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Rotating streaming services: what it saves
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Paying for every service all year, or keeping a few at a time and switching: the calculator compares the two over twelve months, with your own number of services and average price.
What would rotating your services save?
Saving over a year
$360
| 4 services all year | $720 |
| 2 at a time, all year | $360 |
| Months each service gets | 6 a year |
Most monthly plans can be canceled and restarted; an annual plan cannot be rotated.
Rotating means keeping only a few streaming services at a time, canceling one when its series ends and starting another. The saving is simple arithmetic: each service you drop for a month saves its monthly price. Four services at an average of $15 a month cost $720 a year; keeping two at a time costs $360, and each of the four still gets six months. With the prices read on November 1, 2026, Netflix Standard is $19.99, HBO Max Standard $18.49, Apple TV $14.99 and Peacock Premium $12.99. Rotation works only with monthly billing, which every video service tracked here offers; an annual plan is paid for the whole year. The pages of Peacock, YouTube TV, Spotify and Amazon Prime read here all say you can cancel anytime.
Is the annual plan worth it?
Peacock Select (with ads, no sports or movies): annual plan against 12 monthly payments
Annual saves $17.89
| Annual plan | $89.99 |
| 12 months at $8.99 | $107.88 |
| Annual plan pays off from | 11 months |
| Saving over a full year | $17.89 |
List prices before sales tax. An annual plan is paid up front and renews unless canceled.
Prices read by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method and sources
How the calculator works
Enter how many services you pay for now, their average monthly price, and how many you would keep at a time. The calculator multiplies each by twelve months and shows the difference, and how many months a year each service would still get if you rotate evenly. It does not know which months you watch; for that, set the number of months in the cost tool of each service page.
What it means with current prices
An evening viewer with Netflix Standard, HBO Max Standard, Disney+ Premium and Peacock Premium pays $875.52 a year for the four. Keeping two at a time, the cost falls by about half. With ad plans, the same four cost $545.52 a year.
Rotation is the opposite of an annual plan. Annual plans save about two months a year but tie you to one service; rotating saves more for anyone who does not watch every service every month. The annual plans page has the break-even point of each.
Is the annual plan worth it?
Peacock Select (with ads, no sports or movies): annual plan against 12 monthly payments
Annual saves $17.89
| Annual plan | $89.99 |
| 12 months at $8.99 | $107.88 |
| Annual plan pays off from | 11 months |
| Saving over a full year | $17.89 |
List prices before sales tax. An annual plan is paid up front and renews unless canceled.
Limits
Restarting a service later means paying the price of the day: Netflix, Disney+, Peacock and others raised prices several times between 2022 and 2026, as the increase register shows. Introductory offers are usually for new subscribers only, so they may not apply on a return.