How to Cancel Spotify Premium and Keep Playlists
Cancelling Subscriptions · The Subgrove Team · · Updated · 7 min read
To cancel Spotify Premium, sign in at spotify.com in a web browser, open Manage your plan, select Cancel subscription, and keep clicking until Spotify shows you a confirmation message. That is the whole process in Spotify's own cancellation guide, and it works from a phone browser as well as a computer.
The steps only fail in a few situations: someone else (a phone or internet provider, or Google Play) bills you, you're a member rather than the manager of a Family or Duo plan, or you're logged in to a different Spotify account from the one being charged. Each of those has its own fix below.
The account page, not the player app
People lose the most time here. They open the Spotify app on their phone, dig through Settings, and find nothing that stops the payment. Spotify's help centre doesn't describe a cancel button inside the listening app at all; every route it gives runs through your account page on the website. The app is for playing music. Billing lives at spotify.com/account.
Spotify's help article also mentions a cancellation form you can complete and send to Spotify; its link asks you to log in first. The online route is faster and gives you an instant confirmation, so treat the form as a fallback.
Cancelling when Spotify bills you directly
This covers anyone who paid with a card, PayPal or a gift card on spotify.com.
- Open a browser and go to spotify.com. Log in with the same method you use in the app; if you normally tap "Continue with Google" or "Continue with Apple", use that button so you reach the right account.
- Go to Manage your plan. You can jump straight there at spotify.com/account/subscription/manage.
- Select Cancel subscription. Spotify may show an offer or a short survey first. Neither is the cancellation.
- Wait for the confirmation message. If you close the tab before it appears, the plan may still be active.
- Recheck the account page. Under Your plan, it should now show the date your account will switch to Spotify Free instead of a next payment date.
That last check matters. Spotify's cancelled-but-still-charged page uses exactly this test: a "next payment" date means the cancellation didn't go through and you should run the steps again; a "switches to free" date means you're done, even if one more charge landed just before you cancelled.
No "Cancel subscription" option? Look at Payment
If Manage your plan offers nothing you can change, Spotify says your plan is tied to a partner company, such as a mobile or internet provider that bundles Premium into your bill. Spotify can't cancel those for you. On your account page, check Payment under Your plan; the partner's contact link is listed there, and you cancel with them.
Partners also handle refunds for their own customers. Spotify's refund policy says it can't refund Premium payments made through a partner, so any money-back request goes to the provider, not Spotify.
Paying through Google Play or Apple
Google Play. On Android, Spotify's checkout offers a Pay with Google Play billing option. If you chose it, Google holds the payment and you cancel there:
- Open Subscriptions in Google Play on your Android device.
- Pick Spotify.
- Tap Cancel subscription and follow the instructions.
Google notes that uninstalling the app does not cancel a subscription, and that you keep access for the time you've already paid.
Apple. Spotify doesn't let you subscribe to Premium in the iPhone or iPad app, so new iOS users pay on spotify.com and cancel there. If a charge reading APPLE.COM/BILL still lines up with Spotify, check iPhone Settings → your name → Subscriptions. If Spotify appears in that list, tap it and choose Cancel Subscription, as described in Apple's guide to cancelling a subscription. Apple's page adds a useful tell: no Cancel button, or an expiry message in red, means it is already cancelled.
Family and Duo plans: who can cancel what
Spotify draws a hard line between the person who pays and everyone else on the plan.
- Plan manager: the standard steps above cancel the whole plan. Every member loses Premium from the next payment date, so tell them first. Managed accounts for young listeners move to the free, ad-supported tier.
- Plan member: running the same steps only removes your account from the plan; it doesn't cancel anything for the others. To end the plan or change who pays, the manager has to do it.
If you're a member who wants to keep Premium on your own, leave the family plan and then upgrade from your account page as an Individual subscriber.
What happens to your music after Premium ends
Your Premium stays active until your next billing date, then the account turns into a free account. Spotify's cancel page states plainly that your playlists and saved music stay on a free account, and you can still log in and play with ads. You don't need to export anything before cancelling.
What you lose are the Premium features listed on Spotify's Premium page: ad-free listening, lossless audio, offline downloads, and the ability to play songs in any order and skip as much as you like.
Downloads deserve a specific warning. According to Spotify's offline listening guide, downloading albums and playlists is a Premium feature; on the free version you can only download podcasts. Music you saved for a flight or a commute won't play offline once you're on Free, though the playlists themselves are still in your library to stream.
Spotify doesn't refund the unused part of a month. Its refund policy puts it as "you can cancel any time and keep what you paid for", meaning Premium runs to the end of the period you paid for and then stops.
Free trials end the moment you cancel
With most subscriptions, cancelling a free trial early still lets you use it until the trial's last day. Spotify works differently: its cancel page says that if you cancel during a zero-priced free trial, your account switches to the free service immediately, and that trial can't be reactivated.
So the timing choice is yours to make deliberately:
- Cancel straight away and you lose Premium today, but there's no risk of the first charge.
- Keep the trial running and you get the full month, but you have to cancel before the first paid billing date. Spotify's US page currently describes the offer as $0 for one month, then the regular monthly price, for people who haven't tried Premium before.
If you choose the second option, put the trial's end date somewhere you'll see it a few days ahead, not on the day itself. Our post on why to cancel before the renewal, not after explains why "I'll do it on the last day" so often turns into one paid month.
Pay less instead of cancelling
If the price is the problem rather than Spotify itself, a cheaper plan might suit you better. Spotify's US Premium page listed these prices when we checked in October 2026:
| Plan | US price | Accounts |
|---|---|---|
| Individual | $12.99/month | 1 |
| Student | $6.99/month | 1 verified student |
| Duo | $18.99/month | 2, same address |
| Family | $21.99/month | Up to 6, same address |
Splitting a Duo or Family plan with people at your address costs each person less than an Individual plan. Switching plans is a change, not a cancellation, so you keep paying; Spotify's guide to changing plans covers how. Prices differ by country, and our Spotify price page tracks the history.
Keeping track of the next Spotify charge
The cancel flow is quick; the risk is letting another month bill while you mean to get round to it. Subgrove is a subscription tracker you fill in yourself, with no bank connection: add Spotify with its billing date and it sends a push or email reminder however many days before the renewal you choose. Pro adds free-trial tracking with a cancel-by alert, which suits Spotify's one-month trial.
Frequently asked questions
Can I cancel Spotify Premium in the app? Spotify's help centre directs you to Manage your plan on your account page at spotify.com, not to an option in the player app. Open it in any browser, including the one on your phone.
I cancelled, so why was I charged again? Check Payment under Your plan on your account page. A next-payment date means the cancellation didn't finish; a date when your account switches to free means it did, and the charge most likely went through just before you cancelled. Spotify says you won't be charged again in that case.
Will my Family plan members lose Premium if I cancel? Yes, if you're the plan manager. They lose Premium from the next payment date. If you're a member, the cancel steps only take you off the plan.
Do I lose my playlists? No. Spotify keeps your playlists and saved music on a free account. Downloaded music stops working offline, because downloading albums and playlists needs Premium.
Can I get a refund for the rest of the month? Generally no. Spotify's policy is that you keep Premium until the end of the billing period you've paid for. If a partner bills you, ask the partner.
For the other services you might be dropping at the same time, our guide to cancelling any subscription collects the vendor-specific guides in one place, and what the click-to-cancel rule means for you covers where cancellation law stands.