Is YNAB free?

YNAB is not free. It costs $14.99 a month or $109 a year, and it has no free tier and no advertising. What it does have is a 34-day trial on its own website that asks for no card and ends by itself. The same trial started in an app store works differently, and YNAB says so, in a footnote.

What YNAB charges

Web prices are in US dollars “plus tax where applicable”, and the pricing page says exchange rates are not reflected in them. The “$70 Savings!” badge is twelve months at $14.99, which is $179.88, less $109. Two figures are derived here and labeled as derived: the annual plan costs less than the monthly one from the eighth month, and shared by the six people one subscription allows it is about $18.17 a person a year. Apple's list carries no billing periods, but here the prices match the web so closely that none are needed. Apple shows no promoted purchase above the App Privacy panel. Google Play shows an In-app purchases badge, no Contains ads badge and, on 27 September 2026, no items-and-offers section under either of its headings.

One trial, five lengths, two sets of rules

YNAB's page “Our Free 34-Day Trial” explains the odd number: “Most free trials are for 30 days. However, many months have 31 days.” You do not see how the method works, it says, “until the month rolls over”. Both store descriptions, which are otherwise the same text, offer a “free one-month trial” and end with “Free for 30 Days”.

The 6-week figure is in the What’s New notes on both stores, in the words “a 6-week free trial instead of 34 days”. YNAB's referral article does not mention it yet. The terms add a sixth case: an employer's Wellness plan that ends becomes a 34-day trial. The store trial is the one that can charge you, and YNAB does disclose it: the pricing page footnotes “No need to cancel!” with “when you sign up directly through YNAB”, and the terms say that in a store “different terms may apply”. Google Play refunds, the help center adds, “must be requested within 48 hours of subscribing”.

Three documents give three refund answers

None of the three contradicts another. The annual refund is simply printed in one place, and it is tied to deleting the account, not to canceling. Canceling alone keeps your access, and your money, until the year ends. A reader who checks the terms or the help article will not find the refund at all. It does not cover purchases through Apple or Google, or a gift subscription once redeemed.

Canceling is a web-only task

The help center says billing “is not available through the mobile app settings (only in the web app)”, and gives a workaround: paste the web app's settings address into a phone browser. The button there is headed “Cancel your subscription”. Store subscribers cancel in the store. Deleting the app does not end a store subscription; YNAB's instructions for deleting an account tell Apple subscribers to cancel with Apple first, so they are not charged at renewal. An expired trial account is deleted after 120 days.

What the two stores say it collects

Both are self-declarations rather than audits. YNAB's pricing page says it wants to make money only “from you paying us money”, and the trial page says “We never sell user data of any kind”. Sharing device IDs for marketing is not selling them, so Google's line and YNAB's sentence can both be true. Apple's panel declares no tracking; Google's names a marketing purpose. We report both.

What YNAB does better

• A trial that cannot bill you. The web trial takes an email address and nothing else, then stops. Compare Babbel, which advertises no trial, or most subscription apps, where the trial is the start of the charge.
• Prices that agree. $14.99 and $109 on the website and in Apple's list, with no tier names to decode.
• A prorated refund on the annual plan, where many subscription terms give none. It is filed in one place only, but it exists.
• Six people for one price, and a free year for any college student, including grad, part-time and international students.
• It states how it earns. No ads, no free tier propped up by one, and a plain sentence on the pricing page about why.

For what the other budgeting and subscription apps charge, see apps like Rocket Money.

What we could not check

Nothing behind a YNAB login or inside the app was read. So we could not see how long a trial started in either store actually runs, whether an App Store trial converts to a subscription the way YNAB says a Google Play one does, or the cancel screen itself. Google Play's items-and-offers section was read once, and an absent section on one day is not proof it never appears.