Reading](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/subscriptions/category/news) | 13 | $12.00 | $16.46 | Medium $5.00 | Wall Street Journal $38.99 |
| [Health & Fitness](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/subscriptions/category/fitness) | 13 | $11.99 | $18.34 | AllTrails $3.00 | Noom $70.00 |
| [Social & Dating](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/subscriptions/category/social) | 9 | $11.99 | $15.55 | WhatsApp Plus $2.99 | Bumble $39.99 |
| [Productivity](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/subscriptions/category/productivity) | 24 | $10.00 | $10.68 | Google One $1.67 | Superhuman $30.00 |
| [Music & Audio](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/subscriptions/category/music) | 12 | $9.99 | $9.24 | Pocket Casts Plus $3.99 | Qobuz $12.99 |
| [Streaming](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/subscriptions/category/streaming) | 22 | $9.95 | $19.62 | Plex Pass $5.83 | Fubo $84.99 |
| [Money](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/subscriptions/category/finance) | 7 | $9.08 | $9.43 | Coinbase One $4.99 | Monarch Money $14.99 |
| [Shopping & Delivery](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/subscriptions/category/shopping) | 13 | $8.17 | $32.20 | Deliveroo Plus $3.49 | HelloFresh $325 |
| [Dev & Cloud](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/subscriptions/category/dev) | 28 | $8.13 | $13.24 | Namecheap domain $1.17 | PlanetScale $39.00 |
| [Gaming](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/subscriptions/category/gaming) | 13 | $6.67 | $8.30 | Nintendo Switch Online $1.67 | Ubisoft+ $17.99 |
| [Security & Storage](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/subscriptions/category/security) | 15 | $4.99 | $7.44 | Bitwarden $0.83 | Apple One $21.95 |

The three priciest categories by median are Learning, Design & Web and AI. The three cheapest are Dev & Cloud, Gaming and Security & Storage. But the spread inside a category is often wider than the gap between categories: in Learning, starting prices run from $10.00 to $39.99. Where the mean sits far above the median, as in Shopping & Delivery ($8.17 median, $32.20 mean), a few expensive services skew the category.

## How starting prices are distributed

**Number of services by monthly starting price**

| Item | Value |
| --- | ---: |
| Under $5 | 32 services |
| $5 to $10 | 71 services |
| $10 to $15 | 50 services |
| $15 to $25 | 38 services |
| $25 to $50 | 24 services |
| $50 and up | 4 services |

103 of 219 services start under $10 a month.

This is the shape that makes subscription spending easy to underestimate. Almost every individual price looks small, so no single line feels worth reviewing. The total only becomes visible when you add the lines up, which is what the [subscription calculator](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/build) does.

## The cheapest subscriptions

**Lowest starting prices, per month**

| Item | Value |
| --- | ---: |
| Bitwarden | $0.83 |
| iCloud+ | $0.99 |
| Namecheap domain | $1.17 |
| Google One | $1.67 |
| Nintendo Switch Online | $1.67 |
| GoDaddy | $1.92 |
| Microsoft 365 | $1.99 |
| Discord Nitro | $2.50 |
| Hostinger | $2.99 |
| WhatsApp Plus | $2.99 |

Several of these are cheap because they are billed yearly. The monthly figure is the yearly price divided by twelve.

Cheap subscriptions are the ones most likely to be forgotten. A storage plan or a yearly app renewal rarely triggers a second look, which is exactly why they are worth checking during a [subscription audit](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/blog/subscription-audit).

## The ten most expensive plans

**Top plan per service, per month**

| Item | Value |
| --- | ---: |
| ChatGPT Pro 500 | $500 |
| Ahrefs Advanced | $449 |
| DataFast Growth 10M+ | $399 |
| HelloFresh 3 meals x 2 | $325 |
| SuperGrok Heavy | $300 |
| Claude Max 20x | $200 |
| Perplexity Max | $200 |
| Cursor Ultra | $200 |
| Devin Max | $200 |
| Google AI Pro AI Ultra 20x | $199.99 |

One plan per service: its most expensive. Usage-based and per-seat products can cost more in practice.

The top of the list is dominated by AI and professional tools. These plans are priced for heavy daily use, often for work. For everyone else they are the clearest case for the [cost per use test](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/tools/cost-per-use-calculator): a $500 plan used twenty times a month costs $25.00 a use.

