Netflix is quickly going from the de-facto streaming platform to being an embattled incumbent in the streaming wars. The streaming giant lost 200,000 subscribers in early 2022, leading to the cancelation of a whole host of shows, the closure of its animation department, and a tone-deaf comment by the CFO that Netflix would be open to an ad-supported, budget tier. Needless to say, the outlook doesn’t look good. Does it even make sense to be subscribed to Netflix anymore, or is it time to jump ship to Disney+, Hulu, or one of the myriad other streaming platforms bouncing around the web? Well, if you want to join the 200,000 Netflix subscribers that decided to jump ship, stay tuned to find out how to cancel — it’s surprisingly easy, especially considering how many hoops you need to jump through to cancel a Spotify subscription.
How to cancel your Netflix subscription
Netflix’s help center cancelation page says “You can cancel your Netflix account any time,” but that doesn’t mean you’ll get any refunds. Per the Netflix terms of service, the service will be active until the end of the billing period during which you canceled. No refunds can be issued for unused service — although, some report that the request will be considered if the refund is being requested because you were unable to log in or access the content because of a mistake or issue on Netflix’s end.
In order to cancel your Netflix account, you will need to take the following steps in a web browser — this can be a mobile or desktop browser — it’s simpler to just use a desktop browser, but the same process applies on the mobile version of the site. To skip ahead to step 5, you can go directly to the Netflix account cancelation confirmation page.
Step 1: Go to the Netflix website and log into the account that you want to cancel.
Step 2: Click the icon containing your profile picture at the top right of the page.
Step 3: Click Account to open the Account Details page.
Step 4: Click the Cancel Membership button, under MEMBERSHIP & BILLING to open the cancelation confirmation page that shows you the end date of your plan if you do decide to cancel.
Step 5: Click Finish Cancelation — this opens a survey where you can select the reason for your cancelation from a list of predefined items or provide detailed feedback.
Step 6: Complete the feedback survey and click Done — this will take you back to the account details page where you will see information about when you will lose access to the Netflix shows.
You cannot process the cancelation from a mobile or desktop app, but you can open the account management page from the app:
From the Netflix desktop app: Click the three dots at the top right of the screen then go to Settings -> Account Details — this will open the Account Management page.
From the Netflix mobile app: Tap the account icon at the top right of the page and then tap Account to open the account management page on your mobile browser.
Once you have canceled your Netflix account, you can easily restart the subscription and resume right where you left off — including your favorites, preferences, and where you stopped on previously watched shows — as long as you resume within 10 months of cancelation. You can resume the plan by logging in to netflix.com and going to the Account Details page (as described above in step 3) and clicking the Restart Membership button on the left of the page.
If you followed the above instructions correctly, you are now free to explore a variety of other streaming services or detox from the constant barrage of media flung at you from all angles. If you are interested in giving the other streaming services a shot, many of them — unlike Netflix — have free trials available.
Why do I have to do this in the browser?
Like with Spotify, Netflix won’t let you cancel your subscription in-app, only in a browser. Thankfully, it’s as easy to do on a mobile browser as it is to do on desktop and is a painless process. If you want to skip ahead, you can click this link to go directly to your account page in your browser.
Moving on from Netflix
Just like that, you’re unsubscribed. If you want to hop over to a new service to binge, plenty of other excellent streaming services are available. Also, make sure you get your fill of the best action movies Netflix has while you still have a few days of streaming left.
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