How to cancel your Shopify subscription and close your store

How to cancel a Shopify subscription, step by step

You cancel a Shopify subscription by deactivating the store from the Shopify admin. Only the store owner can do it, and Shopify Support can't deactivate your store for you. Stores on Shopify Plus are different: contact Shopify Plus Support to deactivate.

1. Log in as the store owner

   Open the Shopify admin on a computer, or use the Shopify app, logged in as the store owner. To deactivate, you must log in and complete any required two-step authentication challenge, so recover access first if you lost your usual sign-in method.

2. Go to Settings > Plan

   In the admin, go to Settings > Plan. Click Cancel plan if the store is on a paid plan, or Cancel trial if it is still in the free trial.

3. Look at the alternatives

   If applicable, Shopify first shows options to downgrade your subscription plan, switch to the Pause and build plan, or start a new store. If you only need a break, see the pause section below.

4. Review domains and pending charges

   Next, review your Shopify domains and the pending charges. Transfer any Shopify domain you want to keep at this point. To go ahead, select Cancel my plan and uninstall all apps and click Continue.

5. Give a reason

   Select a reason for the deactivation, add a comment if the box is there, and click Continue. You can also choose Save payment details to reopen your store faster.

6. Confirm with your password

   Enter your password and click Cancel plan or Cancel trial again. You then get an email confirming that the store is deactivated. The store closes at the end of your current billing cycle.

What to do before you close your Shopify store

When the billing cycle ends, deactivation results in loss of access to your Shopify admin, so anything you want to keep has to come out first.

1. Export your data. From the admin you can export your products to a CSV file, download a CSV file of your store's customers and their details, and export a CSV spreadsheet of your orders from the Orders page.
2. Save your bills and payouts. You can export your billing history from the Shopify admin, and if you use Shopify Payments you can also export your payout history and transaction details.
3. Back up a paid theme, because purchased themes are licensed only to the store they were bought for. Shopify Support can transfer a theme license to another Shopify store you own.
4. Settle gift cards. If you sold gift cards, export a gift card CSV file to resolve outstanding cards.
5. Finish open orders. If you sell subscriptions or preorders, you might need to resolve outstanding orders. Ship or refund them while you can still use the admin.
6. Check apps billed outside Shopify. Shopify says apps charged outside of Shopify billing need to be checked separately, so you are not charged for them after the store closes.
7. Check Shopify financial products. If you use Shopify Balance, Shopify Capital or Shopify Credit, access to them might be restricted or lost when the store is deactivated.

What happens to your data, domain and apps after you cancel

Cancelling does not delete the store straight away. The table lists what Shopify says happens to each part after deactivation.

To erase the store's personal data sooner, contact Shopify Support; data is deleted within 14 days after the request is completed. Keep three limits in mind: data can only be deleted from a deactivated store, only the store owner can request deletion of a store's data, and to stop a request you must contact Shopify Support again before 14 days have passed. Deletion is permanent: after 14 days the data is deleted and isn't recoverable, and a store can't be reactivated after its data is deleted.

What happens to your domain when you close a Shopify store

When the store is deactivated, custom domains are disconnected from the store. What you do next depends on where you bought the domain.

If you bought it from another registrar, you can point it to another platform at any time, because you manage its DNS records there.

If you bought it through Shopify, you can transfer it to a third-party domain provider. Shopify's advice is to transfer the domain before you deactivate the store. Only the store owner can move it, and the transfer works like this:

1. Go to Settings > Domains and click the domain you want to move.
2. Click Domain settings > Transfer to another provider, review the details and click Confirm.
3. Copy the domain authorization code from the domain's page and give it to the new provider.
4. Finish the transfer at the new provider within 30 days, or the domain locks again. A transfer can take up to 7 days to complete.

A .com, .net or .org domain is not eligible for transfer until 60 days after any of these: buying the domain, transferring the domain to Shopify or changing your contact information. Until then you can edit your DNS settings to point your domain to a different host. A few other extensions can't be transferred from the Shopify admin, so check Shopify's transfer article if yours has a country-code ending.

If the store is already closed, a Shopify-managed domain can still be transferred from a limited Domains page, and you don't need to reactivate the store or pay an outstanding invoice first.

Renewals need attention too: domain renewals are not canceled when you cancel the store. If the domain is due to renew before the store closes, you might still be charged a renewal fee. To stop that, for a Shopify-managed domain you can manage your Shopify domain renewal settings; for a third-party domain, deactivate automatic renewal on your registrar's website.

Shopify's HSTS security policy stays on the domain for 90 days after deactivation. If the new platform uses HTTPS, you don't need to take any additional steps. If it does not, for the next 90 days, browsers show an error message on the domain.

Refunds, final bills and charges after you cancel Shopify

Shopify has a strict no-refund policy for subscription plans, and it applies to plan cancellations and subscription deactivations. There is also no refund for charges during a promotional pricing period.

At cancellation, all apps are automatically uninstalled and any pending charges are charged. Those pending charges include outstanding app usage charges, transaction fees and shipping label charges, and there can be additional fees and charges depending on your store activities before your billing cycle ends and your store closes. Shopify notes that no final invoice is issued when there are no outstanding charges.

Bills can also arrive later: you may still get invoices for third-party charges, chargebacks or other Shopify stores you own.

• If you end the account during the free trial without choosing a paid plan, no additional actions are required.
• If you picked a paid plan before the trial ended, you must manually pause or deactivate your store to prevent being charged the fee for your chosen plan.
• If you change your mind before the store closes, you can reactivate your plan before the billing cycle ends, from Settings > Plan.

Pausing a Shopify store instead of cancelling

If you plan to come back, the Pause and Build plan keeps your store online and accessible to visitors for $9 USD per month, but checkout is deactivated across all sales channels. To hide the products as well, use private mode, which shows a password page.

Pausing is open only to some stores: the store must be past the free trial and on a paid plan, and it is not available on Shopify Plus. To switch, go to Settings > Plan, click Cancel plan, enter your password, click Cancel plan again, select the Pause and build plan and click Switch to Pause and build. The change takes effect at the end of your current billing cycle.

Uninstall the apps you will not use while paused: third-party apps that stay active might continue to incur charges.

How to reopen a closed Shopify store

Within 2 years you can reopen the store without rebuilding it, but a store can't be reactivated after its data is deleted. If the store was frozen or paused, billing or payment issues must be resolved first. If you reopen before the paid billing cycle ends, you won't be charged again for reactivating.

1. Log in as the store owner

   Sign in with the store owner's account. If you do not remember the store's myshopify.com address, use the Forgot Your Store? tool first.

2. Reopen and pick a plan

   Click the reopen option for your myshopify.com address, choose a plan, enter your payment details and click Subscribe.

3. Reconnect your domain

   Next, reconnect your domains after you reactivate: go to Settings > Domains, click Connect existing domain and follow the prompts.

Where Nation fits

Questions about cancelling Shopify