Gravity
The State of Subscriptions 2026
Updated June 2026
Subscriptions are now the default way we pay for entertainment, software, fitness, and news, and the data shows most people have lost track of how much that adds up to. Every figure below is from a named, linked third-party source. You can cite this page; it links straight back to each original study.
How much do people actually spend on subscriptions?
When researchers asked people to estimate their monthly subscription spend and then added up what they actually paid, the gap was striking: an estimate of about $86 a month against a real total of about $219 a month, a blind spot of roughly $133 every month, or about $1,596 a year.
Source: C+R Research, 2022 (survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers); reported by CNBC, 2022.
Why the gap is so wide
The spend gap is really a memory-and-autopilot problem: subscriptions are easy to forget and almost always renew on their own.
Streaming is where the churn shows up
U.S. households spend about $48 a month on paid video streaming services, and nearly half have changed those services in the past year specifically to cut costs, a sign that people increasingly add, drop, and re-add streaming subscriptions rather than keep them indefinitely.
Source: Deloitte Digital Media Trends, 2023.
Methodology & sources
This page summarizes publicly reported, third-party research. Gravity did not conduct these surveys; every figure links to its original source so you can verify it. The spend-gap figures come from a C+R Research survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers; the streaming figures come from Deloitte's Digital Media Trends report.
- C+R Research — Subscription Service Statistics and Costs (2022)
- CNBC — Americans underestimate subscription spending (2022)
- Deloitte Digital Media Trends, via Variety (2023)
See also our subscription spending statistics and the free subscription cost calculator.
Find out your own number
Most people are off by more than they expect. Track every subscription and renewal date in Gravity on iPhone, no bank sync, and never lose track of what you actually pay.
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