Amid rising streaming subscription costs, here are 3 strategies CNBC staffers use to save

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These days, everything from your gym membership to knitting kits seems to have a monthly subscription attached to it. As such, it can become harder and harder to track your total spending — and it’s made the small-but-more-frequent price increases easier to ignore.

In just the past three months, at least half a dozen streaming subscriptions hiked their prices, including Peacock, Apple TV, ESPN, Disney+, Hulu and Apple Music. Even more have increased over the past year. While these price increases only translate to roughly a few dollars each month, the annual price jumps by a larger margin. 

Take Peacock’s Premium monthly price increase from $10.99 to $12.99, for example. That’s only $2 more each month, making it easy to miss the full effect a price increase (or multiple) has on your wallet.

Now, we’re not telling you to cancel all your subscriptions and stare at the wall. If you need help saving on subscription costs, there are ways to be more intentional with the ones you use and ways to get access without paying directly.

Many credit cards offer statement credits or discounts for streaming services. Whether you qualify for a complimentary subscription or just some money off, it could be worth checking. 

Cards will add or remove benefits over time. For instance, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (see rates and fees) recently added a year of complimentary Apple TV when you activate by Dec. 31, 2026.

I’ve personally written about how taking advantage of this perk factored into my decision to not upgrade to the Chase Sapphire Reserve® (see rates and fees), but several of my coworkers who have the card are enjoying its benefits.

CNBC Select insurance reporter Elizabeth Knueven was a Spotify loyalist for many years, until the Chase Sapphire Reserve added new music credits during its 2025 card overhaul. 

“I had Spotify for probably almost a decade, but I switched to Apple Music when the Chase Sapphire Reserve started offering a complimentary subscription,” Knueven says. “It’s just one less subscription for me.” 

CNBC Points Pro Jason Stauffer says the new streaming credits weren’t the driving factor behind him applying for the Sapphire Reserve, but they were a welcome addition. 

“The complimentary Apple TV subscription I received through my Chase Sapphire Reserve isn’t the reason I signed up for the card, but the icing on the cake for me,” Stauffer says. “I can finally check ‘Severance’ off my to-watch list.”

The Sapphire Reserve offers complimentary subscriptions to both Apple TV and Apple Music for a minimum of one year when activated by June 22, 2027.

If you’re looking to keep streaming costs down, you could also consider the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express. It charges a $0 annual fee for the first year, then $95 each year after (see rates and fees) and earns 6% cash back on select U.S. streaming subscriptions. You’ll also get a $120 Disney streaming credit in the form of $10 monthly statement credits when you enroll with the Blue Cash Preferred. 

The Disney credit covers subscriptions or bundles to DisneyPlus.com, Hulu.com or Stream.ESPN.com U.S. websites (subject to auto-renewal), while the 6% category covers a lot more, like HBO Max and sports networks like MLB.TV.

Lead small business reporter Jasmin Suknanan, who is currently pursuing a master’s degree, is taking advantage of the student discounts offered by some brands. Amazon’s discounted Prime for Young Adults also covers higher education students enrolled in a two- or four-year college, meaning she can qualify for a six-month trial for $0, then get a 50% discount compared to the traditional plan. She’s also saving with the HBO Max student discount, which halves the price of the basic membership.

Many popular streaming services offer discounted student plans, many of which are available to both undergraduate and graduate programs.

Speaking from personal experience, trying to scrape together all the different subscriptions you’re paying for can be time-intensive and difficult.

One tool CNBC staff has found particularly useful is Rocket Money. Not only does the app help you track and identify all your subscriptions, but it can even help cancel them for you. 

Last year, CNBC Select mortgage reporter Kelsey Neubauer started budgeting using Rocket Money. The roughly $8 per month she spent was more than enough to offset the overlapping subscriptions, or ones she hadn’t used in years. 

CNBC Select editor Claire Dickey used the app just this year and caught a handful of subscriptions she’d forgotten about.

“I used Rocket Money recently and found a few Patreon memberships I didn’t realize I was still paying for,” says Dickey. 

Subscription creep can sneak up on you, so having a tool that keeps them all in one place can be helpful.

Another option is Quicken Simplifi, which works similarly to Rocket Money but leans more into budgeting. The app can help you visualize your income, bills, subscriptions and more. You can get categorized breakdowns of your spending, and even project future balances, running “what-if” scenarios to help you meet even the biggest of goals.

Both offer great features to help you log all of your subscriptions in one place, but Rocket Money goes the extra mile by helping you cancel unwanted ones.

If you live in the same household, sharing subscriptions can be a great way to keep costs down, but it can get tricky if there are separate households involved. Several streaming services offer the option to add additional users for a lower fee than it would cost to make an individual account.

At the time of writing, Netflix’s Standard plan (ad-free) costs $19.99 per month. When I moved out of my parents’ home several years ago, I lost my free Netflix privileges. Instead of paying the $19.99 myself for a new account, I had them add me as an extra member for $9.99, and I can access it from my apartment in New York City.

Even if you do live under the same roof, there are a few services that still require separate accounts — one being Spotify. However, the Spotify Duo plan provides two Spotify Premium accounts for just $18.99 a month as opposed to $12.99 for a single individual account.

If you’re splitting any streaming services or other expenses within a household or partnership, consider using Honeydue. You can view each other’s bank accounts, credit cards, loans and more, as well as progress toward shared goals, like a European vacation or a down payment on a home.

At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every credit card article is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of credit products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics.

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For rates and fees of the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express, click here.