# How to Cancel MailerLite, and How to Delete the Account Properly

> Cancel, downgrade, pause or delete MailerLite: the steps, the custom domain condition, what happens to your data, the refund policy, and the 25-day grace period for account deletion.

_Source: https://professionalstoolkit.com/articles/how-to-cancel-mailerlite — The Professional's Toolkit · updated 2026-10-09_

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Cancelling MailerLite is documented, takes a few clicks and has a handful of conditions that
decide whether it goes smoothly. Deleting the account is a separate process with its own grace
period. People search for `how to delete mailerlite account` about 30 times a month, and the most
common mistake is to treat cancelling and deleting as the same thing.

This guide covers both, plus the refund position, what happens to your data, and the cheaper
alternatives to leaving.

## Cancel, downgrade, pause or delete

Four different actions, and they do different things.

**Cancel** stops future charges. The paid plan runs until it expires and the account then moves to
Free. Your data stays [7].

**Downgrade** moves you to a smaller paid plan or band. It takes effect at the end of the current
billing cycle [3].

**Pause** stops charges for two months, once per calendar year. Free-plan limits apply during the
pause, and the subscription renews itself afterwards [3].

**Delete** removes the account and everything in it, after a 25-day grace period [11].

Most people who want to stop paying want to cancel. Most people who want to leave MailerLite
entirely want to cancel first, export, and delete only once they are sure. The rest of this guide
follows that order.



> 💡 **undefined:** Cancel a few days before renewal; refunds after a charge are not guaranteed.

## How to cancel

The vendor's steps are short [7]:

1. Go to Account settings.
2. Open Plan and billing.
3. Click Cancel subscription.
4. Follow the prompts to confirm.

That is all. There is no published requirement to call or to talk to a retention team, which is
better than several rivals we have measured.

What happens next is set by the billing page: "When you cancel your plan, you will keep your current
plan until it expires, but you will not be automatically charged for the next month." [3] So
cancelling a monthly plan on day three gives you the remaining 27 days. Cancelling an annual plan in
month two gives you the remaining ten months.

When the plan expires, the account moves to the Free plan automatically, and "You won’t be charged
again." [7]

## Before you cancel: custom domains

This is the step most likely to block you. The vendor states that cancelling removes access to
custom domains, and that "any existing custom domains need to be disconnected/removed from landing pages and websites first to successfully initiate the plan cancellation" [7].

So if you publish landing pages or a website on your own domain, the cancellation will not start
until you disconnect that domain from every page.

Do this in the right order. If you are moving to another platform, rebuild the pages there first,
then point your domain's DNS at the new host, then disconnect the domain in MailerLite, then cancel.
Done the other way round, your pages will fall back to the default MailerLite address and every link
you have printed or shared will break.

If you might come back, the vendor notes that "Previously set DNS records remain valid and can be
reused if you upgrade again to either the Comfort or Power plan." [7]



> 💡 **undefined:** Export subscribers and unsubscribes while the paid plan is still active.

## Before you cancel: the free plan's limits

After cancellation, the account becomes a free account, and the free plan's limits apply [7]:

- 250 active subscribers. If you have more, "you’ll need to reduce your active subscribers to 250
  or fewer to ensure the downgrade is successful" [7], or sending will be restricted.
- 2,500 emails a month.
- Two users. Extra users are removed automatically during the downgrade.
- Three automations, three forms, one landing page, one website and one digital product.

If you want to keep using MailerLite for free after cancelling, get under these limits before the
plan expires. The plan-change FAQ is clear about what happens if you do not: once the account moves
to Free, "email sending and subscriber import will be blocked" until usage is reduced [4].

If you are leaving MailerLite entirely, these limits do not matter, but your data does. Export it
before the plan ends, while every feature is still available.

## Refunds when you cancel

Cancelling stops future charges. It does not return past ones.

The refund policy guarantees a refund in one case: if MailerLite ends the service "without cause
before the end of a year for which you have paid". It adds: "There is no other circumstance in which
you will be entitled to a refund from us" [6]. The policy names unused or partly used plans,
forgotten cancellations, cancelling immediately after a renewal charge, and buying the wrong plan by
mistake as cases with no refund.

There is one exception for individuals. "If you are an individual and you use MailerLite services
not for your trade, business, craft or profession purposes, you have a right to request a refund
within 14 calendar days from the day of agreeing to MailerLite’s terms." [6] Businesses do not
have this right, and the terms say the service is intended for business use.

The vendor may offer refunds in other situations at its discretion, within 30 days of the last
transaction [6]. In our review sample, two five-star reviewers describe a refund or credit being
arranged by support [12], so it is worth asking politely. It is not something to count on.

The practical rule: cancel a few days before a renewal, not after it.



> 💡 **undefined:** Consider the two-month pause for a seasonal break.

## Annual plans: what cancelling does

An annual plan is one payment for twelve months. Cancelling it stops the next annual charge. It does
not end the current year early and does not return the unused months.

That makes timing more important on annual plans. If you know you are leaving in six months, cancel
now. You keep the plan until the anniversary, and you will not be charged again.

