How to cancel a subscription on Google Play

Cancelling a Google Play subscription takes about a minute once you know where Google keeps it, but the path is buried under your profile icon, and the most common mistake costs people money for months. Here's exactly how to do it on Android and on a computer, how to stop a free trial before it charges you, and how to make sure the charge is actually gone.

The fast way: one tap

Google Play subscriptions can only be cancelled inside Google Play. There's no shortcut on the company's own website for store-billed subs. It doesn't matter which device you're on: a Google Play subscription cancels the same way from any Android phone or tablet, or from a computer. What matters is that it's billed through Google Play, not Apple or the company directly. The official destination is the Play Store subscriptions center, and you can jump straight there:

• On your phone, open play.google.com/store/account/subscriptions; it opens the Play Store on the right screen.
• Or skip the digging: in On Top of Subs, one tap opens the cancellation screen, with no menus to hunt through. (Works the same for App Store subscriptions.)

Prefer to do it by hand? The full steps are below.

Cancel a Google Play subscription on Android

1. Open the Google Play Store app on your Android phone or tablet.
2. Tap your profile icon in the top-right corner.
3. Tap Payments & subscriptions, then Subscriptions.
4. Select the subscription you want to cancel from the list.
5. Tap Cancel subscription, choose a reason if asked, and follow the prompts to confirm.

Cancel from a computer (web)

No Android device handy? You can cancel from any browser:

1. Go to play.google.com/store/account/subscriptions.
2. Sign in with the same Google account you used to subscribe.
3. Find the subscription, click Manage, then Cancel subscription.
4. Confirm. The status will change to "Expires on [date]".

Cancel a free trial before it charges you

A free trial on Google Play converts to a paid plan automatically the moment it ends. To avoid the charge, cancel any time before the trial end date. You'll still keep access for the rest of the trial, and you won't be billed. The steps are identical to cancelling a paid subscription above.

Can't find the subscription in Google Play?

If a charge keeps appearing but it isn't in your Play Store subscriptions list, it's almost certainly billed somewhere else:

• Directly by the company. You signed up on their website, so you cancel in your account there.
• Through Apple. You subscribed on an iPhone or iPad, so it's an App Store subscription (Settings > your name > Subscriptions).
• Through PayPal or a card. Check the merchant name on your bank or PayPal statement.

The quickest way to tell where a charge lives is to match the merchant name on your statement. On Top of Subs lines up your subscriptions across the App Store, Google Play and your cards so you can see, at a glance, which is billed where.

After you cancel: 3 things to check

• Confirm the cancellation. Google sends a confirmation email and the subscription should now read "Expires on [date]". If it still says "Renews", it didn't go through, so repeat the steps.
• Note your access end date. You've paid through the end of the current period, so you keep access until then. There's no need to cancel twice.
• Make sure you're not paying for the same thing elsewhere. Lots of people end up double-subscribed: once on Google Play and once direct, or once per family member. Check your other stores and cards.

Refunds on Google Play

Cancelling is not the same as a refund. By default Google doesn't refund the current billing period; you simply aren't charged again. If you were charged by mistake or never used the service, you can request a refund within Google's eligibility window at play.google.com/store/account, or contact the app's developer directly, who can issue a refund at their discretion.

Frequently asked questions