How to Cancel Subscriptions on an iPhone

May 25, 2021

2 minutes

Everyone has been there, you look at your bank account and realize you have some charges you had no idea about, or long forgot about. Most of the time, the culprit is a subscription. Maybe it started as a free trial or an app you wanted to test out for a day or two and never canceled.

Either way, it can be frustrating to not know where your money is going and how to cancel subscriptions that are charging you weekly or monthly, and nobody wants to spend their free time on the phone with customer service if they can help it.

Take your finances into your own hands and cancel those pesky subscriptions and free trials by following the steps below!

Note: this guide is based on iOS 14 and later, since the setting organization changes with iOS updates. Also, note that iCloud storage is canceled in a different spot within your iCloud settings.

iPhone

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First things first! In order to find your active subscriptions, go to your home screen. Your home screen is the main screen on your iPhone where all the apps are at. Once you're on the home screen try to following steps:

Search for your settings app. It's the one with the gear icon. Oftentimes, it is in the "utilities" folder.
Open the settings app.

Now that you have your settings app open, you need to open up your Apple ID settings page. To do this try the following:

Click the tab where it says your name or nickname. It will have your profile image to the left.

There are a ton of settings on your Apple ID settings page. Make sure to choose the correct setting.

Click "subscriptions." In payment and shipping, you can edit your card and billing address, but you cannot edit your subscriptions there.

Here is where you need to make some decisions. Check out which subscriptions are "active" and "expired." The "active" subscriptions are the ones that you are currently paying on or have upcoming billing dates. Free trials are also considered active subscriptions, even if the billing date is far off. If you don't cancel a subscription over 24 hours before the billing date, it will charge you. If you cancel within 24 hours of the billing date, you will still be charged per Apple's support site.

Click the subscription you want to cancel.

If it shows a billing date that corresponds to your recent charge, that's the one you want to choose.

Here you can see the cost, if the subscription is monthly or weekly, and the subscription options. There may be different options than you can see in the screenshot above. To cancel your subscription, follow these steps:

Click "cancel subscription," "cancel renewal," or "cancel free trial."

The options you will have are dependent on that app and/or subscription type.

You may have options to change the type of subscription you have. For example, if you have different, cheaper payment options, you can choose not the cancel the subscription, and change the subscription/payment type to a monthly or yearly or less-expensive option instead.

Next: Learn how to free up your iPhone storage.