To cancel a Shield subscription, first identify which Shield product is billing you, then cancel through that provider’s account portal or through the app store where you signed up. The three services most people mean by “Shield” are NVIDIA’s GeForce NOW (sometimes called NVIDIA Shield), Hotspot Shield VPN, and the ShieldApp.ai monitoring app. Each has its own cancellation path, and federal law now requires that path to be at least as easy as signing up was.
Figure Out Which Shield Service Is Charging You
Check the descriptor on your bank or credit card statement. NVIDIA charges usually appear as “NVIDIA” or “GFN.” Hotspot Shield charges may show as “PANGO” or “AURA,” the names of its parent companies. ShieldApp charges often appear as “SHIELDAPP” or reference the app store you used. If the descriptor reads “APPLE.COM/BILL” or begins with “GOOGLE*,” you subscribed through an app store and have to cancel there rather than on the provider’s website.
Once you know which service it is, log in with the email you registered under. If you’re not sure which email you used, the billing descriptor sometimes shows a truncated version.
Cancel an NVIDIA GeForce NOW Membership
Sign in at account.nvidia.com, or open Settings inside the GeForce NOW app and select the GeForce NOW Membership section.1NVIDIA. How Do I Cancel My GeForce NOW Membership? Choose the option to change your paid membership to the free tier and confirm.
Paid features stay active through the end of the current billing cycle. After that, the account drops to the free tier, which has shorter session lengths and a standard-priority queue instead of priority access.
Cancel a Hotspot Shield VPN Subscription
If you bought Hotspot Shield directly from its website with a credit card or PayPal, log into your account dashboard and cancel there. You can also email support@hotspotshield.com to request cancellation. Premium access continues until the current term ends, then the account reverts to the free Basic tier.2Hotspot Shield Support Center. How Do I Cancel My Hotspot Shield Subscription?
Hotspot Shield offers a 45-day money-back guarantee on its plans.3Hotspot Shield. VPN Pricing and Plans Cancel within that window and you can request a full refund. After 45 days there’s no prorated refund, but you won’t be billed again once the current period ends.
If you subscribed through the Apple App Store or Google Play, canceling in the Hotspot Shield dashboard will not stop the charges. Cancel through the app store instead.
Cancel a ShieldApp.ai Subscription
Open your account settings in the Shield monitoring app, go to the billing section, and select your subscription. Click “Cancel Subscription” on the right, then confirm on the prompt that appears.4Shield Support. All Things Account Set Up, Billing, and Subscription Future charges stop immediately, and your subscription stays active through the end of the current billing cycle.5Shield Support. How to Cancel My Subscription
Cancel Through Apple, Google, or Amazon
If you subscribed through an app store, the provider’s own website cannot stop the billing. You have to cancel with the platform that processes the payment.
iPhone or iPad
Open Settings, tap your name at the top, then tap Subscriptions. Find the Shield service in the list and tap Cancel Subscription.6Apple Support. If You Want to Cancel a Subscription From Apple If it isn’t listed, the subscription may be billed under a different Apple ID or directly through the provider’s website.
Android (Google Play)
Open the Google Play Store app, tap your profile icon, and go to Payments & Subscriptions, then Subscriptions. Select the Shield service, tap Cancel Subscription, and follow the prompts.7Google Play Support. Cancel, Pause, or Change a Subscription on Google Play
Amazon Appstore
Go to Your Account on Amazon’s website, open the Digital content and devices section, select Your Apps, then choose Your Subscriptions under the Manage menu. Turn off auto-renewal there. Access continues until the current subscription period ends.8Amazon. Manage Your Appstore Subscriptions From the Website
Your Federal Right to Easy Cancellation
If a Shield provider makes canceling unnecessarily hard, federal law is on your side. The Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act requires companies using negative-option billing, where charges continue unless you affirmatively cancel, to provide simple mechanisms for stopping recurring charges to your credit card, debit card, or bank account.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 8403 – Negative Option Marketing on the Internet
The FTC’s Click-to-Cancel rule, which took effect in January 2025, strengthened this. Under the amended Negative Option Rule, sellers must provide a cancellation method at least as easy to use as the sign-up method. If you subscribed online, you must be able to cancel online. A company can’t force you to call a phone number or mail a letter when signing up took a few clicks.10Federal Register. Negative Option Rule You can report violations at reportfraud.ftc.gov.
If the Charges Keep Coming
Sometimes charges continue after you’ve canceled. Most people cancel their card at that point, which creates its own problems. There are better options.
Stop Payment Through Your Bank
For debit card or bank account charges, the Electronic Fund Transfer Act lets you stop preauthorized recurring transfers by notifying your financial institution at least three business days before the next scheduled charge. You can do this orally or in writing, and the bank may ask you to follow an oral request with written confirmation within 14 days.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1693e – Preauthorized Transfers The bank must honor the stop-payment order whether or not the merchant agrees.12eCFR. 12 CFR 1005.10 – Preauthorized Transfers
Dispute a Credit Card Charge
For credit card charges, the Fair Credit Billing Act gives you 60 days from the date the first statement containing the error was sent to dispute it in writing. A charge that keeps hitting after a confirmed cancellation counts as a billing error because you didn’t authorize it.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1666 – Correction of Billing Errors Send a written dispute to the billing-inquiry address on your statement, not the payment address. Include your name, account number, the amount, and why you believe it’s an error. The issuer has 30 days to acknowledge your letter and 90 days to resolve it. While the investigation is open, it cannot report you as delinquent on the disputed amount or take collection action.14Federal Trade Commission. Using Credit Cards and Disputing Charges
Save your cancellation confirmation email or a screenshot. That single piece of evidence is usually enough to win a card dispute.
What Happens to Your Account After You Cancel
Canceling stops future charges but doesn’t cut off access right away. Every Shield service covered here keeps premium features running through the end of the billing period you’ve already paid for. After that date, the account either downgrades to a free tier (both NVIDIA GeForce NOW and Hotspot Shield offer one) or locks you out of premium features.
Stored data is a separate question. Some providers hold your settings for a short grace period; others delete them when the subscription expires. Export any configurations or data you want to keep before the paid period ends. For Hotspot Shield, you can request permanent deletion of your entire account through the app by tapping the profile icon and selecting “Delete account” on iOS or “Remove Account” on Android, which wipes everything.15Hotspot Shield Support Center. How to Delete Your Account If you might come back later, cancel the subscription without deleting the account so your data survives any grace period the provider offers.