At Savzz, we help people find ways to spend less and save more. This calculator looks at something most people have never actually added up, the real cost of social media. Not just the money spent on TikTok Shop hauls or influencer-recommended products, but the value of the time spent scrolling that most people never think of as a cost at all.
Whether you are on TikTok for two hours a day or Instagram for four, this tool works out what that time is worth, how much social media is nudging you to spend, and what you could save if you cut back even a little.
Who Is This Calculator For?
This tool is for anyone who uses social media regularly and has wondered whether it is costing them more than they realise. It is especially useful if you are:
- A regular TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube user who has never added up how many hours per year go into scrolling across all your platforms
- Someone who shops through TikTok Shop or regularly buys things because an influencer recommended them, and wants to see the annual total clearly
- A young person or student who wants to understand how social media affects their spending habits and how much time it takes up
- A parent trying to understand what your child or teenager might be spending through social media platforms and in-app purchases
- Anyone trying to cut back on screen time or impulse spending and wanting a clear financial reason to do so
- Someone curious about opportunity cost and wanting to see what your scrolling time is worth in money terms if you used it differently
Who Is This Calculator Not Suitable For?
- Anyone looking for a clinical assessment of social media addiction. This is a financial awareness tool. It shows you the time and money cost of your social media use. It is not a medical or psychological evaluation. If you feel like social media is seriously affecting your mental health, speaking to a GP or using resources like the NHS mental health support page is a better starting point.
- Businesses or social media managers. If social media use is part of your job, the opportunity cost calculation does not apply in the same way. The tool is designed for personal leisure use.
How to Use the Social Media Cost Calculator
The calculator has four sections. Work through each one and the results update as you go.
Section one covers your daily time on each platform. Enter how many hours per day you typically spend on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, X, Reddit, and any other apps. Use the Don’t use button on anything you do not use. The calculator totals your daily, weekly, and annual hours automatically.
Section two covers spending influenced by social media. This includes TikTok Shop purchases, influencer-recommended products, impulse buys from ads, food delivery ordered after seeing content, creator subscriptions, in-app purchases, and events or experiences discovered online. Enter your typical monthly spend for each one.
Section three lets you choose your hourly rate or earning potential. This calculates the opportunity cost of your scrolling time, what that time could be worth if used differently. You can choose minimum wage, the UK average wage, a freelance rate, or enter your own figure.
Section four is a quick habits check, seven yes or no questions about how you use social media day to day. Your answers give you a personalised summary at the end.
Fill in your typical daily usage for each platform and your spending habits. Use the Don't use button on anything that does not apply. Everything updates instantly.
Section 1: Time on Social Media
How many hours per day do you spend on each platform on average?
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Section 2: Spending Influenced by Social Media
How much do you spend per month on each of these, driven by what you see online?
Section 3: What Is Your Time Worth?
If you had those hours back, what could you realistically do with them? This calculates the opportunity cost of your scrolling time.
Section 4: Usage Habits Check
Answer honestly. This is just for your own awareness — nothing here is a clinical assessment.
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How Much Time Do UK People Spend on Social Media Per Day?
According to Ofcom’s 2024 Online Nation report, UK adults spend an average of around three hours and 40 minutes online each day, with social media making up a large share of that time. For younger people the figure is higher. Ofcom data shows 16 to 24 year olds spend more than four hours per day on social platforms on average.
Here is what that adds up to over a full year:
Two hours per day: 730 hours per year. That is over 30 full days of your life spent scrolling.
Three hours per day: 1,095 hours per year. More than 45 full days.
Four hours per day: 1,460 hours per year. Over 60 full days of every year.
Most people, when they see this number for the first time, find it more than they expected. The hours feel small day to day but they add up fast.
The Hidden Cost of TikTok Shop and Influencer Spending
TikTok Shop launched in the UK in 2021 and has grown into one of the fastest-growing online shopping platforms in the country. In 2023 and 2024 it became one of the most discussed shopping behaviours among younger UK consumers, with searches for “TikTok made me buy it” becoming a genuine cultural phrase rather than just a hashtag.
Here is what makes social media spending different from regular online shopping:
You did not go looking for it. Regular online shopping starts with a need. Social media shopping starts with seeing something and feeling like you want it. That is a very different buying trigger. Research from the University of Bath found that exposure to influencer content directly increased purchase intention even when people were aware they were being marketed to.
