How to Cancel YouTube Music

Step-by-step instructions

1. 1

   Open your paid memberships page

   Go to youtube.com/paid_memberships in a web browser and sign in with the Google account that pays for Music Premium. The Cancel now button in YouTube's help opens the same page. In the YouTube Music app on Android, tap your profile picture, then Paid memberships, and tap the membership. Two exceptions cancel elsewhere: if you joined in the iPhone or iPad app, Apple bills you, and if you first signed up on Android in 2022 or later, Google Play does. Both are covered in the optional steps below, and payments.google.com shows how you're billed.

2. 2

   Click Manage membership, then Deactivate

   Find YouTube Music Premium under your memberships and click Manage membership. YouTube labels the way out Deactivate rather than Cancel, so click Deactivate. In the Android app there's no Manage membership or Deactivate: tap the membership itself and you go straight to Continue. If the page lists YouTube Premium instead, your Music Premium comes with that plan and it's YouTube Premium you need to cancel.

3. 3

   Choose Continue, not Pause instead

   Deactivate asks whether you want to pause the membership or cancel it. Click Continue to keep cancelling.

   Heads up: Pause instead is the retention offer. A pause lasts 1 to 6 months, starts when your current billing cycle ends, leaves you (and anyone on your family plan) without Premium benefits while it runs, and then starts billing again on its own, at whatever the price is by then. Take it only if you know you want Music Premium back on that date.

4. 4

   Pick a reason, click Next, then Yes, cancel

   YouTube asks why you're cancelling; any answer works. Click Next, then Yes, cancel. Back on youtube.com/paid_memberships, YouTube's help says to check the membership's Status field, which members quote as "Benefits end" followed by a date. That date means the cancellation went through: ad-free listening, background play and downloads keep working until then, and no further charge follows.

5. 5
   If this applies to you

   If Apple or Google Play bills you

   Apple: if you joined from the YouTube or YouTube Music app on an iPhone or iPad, cancel with Apple. On iPhone, open Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions, the YouTube membership and Cancel Subscription. YouTube's iPhone help reaches the same place from the app: Settings, Purchases and memberships, the membership, Manage Apple Subscriptions, Cancel. Apple says to cancel a trial at least 24 hours before it ends. Google Play: on Android, open play.google.com/store/account/subscriptions, select the membership, tap Cancel subscription and follow the instructions; uninstalling the app doesn't cancel it. Neither store lets you pause a YouTube membership, and each applies its own refund rules. If Google bills you and you only have an iPhone, YouTube says you have to cancel from another device, such as a computer.

6. 6
   If this applies to you

   If you also pay for YouTube Premium

   YouTube Premium includes YouTube Music Premium at no extra cost, so paying for both means paying twice. YouTube's help on duplicate subscriptions says this happens after upgrading or switching plans, and that the fix is to cancel the standalone Music Premium membership. One member on r/YoutubeMusic found they had paid for Music Premium for over a year while already in a YouTube Premium family plan. The same help page says standalone subscriptions aren't cancelled automatically when you join a Google One plan that includes YouTube Premium. Check youtube.com/paid_memberships on every Google account you use. If you want ad-free YouTube too, YouTube's help says to upgrade from Offers from YouTube on music.youtube.com/paid_memberships; afterwards, check that only one membership is billing.

7. 7
   If this applies to you

   If you're on the annual plan

   The annual plan is 12 months paid upfront and doesn't renew, so there is no next charge to stop: your benefits end on the date shown on youtube.com/paid_memberships. YouTube's help says annual plans aren't refundable and can't be paused. To end one early you contact YouTube Support, you lose your benefits once access is terminated, and YouTube's terms say no partial refunds are available. Switching from monthly to annual works the other way round: YouTube says to cancel the monthly membership first, and a new plan may not go through until the old billing period has ended.

8. 8
   If this applies to you

   If you manage a family plan

   Only the family manager can cancel a YouTube family plan; YouTube calls the manager the only person who can make membership decisions. When the manager cancels, everyone keeps access until the end of the billing cycle, then all family members lose the paid membership but keep their Google Accounts. A family member who wants out leaves the family group instead, and YouTube only lets you switch family groups once every 12 months.

9. 9
   If this applies to you

   If you want a refund, or want access to end now

   YouTube doesn't refund the time between cancelling and the end of your billing period. Its refund route covers charges you didn't make and features that don't work: request one at youtube.com/refund/premium, the link a TeamYouTube community manager gives on Google's forum. YouTube's refund page asks you to sign in with an active paid membership, so it does no harm to request it before you cancel; a refund that's granted ends your Premium access straight away. If Google Play bills your membership, YouTube's refund page says you can contact its support team at support.google.com/youtube/gethelp to cancel immediately with a refund, and YouTube's terms say members in certain countries may be eligible for one. In the EEA, Switzerland and the UK, YouTube's Paid Service Terms give consumers 14 days to withdraw, counted from the start of a free trial rather than the first charge, and Google may keep an amount for the time already used; in the EEA there's an online withdrawal form and the address support-yt@youtube.com. Apple and Google Play apply their own refund policies.

10. 10
    If this applies to you

    If you're still charged after cancelling

    YouTube's help on unexpected charges (shown on statements as GOOGLE*YouTube) lists the usual causes: a second membership on the same account, such as YouTube Premium; a membership on another Google account you own (switch accounts and check youtube.com/purchases on each); a charge from a different Google service (check Activity at payments.google.com); or an authorization hold, which isn't processed and disappears within 1 to 14 days. For a charge you don't recognise at all, YouTube's help walks you through an unauthorized-charge claim. A membership billed by Apple or Google Play only stops when you cancel it there.