I’m Happy I Canceled These AI Subscriptions

4 AI subscriptions I canceled this year

Over the past few years, I’ve paid for dozens of AI tools.

Some were great, while others became less useful over time or were not as good as advertised. In this article, I explain why I canceled some AI subscriptions and outline the criteria I use to decide which ones are worth keeping. With the money you save, you might even consider supporting an independent writer like me :)

ChatGPT Pro

Pro is ChatGPT’s top-tier subscription ($200/month). It unlocks Pro mode and provides additional credits for my favorite tools, including Deep Research and ChatGPT Agent.

So why did I cancel it? The main reason is the price. Pro mode is worth it when you tackle high-stakes tasks that require accuracy, reliability, speed, and depth of reasoning. For example, a physician reviewing medical literature to support a treatment plan or an executive analyzing market reports to inform investment decisions.

For some months, I had projects of that caliber, and Pro delivered. However, after those needs diminished, paying $200 per month for ChatGPT no longer made financial sense. I appreciated Pro Mode and the extra credits for deep research, but I didn’t use them enough to justify the cost

After four months with ChatGPT Pro, I switched to Plus (in this video, I explore the Pro and Plus plans)

Should you subscribe to ChatGPT Pro? I always recommend those handling high-stake taks to try ChatGPT Pro for 1 month. For causal users, Pro isn’t worth it

📚 Complete guide on ChatGPT-5 modes
💡 25 Things I’ve Learned About ChatGPT and Other AI Tools

Midjourney

I subscribed to Midjourney for nearly a year, but ultimately canceled it for one main reason: ChatGPT and Google’s image generator (Nano Banana)

Midjourney is great for generating images and offers advanced options to customize them. However, for an average user like me, ChatGPT’s image generator is enough. Midjourney often requires prompt engineering and familiarity with parameters, whereas ChatGPT is far more beginner-friendly—you simply describe what you want in plain English. If you’re not happy with the result, you can select a portion of the image and specify the adjustments you’d like. Achieving the same ease of iteration in Midjourney is not nearly as straightforward.

Another factor was workflow and cost. With Midjourney, I had to hop into Discord, learn bot commands, and juggle extra settings. Since I’m already paying for ChatGPT Plus, keeping a second subscription felt redundant

Should you subscribe to Midjourney? If you want a powerful image generator with advanced features, Midjourney is a great choice. If you want a begginer-friendly tool, ChatGPT is the better option

🖼️ How to create images with Nano Banana Pro

BetterPic

This isn’t a subscription, but I thought the experience was worth sharing.

I found this AI tool through Instagram ads. This is a photorealistic AI headshot generator that promises to turn your selfies into professional portraits for resumes, LinkedIn, and even dating profiles.

The problem: the results were disappointing. My “best” shots looked like my face was pasted onto someone else’s body. In small thumbnails, they pass, but viewed full-size, the mismatch is obvious.

Among the dozens of images I got, below were the best I got.

In that small size, they might look fine, but on my Mac, flipping between image #3 and #4 made it clear: my head stayed fixed while the body angle changed (like a cut-and-paste job). I might use one of these AI-generated headshots for a resume as a last resort, but not for LinkedIn, and definitely not for a dating app.

Should you pay for BetterPic or any other AI headshot generator? I don’t think so. The pics you get aren’t as good as they adversite on their sites

Quillbot

QuillBot is an AI tool I used to rely on for writing. As someone whose first language isn’t English, I used Quillbot to avoid repeating the same words in my posts and also to paraphrase sentences from various sources.

QuillBot offers multiple modes. Two are free (Standard and Fluency), and the rest (Formal, Academic, Simple, etc) require a paid plan. The tool isn’t bad, but it sometimes produces awkward rewrites, and I eventually realized ChatGPT could handle paraphrasing (and more) well enough for my needs.

QuillBot was useful, but ChatGPT replaced enough of its functionality that I canceled my QuillBot subscription

Should you subscribe to QuillBot? If your day-to-day involves precision paraphrasing and you’re not comfortable using ChatGPT for writing, QuillBot is a solid choice.

📝 How to use ChatGPT for writing

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Did you cancel an AI subscription this year? Let me know in the comments. Also, let me know if you want me to create a list of AI subscriptions that I’ll never cancel