"Cut the cord" has been the conventional wisdom for a decade. It is still right for many households. It is also wrong for some, and the difference is the math, not the marketing.
This guide gives you the math first. The worksheet at the bottom walks you through your own household in under 10 minutes.
Most cable households compare their full cable + internet bill to a streaming bill alone. That is the wrong comparison. The fair comparison is:
(Cable TV portion of your bill) + (existing internet) versus (live TV streaming service) + (faster internet if needed) + (any standalone streaming subscriptions you would buy anyway).
Cable companies bundle TV and internet at a discount. When you cut the TV portion, the internet often re-prices to standalone rates, which can be $20 to $40/mo higher. This is the single biggest reason cord-cutting savings show up smaller than expected.
Cable bills go up about 4-6% per year. Streaming has been going up faster — YouTube TV alone has raised its price four times since 2020. The streaming price gap closes a little every year.
Cable box rental ($10-15/mo per box), DVR fee ($10-20/mo), broadcast TV surcharge ($15-25/mo), regional sports fee ($10-15/mo), HD fee — these are not on the advertised price. Add them and your cable bill is $50-80/mo higher than the headline rate.
| Cable | Cord-cut | |
|---|---|---|
| Live TV | $95/mo (200+ channels they do not watch) | $0 (skip live TV entirely) |
| Streaming (Netflix, Disney+, Max) | $0 (already cable) | $35/mo total |
| Internet | $60/mo (bundle) | $70/mo (standalone) |
| Equipment + surcharges | $45/mo | $0 |
| Total | $200/mo | $105/mo |
Verdict: Cut. Annual savings ~$1,140.
| Cable | Cord-cut | |
|---|---|---|
| Live TV | $120/mo (sports tier, RSN included) | $108/mo (DirecTV Stream Choice) |
| NFL Sunday Ticket | $0 (not subscribed) | $0 (not subscribed) |
| Streaming (Disney bundle, Netflix) | $30/mo (already paying) | $30/mo |
| Internet | $70/mo (bundle) | $85/mo (standalone, higher speed) |
| Equipment + surcharges | $60/mo (3 boxes + DVR) | $0 |
| Total | $280/mo | $223/mo |
Verdict: Cut. Annual savings ~$684. Smaller margin than Scenario A but still real.
| Cable | Cord-cut | |
|---|---|---|
| Live TV | $85/mo (promo rate, locked-in pricing) | $83/mo (YouTube TV) |
| Streaming (none currently) | $0 | $0 |
| Internet | $50/mo (slow tier, used only for email) | $70/mo (needs upgrade to support streaming TV) |
| Equipment + surcharges | $30/mo | $15/mo (smart TV or Roku one-time, amortized) + cloud storage |
| New device cost | $0 | $100-150 one-time for streaming devices |
| Total | $165/mo | $168/mo |
Verdict: Hybrid or stay. The promo cable rate plus existing slow internet is hard to beat. Revisit when the promo ends.
Streaming live TV in HD uses ~5-8 Mbps per stream. 4K is ~25 Mbps. A four-person household streaming simultaneously needs ~50-100 Mbps real-world throughput. If your current internet plan is below 100 Mbps, you may need to upgrade. Run a speed test at fast.com first to know what you have.
Cable companies raise prices sharply when promotional rates end (often 12 or 24 months in). Check your bill for the promo end date. The cord-cutting math changes substantially before and after that cliff.
Cable companies charge $100-300 per piece if you do not return modems, routers, and cable boxes within 30 days of cancellation. Box all equipment in advance, get a return receipt at the store, and keep the receipt for at least 60 days. This is where cord-cutting savings vanish for the unprepared.
All major live TV streaming services carry the major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX) in most markets. Smaller markets sometimes lose one or two networks. Check ZIP code coverage on each service's lookup page before you commit. If you lose a network, a $30 indoor antenna usually solves it for over-the-air free reception.
Each smart TV, Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, or Chromecast is a "cable box" for streaming, at no extra monthly fee. A streaming household with 4 TVs pays $0 in equipment rental versus $40-60/mo in cable box rentals.
Live TV streaming services let you watch on a phone, tablet, or laptop while traveling. Cable TV does not travel.
Streaming services are month-to-month with no early termination fee. You can pause a service during a slow viewing season and re-subscribe when the next sport starts. No 2-year cable contract holds you in place.
Cancelling cable is famously brutal. Cancelling streaming is two clicks in a settings menu.
The worksheet below walks you through the math by hand. The calculator does the same math in 2 minutes — enter your current cable, internet, landline, cell, and streaming bills, and it shows the recommended replacement for each, the monthly savings, and the annual number. Use whichever you prefer.
Run the math now →Fill this out for your household. It takes ~10 minutes with a recent cable bill in front of you.
Run the worksheet. If your cable TV bill (TV portion only) is over $90/mo before counting internet, cord-cutting almost always saves money. If it is under $60/mo on a promo, wait until the promo ends. If you watch your local team's RSN and only DirecTV Stream carries it, that is your service. If you do not watch the RSN, YouTube TV is the default value pick. If you already pay for Disney+ and ESPN+, Hulu + Live TV bundles the cost in.
The biggest mistake cord-cutters make is leaving cable and then signing up for so many streaming services that the total bill matches or exceeds cable. Pick one live TV service. Pick two or three on-demand services. Cancel everything else.