If you are switching from annual to monthly rather than leaving, the vendor documents that "Yearly
to lower monthly plan" changes "will only take effect at the end of the current yearly billing
cycle" [3], and the account will not auto-upgrade or downgrade during that period.

One edge case from the reviews deserves mention. A reviewer describes a prepaid year ended by the
vendor after one month, with the unused eleven months not refunded [12]. The published policy
promises a refund only when termination is without cause. If you are on an annual plan, keep your
consent records in order; it is your best protection.

## What happens to your automations and features

Cancelling does not delete anything, but it does switch things off.

The cancellation page lists what changes on the move to Free. Pre-made templates, some automation
features and the preference centre are no longer available, and "After downgrading, some automated
workflows might be disabled due to feature limitations." [7] Free allows three active
automations with five steps each, so an account running a dozen sequences will find most of them
stopped.

What stays is data. "All your data, including subscribers, campaigns, and reports, will remain
intact in your account when you downgrade to a free plan." [7] The same page adds that access
to certain features or historical data may be limited.

Discounts do not survive a cancellation either. The terms say that unless the discount's own terms
say otherwise, an applied discount expires if you cancel your subscription, accept another offer,
or change your plan, including a downgrade or a change of billing interval [8]. A nonprofit
on 30% that cancels and later returns should expect to apply again.

If you plan to come back, write down which automations were live before you cancel. Reactivating
them later, on a paid plan, is easier with a list than from memory.



> ⚠ **undefined:** Cancelling a deletion does not reactivate a subscription you cancelled during it.

## Switching between annual and monthly

People sometimes cancel because they want to move from an annual plan to monthly. You do not need
to cancel to do that, but the rules are tighter than they look.

The terms set two limits. "If you want to switch from an annual plan to a monthly plan, you can
only switch to the same or a higher monthly plan." [8] So you cannot use the switch to step
down a band at the same time. And you cannot switch plans if the current plan has expired or
expires in less than two days.

The billing page fills in the timing. A switch from yearly to a lower monthly plan only takes effect
at the end of the current yearly cycle, while a switch from yearly to a higher monthly plan applies
immediately, with any unused credit from the current month discounted from the first monthly
invoice [3].

So the practical choice is this. If you want to pay less, schedule the downgrade for the
anniversary. If you want flexibility, switch to monthly at the same band, then step down a band
later.

## Pausing instead of cancelling

If you want to stop paying for a season rather than leave, the pause is designed for it. "While a
subscription is paused, no charges are made to your payment method for 2 months." [3]

During the pause you lose access to paid features, and the free plan's limits apply. After two
months the subscription renews automatically, and the account owner is notified five days before.
You can renew earlier at any time.

The restriction: "It is only possible to pause a subscription once per calendar year." [3]

A pause suits a seasonal business, a teacher on summer break, or a newsletter taking a planned
hiatus. It keeps your plan structure and settings ready for the return, which a cancel-and-resubscribe
does not guarantee, since anyone resubscribing after cancelling is "subject to the new pricing"
[3].



> ⚠ **undefined:** You cannot downgrade from Power to Comfort while over Comfort's limits.

## Downgrading instead of cancelling

If the plan is simply too expensive, a downgrade may be enough.

Power to Comfort removes unlimited sending and unlimited features, and saves $13 a month at 500
subscribers or $20 at 5,000. But you cannot downgrade while you are over Comfort's limits. The vendor
says so directly: "No, you will not be able to downgrade your plan while the limits are exceeded."
[4] Reduce active automations below 50, forms below 10, sites below 10 and products below 5
first.

A lower subscriber band is the other route. Clean inactive subscribers before your billing date,
since the count is cumulative within the cycle, then select the smaller band. The change takes effect
at the next cycle.

Downgrades never take effect immediately: "the new downgraded plan will take effect once the current
plan has expired." [3]

## How to delete your account

Deletion is final after the grace period, so export first.

The vendor's steps for **Delete account**, which removes the account and all its content for every
user of it [11]:

1. Open Account settings and the Company profile tab.
2. Scroll to Account deletion and click Delete account.
3. Review the notice and the deletion details.
4. Type DELETE MY ACCOUNT and confirm.

Only administrators can do this. Other users need an administrator to act.

Deletion is scheduled rather than immediate. "MailerLite gives you a 25-day grace period to cancel
the deletion request in case you change your mind." [11] You can cancel the request in the same
place during that period.

One trap: if you cancelled your subscription as part of the deletion process, cancelling the
deletion does not reactivate the subscription [11]. You would need to upgrade again, at the
current price.

## Forget me: deleting yourself, not the account

If you are one user among several and want your own data removed, use **Forget me** instead.

It "Removes your user profile and personal data from all accounts you’re a part of." [11] If
you are the only user of an account, that account and its content are deleted too. If there are
other users, their content and access are unaffected.

The steps mirror account deletion: Account settings, the Account deletion section, Forget me, then
type DELETE MY DATA to confirm. It is also scheduled, and can be cancelled during the same window.

