How to Cancel Calm in 2026 (The $70/Year Meditation App You Never Open)
Updated 2026-02-19 · 5 min read
🧘 The Wellness App Irony
Calm's business model depends on you NOT using the app. The average Calm user opens it 4-5 times in the first two weeks, then never again — but the $69.99/year auto-renewal keeps charging. You're paying for calm you're not getting.
Lifetime: $399.99 one-time (breaks even at 5.7 years of use)
Family: $99.99/year for up to 6 accounts
Calm Business: $5-9/employee/month (often included in employer benefits — check first!)
How to Cancel (Depends on How You Subscribed)
Subscribed via Apple App Store
Open Settings on your iPhone → tap your name at the top
Tap Subscriptions
Find Calm → tap Cancel Subscription
Deleting the app does NOT cancel the subscription
Subscribed via Google Play
Open Google Play Store → tap your profile icon
Tap Payments & subscriptions → Subscriptions
Find Calm → Cancel subscription
Subscribed via calm.com
Go to calm.com → sign in
Click your profile icon → Manage Subscription
Click Cancel Subscription
Complete the retention flow
⚠️ Check Your Employer Benefits
Many employers (including Kaiser, Nike, SAP, and hundreds of others) include free Calm Premium through Calm Business. Check your HR portal or benefits page before paying personally. You might be double-paying for something your employer already provides.
Medito: 100% free, non-profit meditation app — no premium tier, no ads, no data selling
UCLA Mindful: Free app from UCLA's Mindful Awareness Research Center — research-backed
YouTube: Thousands of free guided meditations, sleep stories, and ambient sounds
Spotify/Apple Music: Search "guided meditation" — hundreds of free playlists
Timer + silence: Set a phone timer for 10 minutes. That's meditation. It's always been free.
The Sleep Stories Alternative
Calm's most popular feature is Sleep Stories narrated by celebrities. But:
Spotify: Has thousands of free sleep stories and sleep playlists
Nothing Much Happens podcast: Free, specifically designed to bore you to sleep (on purpose)
Sleep With Me podcast: Free, 2,000+ episodes of intentionally boring bedtime stories
YouTube "sleep story": Millions of free results including nature sounds and ASMR
Your library app: Libby/OverDrive has audiobooks you can fall asleep to — free
💡 The Meditation Industry Secret
Meditation has been free for 2,500 years. You don't need an app, a subscription, or a celebrity narrating your breathing. Sit comfortably, close your eyes, focus on your breath for 10 minutes. That's it. The $2 billion meditation app industry is selling you something that has always cost $0.
🔍 Wellness App Audit
Calm, Headspace, Noom, Strava, Peloton, Fitbit Premium — wellness subscriptions are among the most forgotten charges. Upload your bank statement to JustCancel to find every wellness app you're still paying for.