## Plan spread: the gap between cheapest and top plan

Most services sell several tiers. For the 106 services with more than one plan, the top plan costs a median of **2.2x** the cheapest. These have the widest spread:

**Top plan as a multiple of the cheapest plan**

| Item | Value |
| --- | ---: |
| ChatGPT | 62.5x ($8.00 to $500) |
| iCloud+ | 60.6x ($0.99 to $59.99) |
| DataFast | 53.2x ($7.50 to $399) |
| Google AI Pro | 40.1x ($4.99 to $199.99) |
| ElevenLabs | 19.8x ($5.00 to $99.00) |
| Ahrefs | 15.5x ($29.00 to $449) |
| X Premium | 13.3x ($3.00 to $40.00) |
| Instagram | 12.5x ($11.99 to $149.99) |

A wide spread is an opportunity. If you are on a top tier out of habit, dropping one level is often the single biggest saving available without giving anything up. Each service's [price page](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/subscriptions) lists every plan so you can check which tier you actually need.

## Yearly billing across the index

45 services sell a yearly plan, and 33 of them sell the same entry plan both ways, so the discount can be measured exactly. The median discount is 17%, close to the familiar "two months free". Category by category:

| Category | Services | Same plan monthly and yearly |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| Streaming | 22 | 9 (41%) |
| Gaming | 13 | 4 (31%) |
| Shopping & Delivery | 13 | 4 (31%) |
| Health & Fitness | 13 | 3 (23%) |
| Money | 7 | 1 (14%) |
| AI | 22 | 3 (14%) |
| Productivity | 24 | 3 (13%) |
| Design & Web | 17 | 2 (12%) |
| Learning | 11 | 1 (9%) |
| Music & Audio | 12 | 1 (8%) |
| Security & Storage | 15 | 1 (7%) |
| Dev & Cloud | 28 | 1 (4%) |
| News & Reading | 13 | 0 (0%) |
| Social & Dating | 9 | 0 (0%) |

The [monthly vs yearly breakdown](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/blog/monthly-vs-yearly-subscription) lists every discount and the month at which yearly billing starts to pay off. To check a single plan, use the [monthly vs yearly calculator](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/tools/monthly-vs-yearly-calculator).

## How to benchmark your own subscriptions

The index is most useful when you hold your own bills against it. It takes about ten minutes.

1. List what you pay for, with the plan you are on. The [subscription calculator](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/build) converts yearly and weekly plans to a monthly figure for you.
2. For each line, look up its category median in the chart above.
3. Flag anything that costs more than twice its category median. That is not automatically wrong, but it should be a deliberate choice.
4. For flagged lines, check the service's price page for a cheaper tier, and its [comparisons](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/compare) for a cheaper alternative.
5. Add up what the changes would save, and decide with the yearly number in front of you, not the monthly one.

| Service | Starts at | Category | Category median | Difference |
| --- | ---: | --- | ---: | ---: |
| [Netflix](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/subscriptions/netflix) | $8.99 | Streaming | $9.95 | −$0.96 |
| [Spotify](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/subscriptions/spotify) | $6.99 | Music & Audio | $9.99 | −$3.00 |
| [ChatGPT](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/subscriptions/chatgpt) | $8.00 | AI | $15.00 | −$7.00 |

## Well-known services at a glance

These are the well-known services shown first in our calculator, with their cheapest plan. Compare each with its category median above to see whether it is a premium or a budget choice in its field.

**Well-known services, starting price per month**

| Item | Value |
| --- | ---: |
| Claude | $16.67 |
| Cursor | $16.00 |
| Disney+ | $12.49 |
| Amazon Prime | $11.58 |
| Notion | $10.00 |
| HBO Max | $9.17 |
| Netflix | $8.99 |
| YouTube Premium | $8.99 |
| ChatGPT | $8.00 |
| Spotify | $6.99 |
| Apple Music | $6.99 |
| iCloud+ | $0.99 |

Together these 12 start at $116.86/mo, or $1,402.27 a year.

Paying for all 12 on their cheapest plans would cost $116.86/mo. Nobody needs all of them, and the [cheapest streaming services](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/blog/cheapest-streaming-services), [AI assistant pricing](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/blog/chatgpt-vs-claude-vs-gemini-pricing) and [music streaming](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/blog/spotify-vs-apple-music-vs-youtube-music-price) guides show where the overlaps are.

## Facts you can quote

If you are writing about subscription prices, these sentences are accurate as of the date on this page. Please link to this page as the source.

