Report · Updated 1 September 2026
What happened to MileIQ
The price went from $59.99 to $139.92 in three years. Here is each step, with the date it happened and who owned the company at the time.
The short answer
MileIQ's annual plan has gone from $59.99 in 2023 to $139.92 today — a 133% increase in three years. We verified every step against MileIQ's own archived pricing pages; the ladder is below.
It is usually blamed on Bending Spoons, which acquired MileIQ on 8 July 2025. That is only half right. The first increase — $60 to $90 — happened before the acquisition, while MileIQ was still independent. Bending Spoons then held the price for about seven months and raised it once, to $139.92, in the first half of 2026.
We build a competing app, so read this with that in mind — and then check it, because every figure below comes from a dated snapshot of MileIQ's own pricing page in the Internet Archive rather than from anyone's summary of it. That matters here: most of the articles about this get it wrong. If we have something wrong too, tell us and we will fix it and say that we did.
The price, as MileIQ published it
Each row is a snapshot of mileiq.com/pricing on that date. The "Unlimited" plan is MileIQ's paid individual tier.
| Snapshot | Listed price | Per year | Owner at the time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Jun 2023 | $59.99 / year | $59.99 | Independent |
| 21 May 2024 | $4.99 / mo billed annually | $59.88 | Independent |
| 28 Mar 2025 | $7.50 / mo billed annually | $90.00 | Independent |
| 8 Oct 2025 | $7.50 / mo billed annually | $90.00 | Bending Spoons |
| 12 Feb 2026 | $7.50 / mo billed annually | $90.00 | Bending Spoons |
| 15 Jul 2026 | $11.66 / mo billed annually | $139.92 | Bending Spoons |
| 1 Sep 2026 | $11.66 / mo billed annually | $139.92 | Bending Spoons |
Rows to 15 Jul 2026 are Internet Archive snapshots of mileiq.com/pricing; the final row was checked live on 1 September 2026. Paying monthly rather than annually costs $13.99/month, or $167.88 a year. The free tier has been 40 automatically detected drives per month throughout. Team pricing, listed separately at $8 per user per month, is outside the scope of this page.
Three things this table shows that the other articles don't
- The first increase predates the acquisition. The jump from about $60 to $90 happened between May 2024 and March 2025. Bending Spoons did not buy MileIQ until July 2025. That 50% rise was made by MileIQ as an independent company.
- There was one increase under Bending Spoons in 2026, not two. The price sat at $90 in October 2025 and was still $90 in February 2026. It moved to $139.92 somewhere between February and July 2026. Several competitor blogs describe "two consecutive price hikes in 2026" — the archive does not support that.
- The 133% figure is real, but it spans three years and two owners. $59.99 in 2023 to $139.92 in 2026. Roughly half of that came before the sale.
We are a competitor and it would suit us to pin all of this on the new owner. The record does not support it, so we are not going to.
The ownership timeline
- September 2013 — MileIQ founded by Dan Bomze and Chuck Dietrich.
- 5 November 2015 — Microsoft acquires MileIQ; price undisclosed.
- 18 March 2021 — Microsoft divests it; MileIQ is independent again.
- 8 July 2025 — Bending Spoons acquires MileIQ, in a deal reported at $233 million.
What users said, and when
MileIQ holds 4.6 out of 5 on Trustpilot across 1,553 reviews — 79% of them five stars. This is not a badly reviewed app. But the negative reviews cluster, and what they cluster around changed once the price moved.
Nearly doubling the price.
2 stars · 17 August 202670% hike is just corp greed.
1 star · 1 August 2026Doubling the annual subscription from £45 to £90 is completely unjustifiable. Nothing has changed to warrant a 100% price increase.
1 star · 21 July 2026$140 a year
— withno innovations
since the acquisition.1 star · 27 June 2026Stopped logging
drives; hadbecome very unpredictable
.1 star · 30 October 2025
The pattern in the dates is the interesting part. The 2026 complaints are almost entirely about price. The late-2025 ones are about reliability — drives not logging, crashes after updates. Several reviewers name the change of ownership directly as the cause. One notes that the reply they received to their complaint appeared to be AI-generated.
The pattern at Bending Spoons' other apps
Bending Spoons is a Milan-based technology company that acquires established software businesses. It listed publicly in 2026, raising a reported $1.68 billion, and has said it intends to make on the order of a thousand further acquisitions.
