How I’m saving $675 a year on subscriptions with AI

What you need: a recent card statement (a PDF or screenshots from your bank’s app) and an AI you can paste it into.

I was paying for things I thought I was still using.

A Sunday paper that piled up on the counter. A flight deal service for trips I don’t take anymore. A Kindle subscription I’d already replaced with the library. An audiobook add-on I signed up for once and never canceled.

Each one was still billing me every month. Together they added up to $675 a year.

That’s a little embarrassing to admit. I’m sharing it in case it helps someone else.

How do I find subscriptions I’m paying for but don’t need?

Give an AI assistant a recent card statement and ask it to find the recurring charges, what each one costs per year, and where you could save. Then decide what to keep.

I use Muse, Meta’s AI assistant, which I call Percy. What I like about it for this job is that it can take action for me: I gave it access to a few accounts and the approval to go in and change my subscriptions, and it did. Nobody has to take it that far. Any of the AI tools can look at statements and emails and find where anyone might be overpaying, and that part works on the free plans.

1. Give it a statement or two. Black out anything you don’t want shared.
2. Read the list. It will include things you want to keep. That’s fine. It’s a list, not a verdict.
3. Decide what goes, what gets a cheaper plan, and what stays.
4. Cancel them yourself, or give your AI the approval to do it for you. Either way, watch for the confirmation email and check your next statement.

Do I have to give AI access to my accounts?

No. The list is where the money gets found, and a pasted statement is enough for that. Some people won’t feel good about going further, and that’s a fair call.

If you want to take it further, some assistants can make the changes for you. That means giving yours access to your logins, your email, or your browser, and your approval to act. I did that with Muse. Not everyone will, and the post works without it.

If you do connect something, check what it can reach, know how to take that access away, and look at what it did afterward.

What did it find?

Kindle Unlimited. Muse was going through my inbox suggesting newsletters to unsubscribe from. It flagged Kindle Unlimited and asked if I wanted to cancel it.

I’d already switched. I’m trying to read more through my local library, so I get ebooks on Libby, the library’s free ebook app. It’s free with a library card, and popular books can have a wait. I just hadn’t canceled.

Once I approved, Muse went into my account and canceled it. I could have done that myself. Telling Muse was just easier.

Going. This came from my inbox too. Muse suggested unsubscribing from the emails, and I realized I was probably still paying for it. I don’t do many spontaneous trips anymore, so I didn’t need it. It was canceled and refunded.

The New York Times. Muse showed me what I was paying and suggested a cheaper plan. We used to read the paper on Sundays. Before kids, and in the early days of the pandemic, it was a routine I really liked.

It’s been a long time. Now the paper piles up until it becomes an art project or fireplace kindling. That’s basically setting money on fire.

I’d meant to switch to digital only for ages. I kept forgetting. So I told Muse to keep my Cooking subscription and the digital plan, and it handled the rest.

Cooking was easy to keep. The recipes regularly end up in our weekly meal plan, and my AI searches them when it builds the week.

Spotify. Spotify promotes audiobooks with Premium, but Premium only includes so many hours a month. I was really into a book and hit the limit early, so I signed up for the add-on. Then I didn’t cancel it. That’s far too common.

The add-on is canceled. I kept the rest of my Spotify plan.

What did it add up to?

Subscription	Was paying	Now	What changed	Saved a year
The New York Times	$780 a year	About $442 a year, digital plus Cooking	Cheaper plan	About $338
Kindle Unlimited	About $144 a year	$0	Canceled	About $144
Spotify audiobook add-on	$11.99 a month	$0, kept the Premium Duo plan	Canceled	About $144
Going	$49 a year	$0	Canceled and refunded	$49
Total				About $675

Where it still needed me

Decide. Muse needed context on what to keep. It suggested dropping some things I do use, so I had to tell it. It can list what I pay for. It can’t tell which ones I’d miss. New York Times Cooking stayed because we cook from it every week.

Overall, it went well.

How do I keep this from creeping back?

Set a monthly reminder to run the same check. Look for anything you don’t need anymore, and anything that has a better deal now. Write the instruction above into the reminder, so future you doesn’t have to remember what you meant.

Is this really worth the time?

CNET’s annual survey, as reported by WFSB in July 2026, found the average American spends $111 a month on subscriptions. It also found about $252 a year goes to ones people don’t use.

It’s easy to do. In a 2022 C+R Research survey, 42% of people said they’d stopped using a subscription and forgot they were still paying for it. That was me, twice.

Every one of these is something I wanted to deal with. If I watched every little detail, I’d have caught them. As a responsible adult, I should probably sit down each month and go through everything. Life gets in the way.

This is where an AI assistant helps me most. It handles the admin I know I should do and don’t.

This is an ongoing process. As I keep going, I expect to find more ways to save and to manage what our family spends.

About the author: Heather Pocorobba has spent 15 years in communications, simplifying complex topics and answering the question “what does this mean for me?” She writes AI at Home with Heather, showing how anyone can use AI to get more of the household to-do list done without giving up family time.