TLDR: While the overall number of Americans using subscription services has stagnated between 2024 and 2025, the proportion of those who pay for these subscriptions has increased, while free usage has declined. Our consumer behavior research reveals significant shifts in how Americans are navigating the growing cost of digital services.
Lately, after a busy day at work, I find myself turning to Hulu, HBO Max or Netflix to let my tired brain recover with an episode or two of Abbott Elementary or Planet Earth. And while I love having these different streaming options available to me, it’s getting more and more expensive – the cost of streaming without being interrupted by ads continues to go up. It’s not just video streaming. As a young single person, dating apps are one of the best ways for my generation to meet new people. Even here, the cost for my Hinge subscription is being pushed higher, requiring me to upgrade to a premium subscription to do something simple, such as sending more likes.
It seems like the only thing going down these days is my bank account, drained by all the subscriptions I am paying for. As I despondently scrolled through my bank account, I began to wonder: where have all the free subscriptions gone? Is there no way to get an ad free streaming service for free anymore? Have all app developers decided to give you the very least in features for free, and charge you to get only modest improved functionality?
On top of inflation fears, consumers now find themselves getting nickel and dimed from pesky subscription fees more than they realize.
Every year, Radius Tech conducts its National Technology Readiness Survey to dig into consumer adoption and attitudes towards technology. Over 26 years we have followed many different technology trends, and each year we take the opportunity to look at adoption of and attitudes towards new technologies or ones that have yet to fully mature. In our 2025 NTRS release, we wanted to better understand how the market for subscription services is playing out through consumer behavior research, my personal experience notwithstanding.
What’s Happening?
According to the latest results from our 2025 National Technology Readiness Survey, between 2024 and 2025, Americans’ usage of subscription services generally remained steady across the different service types, with the most commonly used services being social media, video & audio streaming, retail shopping apps, and cloud file storage.
However, when you take a deeper look at those who actually use these services, the proportion who pay for a subscription (as opposed to using a free version) has increased across all the services we tracked.
For example, the only services to see an increase in overall usage in 2025 are social media (+5% points YoY), virtual fitness subscriptions (+4 pts), health monitoring apps (+3 pts), and video streaming (+2 pts). Meanwhile, the proportion of Americans paying for a subscription has increased across all services for which we have prior year’s data, most notably social media (+15% points YoY), cloud file storage (+9 pts), retail shopping apps (+9 pts), and food delivery apps (+9 pts).
What This Means
While there are indications that consumers are starting to tighten their belts fiscally, those who can afford it (or don’t realize they are paying for a subscription) are moving more and more toward premium subscriptions to take advantage of oftentimes new or improved features, a business model known as “freemium”, which has been on the rise in recent years and is expected to continue to grow.
The freemium model is designed to lure prospective customers in with free base-level subscriptions with the eventual goal of converting them to paying customers through exclusive features and benefits only offered in premium subscription tiers. Our consumer behavior research findings suggest this strategy is working, at least for now. However, the question remains: will consumers push back?
Over the past decade, many consumers have switched to streaming services as a way to cut out expensive cable bundles. Now, as the incremental fees keep piling on, will consumers reach a breaking point and start to scale back their subscriptions? Will a new, more cost-effective alternative enter the market, like streaming services did more than a decade ago?
Adding to the headache for consumers is the fact that companies have no issues automatically renewing subscriptions, converting free trials into paid versions if we forget to cancel, and making it as difficult as humanly possible to cancel once we’ve subscribed. While some companies have made strides to make it easier for users to cancel subscriptions (and some being forced to do so through new legislation), the issue still persists.
Ultimately, this shift toward premium subscriptions means that consumers need to be even more vigilant about where their money is going and make hard decisions on what subscriptions are worth keeping or cutting. Our consumer behavior research through the NTRS helps brands understand and what influences subscription retention versus churn.
| % Paying for Subscription | % Who Own a Free or Paid Subscription | |||||
| 2025 | 2024 | YoY Change | 2025 | 2024 | YoY Change | |
| Video streaming service subscription | 64% | 60% | 4% | 82% | 80% | 2% |
| Audio streaming service subscription | 38% | 34% | 4% | 64% | 67% | -3% |
| Cloud file storage | 36% | 27% | 9% | 67% | 67% | 0% |
| Retail shopping app | 34% | 25% | 9% | 76% | 76% | 0% |
| Food delivery app | 28% | 19% | 9% | 51% | 53% | -2% |
| Social media app | 27% | 12% | 15% | 87% | 82% | 5% |
| Cloud gaming | 20% | 17% | 3% | 31% | 32% | -1% |
| Investing app | 19% | N/A | 34% | N/A | ||
| Personal finance or budgeting app | 17% | 13% | 4% | 33% | 39% | -6% |
| Health monitoring app | 16% | 11% | 5% | 41% | 38% | 3% |
| Creative design software | 16% | N/A | 38% | N/A | ||
| Telemedicine service | 16% | 13% | 3% | 32% | 35% | -3% |
| Virtual fitness subscription | 12% | 9% | 3% | 25% | 21% | 4% |
*About the NTRS
The National Technology Readiness Survey (NTRS) is an annual study conducted by Radius Tech (formerly Illuminas) that has tracked consumer attitudes toward technology and innovation since 1999. Each year, the NTRS surveys over 1,000 U.S. adults to explore how people think about, adopt, and engage with technology across industries and daily life. The study includes insights into emerging trends and consumer sentiment on a wide range of tech-related topics.
A core feature of the NTRS is the Tech Readiness Index (TRI 2.0), a segmentation framework that classifies consumers into five distinct groups based on their motivations, attitudes, and behaviors related to technology: Explorers, Pioneers, Skeptics, Hesitators, and Avoiders. These segments help companies understand how ready different customer groups are to embrace new technologies—and how to communicate with them effectively.
Want to understand how your customers navigate the growing cost of subscriptions?
Radius Tech helps brands uncover behavioral trends and pricing strategies that influence adoption and retention.
Let’s talk → Contact us today.
