Enter all your streaming subscriptions to see your total monthly and annual spend, cost per hour watched, and which services give you the best value.
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Results
Calculated
Monthly streaming bill
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Total across all services
Annual cost
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What you spend per year
Total hours/month
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Across all active services
Blended cost per hour
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vs. movie theater ~$1.50–3/hr
If you cut the worst service
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Annual savings from one pause
vs. 1 movie ticket/month
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$14 avg ticket = equivalent hours
Value Ranking — Cost Per Hour (lowest = best value) + Keep/Pause Recommendation
Optimization Summary
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The real cost of streaming subscriptions
The average US household now spends $61/month on streaming services — nearly $750/year — and that number has been climbing as services raise prices and add tiers. The problem isn't any single subscription; it's accumulation. Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Max, Prime Video, Apple TV+, Spotify, and YouTube Premium each seem reasonable individually. Together they can easily exceed $100/month without anyone noticing, because each charge hits a different day of the month.
Cost per hour watched is the most useful way to evaluate streaming value. A $15/month service you watch for 40 hours costs $0.38/hour — better than a movie ticket. The same service you watch for 4 hours costs $3.75/hour — worse than many movie theaters. The calculator surfaces these numbers so you can make deliberate choices.
The streaming rotation strategy
Most streaming libraries don't change fast enough to justify keeping every service active every month. A rotation approach saves 40–60% on streaming costs:
Keep 1–2 anchor services you use daily (typically the one with your most-watched content)
Rotate specialty services in 2–3 month windows when they release content you want
Cancel, don't pause — pausing still charges you; most services let you restart with your history intact
Use free trials strategically — most services offer 7–30 day trials, ideal for catching a specific show
Bundle where available — Disney Bundle (Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+) at ~$15 vs. $28 individually
When a streaming service is poor value
If your cost per hour exceeds $2.50–3.00, the service is delivering movie-ticket-level cost for home viewing. That's a signal to rotate it out temporarily. Common culprits: niche services with thin catalogs, music services you use less since switching to podcasts, sports packages during off-seasons.
Value score = Monthly cost ÷ Hours watched per month
Good value: under $1.00/hr | Acceptable: $1–$2/hr | Expensive: over $3/hr
Frequently Asked Questions
How does Amazon Prime Video factor in — I pay for Prime anyway?
Enter only the marginal cost of the video content, not the full Prime membership fee if you'd keep Prime for shipping regardless. If you use Prime purely for video and would cancel the whole thing if it disappeared, enter the full monthly cost (~$15). If you'd keep Prime for shipping even without video, enter $0 — the video is effectively free to you at the margin.
Should I count ad-supported tiers differently?
Yes — with ad-supported plans, you pay in both money and time. At $8/month with 4 minutes of ads per hour, you're effectively "spending" 4 hours of ad time per 60 hours watched, which has real time value. For a complete picture, add the time cost: 4 min/hr × hours watched = total ad minutes, then evaluate whether the price discount is worth it.
What's the best way to share plans to reduce cost?
Many services now restrict account sharing but still offer Family or Extra Member add-ons at $3–8/month per additional household. Splitting the cost between two households can reduce per-household cost by 30–50%. Make sure you're within the terms of service — official household-sharing plans are fine; password sharing outside official options is now actively blocked by most major services.
Is it worth bundling multiple services?
The Disney Bundle (Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+) is a well-documented example where bundling saves $10–13/month vs. subscribing individually. Apple One bundles Apple TV+, Music, Arcade, and cloud storage at a discount. Before bundling, check whether you actually use all services in the bundle — paying for something you don't use cancels out the savings on what you do use.