16 Subscriptions You Can Cancel and Replace for Free

Microsoft 365 Personal went up to $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year when Microsoft added Copilot AI. If you mostly write documents and simple spreadsheets, you do not need it.

• Microsoft 365 on the web (free): Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook in your browser and on your phone, with 5 GB of OneDrive storage. Files open in the same format, so nothing breaks when you share.
• Google Docs, Sheets and Slides (free): every Google account gets 15 GB, shared with Gmail and Google Photos. Best for working together on a document.
• LibreOffice (free): a full desktop office suite for Windows, Mac and Linux. It opens Word and Excel files and works offline.

What you give up: the desktop Office apps, 1 TB of OneDrive and Copilot. Want desktop Office without a subscription? Our buy once software list covers Office Home 2024.

Most people pay for Acrobat to fill, sign, merge or compress PDFs now and then. You can do all of that free.

• Adobe Acrobat Reader (free): view, print, fill forms, sign and comment on PDFs on every platform.
• PDF24 Tools (free): merge, split, compress, convert and more in your browser, with no artificial limits. It is paid for by ads. There is also a free Windows app, PDF24 Creator.

What you give up: editing the text and images inside a PDF. For that, you still need Acrobat or a paid editor.

Downgrade before you cancel. Grammarly Free still checks spelling and grammar, and now includes 100 AI prompts a month.

LanguageTool Free is the best second option, especially if you write in more than one language. It checks up to 2,000 characters per text field and gives you 3 AI rephrasings a day.

What you give up: full tone and clarity rewrites, and checks on long documents in one go.

Zoom's free Basic plan cuts group meetings (3 or more people) at 40 minutes. Google Meet with a free Google account gives you more:

• Up to 100 people per call.
• Group calls up to 60 minutes.
• One-to-one calls up to 24 hours.

It runs in any browser, so guests do not need to install anything.

What you give up: group meetings longer than an hour, plus Zoom's cloud recording and admin tools.

Bitwarden Free is the rare free plan with no catch for one person: unlimited passwords on unlimited devices, and you can share with one other person. Its code is open source.

If you ever want more, Bitwarden Premium is $19.80 a year, still well under half the price of 1Password Individual.

What you give up: a few extras that Bitwarden keeps for Premium, and the polish of 1Password's apps. Do not switch to LastPass Free to save money: it works on only one device type (computer or phone, not both).

NordVPN looks cheap in year one ($65.88 for the first year of Basic), but it renews at $139.08 a year. Proton VPN Free has:

• No data limit and no time limit.
• No ads and a no-logs policy.
• Servers in 10 countries, picked for you (you can change after a short timer).

What you give up: choosing a server country, streaming support, ad blocking and more than one device at a time. For public Wi-Fi and basic privacy, the free plan is enough. Our free VPN for Android guide compares more free options.

If you use Windows 11, you already have antivirus. Windows Security is built in and includes Microsoft Defender Antivirus with real-time scanning, a firewall and Smart App Control. It costs nothing and you do not need to install it.

Norton often sells its first year cheap, then renews at the full price, like $119.99 a year for Norton 360 Deluxe. Check what you will actually pay at renewal.

What you give up: the extras Norton bundles, such as its VPN, 50 GB cloud backup and identity monitoring. You can replace the VPN with Proton VPN Free (above).

• Photopea (free): looks and works a lot like Photoshop, runs in your browser and opens and saves PSD files. Ads take up part of the screen.
• GIMP (free): a full open source image editor for Windows, Mac and Linux. GIMP 3.2 is the current version.

If you mostly edit photos rather than design, Adobe's Photography plan (Photoshop plus Lightroom) is cheaper at $19.99 a month. For free Lightroom replacements, see our Lightroom alternatives.

What you give up: Adobe's Firefly AI tools, cloud libraries and perfect file compatibility for complex projects.

DaVinci Resolve is a professional video editor with a free version that is good enough for most YouTubers. It edits, color grades, mixes audio and adds effects, and exports up to 4K (3840 x 2160) at up to 60 fps.

If you outgrow it, DaVinci Resolve Studio is a one-time $295, not a subscription.

What you give up: 10-bit video, frame rates above 60 fps, resolutions above 4K and some AI tools, which are in Studio. Resolve also needs a fairly strong computer.

Check how much you actually store. Many people pay for 2 TB and use 20 GB.

• Google Drive (free): 15 GB, shared with Gmail and Google Photos.
• MEGA (free): 20 GB with end-to-end encryption, but with limited transfer.
• Dropbox Basic (free): if you only need sync for a few files, the free plan gives you 2 GB on up to 3 devices.

What you give up: the big 2 TB space, and Dropbox's smooth sync. For photos, our Google Photos alternatives list has free picks with more space.

• Medito (free): a non-profit meditation app from the Netherlands with no paywalls, no ads and no premium tier. Everything is free.
• Insight Timer (free): hundreds of thousands of free guided meditations, talks and music tracks.

What you give up: the polished, structured courses and sleep stories from big brands. For daily practice, the free apps are plenty.

Netflix raised every plan again: $8.99 with ads, $19.99 for Standard, $26.99 for Premium. Free streaming apps will not replace new Netflix shows, but they cover a lot of movies and older TV.

• Tubi (free): movies and shows with ads. No subscription and it never asks for a card.
• Pluto TV (free): free live channels plus on-demand movies and shows.
• Kanopy (free with a library card): films and documentaries. Your library gives you a set number of tickets each month.

What you give up: new releases, original series and ad-free watching. A good middle path is to keep one paid service and rotate it every few months. See our breakdown of Netflix subscription costs.

• Libby (free with a library card): borrow ebooks, audiobooks and magazines from your public library. In the US, you can send many library ebooks to your Kindle.
• Project Gutenberg (free): over 79,000 free ebooks, mostly classics, with no sign-up.

What you give up: instant access. Popular library books can have a waiting list. For audiobooks too, see our Audible alternatives.

Good news first: Microsoft cut Game Pass prices on April 21, 2026, so Ultimate is now $22.99 a month and PC Game Pass is $13.99.

The Epic Games Store gives away free PC games every week. You claim them with a free account and they stay in your library forever, even if you never pay Epic a cent. Over a year, that adds up to a large library.

What you give up: choice. Game Pass lets you pick from a big catalog. Epic chooses the free games for you. This is a partial swap, not a full replacement. Our Game Pass October 2026 list shows what the catalog has right now.

Every big AI chat app has a free plan, and they are much better than they were a year ago.

• Google Gemini (free): includes image creation, Deep Research and Gemini Live voice chat, with limits that refresh every few hours.
• Claude (free): web search, file creation, projects and memory, with a usage limit that resets every 5 hours.
• ChatGPT (free): limited messages, uploads and image creation.

A good trick: use two free plans. When you hit the limit on one, switch to the other.

What you give up: the top models, higher limits and tools like coding agents.

Spotify Premium went up to $12.99 a month. Spotify Free keeps the same catalog and your playlists, with ads. On phones, the free plan limits how you pick songs and how often you can skip, so expect a lot of shuffle play.

If you are a student, Premium Student is $6.99, about half price.

What you give up: ad-free listening, downloads for offline play, unlimited skips and lossless audio. Comparing music apps? See YouTube Music vs Spotify.