It sounds like a simple question. But between Netflix, Stan, Binge, Spotify, cloud storage, Microsoft 365, security software, news subscriptions, apps and now artificial intelligence services, it can be surprisingly difficult to answer.
That is the nature of subscription creep. Very few of these services feel particularly expensive on their own. A charge of $9.99, $14.99 or $20 a month can be easy to overlook. Add enough of them together, however, and the total starts to look very different.
And Australians are signing up to plenty of them.
Research published by ING in April 2026 estimated Australians spend $26.5 billion a year on discretionary subscriptions. Among Australians who subscribe to paid services, the average spend was $136 a month, or $1,637 a year. Baby Boomers averaged $82 a month, which is $984 over a year.
Streaming is a major part of the picture. Australian Communications and Media Authority research found 68 per cent of Australian adults used paid subscription streaming services such as Netflix, Stan and Binge in 2025. Online music streaming was also used by 72 per cent of adults.
But the subscription model is no longer just about entertainment. We now subscribe to software, cloud storage, security products, fitness services, delivery memberships, news, dating services and increasingly, AI tools.
Westpac transaction data published in May 2026 found its customers spend approximately $6.7 billion annually on subscriptions. The same data found more than 150,000 retail customers were paying for at least one AI subscription each month by March 2026, up from around 11,000 three years earlier. Those customers were spending an average of $37 a month on AI subscriptions.
Many subscriptions are genuinely useful and good value. If you watch Netflix every night, use Microsoft 365 every day or rely on iCloud to safely store your photos, cancelling them simply to save money makes little sense.
The problem starts when we lose track of what we are paying for.
Perhaps you signed up for a free trial and forgot to cancel it. Maybe you subscribed to a streaming service to watch one particular series and never went back. You might be paying for extra cloud storage in two or three different places, or still paying for an app you have not opened in months.
Because these charges are usually automatic, there is no moment each month when we actively decide to buy the service again. The money simply leaves the account.
That convenience is one of the great attractions of subscriptions. It is also what makes them so easy to forget.
One simple trick is to stop looking at subscriptions as a monthly expense.
$14.99 a month is about $180 a year. $24.99 a month is about $300 a year. Six subscriptions averaging $15 a month cost $1,080 over a year.
That does not automatically make them bad value. It simply makes the real cost easier to see.
Ask yourself: if this service asked me to pay the full annual amount today, would I still buy it? If the answer is yes, keep enjoying it. If you have to think hard about what the subscription actually does, it might be time for a closer look.
A quick subscription check-up
A subscription check-up does not need to be complicated. Once or twice a year, take 15 minutes and work through a few places:
· Look through the last couple of months of your bank and credit card transactions for recurring charges.
· On an iPhone or iPad, check your Apple Account subscriptions in Settings.
· On Android, check subscriptions through Google Play.
· Check PayPal if you use it, as some recurring payments may be authorised there.
· Look at the services you actually use. If you have three television streaming services but regularly watch only one, consider whether you still need the others.
· Check for duplication. You may be paying for storage or security through more than one provider without needing all of them.
· Cancel services you no longer use, and put a reminder in your calendar before any free trial ends.
Subscriptions are not going away. If anything, the range of things we can subscribe to continues to grow. There is nothing wrong with paying for services that make life easier, more enjoyable or more secure. The important thing is knowing what you are paying for and deciding whether it is still worth it.
So perhaps this week, have a look at your bank statement and ask yourself the question again: how many subscriptions am I actually paying for?
You might be surprised by the answer.
Edin Read.
Founder & Chief Technician.
☎️ +61 401 018 615