Journalists covering the company — Follow the Money, The Pragmatic Engineer and Appfigures among them — have described a recurring post-acquisition sequence: substantial staff reductions, followed by price increases and changes to free tiers.
| App | Acquired | Reported afterwards |
|---|---|---|
| Evernote | 2023 | Around 80% of staff cut. Pro plan roughly $37/yr before 2023, about $250/yr by 2026. |
| WeTransfer | Jul 2024 | Staff reductions reported at up to 75%; stricter limits on the free plan. |
| Meetup | 2024 | Price rises reaching organisers from late 2024 renewals onward. |
| MileIQ | Jul 2025 | Held at $90 for ~7 months, then raised once to $139.92 (+55%) in the first half of 2026. |
Figures in this table are drawn from press reporting rather than company statements, and we have not independently verified the layoff percentages. They are included because the sequence, not any single number, is what makes the MileIQ increase predictable rather than surprising.
What Bending Spoons says
It is only fair to include their side. The company has said that reducing headcount
immediately after an acquisition reflects a belief that with a smaller, more talent-dense
team, we will be able to do more, faster and better
.
There is also a straightforward commercial reading that does not require anyone to be a villain: MileIQ was, by most accounts, priced below what its users would tolerate, and an acquirer that paid $233 million for it has every incentive to find out where the ceiling actually is. Judging by the fact that MileIQ is currently the top-grossing Finance app on the US App Store, that bet is working.
If you are a MileIQ user, three practical things
- Export your history before you decide anything. Whatever you switch to, or if you stay, you want your drive history in a file you control. Do it while your subscription is active.
- Check what you are actually paying. The annual plan is $139.92. Paying monthly at $13.99 works out to $167.88 a year — a $27.96 difference for the same product.
- Expect the number to move again. This is a read of the pattern, not a prediction we can prove. But the price has moved twice in three years, under two separate owners, and neither move was announced in advance. If you are choosing a tool to keep for five years, the current price is not the number that matters.
Sources
- MileIQ — Wikipedia — ownership timeline, $233m figure
- Willkie Farr & Gallagher — acquisition announcement, 8 July 2025
- mileiq.com/pricing — current pricing, checked 1 September 2026
- Internet Archive — mileiq.com/pricing — every historical price in the table above, at the snapshot dates cited
- Trustpilot — mileiq.com — 4.6/5, 1,553 reviews, quoted above
- Follow the Money and The Pragmatic Engineer — the acquisition pattern
We make a competing mileage app, which is a reason to check this page rather than take it on trust — so every claim above is linked. Corrections to hello@flatmile.com get made and noted.
Questions
Why did MileIQ's price go up?
MileIQ was acquired by Bending Spoons on 8 July 2025. In two steps, under two different owners: from about $59.88 to $90 between May 2024 and March 2025, while MileIQ was still independent; then, after Bending Spoons acquired it in July 2025, held at $90 until at least February 2026 and raised to $139.92 by July 2026. Neither increase was tied to new features, which is the complaint reviewers make most often.
Who owns MileIQ now?
Bending Spoons, a Milan-based technology company that also owns Evernote, WeTransfer, Meetup and Vimeo. It acquired MileIQ in July 2025 in a deal reported at $233 million. Microsoft owned MileIQ from 2015 until 2021.
How much does MileIQ cost in 2026?
$11.66 per month billed annually, which is $139.92 a year, or $13.99 per month billed monthly, which comes to $167.88 a year. The free tier covers 40 automatically detected drives per month. Prices checked on mileiq.com on 1 September 2026.
Will MileIQ get more expensive?
Nobody outside the company can say. What is on the record is that MileIQ has raised its price twice in three years, under two different owners, for a total of 133%, and that Evernote, under MileIQ’s current owner, is reported to have moved from roughly $37 a year before 2023 to about $250 a year by 2026. If you are choosing a tool to keep for several years, that pattern is worth weighing.
Is MileIQ still a good app?
By its ratings, yes. It holds 4.6 out of 5 on Trustpilot across more than 1,500 reviews and 4.8 on the US App Store across roughly 112,000 ratings, and it is currently the top-grossing Finance app in the United States. The complaints are concentrated on price rather than on whether the app works. If the price does not bother you, there is no reliability argument for leaving.