A growing number of apps today have switched to Subscriptions on the App Store, greatly increasing the costs of using apps. Here’s how to check subscriptions on iPhone and cancel or delete app subscriptions you don’t want.
Your iPhone and iPad give you access to a host of different subscription services today. Some obvious examples of app store subscriptions include Apple’s own services like Apple Music, Apple News+, iCloud, etc. Similarly, there are a lot of third-party apps that also offer recurring subscriptions via the App Store. A growing number of apps today have been switching over to offering subscriptions instead of one-time In-App purchases, in order to better support continued development of apps and run a sustainable business in the long run.
Thanks to this, consumers these days are faced with a major dilemma. The switch to subscriptions has increased the costs that consumers spend on apps, and many don’t even realize that they’re signing up for a recurring subscription on iPhone. Many iPhone and iPad users wonder how to check subscriptions on iPhone and how to best manage app subscriptions on iPhone or iPad.
For reasons unknown, Apple hasn’t always made it easy for users to find a list of all active Apple app subscriptions, which is why users are left guessing how to cancel App Store subscriptions on their iPhones or iPads. Thankfully, once you follow this detailed guide below that explains not just how to find subscriptions on your iPhone, but also explains how to cancel subscriptions on your iPhone, you will get a good idea how to end subscriptions on iPhone and iPad and stop all unnecessary spending that you don’t want.
How to Check Active App Subscriptions on iPhone or iPad
These days, Apple has thankfully made it considerably easier to find all the subscriptions that are currently active on your Apple ID or App Store Account. Let’s take a look at how to see active app subscriptions on iPhone or iPad.
- Open the App Store app.
- Tap on your avatar at the top right of the screen.
- Tap on Manage Subscriptions.
- On this screen, you will see all your iOS recurring subscriptions — both Active Subscriptions as well as Expired Subscriptions.
- To update or cancel subscriptions on iPhone or iPad, simply tap on any of the active subscriptions.
Note: When you delete an app on your iPhone or iPad that has an active recurring subscription via iTunes, it doesn’t automatically cancel the subscription. You have to manually check for active iOS subscriptions and then manually cancel app subscriptions on iPhone or iPad. Here’s how to do that.
How to Cancel App Subscriptions on iPhone or iPad
In order to cancel app subscriptions on iPhone or iPad, the process is very similar when checking the active app subscriptions on your iOS devices. On the screen that shows you all your recurring in-app subscriptions, you can update or cancel iOS app subscriptions in a few simple taps. Let’s see how to delete subscriptions on iPhone or iPad.
We generally associate one-stop shopping with convenience. We generally want to be able to buy all our groceries in the same store, listen to all of our music via a single music service, and pay all of our bills using one banking service.
That's the idea behind the Apple ID subscription manager — Apple has tried to centralize all of your recurring payments for music, in-app purchases, and similar subscriptions in one place on your iPhone.
You should follow these steps to, at the very least, remind yourself what subscriptions you are paying for every month. You might be surprised to find that you are still being billed for some long-forgotten subscriptions. Once there, you can eliminate the ones you no longer need.
Just remember that this only applies for subscriptions that you signed up for using your Apple ID account. If you go through these steps but can't find the service you're looking for, it means that you didn't use your Apple ID to sign up for it.
How to cancel a subscription on an iPhone
1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone and tap your name and Apple ID at the top.
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Dave Johnson
Freelance Writer
Dave Johnson is a technology journalist who writes about consumer tech and how the industry is transforming the speculative world of science fiction into modern-day real life. Dave grew up in New Jersey before entering the Air Force to operate satellites, teach space operations, and do space launch planning. He then spent eight years as a content lead on the Windows team at Microsoft. As a photographer, Dave has photographed wolves in their natural environment; he's also a scuba instructor and co-host of several podcasts. Dave is the author of more than two dozen books and has contributed to many sites and publications including CNET, Forbes, PC World, How To Geek, and Insider.