What happens when you cancel a subscription halfway through the month

Cancelling stops the renewal, not the subscription

I build apps for a living, and the cancel button is the part of them I most wish people understood. Most people expect it to switch a service off. For subscriptions, it does something narrower: it stops the next payment.

Say you pay $9.99 on the 1st of each month and cancel on the 15th. The service keeps working until the end of the month, then does not renew. You have not lost the second half of the month, and you have not got it back either.

That is how the App Store, Google Play and most services that bill you directly work. Google Play spells it out: you can keep using a subscription for the time you have already paid for. On an iPhone, a cancelled subscription shows the date it expires instead of a renewal date.

The day you decide is the best day to cancel

I see no benefit in waiting for the day before renewal, because access runs to the end of the period either way. Waiting only gives you the chance to forget, and a forgotten renewal is a full extra month or year.

My rule is simple: cancel on the day you decide you are done, and keep using it until the end date. The only exception is a service that cuts access the moment you cancel, which some do with free trials. The cancellation screen shows the end date, so check it before you confirm.

What each kind of billing does

Who charges you decides the rules, and that is not always the company whose app you use. A subscription bought inside an iPhone app is billed by Apple; one started on the service’s website is billed by the service.

Billed by	After you cancel	Money back for the rest of the period
Apple (App Store)	Runs until the renewal date, then stops	Only if Apple approves a refund request
Google Play	Runs for the time already paid for	Possible if you ask within 48 hours of the purchase; after that, the developer decides
The service directly (Spotify, Netflix and others)	Usually runs to the end of the billing period	Rare, and up to the service
A yearly plan	Runs to the end of the year	The same rules, with more money at stake

The yearly row is the one to watch. Google Play gives the example of a yearly subscription bought on 1 January and cancelled on 1 July: it keeps working until 31 December, and nothing more is charged. Nothing is refunded for those six months either.

When you can get money back

Refunds for subscriptions exist, but they are narrow.

• Google Play: if you ask within 48 hours of the purchase, Google may refund it; after that, the app’s developer decides. Request it from Payments & subscriptions, then Budget & order history, and Report a problem on the order. A decision usually comes within a day, and can take up to four.
• Apple: sign in at reportaproblem.apple.com, choose Request a refund, and pick the subscription. Apple decides case by case.
• Direct billing: each service sets its own policy. Look for a refunds page in its help centre, and expect most to say no for time already started.

A refund request has the best chance soon after a charge you did not mean to pay, such as a renewal you forgot about. It has almost none for a month you used half of.

Cancel in the right place

The cancel button lives with whoever bills you, and nowhere else.

1. App Store: on an iPhone, open Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions, choose the subscription and tap Cancel Subscription.
2. Google Play: in the Play Store, tap your profile picture, then Payments & subscriptions, then Subscriptions, and choose Cancel subscription.
3. Direct: sign in on the service’s website and look in account, plan or billing settings.

Deleting the app is not one of the ways. Google Play says so outright: uninstalling an app does not cancel its subscription. If you are not sure who bills you, your bank statement shows the name on the charge.

Free trials follow slightly different rules

A free trial turns into a paid subscription on a set date, and the timing of a cancellation matters more. Apple asks you to cancel at least 24 hours before a trial ends to avoid being charged. Some services keep the trial running after you cancel; others end it straight away.

The habit I would recommend is to note the end date the day you start a trial.

Cancel early, use it to the end

Cancelling halfway through a month costs nothing extra and rarely gets anything back. What it does is guarantee the next payment never happens.

Decide, cancel the same day, and keep using the service until the date the cancellation screen shows. If a charge has already gone through that you did not want, ask for a refund straight away, while the request is still inside the window that counts.