People sometimes say that joining a cryonics organization costs less than Netflix.
I understand why. Cryopreservation sounds impossibly expensive, so comparing the membership fee with something familiar makes it feel less distant.
I also think we should stop using that comparison.
If somebody asks what cryopreservation costs and we answer with the €50 monthly membership, we have not made the price easier to understand. We have answered a different question.
The preservation itself costs much more. That is not hidden in the fine print, and it should not appear as a correction after somebody has already joined.
The honest explanation is still encouraging. There are two separate bills, they are paid in different ways, and most members do not need €200,000 sitting in a bank account today.
There are two bills
The first bill is membership.
In Europe, Tomorrow.bio membership currently costs €50 per month or €500 per year. A lifetime membership costs €15,000, which is credited against the later preservation fee.
Membership pays for readiness while the member is alive. It supports onboarding, contracts, funding administration, member support and the standby capacity that must exist before an emergency happens.
It also gives members access to lower preservation prices. The full benefits and current options are listed on the Tomorrow.bio membership page.
The second bill is the cryopreservation itself.
The current member price is €200,000 for whole-body cryopreservation or €75,000 for brain-only cryopreservation. The fee becomes due at legal death and covers the procedure and long-term care.
Tomorrow.bio publishes the complete breakdown on its cryopreservation cost page. The Codex also explains why cryonics costs so much and how the whole-body and brain-only figures differ.
These are not two descriptions of the same charge. They are two different financial commitments.
Calling €50 the cost of cryopreservation is a little like describing the cost of owning a home by quoting its insurance. The smaller number is real. It is simply not the whole arrangement.
The large number is real. So is the way people fund it
Here is where the opposite mistake happens.
People see €200,000 and assume cryopreservation is only for somebody who can transfer that amount from savings. In our member interviews, this assumption appeared more than once.
For some people, discovering the actual funding mechanism changed the subject from fantasy to a practical decision.
Most Tomorrow.bio members use life insurance. The policy is arranged while the member is alive and is intended to provide the preservation funding after legal death.
That turns one very large future bill into a premium paid from current income.
It does not turn the bill into €50. The real recurring amount is the membership fee plus the insurance premium.
There is no honest universal number for that second part.
Insurance pricing depends on age, health, smoking status, occupation, policy duration and other personal details. Two people asking for the same benefit can receive very different offers.
Term insurance can be relatively affordable because it covers a fixed period. If the term ends, the cover ends too, unless the member has arranged what comes next.
Whole-of-life cover is designed to continue as long as its conditions and premiums are maintained. It generally costs more.
These are ordinary features of life insurance, not special rules invented for cryopreservation. MoneyHelper explains the main policy types and pricing factors in its life insurance guide.
Our own term and whole-life insurance article looks at the choice specifically for cryopreservation funding.
This is the part worth understanding early. The preservation price is standard. The route to funding it is personal.
Affordable does not mean trivial
Once the numbers are separated, people often want another shortcut. How much does the complete arrangement cost each month?
The annoying answer is that we need to know who is asking.
€50 can be casual spending for one household and a serious sacrifice for another. Add an individualized insurance premium and the gap becomes larger.
This is why the Netflix line bothers me.
It assumes the reader has the same budget, priorities and alternatives as the person making the comparison. It makes affordability sound like a test of discipline.
Sometimes people do have room in their budget and simply have not decided whether cryopreservation matters enough to use it. That is a real choice.
Sometimes rent, food, children, debt or medical care already use the available money. Telling that person to cancel entertainment is not financial planning.
A serious arrangement must survive ordinary life.
If somebody can pay for three months but not three years, the low starting number has not helped. A lapsed funding policy cannot pay for a future procedure.
The goal is not to choose the cheapest-looking plan. It is to build one that can remain funded through foreseeable changes in income, health and family responsibilities.
That may mean comparing policy types, changing the preservation option, using eligible reduced membership support or considering another approved source of funds.
The smartest financial path is the one that fits the person and still works when it is needed. It is not automatically the plan with the smallest first payment.
Give people the real price
We should be able to say two things at the same time.
Cryopreservation is expensive. It is also financially accessible to more people than the €200,000 headline suggests.
There is no contradiction there.
A member does not usually pay the full preservation fee from monthly income. Membership keeps the arrangement and readiness active. Insurance or another accepted funding method covers the much larger later bill.
Some members arrange this quickly. Others spend far longer finding suitable cover in their country, answering underwriting questions or deciding what they can maintain.
Our interviews do not tell us what every prospective member experiences. They do show why one catchy monthly number is a poor substitute for an individual plan.
If the standard membership amount does not fit, say so. If insurance is confusing, ask us to walk through the process.
If the quote is too high, look at the available alternatives before assuming the entire idea is impossible.
The starting point is setting up a funding method, not pretending that the funding question does not exist.
Honestly, the full explanation is not difficult.
Membership currently costs €50 a month, €500 a year or €15,000 once.
Cryopreservation is a separate €200,000 whole-body or €75,000 brain-only fee for members. Most members fund that later fee with life insurance.
Your premium depends on you.
That answer is less catchy than comparing cryopreservation with a streaming service. It is also much more useful, because somebody can make an actual decision with it.
Cryopreservation does not become credible by making the number sound small. It becomes credible when the complete price is clear and the person can see a realistic way to fund it.
TL;DR: Tomorrow.bio membership is one recurring cost. Cryopreservation has a separate €200,000 whole-body or €75,000 brain-only fee, which most members fund through life insurance. The real monthly cost therefore depends on the person and their funding plan.
Further reading