The purchase feels smaller than it is. A £15 impulse buy from TikTok Shop once a week feels like nothing in the moment. Over a year that is £780 on items you did not plan to buy when you opened the app.
It does not feel like advertising. A sponsored post from an influencer you follow feels different from a traditional advert, even when it is exactly the same thing. Influencer marketing works because the recommendation comes from someone you feel connected to, making it harder to apply the same scepticism you would to a regular ad.
The categories are exactly what younger people spend on most. TikTok and Instagram are particularly effective at driving sales in beauty, skincare, fashion, and food. These are already high-spend categories for 16 to 35 year olds. Social media adds an extra layer of purchase triggers on top of already habitual spending in those areas.
What Is Opportunity Cost and Why Does It Matter?
Opportunity cost is the value of what you give up when you choose to do one thing instead of another. In plain terms, if you spend two hours scrolling TikTok, that is two hours you could have spent doing something else. The question is: what is that time worth?
At the UK average wage of around £17.50 per hour, two hours of scrolling per day represents £35 in potential earning time. Over a year at that rate it is £12,775. Not everyone could convert scrolling time directly into earnings, many people are watching in their free time or during downtime that would not otherwise be productive. But even for people who could not turn every hour into income, the exercise of seeing the number makes the time feel more real.
The calculator lets you choose the rate that makes sense for your situation. If you would not earn money with the time, set the earning toggle to no and the opportunity cost drops to zero. The spending total still gives you a meaningful number on its own.
How Social Media Affects Spending Habits Without You Noticing
The connection between social media use and spending is well documented and it works in ways that are easy to miss until you see the numbers.
Doomscrolling and impulse buying are linked. Studies from Loughborough University and the University of Wolverhampton both found that late-night social media use was connected to higher rates of impulse purchasing. When you are tired, your resistance to buying things you see drops. Platforms know this and their algorithms are designed to serve content at times when you are most likely to engage.
Comparison drives spending. Seeing other people’s lifestyles, products, and experiences creates a low-level pressure to match what you see. This does not always mean buying the same thing, it often means feeling like your current version of something is not good enough and needs upgrading. The UK Mental Health Foundation found that 40% of young people reported feeling pressure to look or buy certain things because of what they saw on social media.
Food delivery is one of the most underreported categories. Watching food content on TikTok or Instagram at 9pm and ordering a takeaway half an hour later is a pattern millions of UK people recognise. A £20 takeaway ordered twice a week that was not planned adds up to over £2,000 per year, much of it driven by content rather than hunger.
Creator subscriptions are easy to forget about. Patreon memberships, YouTube Premium, Twitch subscriptions, and similar ongoing payments are easy to sign up for in the moment and easy to forget about. Many people have two or three running simultaneously without realising the combined monthly total.
TikTok Shop: What You Need to Know
TikTok Shop allows creators and brands to sell products directly through videos and livestreams. Viewers can tap a product tag while watching and buy without leaving the app. The experience is designed to make purchasing as frictionless as possible.
This frictionless design is the point. Every extra step between seeing something and buying it reduces the chance of a purchase completing. TikTok Shop removes almost all of those steps. You see it, you tap it, you buy it. Your payment details are already saved.
For buyers, the things worth knowing before using TikTok Shop are:
Check the seller ratings carefully. TikTok Shop includes sellers from many countries and quality control varies. Reading reviews before buying from an unfamiliar seller is worth doing.
Returns can be more complicated than on Amazon. The returns process on TikTok Shop varies by seller and is not as standardised as on larger platforms. Check the returns policy before buying, particularly for higher-value items.
The price is not always the cheapest available. Products on TikTok Shop are sometimes available cheaper on other platforms. A quick search before buying takes 30 seconds and often saves money.
How Much Do Influencer Recommendations Actually Cost UK Shoppers Per Year?
UK influencer marketing has grown into a multi-billion pound industry. YouGov data from 2024 found that around 35% of UK adults aged 18 to 34 had bought something because of an influencer recommendation in the previous three months. For 18 to 24 year olds the figure was higher.
The average spend per influencer-influenced purchase in the UK is estimated at around £25 to £40 per transaction. For someone making two influencer-influenced purchases per month at an average of £30 each, the annual total is £720. Add in the TikTok Shop impulse buys, the food deliveries triggered by food content, and the creator subscriptions, and the combined social media-influenced spend for a regular platform user in the UK typically sits between £600 and £1,500 per year.
