How each price is read and dated

Every tool and page reads one data file, which holds for each of the 16 services its plans, today's prices and 257 dated price observations: 217 read in Internet Archive copies of the service's own page, 6 in company filings and the rest on the live pages on November 1, 2026. No price is typed into a page. Automated tests check the yearly cost arithmetic on cases worked out by hand.

1. What counts as a source

For today's price, the plan, help or sign-up page the company publishes for the United States. Some of those pages show a different currency to visitors outside the country or build their prices with scripts that a plain download does not run. When that happened, we read the most recent copy of the same page saved by the Internet Archive from the United States, and the page says so with the date of that copy. For older prices, the same pages as they were saved over the years. For warehouse clubs and Amazon, the company's own filings with the SEC when they state a fee and its effective date. News stories, forums and deal sites are never a source.

2. Dating a change

A price change is two observations of the same plan with different prices. We give two dates: the last copy that still showed the old price and the first that showed the new one. The change happened between them. Companies usually apply a new price to new customers first and to current customers at a later renewal, so a bill can change after the second date. When a company document states the effective date, it is quoted on the service's page.

3. Plans that were renamed or withdrawn

A plan keeps one line in the data when the company only renamed it, such as the ad-supported tier of a service that moved from "Basic" to "Standard with ads" at the same price. A plan that was withdrawn keeps its history and has no current price: it appears in the change tables, never in the calculators.

4. Yearly cost

A monthly plan costs its monthly price times the months you keep it. An annual plan costs its annual price, paid at once. A membership with an annual fee costs that fee. All prices are list prices before sales tax, which depends on your state and sometimes your city. Trials, first-months discounts and offers through phone carriers, cards or other partners are left out: they end, and the list price is what renews.

5. Pages read

6. Company filings and releases

7. What the site does not do

• It is not affiliated with any company listed and cannot act on an account.
• It carries no affiliate link and recommends no plan: the tools show what each choice costs.
• It keeps nothing you type: the tools run in your browser.

Method version of November 1, 2026. A price that looks wrong: contact.