How to Manage App Subscriptions on iPhone and Android
6 min read
App subscriptions are split across at least three billing systems, and each one hides in a different place. Here is where each type lives, how to cancel it, and why the app store lists alone will never show you everything you are paying for.
App subscriptions live in three different places
Before cancelling anything it helps to know which system is actually charging you, because that determines where the off switch is:
- Apple — bought through in-app purchase on iPhone or iPad, billed by Apple
- Google — bought through in-app purchase on Android, billed by Google Play
- Direct — bought on the company's website with your card, billed by the company
iPhone and iPad: the App Store list
Open Settings, tap your name at the top, then Subscriptions. Everything Apple bills you for is here, with its renewal date and price, split into active and expired.
Two things to know. Cancelling here keeps your access until the end of the period you already paid for, so there is no penalty for cancelling the day you decide. And deleting an app does not cancel its subscription — the app is gone, the billing continues.
Android: the Google Play list
Open the Play Store, tap your profile icon, then Payments and subscriptions, then Subscriptions. Same structure as Apple: active subscriptions, renewal dates, prices.
Check this list per Google account. If you have a personal and a work account on the same phone, each has its own subscriptions and only the account you are currently signed into will show.
The ones that bill outside the app stores
This is the category that breaks every app store audit. Many services deliberately sell outside in-app purchase to avoid the store's cut — you sign up on their website, and the charge never touches Apple or Google. Streaming services, news subscriptions, SaaS tools and most things bought on a laptop fall here.
They will not appear in either list, no matter how carefully you look. The only records are your card statement and your email.
Finding the rest in your inbox
Every subscription, whichever system bills it, sends email. A signup confirmation, a receipt each period, a notice before a trial converts, an occasional price-change notice. That makes your mailbox the one place where all three categories overlap.
Searching for "your subscription", "renews on" and "trial ends" will surface most of them. Kite does this continuously instead — it reads those confirmations as they arrive and keeps a single list of what renews and when, regardless of who is doing the billing.