Track what each tool actually saves you in time or money over one month, then hold that against what it costs. If a tool isn't saving you a few hours or replacing a bigger expense, it's not earning its spot.
Obvious, right? Almost nobody does it. We sign up for a free trial, forget to cancel, and six months later we're paying for three writing assistants we open twice a week. Here's how to fix that.
Step 1: List every AI subscription you're paying for
Open your bank or card statement and search the obvious names plus the sneaky ones. Go back three months, not one. Annual plans and tools you forgot about hide in the older charges.
Write down four things for each:
- The tool name
- What you pay per month (divide annual plans by 12)
- What you originally signed up to do with it
- The last time you actually opened it
This list alone surprises people. Most folks find at least one charge they'd completely forgotten about.
Step 2: Define what "worth it" means for each tool
ROI isn't one number. A tool can earn its keep for different reasons, so name the reason before you judge it.
Time saved
Does it shave real hours off a task you'd do anyway? A tool that turns a two-hour job into twenty minutes is worth it even at a high price.
Money replaced
Does it replace something you used to pay a person or another service for? If it does work you'd otherwise hire out, compare it to that cost, not to zero.
Quality or capability
Does it let you do something you genuinely couldn't do before? Harder to measure, but real. Be honest about whether it's a true new capability or just a nice-to-have.
Step 3: Measure it for one real week
Don't estimate from memory. Memory inflates value. For one normal week, jot down each time you use a tool and roughly how long the task took.
Then ask the question that matters: how long would this have taken without the tool? The gap is your time saved. Multiply your weekly hours by four for a monthly figure.
Now the math is easy. A $30 tool that saves you four hours a month pays for itself if your time is worth more than $7.50 an hour. If it saved you fifteen minutes all month, you have your answer.
Step 4: Sort every tool into three buckets
- Keep: clearly saves time or money, used regularly. No debate.
- Cut: barely used, vague benefit, or duplicates something you already have. Cancel today.
- Test: you're not sure. Give it 30 more days of deliberate use, then re-measure.
Be ruthless with the test bucket. If you can't make yourself use a tool on purpose for a month, that's the data. Cancel it.
Step 5: Make this a habit, not a one-time cleanup
Subscriptions creep back because auditing them is annoying. So make it fast and repeatable. Drop a recurring 20-minute block on the first of each month. Reuse the same list. Update the numbers. Most months it takes ten.
The other half is getting more out of the tools you keep. A lot of "this isn't worth it" is really "I never learned to use it well." Better prompts can turn a borderline tool into an easy keep.
If you'd rather not build the tracking system and the prompts from scratch, the AI Subscription ROI Prompt Pack was made for exactly this. It's a Notion template with a ready-made tracker plus prompts that help you measure real time saved and pressure-test whether each tool earns its cost. The shortcut, if you want the system without the setup.
A quick example
Consider a transcription tool at around $20 a month. Feels essential. But when you actually track it, you've used it twice that month, saving maybe 40 minutes total. Your free notes app could do the same, slower but fine. Cut. Meanwhile a writing tool you almost cancelled turns out to save close to six hours a month once you count. Keep it, gladly.
That's the whole point. You stop guessing. You let one week of honest tracking make the call.
FAQ
How many AI subscriptions is too many?
There's no magic number. The right amount is however many you actively use and can clearly justify. If you can't explain in one sentence what a tool earns you, that's one too many.
Should I cancel a tool I only use occasionally?
Maybe. If the occasional use is high-value — like one tool that saves you a full day on a quarterly project — keep it. If occasional means low value, cancel and resubscribe the rare time you need it.
How do I measure time saved without overthinking it?
Estimate in rough chunks, not minutes. Was a task ten minutes faster, an hour faster, or a half-day faster? Directional accuracy is enough to make a good keep-or-cut call.
How often should I review my AI subscriptions?
Once a month is plenty. A quick check catches forgotten charges and price increases before they add up, and it only takes ten or fifteen minutes once you have a system.