To cancel Cognito Forms, open your organization settings, go to Plan & Billing, and either downgrade to the free Individual plan or delete your account entirely. Downgrading stops the charges but keeps your forms and entries under tighter limits. Deleting wipes everything. Pick the wrong one and you lose data you may still need, so decide which outcome you actually want before you click anything.
Export Your Data First
Downgrading caps you at 100 entries per month and 100 MB of storage on the free Individual plan, so anything above those limits may become inaccessible. Deletion is permanent: forms, entries, and uploaded files are gone, and Cognito Forms states it does not retain copies of deleted entries for privacy reasons.
To export entries, click the form name in the sidebar to open the Entries page, open the Actions menu in the top right, and select Export. The export is an Excel (.xlsx) file. That’s the only format offered.
Uploaded file attachments are separate. On Pro, Team, or Enterprise, select entries on the Entries page, then go to Actions, Download, Uploaded Files. You’ll get an email with a zipped folder when the download is ready. The bulk download isn’t available on the free Individual plan, so if you’ve already downgraded you’ll be pulling files out of individual entries by hand.
Only the Owner Can Cancel
Billing changes are limited to the account holder with Owner permissions. If you open organization settings and don’t see billing options, either you aren’t an Owner or the organization is already on the free Individual plan. You can check your role by clicking the organization name in the top left, selecting Settings, and opening Users & Authentication.
Downgrade to the Free Plan
Downgrading cancels the paid subscription and keeps your account, forms, and existing data in place under the free tier’s limits.
- Click your organization name in the top left of the sidebar and select Settings.
- Choose Plan & Billing in the left navigation.
- Find the Individual plan level and click Change Plan.
- Enter your reason for downgrading in the dialog and click Downgrade.
A prorated amount for the time left in the current month is credited to your account. Those credits apply automatically to future subscription payments if you upgrade again later. They are not paid back to your card.
The free Individual plan gives you unlimited forms but limits you to one user, 100 entries per month, and 100 MB of file storage. Features like additional users, guest access, and higher storage are no longer available. One more detail worth knowing: Cognito Forms reserves the right to terminate free accounts with no activity for six months, so don’t downgrade and walk away if you want the data preserved long-term.
Permanently Delete Your Account
Deletion removes your user profile, every organization you own, and every form and entry tied to them. If your goal is just to stop paying, downgrade instead.
One structural rule to know first: every user account must belong to at least one organization. You can’t delete a single organization while keeping your account unless you already belong to another one.
- Click your profile image in the top right and select My Account.
- Find the Delete Account section and click Delete Account.
- Confirm by entering your email address and password. If you’re an Owner, you’ll also confirm which organizations will be deleted.
Access to forms, entries, and configurations ends immediately once you submit, and the action is irreversible.
What You Get Back (and What You Don’t)
The refund policy turns on who ended the subscription.
- If you downgrade or delete voluntarily, you are not entitled to a refund or credit for unused subscription time. This applies to both monthly and annual plans.
- If Cognito Forms terminates your account without cause, the company will refund a prorated portion of any unused prepaid monthly or annual fees.
- If Cognito Forms terminates with cause, such as a Terms of Service violation, there is no refund of any kind.
For monthly downgrades, the prorated credit for the remaining time in the current billing period lands in your account balance and offsets future payments if you re-subscribe. It is not refunded to your payment method. The stakes are higher on annual plans, because voluntary cancellation can mean walking away from months of prepaid time with nothing back. Cancel close to your renewal date when you can.
Both monthly and annual plans auto-renew at the end of each term unless you cancel beforehand. Monthly subscribers need to cancel before the renewal date to avoid being billed for another month.
If You Signed a BAA for HIPAA
If your organization signed a Business Associate Agreement for HIPAA compliance, terminate it before you downgrade or delete. Go to Settings, Plan & Billing, find the Compliance section, and click Exit your BAA. Handling the BAA on its own leaves a clean record of when the agreement ended, which matters if a compliance audit later covers the transition period.
Confirm the Change Went Through
After a downgrade, check that your plan shows as Individual in Plan & Billing. After a deletion, try to log in and confirm access is revoked. Watch your bank or credit card statements over the next billing cycle for any further charges. If an unexpected charge appears, contact Cognito Forms support with your account details and the date of the change. A screenshot of the downgrade confirmation or the deletion dialog is worth keeping in case a billing dispute comes up later.