How to Cancel HP Instant Ink

Step-by-step instructions

1. 1

   Sign in to your HP Instant Ink account

   Go to hpinstantink.com/cancel, which forwards to HP's account site (hpsmart.com), and sign in with the HP account that holds the subscription. If you use more than one email address, HP's help says to use the one on your Instant Ink account. Each enrolled printer is its own subscription and keeps billing until it is cancelled, so with two printers on the account you'll cancel twice. HP's terms also accept a cancellation by phone on 1-855-785-2777.

2. 2

   Open Update Plan for the printer you're cancelling

   If the account has more than one printer, select Overview, then Printer Details in the Status area, and check the serial number belongs to the printer you want to stop. Then click HP Instant Ink, then Update Plan in the left menu, and scroll down to Plan Details. If you don't see a menu on the left, click the menu icon at the top left of the page.

3. 3

   Click Cancel Instant Ink and work through the prompts

   Under Plan Details, click Cancel Instant Ink and follow the prompts to the end. HP's terms say the flow asks why you're cancelling, and some customers who pick "cancelling temporarily" are offered a pause of one to three months instead. HP's help page also asks you to contact support before cancelling to hear about other plans; you don't have to.

   Heads up: The pause is a retention offer, but not a trick: if you'll be printing again in a few months, it stops the monthly fee for a while. If you're done with Instant Ink, decline it. A pause isn't a cancellation, and billing starts again when it ends.

4. 4

   Confirm, then note your last day to print

   HP emails a confirmation as soon as the cancellation goes through, and another at the end of the billing cycle. The cancellation takes effect on the last day of your current monthly cycle: you can keep printing with the Instant Ink cartridges until then, and your final monthly charge comes at the end of that cycle, plus any pages you print beyond your plan and rollover. Subscribers quote the cancel screen as naming the exact date: "the last day in which you can print using the Instant Ink cartridges will be..." Until that day, a Keep Enrollment button at the top of the Update Plan page reverses the cancellation.

5. 5
   If this applies to you

   Have standard cartridges ready before your last print day

   When the cycle ends, HP remotely disables the Instant Ink cartridges, even ones that are still full, and its terms rule out a refund for unused ink. To keep printing, take them out and install regular cartridges. HP's FAQ says you can use Original HP standard or XL cartridges, and on printers that aren't HP+ models, compatible third-party ones too. An HP+ printer needs Original HP cartridges for its whole life whether or not Instant Ink is active, as an HP support agent confirmed on HP's own forum. Taking the cartridges out, not printing or disconnecting the printer from the internet doesn't cancel anything, so cancel properly first. HP asks you to send the old Instant Ink cartridges back for recycling with the return materials it provides, if any; its terms call the return an option in one place and a requirement in another, so use the envelope if you have one.

6. 6
   If this applies to you

   If you're on the Yearly Plan

   The Yearly Plan is prepaid, so the timing is different. Cancel within 30 days of the billing cycle starting and it ends immediately, with a partial refund worked out from the pages you used out of the year's allowance. Cancel later and it runs until the end of the yearly period or until you use up the pages, whichever comes first, with no refund. The Yearly Plan can't be paused, and HP's terms say a printer whose Yearly Plan has been cancelled three or more times can't enroll in a Yearly Plan again.

7. 7
   If this applies to you

   If you have Instant Paper or the HP All-in Plan

   Cancelling Instant Ink cancels the HP Instant Paper add-on with it automatically; cancelling only the paper leaves the ink plan running. The HP All-in Plan, where HP leases you the printer with ink included, is a different subscription with its own cancel flow, and HP's terms say its ink can't be cancelled separately, only with the whole plan. HP's All-in Plan help page says you must ship the printer back within 10 days of getting the prepaid FedEx label, and that cancelling after the 30-day trial but before the lease ends carries an early cancellation fee, which depends on the printer and how long you've had the plan.

8. 8
   If this applies to you

   If you only want to pay less

   Three cheaper moves short of cancelling. A smaller plan, chosen under Update Plan, starts next billing cycle, but your rollover cap shrinks with it, so pages over the new cap are lost; US plans start at $1.99 a month for 10 pages. HP's help page describes a pause of up to 6 months from Plan Details (Pause Instant Ink), with up to 10 pages a month still free, for subscriptions over two months old, past the trial, on an inkjet printer and not on a light-usage or Pay As You Print plan; HP's terms describe a shorter pause of one to three months, at most twice a year. If you don't see Pause Instant Ink, your plan can't pause. Pay As You Print has no monthly plan fee: you buy page sets that don't expire (from $5.49 for 20 pages in the US), and another set is added automatically when one runs out.

9. 9
   If this applies to you

   If you're still charged after cancelling

   One charge after you cancel is expected: HP bills each month after it ends, so the last cycle's fee, plus any extra pages, arrives once that cycle is over. HP's help says that after this final charge you aren't charged again. If charges continue, look for a second printer still enrolled, or an old account left running after a move to another country (HP says enrolling the printer in a new account doesn't close the old one). Every bill is under HP Instant Ink, then Print and Payment History, where you can download the invoices. One subscriber who had cancelled later found a leftover balance on the account and had to re-add a card to pay it, so settle any balance HP emails you about. Phone support is on 1-855-785-2777.