What CleanMyMac actually costs in 2026

CleanMyMac's page advertises "starting at $3.33/month." That number is real, but your card is charged $39.95 once a year — the monthly figure is the annual plan divided by twelve. This guide lays out every way to buy CleanMyMac, what each one costs, and what each one actually covers — with dates and sources for every figure, so you can check them.

Last updated: August 15, 2026 · ~6 min read · Full disclosure: we make Vaulith, a competing cleaner. That is exactly why every number here is sourced — judge us by whether they hold up.

The short answer

There are four ways to buy CleanMyMac. Here they are side by side, at list price, for one Mac.

Sources: macpaw.com/cleanmymac for the advertised monthly figure; annual and one-time prices as billed in MacPaw's store, checked August 15, 2026; setapp.com/pricing, checked August 14, 2026. MacPaw runs seasonal discounts and prices exclude tax — trust their checkout over this page.

Two more useful facts before the details. Every marketplace offers a free 7-day trial with full functionality, per MacPaw's own comparison of its editions. And there is no permanently free version of CleanMyMac — after the trial, you pay or you uninstall.

Decoding "$3.33 a month"

The advertised "$3.33/month" is the one-Mac annual plan divided by twelve. You do not pay $3.33 each month. MacPaw's own store says it plainly next to the checkout button: "Billed $39.95 per year" (macpaw.com/store/cleanmymac, checked August 15, 2026).

This is not a scandal. Most of the software industry advertises annual plans this way, because a small monthly number feels friendlier than the yearly bill. But you budget with the number that hits your card, so that is the number a pricing page should lead with. It is why our own pricing pledge requires the all-in total next to every monthly figure — including ours.

One thing the subscription genuinely buys: upgrades. MacPaw's support pages state that subscriptions include "both updates to the current major version and upgrades to future major versions" (purchase options, checked August 2026). As long as you keep paying, you are never stranded on an old version.

The one-time purchase is real — but read the version clause

The $119.95 one-time license is often described as "lifetime." MacPaw's own wording is more careful, and worth quoting: you receive "only updates and fixes for your current major version" (MacPaw support, checked August 2026). When the next major version ships, your license does not carry over to it.

So the one-time purchase is a lifetime of the version, not a lifetime of the product. Your copy keeps working. It keeps getting fixes for its own version. But the question that decides its value is one nobody can answer for you in advance: how long until the next major version, and will you want it? MacPaw's store does advertise upgrade discounts of up to half off for existing customers (editions page, checked August 2026), which softens the cliff without removing it.

This version-scoped model is common — it is not unique to MacPaw, and it is a defensible way to fund development. We simply think the scope belongs in the headline, not the support pages. When we compare it to how our own lifetime license is scoped, we spell both out in the same breath: see the subscription-or-lifetime math.

The Setapp route

Setapp is MacPaw's subscription bundle: one fee, a library Setapp advertises as 330-plus apps across Mac, iOS, and the web (setapp.com, checked August 15, 2026), CleanMyMac included. The base Mac plan is $14.99 a month plus tax — $179.88 a year — billed monthly, with a 7-day trial (setapp.com/pricing, checked August 14, 2026).

Judged only as a way to get CleanMyMac, that is the most expensive route by far — roughly four and a half times the price of the annual plan. Judged as a bundle you would use anyway, it can be fine value. Be honest with yourself about which buyer you are: if CleanMyMac is the only app in the bundle you open, you are paying the bundle price for one app.

Five years of CleanMyMac, in dollars

Utilities are keep-forever software, so the honest comparison is the multi-year one. At list prices, for one Mac, assuming no price changes:

Arithmetic from the sourced list prices above. Seasonal discounts, multi-Mac tiers, and taxes will move your real total — MacPaw's store sells plans for one, two, or five Macs.

What you get for the money — the fair part

Price without product is half a comparison, so here is the other half. CleanMyMac is a polished, broad suite: cleanup plus malware removal, an app updater, menu-bar system monitors, and duplicate-file tools. MacPaw advertises 29 million downloads and an average of "5.5 GB of junk cleaned on the first scan" (macpaw.com/cleanmymac, checked August 14, 2026). If you want the biggest feature set in the category, its price buys real product, and we say so plainly in our side-by-side comparison.

Our disagreement with CleanMyMac is not that it is overpriced. It is about what you can verify: where analysis runs, what leaves your machine, and what happens to a file after "clean" — the things a price tag does not show. That case, with sources, lives on the comparison page.

How Vaulith prices next to it

For scale, here is ours, from our pricing page: Vaulith Pro is $29 a year billed once — or $3.99 a month, which totals $47.88 a year — and covers macOS and Windows on up to 3 computers. A Founding Member lifetime license is $129 once and covers every v1.x update. The free tier is permanent: full scan, 500 MB of cleanup a month, no account, no card. First purchases carry a 7-day money-back guarantee.

We publish the renewal terms too: the price you sign up at is the price you renew at, and we email you twice before every annual renewal with a cancel link. That is the standard we think every utility should meet — hold us to it, and hold MacPaw to it.

Keep going

• Subscription or lifetime? The actual math — break-even arithmetic for the whole category, ours included.
• The best Mac cleaner apps in 2026, compared honestly — who each tool is genuinely right for.
• Vaulith vs CleanMyMac — the full feature-by-feature comparison, with sources.
• Vaulith pricing — every plan, every term, all-in totals everywhere.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a free version of CleanMyMac?

No. Every marketplace offers a free 7-day trial with full functionality, but there is no permanent free tier — after the trial you need a subscription or the one-time license.

How much is CleanMyMac per year?

List price is $39.95 a year for one Mac, advertised as "$3.33/month." Plans for two and five Macs cost more, and MacPaw discounts often — check their store for today's number.

Is the one-time CleanMyMac purchase a lifetime license?

It never expires, so in that sense yes. But it includes updates only for the major version you bought; the next major version is a new purchase. Whether that matters depends on how long the current version stays current — which nobody can promise in advance.

CleanMyMac and Setapp are trademarks of MacPaw. Vaulith is not affiliated with or endorsed by MacPaw. Prices reflect published figures as of the dates shown and exclude tax. If you represent a product mentioned here and believe something is inaccurate or out of date, email support@vaulith.com and we will review and correct it promptly.