How to Cancel Shopify Subscription: Complete Guide 2025

For most merchants, running a Shopify store often involves constant, ever-changing decisions about what’s best for their businesses. And as your priorities shift, there may come a moment when you need to pause your store, switch platforms, or even shut the business down! It’s usually at this critical point that you need to start looking into how to cancel Shopify subscription.

To answer your question, “How to cancel my Shopify subscription?”, we’ll walk you through four main steps smoothly and easily, detailed as follows:

• Step 1: Go to Settings > Plan
• Step 2: Choose “Cancel Plan”
• Step 3: Select a reason and confirm with your password
• Step 4: Click “Cancel Plan”

Let’s discuss further!

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Things to Do Before You Cancel Your Shopify Subscription

First of all, before learning how to cancel Shopify subscription, you should take time to make sure everything is properly prepared. After all, shutting down a store affects far more than just your monthly billing, and many merchants only realize the consequences once it’s too late!

Below are key information and assets that you should handle thoroughly without leaving loose ends behind:

1. Store information and assets

A good starting point is to review what information and assets you want to keep, as you will lose access to many parts of your Shopify admin once your store is deactivated. To avoid losing valuable business data, you may consider exporting your essential reports (including products, orders, customers, and financial records) using Shopify’s CSV tools.

Likewise, it’s just as important to safeguard your theme (especially if it’s a paid one). Sure, Shopify Support can sometimes transfer the theme’s license to another store you own, but backing up the theme files beforehand still gives you far more control later on. So, if possible, don’t skip this important step!

2. Financial obligations and app subscriptions

After your store information is safely exported, the next priority is handling your financial responsibilities.

Remember, deactivating a store does not automatically resolve outstanding Shopify Payments payouts, unpaid invoices, or third-party service fees. In fact, these can still be charged or processed even after the store is closed, which is why it’s better to review everything in advance.

The same applies to paid apps, as many continue billing independently unless you cancel them manually. By checking your billing statements, clearing pending balances, and stopping recurring app subscriptions before you close the store, you prevent surprise charges from appearing later and ensure that your financial records remain clean and organized.

3. Existing customers and unfulfilled orders

Needless to say, your customers’ experience is closely tied to how smoothly you handle unfulfilled orders and outstanding commitments.

Specifically, if you sell gift cards, you’ll need to settle any remaining balances before closing, since customers will no longer be able to redeem them once the store is deactivated. Fortunately, Shopify allows you to export a gift card CSV file, which you can use to track what needs to be resolved.

Similarly, subscription products, preorders, and other purchase options also require attention. As these typically involve future deliveries or recurring payments, you may need to issue refunds or communicate with customers before shutting down the store.

In addition, you should also be aware that chargebacks can still occur after the store is closed. While the bank may continue processing disputes, you won’t be able to upload additional evidence through the Shopify admin once the store is deactivated. Hence, addressing all customer-related responsibilities now not only prevents complications but also strengthens trust, even as you wind down operations.

4. Custom domain management

Once your customer commitments are settled, the final piece to manage is your custom domain:
If you bought your domain through Shopify, you can transfer it to an external provider before canceling your subscription.

If it was originally purchased from a third party, you should remove it from your Shopify admin; otherwise, you may have difficulty attaching it to a new website later.

It’s also wise to log in to your domain registrar and turn off auto-renewal to avoid unnecessary charges after your store is gone.

5. Customer communication beforehand

Most importantly, don’t forget to let your customers know what is happening!

Customers who expect future deliveries need to understand whether they will receive their orders (or be refunded). Hence, a direct, clear announcement helps prevent confusion and reassures customers that you are handling the transition responsibly. That way, you also give people time to redeem gift cards, ask questions, or resolve any pending concerns before we move on to how to cancel a Shopify subscription.

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How to Cancel Shopify Subscription in 4 Steps

After you have finished all the necessary preparations discussed earlier, it’s time to move on to the actual cancellation process! Let us show you a clear, easy-to-follow guide on how to cancel Shopify subscription:

Step 1: Go to Settings > Plan

First, log in to your Shopify admin. Then, from your dashboard, open the Settings section and navigate to the Plan page. That’s where Shopify keeps all of your subscription details, including your current billing cycle, available plans, and account status.

Once you’re on this page, you’ll be able to review your options and begin the cancellation process.

Step 2: Choose “Cancel Plan”

Now, within the Plan page, select the “Cancel Plan” option. This action triggers Shopify’s guided cancellation flow, which walks you through the steps required to deactivate your subscription.

Note:

If you aren’t trying to close the store completely and simply want a different subscription tier, you can choose “Change Plan” instead, then choose a new pricing plan without interrupting your store. And in this case, you can stop right after Step 2; there’s no need to continue through the remaining steps.

Step 3: Select a reason and confirm with your password

After you choose to proceed with cancellation, Shopify will ask you to pick a reason for cancellation from a list of preset options.

You will then need to re-enter your store password. Shopify uses this step to confirm that the cancellation request is coming from an authorized account owner. Once your identity is confirmed, the system moves you to the final stage.

