To cancel a subscription on an app, you have to cancel it through whichever company is actually billing you: Apple, Google Play, a streaming device like Roku or Fire TV, the service’s own website, or in some cases your wireless carrier. Deleting the app does nothing. The charge lives in your account with the billing platform, not inside the app, so the app can sit uninstalled on no phone at all and the money will still come out every month until you cancel the right way.
Figure Out Who Is Actually Billing You
Before you can cancel anything, open your bank or credit card statement and look at the merchant name on the charge. That name tells you where to go.
- Apple subscriptions usually show as “apple.com/bill” or “itunes.com/bill.”1Apple Support. Get Help With Charges From apple.com/bill
- Google charges often appear as “GOOGLE*” followed by the service name.
- Roku charges show as “Roku,” “Roku for ___,” or “The Roku Channel.”2Roku Support. Manage or Cancel Subscriptions on Roku
- If the descriptor matches none of these, the service is billing you directly through its own website.
- If the charge isn’t on your card at all, check your phone bill: some subscriptions are billed through your wireless carrier.
Match the descriptor to the right section below.
Cancel on iPhone or iPad
Open Settings and tap your name at the top. Tap Subscriptions. You’ll see every active and expired subscription tied to your Apple Account. Tap the one you want to end, scroll down if needed, and tap Cancel Subscription. Confirm when prompted.3Apple Support. If You Want to Cancel a Subscription From Apple
You keep access through the end of the period you already paid for. When the cancellation goes through, the subscription screen stops showing a renewal date and starts showing an expiration date instead. That’s how you know it’s done.4Apple Support. See Your Purchases and Subscriptions in the App Store on iPhone – Section: Change or Cancel a Subscription
Cancel on Android
Open the Google Play Store app and tap your profile icon. Choose Payments & subscriptions, then Subscriptions. Pick the subscription you want to stop, tap Cancel subscription, and follow the prompts. Google may ask why you’re canceling; you can skip that.5Google Play Help. Cancel, Pause, or Change a Subscription on Google Play
Access continues until the end of the current billing cycle. The date that used to be your renewal date becomes your expiration date.
Cancel on Streaming Devices
Subscriptions you signed up for through a streaming device have to be canceled through that device’s platform, not through your phone.
Roku
Go to my.roku.com/subscriptions in a browser and sign in. Under Active subscriptions, pick the one you want to end, choose Manage subscription, and select Turn off auto-renew. You can also do it from the Roku itself: highlight the app on the home screen, press the Star button on the remote, and choose Manage subscription.2Roku Support. Manage or Cancel Subscriptions on Roku A few services, including Disney+, Hulu, and Sling TV, must be canceled through the service’s own website even when Roku processes the billing.
Amazon Fire TV and Prime Video Channels
Sign in at amazon.com, go to Your Account, and select Your Subscriptions. Find the add-on, select Unsubscribe, and confirm.6Amazon Customer Service. Cancel Your Prime Video Add-On Subscription If you originally bought a Prime Video channel through Apple instead of Amazon, cancel it in your Apple subscription settings at least 24 hours before the next renewal.
Cancel Directly Through the Service’s Website
Netflix, Spotify, and plenty of other services handle their own billing. For those, open a regular web browser, sign in on the service’s site, and look in account or profile settings for a plan or membership page. The cancel option is usually a few clicks in, often under a label like “Manage Plan” or “Billing.”
Federal law requires online sellers who use automatic renewals to give you a straightforward way to stop recurring charges.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 8403 – Negative Option Marketing on the Internet If a service buries the cancellation behind a mandatory phone call or hides it in a way that’s clearly harder than signing up was, that practice may violate the law, and the FTC has pursued major companies over it.
Subscriptions Billed Through Your Wireless Carrier
If a charge doesn’t appear in any app store subscription manager and doesn’t match a direct-to-service billing descriptor, check your phone bill. Carrier billing routes the charge through your wireless provider, so it won’t show up in Apple or Google settings at all. Contact your carrier to cancel.3Apple Support. If You Want to Cancel a Subscription From Apple Most providers let you manage these through their app or website under add-ons or premium services.
Canceling a Free Trial Before the Charge Hits
Free trials are built to roll into paid subscriptions the second the trial ends. If you don’t want to pay, cancel before that happens. Set a calendar reminder at least a day in advance.8Federal Trade Commission. Getting In and Out of Free Trials, Auto-Renewals, and Negative Option Subscriptions
Apple specifically requires cancellation at least 24 hours before the trial ends to avoid being billed.3Apple Support. If You Want to Cancel a Subscription From Apple On Apple devices, canceling early usually doesn’t cut your access immediately; you keep the trial through its original end date.
If You Already Got Charged for a Renewal You Didn’t Want
You can ask for a refund, but approval isn’t guaranteed, and acting quickly helps.
For Apple, go to reportaproblem.apple.com, sign in, find the charge in your purchase history, and select Request a refund.9Apple Support. Subscriptions and Billing Apple reviews each request individually.
For Google Play, eligibility depends on what you bought, when, and where you are.10Google Play Help. Learn About Google Play Refund Policies Most apps are made by third-party developers who set their own refund policies, so going directly to the developer is often faster. For unauthorized charges specifically, you have 120 days from the transaction to report them to Google.
Confirm the Cancellation Actually Went Through
Go back into the subscription screen a few minutes later and check that the status reads “Canceled,” “Expired,” or “Ending on [date].” Take a screenshot. Most services also send a confirmation email, but the screenshot is what helps you if you have to dispute a later charge with your bank.
Watch your statement over the next billing cycle. If a charge shows up anyway, dispute it with your bank with the screenshot in hand.
A New Credit Card Won’t Stop a Subscription You Can’t Cancel
Getting a replacement card number is a common workaround that mostly doesn’t work. Visa, Mastercard, and other networks run account updater services that pass your new card details to merchants with recurring charges already on file, so billing often continues seamlessly on the new number. Canceling through the billing platform is the only reliable way to stop the charge.