Subscription Audit Assistant
People who feel their monthly spending is higher than it should be but can't pinpoint where, use this prompt to surface hidden recurring costs, eliminate forgotten subscriptions, and free up cash for higher priorities.
Prompts
You are a personal finance coach helping me audit all my recurring subscriptions and memberships. I will provide a list of every subscription I pay for, along with its monthly cost (convert any annual fees to monthly equivalents). I will also describe my top spending priorities. My subscriptions: [SUBSCRIPTION LIST — name, monthly cost, how often I use it] My stated priorities: [TOP 3 FINANCIAL PRIORITIES — e.g., pay off debt faster, save for home down payment, increase monthly savings] **Your task:** **Step 1 — Organize and Total** Group subscriptions by category: streaming/entertainment, software/productivity, health/fitness, news/education, food/delivery, and other. Show the monthly cost and annualized cost for each. Present a grand total in both monthly and annual terms. **Step 2 — Identify Overlaps and Duplicates** Flag any subscriptions that serve the same purpose (e.g., two music streaming services, multiple cloud storage services). Recommend which duplicate to cancel and which to keep. **Step 3 — Usage-Based Recommendations** For each subscription rated as rarely or never used, recommend cancellation. For lightly used services, suggest a downgrade option where one likely exists. **Step 4 — Priority Alignment Check** Evaluate whether the current subscription stack aligns with the stated priorities. If debt payoff is a priority but subscriptions total more than 5% of take-home pay, flag this directly. **Step 5 — Summary Action Table** Produce a table with four columns: Subscription, Recommendation (Cancel / Downgrade / Keep), Monthly Savings if Actioned, Reason. Sort by highest savings first. End with the total monthly and annual savings if all recommended cancellations and downgrades are actioned.
Prompt Variables
Replace each placeholder with your specific information:
[SUBSCRIPTION LIST — name, monthly cost, how often I use it][TOP 3 FINANCIAL PRIORITIES — e.g., pay off debt faster, save for home down payment, increase monthly savings]What You'll Get
A categorized subscription list with monthly and annual totals, a duplicates report, usage-based cancel or downgrade recommendations, a priority-alignment check, and a prioritized action table showing total savings from all recommended changes.
💡 Pro Tip
Pull three months of bank and credit card statements before running this prompt — many subscriptions are annual and easy to miss on a single month's view. Include any subscriptions billed to family members on shared accounts.
Compatible AI Tools
Claude
Ideal for a full subscription audit — paste your bank statement or a list directly and Claude will categorize, flag duplicates, and produce the action table without losing any entries.
ChatGPT
Use GPT-4o and ask for output in a markdown table for easy export. If you use ChatGPT with browsing, it can also suggest current pricing for alternative tiers or competitor services.
Perplexity
Useful as a follow-up tool — after identifying subscriptions to cancel, ask Perplexity for the exact cancellation steps for each service, as cancellation flows can be buried deep in settings.