How to Cancel Your YouTube TV Subscription

It’s time to cancel YouTube TV. Whether you’re moving out of the United States, can no longer justify the price or are just not using it all that often, you have a few different options. Here’s how to cancel your YouTube TV subscription, whether you’re on your phone or computer. 

How to Cancel Your YouTube TV Subscription 

You can cancel the Base Plan at any time. Luckily, you’ll retain access to your account until the next billing cycle. Any recordings you have will expire after 21 days, though. If you still feel up to it, here’s how to cancel your YouTube TV subscription.

Cancel YouTube TV on Desktop

On your computer, go to https://tv.youtube.com/welcome/ and sign into your account. Go into your account settings and select the Membership tab. Click Manage to get the option to cancel your subscription. You may have to give a reason for canceling before continuing. 

Cancel YouTube TV via Google

Did you know you can cancel YouTube subscriptions through your Google account? On Google, click on the Google Apps icon — the square made of dots — on the top right of the page. Click on Account and select Payments & Subscriptions to get to Manage subscriptions. 

Cancel YouTube TV on the App

On the YouTube TV app, tap your profile photo and go to Settings. Select Membership and then Manage to get the Cancel membership option. Continue by selecting Cancel again after it prompts you to.

Can You Cancel Before Your Free Trial Ends? 

It’s good to know how to cancel YouTube TV before the free trial ends since you must enter your payment information before getting the promotion. Thankfully, you can cancel at any time before the trial is over at no charge. Simply follow the steps above. 

Unfortunately, you don’t get to keep watching live TV until the next billing cycle. When you cancel a free trial, you immediately lose access to YouTube TV and all its add-ons. The silver lining is that the site saves your preferences in case you choose to sign up for real later on. 

How to Cancel Your NFL Sunday Ticket Plan

If you still don’t know how to cancel your YouTube TV subscription, chances are you signed up for the NFL Sunday Ticket plan. If that’s the case, you won’t get the regular cancellation options. You can’t cancel NFL Sunday Ticket subscriptions once you’ve been charged for the season.

YouTube actually has an entire section in its Paid Service Terms of Service — in all caps, mind you — dedicated to the NFL plan. It explicitly says you can’t cancel, pause or receive a refund. Even if you choose to pay monthly instead of annually, you’re obligated to pay the full price. 

What happens if you refuse to pay? You don’t want to find out. Google says it “reserves the right” to send any unpaid amount to debt collectors, meaning you’d be on the hook one way or another. Theoretically, they could take you to court, win the judgment and garnish your wages.

But that’s enough of the doom and gloom. The silver lining is that you can stop your NFL Sunday Ticket plan from autorenewing. You retain access until the season ends. This is probably the best strategy — you don’t want to forget about it and pay another $478. 

Should You Cancel Your YouTube TV Subscription?

If you’re canceling because of the price, don’t think twice — it’s only ever going to get more expensive. Besides, you might not be eligible for future deals, promotions or discounts if you already have an account. 

Let’s face it — YouTube TV is expensive. Since it launched in 2017, it went from $35 a month to $72.99 a month. That’s a 108% increase in price in just over five years. If you have add-ons like the premium channels or 4K viewing, you spend even more. 

If you’re set on learning how to cancel your YouTube TV subscription, consider whether you can live without live TV. Since several alternative platforms exist, you can see whether other services are just as good.

If testing out alternatives before committing to canceling your account sounds like a plan, you’re in for some good news — you can pause instead of canceling. Pausing allows you to stop paying for a while. 

How to Pause Your YouTube TV Subscription Instead

Pausing your YouTube TV subscription works the same way as canceling. Go to your settings, click the “memberships” or “subscriptions” tab and select the “pause” option. You can change how long the pause lasts by dragging the slider.

How long can you pause your YouTube TV membership for? You can go up to 24 weeks, which is roughly six months. Once you’ve selected a timeframe that feels right, hit Pause to confirm. The site may ask you to give a reason for pausing before it lets you continue.  

You’ll retain access to your shows, recordings and add-ons until the next billing cycle. If you quickly find out you miss the platform and want to unpause, don’t worry — YouTube lets you resume your subscription whenever — even if the time you set hasn’t elapsed yet. 

How to Request a Refund for Your Subscription  

Let’s say you’re dissatisfied. Can you get a refund on a YouTube TV subscription? If what you paid for was defective, didn’t perform as stated or you did not receive it, you may be entitled to one. Remember, you’ll lose access to the site and its add-ons immediately. 

If You Get YouTube TV Directly From YouTube

If you signed through the official site, go to https://www.youtube.com/refund/tv to request a refund. It typically takes about 3-5 business days for the payment to come through, but it could take up to 10.  

Know that YouTube doesn’t give refunds for partial billing periods, meaning you won’t get money or credit for the remaining days in your current billing period. Say you cancel two days after your card is charged — you won’t get your money back for the rest of the month.

If You Get YouTube TV Through a Third Party 

Sometimes, YouTube TV offers promotions through third parties like internet providers, mobile carriers and streaming services. If you signed up through one of them, you need to go through them to request a refund — YouTube can’t grant you one. 

The process of getting in touch with a third party varies. Generally, you want to find their official contact information — whether that’s a phone number or an email — to reach out to support. In the meantime, pause or cancel your subscription to avoid getting charged even more.

Now You Know How to Cancel a YouTube TV Subscription

Whatever your reasoning for canceling, we hope it was easy for you — we know it can get tricky sometimes. Keep in mind that you may be ineligible for discounts and deals in the future since you once had an account. In other words, don’t sign up again unless you want to pay full price.