Apps with free trials: how to use them without getting charged
A free trial is an auto-renewing subscription with a countdown, and it converts the moment the countdown ends. To use the trial and skip the charge: note the end date the day you start, set a reminder two days before it, and cancel at least a day ahead, which is the notice Apple asks for. Most apps let a cancelled trial run to its end date; a few end it straight away, so cancel late in the trial rather than on day one if you want the full period. On Top of Subs tracks every trial with a reminder before it converts and opens the cancel screen in one tap.
Free trials are the best deal in software and the most expensive mistake on most phones, often in the same week. The mechanics are simple and rarely explained: you are subscribing now, with a delay on the first charge. Here is exactly how that works on both stores, where to see what you have already agreed to, and a routine that lets you try anything without paying for the ones you forget.
What you agree to when you start a free trial
On the App Store and on Google Play, a free trial is an introductory offer attached to an auto-renewable subscription. The purchase sheet you confirm with Face ID, a fingerprint, or a password says so in one line: free for seven days, then a price per month or per year. That line is the contract. When the trial ends, the store charges the price shown, for the period shown, and keeps doing so until you cancel.
Two details matter more than they look. The conversion happens at the end of the trial period regardless of whether you opened the app again, so an unused trial costs exactly as much as a used one. And the price after the trial is often a yearly plan, which is why a forgotten seven-day trial can turn into a charge of sixty or a hundred dollars rather than a few.
Where to see every trial you are already in
- iPhone and iPad. Settings, your name, Subscriptions. Each trial is listed with its end date and the price it converts to. Expired ones sit below, which is useful for spotting a trial that already converted.
- Android and the web. Play Store, your profile picture, Payments & subscriptions, Subscriptions, or play.google.com/store/account/subscriptions from any browser. Trials show the date the paid period starts.
- Trials outside the stores. A trial started on a website, with a card or PayPal, appears in neither list. It lives in that company's account page, and on PayPal's automatic payments page if you paid that way.
How to cancel a trial with time to spare
Cancelling a trial means turning off auto-renew on the store's own screen, the same screen listed above. Apple asks you to do it at least 24 hours before the trial ends; give Google Play the same margin. Cancelling early does not usually shorten the trial: most apps let it run to the end date, and a few close access as soon as auto-renew is off, which is the reason to cancel late in the trial rather than on day one if you still want the days. Our App Store and Google Play guides cover every tap, including what to do when the trial is missing from the list.
The failure mode is never the cancelling. It is the remembering. A seven-day trial ends on a Tuesday you were not thinking about, and the store does not need your attention to convert it. So the routine below is mostly about making the end date impossible to miss.
Every trial, with a reminder before it converts
Add a trial with its end date and On Top of Subs reminds you a couple of days before it turns into a paid plan, with the App Store or Google Play cancel screen one tap away. Free on iPhone and Android, no bank login.
A routine for trying apps for free
- Read the sheet before you confirm. Note the trial length and the price after it. If the price after is a yearly plan you would never buy outright, decide now whether the trial is worth the risk of forgetting.
- Record it the same minute. Name, the exact end date, and the price it converts to. In a tracker, a calendar event, or a note, but immediately; a trial recorded later is a trial recorded never.
- Set the reminder two days before the end. That leaves a full day to cancel with the 24 hours Apple asks for, and a day of slack if life intervenes.
- Decide on the reminder, not on the receipt. Keeping it is fine. Cancelling is fine. The only bad outcome is the charge arriving before the decision.
- Check the store screens monthly. Any trial that slipped past step two shows up there with its date, in time to catch it.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. A free trial on the App Store or Google Play is an auto-renewing subscription with the first charge delayed, and it bills the price shown on the purchase sheet the moment the trial period ends. The only way to avoid the charge is to cancel before that date.
Usually. Cancelling turns off auto-renew, and most apps let the trial run to its end date. A few end access as soon as you cancel, and Apple's guidance is simply to cancel at least 24 hours before the trial ends. If you want the full period, cancel a day or two before the end rather than on the first day.
Open Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions. Trials appear in the list with their end date and the price they will convert to. On Android, the Google Play subscriptions center shows the same, and both screens are where you cancel.
Generally not. Apple allows one introductory offer per subscription per Apple Account, and Google Play applies a similar one-per-account rule. Some apps run separate promotional offers for returning users, but a second free trial of the same plan on the same account is rare.
Write down the end date the day you start, set a reminder two days before it, and cancel on the reminder unless you want to keep the app. On Top of Subs does the writing down and the reminding, and opens the store's cancel screen in one tap when the reminder arrives.