July 28, 2025, 3:33 pm | Read time: 4 minutes
Streaming movies and series, listening to music, gaming, online dating. Our digital everyday life is packed–and costs money month after month. TECHBOOK researched what an average “digital life” really costs today–and why many users underestimate their expenses.
Whether it’s Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube Premium, or cloud storage and in-app purchases–virtually every type of online service costs if you want to use it ad-free and frustration-free. The expenses are spread across many small items. This is what makes them tricky. While individual expenses seem cheap at first glance, they quickly add up to a three-digit monthly amount.
What Counts as a Digital Life?
In 2023, consumers in the United Kingdom had some of the highest monthly online expenses in Europe, as Statista shows based on data from a PayPal analysis. On average, they spent 483 euros per month on online purchases and payments, (in-)app purchases, payments for bills or services, and other online shopping. In Germany, the average monthly online expenses amounted to 328 euros.
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We deliberately exclude online purchases from our analysis, as they are more akin to everyday expenses like supermarket shopping and mall visits. Instead, TECHBOOK focused on expenses that have a purely digital value. Physical purchases–such as smartphones, laptops, and consoles–are therefore excluded.
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How Much Money Users in Germany Spend on Digital Purchases
A digital life can get really expensive. Depending on usage, expenses add up to nearly 138 euros per month–that’s more than 1,650 euros per year. Streaming is a major cost driver, but smaller digital purchases also contribute. The phenomenon is called subscription stacking: Many services cost only 3 to 15 euros per month–but using several platforms simultaneously quickly leads to a handful of active subscriptions. Music, cloud, streaming, and games are often booked in parallel.
Users Spend the Most on Streaming
In Germany, users pay 57 euros monthly for subscriptions, according to the Bango Report of 2024. With 684 euros annually, they are significantly behind the UK (812 euros), but also behind France (780 euros) and Spain (720 euros). Only in Italy do users spend less on subscriptions, at 600 euros. In Germany, users are most likely to lose track of their expenses–nearly 27 percent of respondents said they pay for a subscription they don’t use. According to the survey, Germans are most willing to pay more to their internet provider for a streaming bundle with access to multiple services.
Video streaming is the most popular subscription type in Germany, with 65 percent, according to Bango. Music subscriptions also play an important role, with 35 percent. Additionally, 17 percent of respondents said they pay monthly for a gaming subscription. On average, users in Germany have 3.3 active subscriptions. This is on par with the UK–and ahead of Spain and Italy. France, with 3 active subscriptions, is at the bottom of the countries surveyed. Compared to the U.S., European countries are much more restrained. American users have an average of 4.5 active subscriptions.
Bitkom data from 2024 specifies how much users in Germany spend on different types of streaming. According to the analysis, respondents spend an average of 15.40 euros on video streaming and 11.20 euros on music streaming.
Broadband Internet and Mobile Contracts Contribute to Costs
There is no current data for the average costs of mobile contracts in Germany. However, a 2018 analysis by the comparison portal Check24 reported the national average at 22.89 euros, as reported by Computer Bild. A European Commission analysis from 2022 found that a contract with 20 gigabytes of data volume costs about 25 euros. We consider this amount reasonable given the 2018 data.
The European Commission data also shows that a broadband internet connection with 100 to 200 Gbit/s throughput costs an average of 21.37 euros. With a telephone connection, the price rises to 26.75 euros.
As the European Commission data shows, mobile contracts here are significantly higher compared to Western European countries. Germany is only in the middle range for broadband connections.
Hidden Costs in Smaller Purchases
Users who make in-app purchases spend an average of nearly 8 euros per month on them, according to an analysis by Appsflyer. Mobile games specifically target microtransactions. A few euros for power-ups, skins, or premium currencies–it adds up. Many users easily lose track here.
Cloud services like Apple iCloud and Google Drive also make up only a small part of monthly expenses. However, since they bind users through storage required for backups, it’s not trivial to cancel the subscriptions.
How to Reduce Costs
- Use family subscriptions: Spotify Family, YouTube Family, or iCloud+ Family Sharing significantly reduce costs per user.
- Regularly review subscriptions: Which services are really used? Canceling often saves money immediately.
- Check free alternatives: Many tools (office, cloud) have free options with basic functions.
- Limit in-app purchases: Set a budget–or block them in device settings.