Data study · Zach Babiarz
We tried to cancel 36subscriptions. Here’s what each one offered to keep us.
Of 36 subscription services we tracked, 35 tried to keep us with a save offer — a discount, a pause, or a free month — the moment we started to cancel. Only 1 held the line with nothing. Across all of them we documented 91 distinct offers, each with a source and the date it was last confirmed.
- 15
reliably show an offer - 20
show one to some accounts - 1
hold the line
Subscription companies rarely advertise it, but many run a “save” step in their cancellation flow: start to leave and a discount, a pause, or a free stretch appears to change your mind. We set out to catalog which services do it, what they offer, and how reliably — because that information is only valuable if it’s current, and these offers are A/B-tested and change constantly.
The biggest reported discounts
Ranked by the steepest discount reported in each service’s cancel or downgrade flow.
| 1 | ChatGPT Plus | up to 100% off | 50% off for 3 months ($10/mo) |
| 2 | TradingView | up to 80% off | Reported 'up to 50% off' to stay when canceling a monthly plan or trial |
| 3 | Adobe Creative Cloud | up to 60% off | 2 months free if you keep your plan |
| 4 | HelloFresh | up to 60% off | Skip or pause deliveries instead of canceling |
| 5 | Duolingo Super | up to 60% off | Heavily discounted win-back offer after you lapse (often ~50-60% off annual) |
| 6 | Apple TV+ | up to 54% off | 54% off for 2 months ($5.99/mo instead of $12.99) |
| 7 | Audible | up to 50% off | 50% off for 3 months |
| 8 | Blinkist | up to 50% off | 30-50% off an annual plan in the web cancel flow |
Don’t bother: the hard-liners
Planet Fitness showed no save offer when we tried to cancel. Knowing that is worth something too: cancel clean and don’t waste time bluffing.
What we learned
- Most subscriptions flinch. 35 of 36 tracked services will make some kind of offer to keep you. The save step is the norm, not the exception.
- The offer is almost never advertised.You only see it by starting the cancel flow, which is exactly why people don’t know to ask.
- Offers are personalized and volatile. The same flow can show one person 50% off and another nothing. Audible alone has 5 different offers on record depending on account and channel.
- “Too expensive” is the magic reason. Selecting a price-related cancellation reason is what triggers the discount in most flows that have one.
Methodology
Every offer in this study is drawn from crowd reports and primary sources — press that tested the flows firsthand, long-running community threads, and company help pages — never from automated scraping behind a login. Each claim carries its source and a last-confirmed date on its service page. Read the full methodology.
Work on a retention or growth team?
The full dataset goes deeper than this page: per-service offer types, reported amounts, where each appears in the flow, category benchmarks, and how offers trend over time. Get access or a benchmark for your category.
Citing this study
Journalists and researchers are welcome to cite these figures with a link to dontcancelyet.com/cancel-flow-study. Numbers update as new reports come in; the live version is always here. Questions or a data request? Reach the author.
Browse the full, sortable list of which subscriptions discount when you cancel.