NYT
16 days free · $17.00/mo after
Exit grade D: No self-serve online cancel: you have to go through chat to close the account.
On nytimes.com
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Track this trialQuick answer
The NYT free trial runs 16 days, then bills $17.00/month for the Basic Digital plan. A credit card is required to start. Cancelling is hard - about 12 minutes. Our take: The trial isn't the trap - the cancellation is.
Last verified: July 22, 2026
On nytimes.com
Our take
The trial isn't the trap - the cancellation is. Basic Digital gives you the newsroom and the audio app on a free trial (often around two weeks, though NYT keeps testing it), then intro pricing before it settles near $17/mo. Cooking, Games, Wirecutter, and The Athletic aren't here - those live in the pricier All Access bundle. Subscribe if you'll read it daily, and plan on a few minutes with a retention agent to get out.
What you get
The NYT Basic Digital plan
Included · 3
Unlimited articles on nytimes.com and the NYT app - News, Opinion, Books, Arts, Magazine, Travel
The Audio app - narrated articles, The Daily, and exclusive shows
Morning Briefing newsletter plus 50+ other email newsletters
Worth knowing
NYT Cooking, NYT Games (Wordle, Connections, the Crossword), Wirecutter, and The Athletic - those come with the pricier All Access bundle, not Basic Digital
Home delivery of the printed paper - that's a separate physical subscription
International edition delivery
The honest data
By the numbers
- Trial length
- 16 days
- Price after
- $17.00 / mo
- Card required
- Yes
- Cancellation
- Hard
- Time to cancel
- ~12 min
- % kept past trial
- 33%
Around the web
What others say about NYT
Curated outside takes. We don't edit them, we just point at them.
At a glance
4 reviews from 4 sources
Topline: No reviews yet
Community
Reddit
Is the digital subscription worth it in 2025?
“I keep telling myself I'll cancel, but then I open Connections, then Cooking, and suddenly it's been six months and I've stopped subscribing to anything else.”
r/nytimes · 412 comments
Read on reddit.comReviewer
The Verge
The NYT bundle is the best news deal nobody talks about
“For the price of one good streaming service, you get one of the best newsrooms in the world plus the best mobile games portfolio outside of a console.”
Reviewed Nov 2024
Read on theverge.comReviewer
Tom's Guide
NYT All Access leads our value rankings
“All Access ranks first for breadth - News, Cooking, Games, Wirecutter, and the Audio app collapse five separate subscriptions into one bill.”
Best news subscriptions, 2025
Read on tomsguide.comVideo
YouTube
Are news subscriptions worth it in the age of free?
“If you open more than four NYT articles a month, the intro tier costs less than the two coffees you'd buy reading them at the café anyway.”
Two Cents · 124k views
Read on youtube.com
Cancellation guide
How to cancel NYT
Documented · ~12 min
- 01
Sign in at nytimes.com and open Subscription Overview from your account menu
- 02
Click Cancel and decline the two retention offers you'll be shown
- 03
Complete cancellation through the live chat agent (US business hours) or by calling 1-866-273-3612
NYT free trial - frequently asked
- Is the NYT free trial really free?
- Yes - the NYT free trial is free for 16 days. A credit card is required, so it renews at $17.00/month unless you cancel first.
- How much does NYT cost after the trial?
- After the free trial, NYT costs $17.00 per month for the Basic Digital plan.
- How do I cancel NYT?
- To cancel NYT: 1. Sign in at nytimes.com and open Subscription Overview from your account menu; 2. Click Cancel and decline the two retention offers you'll be shown; 3. Complete cancellation through the live chat agent (US business hours) or by calling 1-866-273-3612. It takes about 12 minutes and is rated hard to cancel.
- Do I need a credit card for the NYT trial?
- Yes - NYT requires a credit card to start the free trial, so note the renewal date - day 16 - if you only want the trial.
More News trials
The Washington Post
Free
-
After
$12.00
Kept
-
“Strong national reporting at an intro rate that's hard to argue with, and cancellation is easier than it used to be - you can now do it online, though the Post will try to keep you with a discounted counter-offer (often around $3/month for another year). If you like the paper, that retention deal is worth accepting; if not, the online cancel works. Either way, note the date the intro rate ends so the jump to full price doesn't surprise you.”
Magzter GOLD
Free
7d
After
$9.99
Kept
-
“For the price of a couple of print issues, GOLD hands you a whole newsstand - 10,000+ magazines and newspapers, over 100,000 back issues, National Geographic to The Economist to Vogue, readable offline across your phone, tablet, and the web. If you read broadly, the value is real. The honest thing to plan around isn't the reading, it's the renewal: the 7-day free trial takes a card up front and rolls into a paid plan automatically, auto-renew stays on by default afterward, and the most common complaint we found is people who meant to cancel and got charged first. Where you subscribed also decides how you leave - a trial you start inside the iPhone or Android app is cancelled in Apple's or Google's settings, not on Magzter's site. None of that is a reason to skip it; it's a reason to set a reminder for day six. Do that, and it's an easy one to try.”
The Wall Street Journal
Free
-
After
-
Kept
-
“The journalism is first-rate and the intro rate is genuinely cheap - the catch is the exit. If you're in California you can cancel online in a couple of clicks; almost everywhere else the site routes you to a phone line with a retention agent. Subscribe if you'll actually read it daily, and put the renewal date in your calendar the moment you sign up, because the jump from the intro rate to full price is steep and silent.”