Step 4: Click “Cancel Plan”

When you reach the last step, you’ll see the final “Cancel Plan” button; clicking it will deactivate your subscription. And that’s how to deactivate Shopify store!

Bonus: How to pause a Shopify store

Before the final “Cancel Plan” button appears, Shopify sometimes also presents alternatives, most notably the “Pause and Build” plan. This option is for those who stop selling temporarily but still continue working on their store.

Basically, you can edit your website, products, and settings as usual, but checkout is completely disabled. If that suits your situation, you can choose this plan instead of fully canceling.

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What Happens After You Cancel Shopify Subscription

Once you manage how to cancel Shopify subscription, there will be inevitable changes that happen behind the scenes after this cancellation. Understanding them will help you manage expectations and avoid confusion in the upcoming months:

1. Your store becomes inactive at the end of the billing cycle

When you confirm cancellation, your store isn’t shut down instantly. Instead, Shopify schedules the change to take effect at the end of your current billing cycle. In short, until that cycle ends, the store remains technically active (though it’s already marked for deactivation).

And once the billing period closes, your store stops working altogether. Visitors will no longer find your website online, and no new orders can be placed. Shopify will also send a confirmation email notifying you that your store has officially been deactivated.

2. Your store and admin access are removed

Once the store moves into inactive status, both the front end and the admin effectively shut down. The storefront goes dark, meaning customers can no longer view your website or interact with any pages. Likewise, your backend access is locked, preventing you from managing operations or processing anything related to orders.

To clarify, Shopify still provides limited access to your invoices, which remain viewable even after your store goes inactive. However, aside from those, the store still becomes completely inaccessible to both you and your customers.

3. Your store data is preserved for 2 years

The good news is that even though the store is closed, Shopify still preserves your data for a full two years. During this period, everything from your product catalog to your theme settings remains stored securely. That means:

• If you return within these 2 years, you can reactivate the store without reconstructing it from scratch. It will reopen exactly where you left off.
• If you prefer not to keep customer information for that long, you can request Shopify for an early deletion of this personal data.

4. Financial activities continue in limited ways post-cancellation

Contrary to popular belief, financial activity doesn’t stop the moment your store becomes inactive. In fact, any credits on your account remain available for sixty days, and you can still use them if you choose to reactivate during that period. Only after 60 days pass will unused credits expire permanently.

You may also continue receiving invoices if there are outstanding fees, such as third-party charges or app costs, because those do not end automatically. It’s common for pending Shopify Payments payouts to continue processing as well, though you won’t have admin access to resolve payout issues unless you temporarily reactivate your store.

Likewise, chargebacks remain possible. Customers can file disputes related to past transactions even after your store is inactive. Still, if you need to contest a chargeback, you will have to reactivate the store, since Shopify requires an active admin to submit supporting documentation.

And lastly, don’t forget about your app subscriptions. Because these are billed separately from your Shopify plan, they won’t cancel themselves. In short, charges may continue if you didn’t manually turn them off before deactivation, so make sure to handle this issue beforehand.

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How to Reactivate Shopify Store After Cancellation

Here’s a rather interesting observation: after learning how to cancel Shopify subscription, many merchants realize later that they want to return for a myriad of reasons!

Fortunately, Shopify makes it relatively easy to come back. The reactivation process depends mainly on whether your billing cycle has ended, so keep reading to choose the most suitable method:

Case 1: If the billing cycle has not ended

Do you change your mind while your billing cycle is still active? In that case, reactivating your store is very simple since Shopify has not fully closed your subscription at this point.

All you need to do is return to the Settings > Plan and click “Reactivate Plan.” Once you confirm, Shopify will bring everything back immediately.

Case 2: If the billing cycle has already ended

On the other hand, if your billing cycle has already ended and your store has fully transitioned into inactive status, the reactivation will involve a few additional steps. Even so, Shopify still keeps the flow relatively simple as long as you still have your store owner credentials.

Step 1. Log in as the store owner

First, sign in to your Shopify store using the store owner credentials.

After that, Shopify will automatically display an option to restore your storefront, usually labeled “Re-open .myshopify.com.” Click this button to begin the reactivation process.

Step 2. Choose a new plan

You’ll then be taken to the plan selection page. Shopify will present all available subscription tiers so you can choose the one that best fits your current goals. This step is where you decide how you want to relaunch your store.

Step 3. Enter your billing information

After selecting a plan, Shopify will ask you to review your billing details. You may confirm your existing information or update it if needed before moving forward.

Step 4: Click Subscribe to reactivate your store

Once your billing information is approved, click Subscribe to have your store reactivated instantly. Your admin access returns, and all of your preserved data (including products, customers, orders, themes, and settings) slides right back into place!

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How to Cancel Shopify Subscription: FAQs

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Final Words

Learning how to cancel Shopify subscription is a decision that deserves clarity. But once you understand each stage, the entire process becomes far less overwhelming!

And if finding how to cancel your Shopify subscription is only the first step in a bigger change (such as rebuilding your store, improving performance, or migrating to a better-fitting platform), the LitOS team is ready to help. Reach out anytime for expert support and a fully optimized store setup that positions your business for long-term growth!