Find Hidden Subscriptions
See exactly where your money leaks each month. Surface every recurring charge, catch the duplicates and forgotten trials, and find out what it all adds up to in a year.
1
Problem
Money slips away every month and you cannot quite say where. A streaming service you forgot, a free trial that quietly started charging, two apps that do the same thing, a gym you have not visited since January. Each one is small enough to hide, which is exactly why they pile up.
You do not need a budgeting app or a spreadsheet. You need someone to read your statement, pull out every recurring charge, and show you the yearly total. That number is usually the wake-up call. This does it in a few minutes.
2
Gather What to have ready before you start
- A bank or credit card statement. Two to three months works best, since it catches charges that do not hit every month.
- If you spread spending across cards, grab a statement from each one.
- Optional: a quick list of subscriptions you already know about, so you can spot the ones you forgot.
- Once a year, include a full twelve-month view to catch annual renewals.
3
Decision gate: clean this up before you paste or upload.
Remove Never share full account details. No file editing required.
You do not need to edit a file. Pick whichever is easiest:
- Easiest, paste only the charges. Type or copy just the merchant names and amounts that look recurring. The AI does not need the rest of the statement.
- Screenshot the transaction list. Capture the list of charges, not the top of the statement with your account number, then share that.
- Cover the header. Lay a sticky note over the account number and balance, then photograph the transactions.
- Use your bank's search. Many banking apps let you filter or search transactions, so you can copy a clean list of merchants and amounts.
Always remove
- Your full card or account number, and any routing number.
- Online banking logins, and your name paired with the account.
- Your home address and your account balance.
Financial details are the highest-risk thing you can share. Worth the minute it takes.
Remove only if it is quick
- The name of your bank or card issuer.
- The exact transaction dates (a month is enough).
- One-off purchases that clearly are not subscriptions.
Tidy to remove, but do not stall over it. Low risk on its own.
Safe to keep in
- The merchant names on each charge.
- The dollar amounts.
- How often each one shows up (the recurring pattern).
This is the part the AI actually needs to find your subscriptions.
4
Prompt Copy, paste, and fill in the [brackets]
I want to find all my recurring subscriptions and figure out what they cost me. Act as a sharp, practical money assistant who is on my side.
Here are the charges from my recent statements (I have removed my account details):
[paste or type the merchant names and amounts here]
Please do all of the following, in plain language:
1. Identify every charge that looks like a subscription or recurring payment.
2. Group them into categories (for example streaming, music, software, fitness, delivery).
3. Flag likely duplicates, two services that do the same job, and anything that looks like a forgotten free trial or a price increase.
4. Add up the total monthly cost, and the total cost per year.
5. Tell me which ones are worth reviewing to cancel. Note that you cannot cancel anything for me.
5
Quality gate: if it misses a charge or miscounts the total, add the detail and ask again.
Example Both sides: what you paste in, and what comes back
You
What you paste in
The step 4 prompt, with just the recurring charges and no account details
The step 4 prompt, with just the recurring charges and no account details
Here are the recurring-looking charges from my last 2 months: - Netflix $15.49 monthly - Disney+ $13.99 monthly - Hulu $17.99 monthly - Spotify $11.99 monthly - Apple Music $10.99 monthly - Planet Fitness $24.99 monthly - Adobe $20.99 monthly - Canva $12.99 monthly - DashPass $9.99 monthly - Amazon Prime $14.99 monthly - CloudStore 50GB $2.99 monthly
AI
What comes back
A strong response, point by point
A strong response, point by point
Your subscriptions, grouped
- Video: Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, about $47.47 a month
- Music: Spotify, Apple Music, about $22.98 a month
- Software: Adobe, Canva, about $33.98 a month
- Other: Planet Fitness $24.99, DashPass $9.99, Amazon Prime $14.99, CloudStore $2.99
Worth a closer look
- Two music services. You pay for both Spotify and Apple Music. Most people use only one. Dropping one saves about $11 a month.
- Three video services. If you do not watch all three at once, rotating them instead would cut the $47 down.
- CloudStore, $2.99. Small and easy to forget. Confirm you still use the storage.
What it adds up to
About $157 a month, which is roughly $1,880 a year. Cancelling just the duplicate music service and one video service would save close to $350 a year.
6
Next Turn the answer into action
- Cancel the ones you have decided on, directly with each provider. The AI cannot cancel for you.
- If a merchant name is cryptic and you do not recognize it, search it online to jog your memory before cancelling.
- Some services make cancelling deliberately hard. You may have to do it on their website rather than in the app.
- Set a calendar reminder to run this again in a few months. Subscriptions creep back.
7
Warnings Where AI falls short, and when to stop
- The AI only sees what you paste. A subscription billed under an odd merchant name may slip past it, so skim the list yourself too.
- From a short window it can misjudge whether a charge truly repeats. Two to three months gives a clearer picture.
- Never paste your full card or account number, or your banking login. The AI also cannot cancel anything for you.
Limits gate
Call your bank or card issuer for any charge you do not recognize at all, or a recurring charge you never signed up for. That may be fraud, and only your bank can dispute it and protect the account. Do not try to sort a suspicious charge through a chatbot.
AI. Useful
Practical AI help for real life.