- Across the 219 subscriptions tracked by Track My Subscriptions, the median US list price for the cheapest plan is $10.00/mo.
- 47% of subscriptions start under $10 a month; 19% start at $20 or more.
- Learning is the most expensive subscription category, with a median starting price of $17.95/mo.
- Paying yearly instead of monthly saves a median of 17% on the same plan.
- For services with more than one plan, the top tier costs a median of 2.2 times the cheapest.
- 12 of the best-known subscriptions (Netflix, Spotify, ChatGPT, YouTube Premium and others) together start at $116.86/mo.

## Three quick wins the data points to

The index is not only a reference. Three of its numbers translate directly into savings for most households.

1. **Drop one tier.** Top plans cost a median of 2.2 times the cheapest. Going from [Netflix](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/subscriptions/netflix) Premium ($26.99/mo) to Standard with ads ($8.99/mo) saves $216 a year. Check every plan you pay for against its cheaper tiers before you cancel anything.
2. **Pay yearly for the keepers.** The median yearly discount is 17%. On a $15.00 monthly plan you keep all year, that is about $31.13 back, with no change to what you get. The [monthly vs yearly calculator](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/tools/monthly-vs-yearly-calculator) checks any plan.
3. **One service per job.** Two services that do the same job double what that job costs you. Two $20 AI assistants, for example ChatGPT Plus and Claude Pro, cost $480 a year together. Keep the one you open most.

None of these require giving anything up. They are the same moves the [six real-world stacks](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/blog/how-much-do-subscriptions-cost) use to cut typical bills, priced line by line.

## What the numbers don't show

- **Prices outside the US differ**, sometimes a lot. Many services price by country. Use the index for US comparisons and check local prices on each service's own site.
- **Tax is excluded.** Your bill may be higher where sales tax or VAT applies.
- **Bundles and included services are not double counted here**, but they matter for your bill. Amazon Prime includes Prime Video, and Apple One bundles several Apple services. See [whether Apple One is worth it](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/blog/is-apple-one-worth-it).
- **Usage-based services vary.** For cloud products priced by usage, we list a typical small bill, not a fixed price.
- **Student and family plans count as plans.** They lower a service's starting price in the index even though not everyone qualifies.
- **Prices change.** Services raise prices with notice by email. The [price increase calculator](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/tools/subscription-price-increase-calculator) shows what a rise costs you over time.

## Methodology

Prices are US list prices in USD, excluding tax, taken from each service's own pricing page and checked in October 2026. Where a service publishes a regular price we list that; some yearly prices may still be first-year offers, so check the renewal price at checkout. A service's **starting price** is its cheapest plan converted to a monthly cost: yearly prices are divided by 12, quarterly by 3, and weekly prices multiplied by 52 and divided by 12. **Medians** and **means** are taken over services, not plans, so a service with many tiers counts once. **Plan spread** compares each service's cheapest and most expensive plan, both as monthly costs. **Yearly discounts** compare a monthly plan with the yearly plan of the same name.

The full dataset is in the [price directory](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/subscriptions) and as JSON from the [catalog API](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/api/catalog/services), documented on the [developers page](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/developers). Prices update in place, so this page always reflects the current catalog.

> You are free to use these numbers in articles, research and videos, including commercial ones. Please credit Track My Subscriptions with a link to this page. Live price badges for any service are on the [badges page](https://www.trackmysubscriptions.com/embed).

## FAQ

### What is the average price of a subscription?

Across 219 subscriptions, the median starting price is $10.00/mo and the mean is $15.18/mo. The median is the better guide because a few expensive services raise the mean.

### Which subscription category is the most expensive?

Learning, with a median starting price of $17.95/mo. The cheapest is Security & Storage at $4.99/mo.

### What is the cheapest subscription?

Bitwarden, starting at $0.83/mo (Premium).

### What is the most expensive subscription plan?

ChatGPT Pro 500 at $500/mo.

### How many subscriptions offer a yearly plan?

45 of 219 (21%). Paying yearly for the entry plan saves a median of 17%.

### How much would every subscription cost together?

$3,323.51/mo on their cheapest plans, or $39,882.13 a year.

### How often is the index updated?

The numbers come straight from our price catalog, so the page changes whenever prices are updated. The last full check was October 2026.

### Are subscription prices the same in every country?

No. Many services set prices by country, and taxes differ. This index uses US list prices in USD; check each service's own site for local prices.

### Can I use this data?

Yes, including commercially, with a link back to this page as the source.