Average subscription cost: what people pay

There is no single average subscription cost per month. Published US figures run from $69 a month (streaming only, Deloitte 2026) to $273 a month (21 categories, West Monroe 2021). The gap is definitions, not disagreement, so every figure below carries its sample, its year and what it counted.

By the Subby team·Last updated September 2, 2026

The short answer

The two most-quoted US totals are $219 a month (C+R Research, 2022) and $273 a month (West Monroe, 2021), and both count subscriptions in every category, entertainment included. The most recent figure, $69 a month (Deloitte Digital Media Trends, 2026), is far smaller because it counts streaming video only, per household.

Each study asked a different question. The table below names the question behind every figure, so you can pick the one that matches yours. If you only need a single number for an argument, take C+R's $219 and print the year next to it.

Subscription spending statistics, side by side

Every number above is its publisher's own, printed with the year it was measured. The comparisons between them are ours.

Five reasons the figures disagree

What counts as a subscription

West Monroe prompted people across 21 categories. Deloitte's $69 covers streaming video and nothing else. A study that counts more categories reports a bigger average before anyone's behaviour enters into it, so read the category list before you trust the total.

Prompted versus unprompted

C+R's two figures come from the same people in the same interview. They estimated $86, then went category by category and added up to $219 (C+R Research, 2022). One change of method, a $133 difference. "What people spend" and "what people think they spend" are two different questions, and a lot of headlines quietly swap one for the other.

Per person or per household

How much the average person spends on subscriptions depends on whether the survey counted people or households. So does the number of subscriptions behind the total. Deloitte's $69 is a household figure across an average of four streaming services (Deloitte, 2026), while C+R's $219 is per consumer. Two adults under one roof can double a household number without either of them being unusual, so setting a per-person total against a per-household total proves nothing.

Counting people instead of dollars

51% (Bankrate/YouGov, 2022) and 48% (CableTV.com, 2025) are headcounts. They tell you how widespread the problem is and nothing about the size of the bill. Putting one of them in the same sentence as a dollar average is the most common mistake in subscription spending statistics.

How old the study is

The two largest totals were fielded in 2021 and 2022, before the price rises that seven major US services pushed through between October 2025 and June 2026. We keep streaming price increases on a dated page of their own. None of these studies tells you what to do about that, so this next part is ours. Treat pre-2023 totals as a floor rather than a current value, and don't inflate a published number to compensate. Quote it as published, with its year.

Why almost everyone underestimates their own total

• 74% say recurring monthly charges are easy to forget, and 72% keep subscriptions on auto-pay (C+R Research, 2022). Auto-pay removes the one moment that would have reminded you.
• 42% admitted they were still paying for something they'd already stopped using (C+R Research, 2022).
• 66% underestimated their spend by more than $200 a month, up from 24% in 2018 (West Monroe, 2021).
• 60% had forgotten at least one recurring payment, and it took about three months on average to cancel it (Chase / OnePoll, 2021).
• 22% of US households cancelled a streaming service and re-subscribed to the same one within six months (Deloitte, 2026). The list you audited in March is not the list you have in September.
• 73% of consumers are frustrated by entertainment services raising prices (Deloitte, 2026). Your total can climb without you adding a single service.

Small amounts, charged monthly to a card you don't reconcile, are built to disappear. Forgetting them is the normal outcome, and nobody is careless for it.

Work out your own number

Every figure on this page describes a sample of strangers. Yours takes about ten minutes to work out, and it's the one that can change what you pay next month.

1. Pull three months of statements for every card and payment account, including PayPal. One month hides the quarterly and annual charges, and our guide to finding subscriptions on a bank statement has the longer method.
2. Check the two app-store lists separately. They show up on a statement as one lump sum, so the detail only exists inside them: iPhone Settings and Google Play.
3. Add the ones that appear on neither: gym, insurance, storage units, professional memberships, anything billed direct.
4. Convert everything to an annual figure (monthly × 12, weekly × 52) and total it. That's your number. Our subscription cost calculator does the arithmetic if you'd rather not.
5. Flag anything you haven't opened in 60 days, decide on each one, then re-check in 90 days. Prices move and cancelled services come back. The 30-minute subscription audit is the repeatable version of this. Add your subscriptions once in Subby and that re-check is one screen instead of three months of statements.

Citing these figures

If you're quoting a number from this page, cite the study we took it from. Every source is linked below. We keep the year visible on anything older than three years and re-check the links quarterly. Last reviewed 12 August 2026.