How to cancel digital subscriptions on your Apple and Google accounts

There are so many digital subscriptions these days—music, movies, fitness, cloud storage, software, podcasts, audiobooks, Patreons, security cameras, AI bots, and more—that it's totally understandable if you lose track of exactly what you've signed up for.

To complicate matters further, you may be paying for some subscriptions monthly and others annually. Then there are those insidious free trials: you sign up to try something out, forget about it after a few days, and then unexpectedly get a bill (it's an occupational hazard for tech journalists). And of course, both Apple and Google make it immensely easy to sign up for various services almost instantly through their account.

Luckily, Apple and Google also offer ways to quickly check what apps and services you're signed up for. You can easily check your active subscriptions and cancel them if you need to – and you can do it on your desktop or mobile device. It's worth doing this regularly to make sure you're not signed up (and paying) for something you don't want. Here's how.

(Note: Keep in mind the Apple tax—if you sign up for something like Netflix or Spotify through the iOS App Store, Apple takes 30 percent each time, which is often passed on to users. You can sometimes get these subscriptions cheaper if you sign up through the web or a non-Apple device.)

If you have purchased digital subscriptions through the App Store using your registered payment method, Apple will keep track of them for you. If you are using your iPhone:

• Open the App Store and tap your profile picture (top right).
• Choose Subscriptions to view active and recently canceled subscriptions.
• Knock Sort to sort the list by name, price or renewal date.
• Select any subscription to view more details and cancel it.

Each subscription will show you the app it's for, the amount you'll pay, and how often you'll pay. In most cases, your only option is to cancel the subscription. However, when multiple plans are available – like with Apple One – you can both switch to a different plan and cancel.

The same screen also shows the subscriptions you have canceled, up to one year after the subscription expired. You cannot delete this history manually. When you select one of these subscriptions, you will have the option to renew it again.

There is also a Renewal documents Toggle switch on the subscription page: Turn this on to receive an email receipt for each renewal and subsequent payment (this can be another useful reminder of what you signed up for).

You can also access these subscriptions from macOS—everything you've signed up for through an Apple app store, whether on mobile or desktop, will appear together.

• Open the Mac App Store and click on your profile picture (bottom left).
• Choose Account settings.
• Choose Administer next to Subscriptions.
• Click on any subscription to view details.

You have the same options as on iOS: you can cancel active subscriptions or renew subscriptions that were canceled in the last year.

To find subscriptions to apps and services you're signed up for with your Google Account on an Android device, first open the Play Store.

• Tap your account picture (top right).
• Choose Payments and subscriptions > Subscriptions.
• Select one of the subscriptions shown to see more details about it: how much you're paying, when your next billing date is, and what payment method is used. You can also update your payment method (for example, if you want to use a different credit card).
• To cancel a subscription, select it and then select Cancel subscription.
• Knock Subscribe again to re-subscribe to a subscription you previously canceled.
• Choose Remove to remove a canceled subscription from the list.

You can access the same options on a desktop system by loading the Play Store on the web in your browser.

• Click on your account picture (top right).
• Choose Payments & Subscriptions.
• Open the Subscriptions to see everything you're signed up for.
• Click Subscribe again to extend a cancelled subscription or Administer for everything else.

The options are the same as on mobile: you can see the bill amount, the next billing date and the payment method used. Click Cancel subscription to cancel.

If you didn't purchase any of your digital subscriptions directly through your Apple or Google account, you won't necessarily see them all in your account. Getting a more comprehensive view of your subscriptions may require a little more detective work.

A good place to start is by checking bank accounts and credit card balances regularly – if you aren't already doing so. All subscriptions are billed regularly on the same dates and it should be clear which subscriptions are involved. Remember that some subscriptions are annual, not monthly, so you really need to look at the last 12 months' records to be sure.

Going through your email inbox can also help: do a search for “subscription” and see what comes up (you might also find some newsletters you can unsubscribe from). If you use secondary email accounts to sign up for subscriptions, remember to check those as well to avoid receiving too many promotional messages.