What this tool does
The SaaS Subscription Waste Finder helps you audit every software subscription your team or company pays for. You enter each tool's name, monthly cost, usage frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, rarely, or never), total seats purchased, and how many seats are actively used. The tool then calculates your total monthly and annual software spend, identifies subscriptions that are rarely or never used, flags excess seats you are paying for but not using, and estimates the total potential savings if you eliminated that waste. It provides a clear breakdown of where your money goes, which tools to evaluate for cancellation, and how much you could recover by right-sizing your software stack.
How it calculates
The calculator uses three core formulas:
1. Total Monthly Spend equals the sum of all subscription monthly costs. 2. Wasted Amount equals the sum of monthly costs for subscriptions where the usage level is "rarely" or "never." These are tools your team is not meaningfully using. 3. Unused Seats Cost is calculated for each non-wasted subscription as (Total Users minus Active Users) multiplied by the per-seat cost, where per-seat cost equals the monthly cost divided by total users.
Potential Savings equals the Wasted Amount plus the Unused Seats Cost. The savings percentage is the potential savings divided by the total monthly spend, multiplied by 100. Annual projections simply multiply monthly figures by 12.
Who should use this
1. Finance teams conducting quarterly or annual SaaS audits to control software spending. 2. IT managers responsible for license management who need to identify unused seats and redundant tools. 3. Startup founders who have accumulated tools over time and want to cut unnecessary burn rate. 4. Procurement teams evaluating contract renewals and deciding which subscriptions to keep or cancel. 5. Freelancers and solopreneurs who subscribe to multiple tools and want to see how much they actually use each one versus what they pay.
Worked examples
Example 1: A startup pays for five SaaS tools. Slack costs \$200/month for 20 seats (18 active), Zoom costs \$150/month for 20 seats (20 active), a project management tool costs \$100/month for 15 seats (10 active), an old CRM costs \$300/month for 25 seats (0 active, never used), and a design tool costs \$50/month for 5 seats (5 active, used daily).
Total Monthly Spend = \$200 + \$150 + \$100 + \$300 + \$50 = \$800. Wasted Amount = \$300 (the old CRM, never used). Unused Seats Cost: Slack has 2 unused seats at \$10/seat = \$20. The project management tool has 5 unused seats at \$6.67/seat = \$33.33. The others have no waste. Total unused seats cost = \$53.33. Potential Savings = \$300 + \$53.33 = \$353.33/month (\$4,240/year). That is 44.2% of total spend.
Example 2: A freelancer has three subscriptions. A writing assistant at \$20/month (1 seat, 1 active, daily), cloud storage at \$10/month (1 seat, 1 active, weekly), and a stock photo service at \$30/month (1 seat, 1 active, rarely used).
Total Monthly Spend = \$60. Wasted Amount = \$30 (stock photos, rarely used). Potential Savings = \$30/month (\$360/year), which is 50% of spend.
Limitations
This tool relies on your self-reported usage frequency, which may not perfectly reflect actual usage. It does not integrate with SSO or usage analytics platforms. The unused seats calculation assumes a simple per-seat pricing model and does not account for tiered pricing or minimum seat requirements. It does not factor in contract lock-in periods, early termination fees, or annual prepayment discounts. Subscriptions billed annually are converted to monthly equivalents by the user, which may not reflect partial-year usage. The tool does not assess the qualitative value of a subscription, only its cost and usage frequency.
FAQs
Q: Should I include annual subscriptions? A: Yes. Divide the annual cost by 12 and enter the monthly equivalent. This gives you an accurate picture of your total monthly software spend.
Q: What counts as "rarely" versus "never" used? A: "Rarely" means the tool is used less than once a month but has been accessed at some point recently. "Never" means no one on your team has logged in or used the tool in the past few months.
Q: Does this account for free tiers? A: If a tool is on a free plan, enter \$0 as the monthly cost. It will be included in the count but will not affect your spend or savings calculations.
Q: Can I use this for personal subscriptions? A: Absolutely. Enter each subscription with 1 total seat and 1 active user (or 0 if you never use it). The waste finder works the same way for personal and business subscriptions.
Q: How often should I audit my subscriptions? A: Best practice is to review your SaaS stack quarterly. At minimum, conduct an annual audit before budget planning.
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