How do you audit your book subscriptions in 20 minutes?
List every reading subscription you pay for, check how many books you finished from each in the last three months, divide the cost by those books, and note what you would keep if you cancelled. Anything over the price of buying the books, or with nothing kept and little used, goes. Print this page, work down the list, and set one renewal reminder per survivor.
Why audit at all?
Reading subscriptions are small and easy to forget, and they overlap. It is common to pay for an audiobook plan, an ebook buffet and a summary service while borrowing most of what you read from the library. Twenty minutes with your bank statement usually finds one to cancel.
What counts as a book you used?
A book you finished, or read far enough to get what you wanted from it. Not a book you borrowed, downloaded or added to a list. If you track your reading in StoryGraph or Goodreads, filter the last three months by finish date; if you do not, your app's library sorted by recent activity is a fair proxy.
What are the usual findings?
Three patterns come up again and again. A credit plan with a pile of unspent credits, which is money waiting to expire. A buffet subscription used once or twice in three months, costing more per book than buying. And two services covering the same job, such as Spotify hours and an audiobook buffet, when one would do.
The fix for each is different. Spend the credits before anything else, then pause or cancel. Cancel the underused buffet and borrow from the library instead. Pick one of the overlapping services by cost per book and catalog fit, and drop the other.
How do you print or save this checklist?
Use the Print button on this page, or your browser's print command, and choose Save as PDF if you want a file. The print layout drops the site navigation and keeps the checklist with tick boxes, so it fits on one or two pages.
What do you do with the results?
Keep what costs less per book than buying and that you used in at least two of the last three months. Pause or cancel the rest, following our cancellation guide so you spend credits and export notes first. For anything you keep, put a reminder two days before renewal and repeat the audit in three months.
Find everything
- Search your card and bank statements for Audible, Amazon Kindle+ (or Kindle Unlimited), Spotify, Everand, Scribd, Kobo, Libro.fm, Blinkist, Shortform, StoryGraph, Hardcover and Bookly
- Check Apple subscriptions (Settings, your name, Subscriptions) and Google Play (Payments and subscriptions)
- Write down each service, plan name, price and renewal date
Measure use
- Count books finished from each service in the last 3 months
- Divide 3 months of fees by that count to get cost per book
- Compare with what those books would cost to buy, or borrow free from the library
Check what you keep
- Note what survives cancellation for each (see our what-you-keep table)
- List unspent credits and their expiry dates
- Export highlights, notes and reading history you want
Decide
- Cancel anything with no use in the last 2 months
- Cancel anything costing more per book than buying
- For each service you keep, set a reminder 2 days before renewal
- Add a library card to Libby if you have not yet
- Book the next audit for 3 months from today
Questions readers actually ask
- How often should I audit my reading subscriptions?
- Every three months, and before any annual renewal.
- What if I subscribed through the App Store?
- Cancel in your Apple or Google subscription settings; cancelling on the website will not stop app-store billing.
- What should I do with Audible credits before cancelling?
- Spend or note them first. Audible Premium credits expire 12 months after issue or when you cancel, while books you already bought with credits stay in your library.