Subscription Budget Calculator
How much of your income do subscriptions take? Enter your monthly subscription total and take-home pay, choose a target share, and see whether you're within budget. Don't know your total? Add it up first with the subscription cost calculator.
- Budget at your target
- $120.00 / month
- Over budget by
- $30.00 / month
- Over a year
- $360.00
Cutting $30.00 a month brings you to your target.
How it's calculated
Share = monthly subscriptions ÷ monthly take-home pay
Budget = take-home pay × target %
Over / under = subscriptions − budget
In the example, $150.00 a month on a $4,000.00 take-home pay is 3.8%. At a 3% target the budget is $120.00, so you're over by $30.00 a month.
What do other households spend?
There's no official guideline for subscriptions, but government data shows what households actually spend. In 2025 the average US household spent $674 a year (0.8% of its total spending) on cable and satellite TV, video and audio streaming, satellite radio and online gaming, and $2,784 (3.4%) once internet and cell phone service are added. These are shares of all spending, not of take-home pay, and household surveys tend to undercount small automatic payments. Sources and caveats: how much Americans spend on subscriptions.
Getting back under budget
- Cancel what you rarely use; the tracker flags these for you.
- Rotate streaming services instead of keeping all of them at once.
- Share family plans where the terms allow; see the split calculator.
- Switch long-term keepers to yearly billing if it's cheaper.
Questions and answers
What percentage of income should go to subscriptions?
There's no official or evidence-based rule; the "5 to 10%" figures you may see online aren't traced to any study we could find. For context, official 2025 BLS data shows the average US household spent about 0.8% of its total spending on TV, streaming, satellite radio and online gaming services, and about 3.4% once internet and cell phone service are included. Those are shares of spending, not income. Pick a target that fits your goals, track it, and adjust.
Should I use take-home pay or gross income?
Use take-home pay (after tax and deductions). It is the money you actually have to spend, so the percentage is more meaningful.
What if my subscriptions are mostly yearly?
Convert them to a monthly average first: divide each yearly price by 12. The subscription cost calculator does this for every plan at once.
More subscription tools
A private dashboard for every subscription: totals, renewal calendar, spending by category and savings tips. No sign-up; your data stays in your browser.
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