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Why I Cancelled 5 AI Subscriptions (And Kept 3)

April 18, 2025 4 min read

Last year I subscribed to 8 AI tools. Total cost: $247/month.

This month I’m paying $60.

Here’s what I cut and why.

What I Cancelled

1. Jasper ($49/month) — CANCELLED

Why I subscribed: Marketing copy at scale.

Why I cancelled: ChatGPT and Claude do 90% of what Jasper does. The templates are nice but not $49/month nice.

Who should keep it: Marketing teams producing tons of content with brand voice requirements.

2. Copy.ai ($49/month) — CANCELLED

Why I subscribed: Same reason as Jasper.

Why I cancelled: Same reason as Jasper. The free tier covers occasional use.

Who should keep it: If you need the workflow features and team collaboration.

3. Writesonic ($19/month) — CANCELLED

Why I subscribed: Cheap AI writing option.

Why I cancelled: Quality didn’t match ChatGPT/Claude. Felt like I was settling.

Who should keep it: Budget-constrained users who need more than free tiers.

4. Notion AI ($10/month) — CANCELLED

Why I subscribed: AI in my workspace.

Why I cancelled: I can just paste things into Claude. The integration didn’t save enough time.

Who should keep it: Heavy Notion users who live in the app.

5. Grammarly Premium ($12/month) — CANCELLED

Why I subscribed: Writing polish.

Why I cancelled: Between Claude’s writing quality and free Grammarly, premium felt unnecessary.

Who should keep it: Non-native English speakers, students, anyone writing high-stakes content without AI review.

What I Kept

1. ChatGPT Plus ($20/month) — KEPT

Why: Web browsing, DALL-E, plugins, voice mode. The ecosystem is unmatched.

What I use it for:

  • Quick research with current info
  • Image generation
  • Voice conversations while driving
  • Random questions throughout the day

Worth it? Absolutely. The web access alone justifies it.

2. Claude Pro ($20/month) — KEPT

Why: Best writing quality, handles long documents, follows complex instructions.

What I use it for:

  • Drafting anything important
  • Reviewing long documents
  • Complex analysis
  • Code review

Worth it? Yes. The quality difference is noticeable.

3. Perplexity Pro ($20/month) — KEPT

Why: Research with citations. Know where information comes from.

What I use it for:

  • Fact-checking
  • Research with sources
  • Current events
  • Technical topics

Worth it? If you do any research, yes. The citations are invaluable.

The Decision Framework

I kept tools that passed this test:

1. Do I use it at least weekly? If not, cancel. Monthly subscriptions for occasional use don’t make sense.

2. Does it do something the others can’t? If ChatGPT can do it, why pay extra?

3. Does it save meaningful time? $20/month = 12 minutes of my time. If it doesn’t save at least an hour monthly, cancel.

4. Would I notice if it disappeared? If the answer is “probably not,” that’s your answer.

Tools I Tried and Skipped

Otter.ai

Good for meeting transcription but I don’t have enough meetings. Free tier is enough.

Midjourney

Amazing for image generation but I don’t need it regularly. Use when needed.

Surfer SEO

Great tool but overkill for my content volume. Maybe later.

Various writing tools

Rytr, Writer, Wordtune — all fine, none essential when you have ChatGPT + Claude.

My Current Stack

ToolCostUse Case
ChatGPT Plus$20Quick tasks, research, images
Claude Pro$20Writing, analysis, code
Perplexity Pro$20Research with sources
Total$60All bases covered

This covers 95% of my AI needs.

When to Add More Tools

I’d add tools for:

High-volume production:

  • Jasper if I needed 50+ marketing pieces monthly
  • Midjourney if I needed daily image generation

Specific workflows:

  • Otter if I had 10+ meetings weekly
  • Surfer SEO if I was doing serious content marketing

Team needs:

  • Notion AI if my team lived in Notion
  • Copy.ai if we needed collaboration features

But for individual use? Three tools cover it.

The Lesson

The AI tool market is crowded because they’re all monetizing similar underlying technology.

Most “AI tools” are:

  • ChatGPT/Claude with a nice UI
  • Prompt templates
  • Workflow features

The underlying AI is often the same.

Pay for:

  • Unique capabilities (web access, image generation)
  • Quality differences (Claude’s writing)
  • Specific data (Perplexity’s citations)

Skip:

  • Pretty wrappers around GPT
  • Features you could do with copy-paste
  • Tools for workflows you don’t actually have

Your Move

Look at your AI subscriptions:

  1. Which did you use this week?
  2. What would you miss if cancelled?
  3. Can ChatGPT/Claude do it?

The answer might save you $100+/month.

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