The Real Cost of Cutting the Cord in 2026 (Data Study)
We added up the price of every major streaming service to find out what cord-cutting actually costs in 2026. The average four-service stack now runs $720 a year — and live TV can cost more than cable ever did.
Key findings
We added up the published prices of the 14 streaming services we track to see what “cutting the cord” really costs in mid-2026. The headline numbers:
- The average ad-free on-demand service costs ~$14.49/month.
- A typical four-service stack (Netflix + Disney+ + Max + Prime Video) costs ~$60/month — about $720 a year.
- Switching that stack to ad-supported tiers drops it to ~$37/month, saving roughly $276 a year.
- A single live-TV service like YouTube TV ($82.99/month, ~$996/year) now costs as much as the cable bundle cord-cutting was supposed to replace.
- Free ad-supported services (Tubi, Pluto TV) remain $0 — the genuine savings story.
The takeaway: cord-cutting still saves money on demand, but only if you resist stacking. The moment you add live TV, the math looks a lot like the cable bill you left.
Methodology: standard (ad-free) monthly prices for the 14 services tracked at fulltvbox.com, as of June 2026. Annual figures are monthly × 12. Use our streaming cost calculator to run your own combination.
What a typical stack costs
Most households don’t buy one service — they stack several. Here’s the most common four-service on-demand bundle at full (ad-free) price:
| Service | Ad-free / month | Ad-supported / month |
|---|---|---|
| Netflix | $17.99 | $7.99 |
| Disney+ | $15.99 | $9.99 |
| Max | $16.99 | $9.99 |
| Prime Video | $8.99 | (no ad tier) $8.99 |
| Total | $59.96 | $36.96 |
| Per year | $719.52 | $443.52 |
Going all-in on ad-supported tiers saves about $276 a year for the same four services — the single biggest lever most people never pull.
The live-TV trap
The on-demand math is friendly. Live TV is where cord-cutting quietly stops saving money:
| Live-TV service | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Sling TV | $45.99 | $551.88 |
| YouTube TV | $82.99 | $995.88 |
| Fubo | $84.99 | $1,019.88 |
YouTube TV and Fubo now cost ~$1,000 a year on their own — and that’s before you add a single on-demand service on top. If you’re replacing cable mainly for live sports and local channels, run the numbers carefully; the savings may be smaller than you think. Our guide on whether cutting the cord is worth it digs into this trade-off.
How to actually save money
The data points to four concrete tactics:
- Use ad-supported tiers. ~$276/year saved on a four-service stack, for ads most people tolerate fine.
- Rotate, don’t stack. Subscribe to one service, binge it, cancel, move to the next. There are no contracts — use that.
- Anchor on free services. Tubi and Pluto TV are $0 and cover a surprising amount of casual viewing.
- Buy the device once. A $49 streamer like the onn. 4K Pro replaces a rented cable box forever — see the best cheap streaming devices.
Run your own numbers
These are averages — your real cost depends on which services you actually use. Our free, interactive streaming cost calculator lets you pick your services (and ad vs. ad-free tiers) and compare the total against a typical cable bill in seconds.
Want to cite this study? The figures above are free to reference with a link to this page. For the underlying per-service data, see our machine-readable devices and services data and the streaming services hub.