Most people, when they see this figure for the first time, think it is higher than they expected. The calculator above gives you your own personalised version of this number based on your actual habits.
Practical Ways to Reduce Your Social Media Spending
You do not have to delete all your apps to make a difference. Small changes to how you use social media make a real difference to the financial cost without taking away the enjoyment.
Remove saved payment details from TikTok Shop and Instagram. Making yourself re-enter your card details before every purchase adds friction to the process. That extra step is often enough to stop an impulse buy happening. You can always add them back for a planned purchase.
Turn off notifications for shopping features. TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube all send notifications designed to bring you back to the app and surface products. Turning off shopping notifications specifically reduces the trigger without affecting content from people you actually follow.
Use the screen time features already on your phone. Both iPhone and Android have built-in screen time tracking and limits. Setting a daily limit on specific apps does not block them, it just makes you aware when you have hit your self-set limit. Most people find awareness alone changes their habits.
Unfollow accounts that make you spend. If there is a specific creator whose recommendations you consistently buy from, unfollowing them is the most direct way to remove that spending trigger. You can always search for their content when you actually want it rather than having it delivered to your feed.
Set a monthly social media spending budget. Treating social media-influenced spending like any other budget category makes it visible. Set a monthly figure you are comfortable with for TikTok Shop, influencer products, and subscriptions combined. Track it against the budget each month.
Search for discount codes before buying anything you see online. When you do decide to buy something you saw on social media, search Savzz first. Many of the brands sold through TikTok Shop, promoted by influencers, and advertised on Instagram have working discount codes available.
Buying through a code rather than straight from the app saves money on purchases you were going to make anyway. Check our skincare deals, cosmetics vouchers, clothing offers, and vitamins and supplements promo codes before you checkout on anything you discovered through social media.
The Smarter Way to Use Social Media: Enjoy It, But Know the Cost
Social media is not going anywhere and for most people it is a genuine source of entertainment, connection, and creativity. The point of this calculator is not to make you feel bad about using it. It is to make the cost visible so you can decide whether your current balance feels right.
For most people who use the calculator, one of two things happens. Either the annual total is lower than expected and they feel reassured. Or it is higher than expected and they find one or two specific changes they want to make, usually around spending rather than time.
The spending changes are often the most impactful. Removing a payment method, unsubscribing from one creator platform, or simply pausing before buying something you saw in a video can save hundreds of pounds per year without changing how you spend your time at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does the average UK person spend because of social media per year?
Research from YouGov and the Advertising Standards Authority suggests the average UK adult who is influenced by social media spends between £600 and £1,500 per year on purchases triggered by content they saw online. This covers products, food delivery, subscriptions, and in-app purchases. The figure is higher for 18 to 34 year olds who are the most active on platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
Does TikTok Shop cost more than buying elsewhere?
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Products on TikTok Shop are not always the cheapest version available. It is always worth a quick search on Google Shopping or Amazon before completing a TikTok Shop purchase to check whether the same item is available for less elsewhere. The convenience of buying in-app often comes at a small premium.
How much is two hours of scrolling worth in money terms?
At the UK average wage of around £17.50 per hour, two hours of scrolling per day is worth around £35 in potential earning or productive time. Over a year that is around £12,775. Whether that time would actually be used to earn money is a personal question, the calculator lets you set your own earning intention.
Is this calculator saying social media is bad?
No. It is a financial awareness tool. Social media is a normal part of life for most people and it provides real value in entertainment, connection, and information. The calculator just puts numbers on the time and money cost so you can make your own informed decisions about whether your current habits feel right to you.
What is the best way to reduce spending triggered by social media?
Removing saved payment details from shopping apps is the single most effective change for most people. It adds friction between seeing something and buying it. The second most effective change is unfollowing accounts whose recommendations you consistently act on. Both of these reduce spending without reducing your time on social media at all.
Does the habits section diagnose social media addiction?
No. The habits section is an awareness check, not a clinical assessment. The questions highlight common patterns that many people recognise in their own use. If social media is causing real distress or affecting your daily life, speaking to a GP or using NHS mental health resources is the right step. This tool is for financial awareness only.
Who built this calculator?
The Savzz Social Media Cost Awareness Calculator was built by the team at Savzz.co.uk, a UK discount code and money-saving site. We built it because the true cost of social media, combining time, influenced spending, and opportunity cost, is almost never visible to the people paying it. Most people are surprised by their annual total. The calculator is completely free to use with no sign-up required.
