How to Cancel Spotify Premium (and Keep Your Playlists)

If you want out of Spotify Premium, the process is straightforward — but there are a few gotchas that can cost you money or leave you scrambling to save your library. This guide walks you through cancellation on every platform and tells you exactly what you keep (and lose) when you drop to the free tier.

Before You Cancel: What You're Actually Losing

Canceling Spotify Premium downgrades you to the free, ad-supported tier. You do not lose your account, your playlists, your Liked Songs, or your followers. Everything you've curated stays intact.

What you do lose:

• Offline downloads. Any tracks saved for offline listening stop working the moment your Premium period ends.
• On-demand playback on mobile. Free tier on phones forces shuffle mode on most playlists.
• Audio quality. Free accounts stream at a lower bitrate.
• Ad-free listening. You'll hear ads every few songs.

If you primarily listen on a laptop or desktop web browser, the free tier is actually decent — you get on-demand playback there. Mobile is the bigger downgrade.

How to Cancel Spotify Premium

Step 1: Figure out how you signed up

The cancellation path depends entirely on where you originally subscribed:

• Signed up at spotify.com or through the Spotify app directly? Cancel at spotify.com/account.
• Signed up through Apple (iOS App Store)? Cancel through iPhone Settings → your Apple ID → Subscriptions.
• Signed up through Google (Android Play Store)? Cancel through Google Play → Subscriptions.
• Signed up through a carrier bundle (e.g., Hulu + Spotify deal)? You may need to cancel through that partner's account settings.

Not sure which applies to you? Log into spotify.com, go to Account, and look under "Your plan." If it says "Payment through Apple" or "Payment through Google," you know where to go.

Step 2: Cancel on Spotify's website (direct subscribers)

1. Go to spotify.com in any browser and log in.
2. Click your profile icon in the top-right corner, then select Account.
3. Under "Your plan," click Change plan or scroll to find the Cancel Premium link.
4. Spotify will show you a retention screen with offers — a discounted rate or a pause option. Ignore these if you're committed to leaving and click Continue to cancel.
5. Confirm cancellation. You'll receive a confirmation email, and the page will show your last day of Premium access.

Step 3: Cancel through Apple (if you subscribed via iOS)

1. Open Settings on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap your name at the top, then tap Subscriptions.
3. Find Spotify in the list and tap it.
4. Tap Cancel Subscription and confirm.

Apple processes the cancellation immediately, but you retain access through the end of the billing period you already paid for.

Step 4: Cancel through Google Play (if you subscribed via Android)

1. Open the Google Play Store app.
2. Tap your profile icon, then Payments & subscriptions → Subscriptions.
3. Select Spotify and tap Cancel subscription.
4. Follow the prompts to confirm.

Step 5: Confirm the cancellation

No matter which method you used, check for a confirmation email from Spotify. Log back into your account and verify the plan status shows a cancellation date. If it still shows "Premium" without an end date, the cancellation may not have gone through.

What Happens After You Cancel

Your Premium access continues until the last day of the billing cycle you already paid for. On that date, your account automatically switches to free. There is no prorated refund for unused days if you cancel mid-cycle — Spotify's policy is to let you use the service through the period you paid for, then stop billing.

If you cancel a free trial, the downgrade happens at the trial's end date.

Switching to a Different Service

If you're leaving Spotify because of cost, consider that most major music streamers — Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, YouTube Music — fall in a similar price range for individual plans, though family and bundle deals vary. Amazon Music comes bundled with Prime for some subscribers, which can make it effectively free if you already pay for Prime.

For a broader look at what's available, see our music streaming category hub for comparisons and current picks.

The bottom line: canceling Spotify takes about two minutes if you know which cancellation path applies to you, and your playlists will be waiting if you ever come back.