This is the right option for a freelancer or agency staff member leaving a client's account, and for
anyone whose personal email was used to create an account that belongs to an organisation. It
removes the person without removing the organisation's list.

## Exporting before you leave

MailerLite keeps your data when you cancel. The cancellation page says all subscribers, campaigns
and reports remain intact after a downgrade to Free, although access to some features or historical
data may be limited [7]. Deletion is what removes it.

So export while the paid plan is still active. At a minimum, take your subscribers with their custom
fields and group memberships, and your unsubscribed list, which you need to keep honouring on any
new platform. Save the HTML of campaigns you may want to reuse, and copy your automation logic in
writing, because automations do not transfer between platforms.

If you are moving to Mailchimp, its importer reads standard CSV files. If you are moving to another
platform, check its import format before you export, so you can map fields once.

Finally, note the unsubscribed and bounced addresses separately. Importing them into a new platform
as active subscribers is both a legal problem and the fastest route to an account review there.

## Legacy (Classic) accounts

If your account is on MailerLite Classic, cancellation works differently, and the difference is
sharp.

The terms say that when a Classic account's paid plan is not renewed, it is downgraded to Free,
remains operational within Free limits for 30 days, and "will be disabled after this period"
[8]. After that you can still log in, export and migrate your data, but you cannot add
subscribers, create content, send or publish.

That makes a Classic cancellation closer to an exit than a downgrade. Export within the 30 days, or
at the very least before you lose the ability to work with the data comfortably. The vendor's
answer for anyone who wants to keep a free account is to move to the new MailerLite, which has a
free plan Classic no longer offers.

## A worked example: leaving on the right day

A small agency pays for Comfort at the 2,500 band on monthly billing, $33 a month, renewing on the
15th. It decides on the 20th to move to another platform.

If it cancels on the 20th, it keeps Comfort until the 15th of the next month and is not charged
again. It has 26 days to rebuild landing pages elsewhere, move its domain, export and test. Total
remaining cost: nothing beyond the payment already made.

If it waits until the 16th of the next month, a renewal of $33 has gone through. The policy names
cancelling immediately after a renewal charge as a case with no refund [6]. The agency pays
for a month it will not use.

On an annual plan the same mistake costs more. At the 2,500 band, annual Comfort is $29.70 a month,
billed as $356.40 a year. Missing the anniversary by a day commits the whole year. Set a reminder
two weeks before every renewal date, which is also the notice period the terms give for price
changes.



## FAQ

**How do I cancel my MailerLite subscription?**

Go to Account settings, open Plan and billing, click Cancel subscription and confirm. The plan stays active until it expires, then the account moves to the free plan.

**Does MailerLite refund unused time?**

No, except when MailerLite ends the service without cause. Individuals using it outside a business have a 14-day right to a refund.

**How do I delete my MailerLite account?**

In Account settings, Company profile, Account deletion, click Delete account and type DELETE MY ACCOUNT. Deletion happens after a 25-day grace period, during which you can cancel it.

## The sequence that avoids surprises

1. Decide: cancel, downgrade, pause or delete.
2. If leaving, rebuild landing pages elsewhere and move your domain.
3. Export subscribers, unsubscribes, fields, groups and campaign HTML.
4. Disconnect custom domains in MailerLite.
5. Cancel a few days before the next renewal.
6. Let the plan run out; check the account has moved to Free.
7. Delete only when you are sure, and remember the 25-day window.

Cancelling MailerLite is easier than cancelling most of its rivals. The things that go wrong are
almost always domains, timing and data, and all three are under your control.




## Sources

[1] MailerLite vendor pricing page — https://www.mailerlite.com/pricing (2026-10)
[2] MailerLite vendor documentation on plans and billing — https://www.mailerlite.com/help/plan-and-billing (2026-10)
[3] MailerLite vendor notice on the move to Comfort and Power plans — https://www.mailerlite.com/help/paid-plans-update-faq (2026-10)
[4] MailerLite vendor notice on the Free plan update — https://www.mailerlite.com/help/free-plan-update-faq (2026-10)
[5] MailerLite vendor refund policy — https://www.mailerlite.com/help/mailerlite-refund-policy (2026-10)
[6] MailerLite vendor documentation on cancelling a subscription — https://www.mailerlite.com/help/cancel-my-subscription (2026-10)
[7] MailerLite Terms of Use — https://www.mailerlite.com/legal/terms-of-service (2026-10)
[8] MailerLite vendor comparison page against Mailchimp — https://www.mailerlite.com/mailchimp-alternative (2026-10)
[9] MailerLite vendor features page — https://www.mailerlite.com/features (2026-10)
[10] MailerLite vendor documentation on deleting an account — https://www.mailerlite.com/help/how-to-delete-my-account (2026-10)
[11] Trustpilot aggregate score and review corpus for MailerLite — https://www.trustpilot.com/review/mailerlite.com?languages=all (2026-10)
[12] App Store listing for MailerLite Manager, published by MailerLite, Inc. — https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mailerlite-manager/id1586139546 (2026-10)
[13] WordPress.org listing for the official MailerLite signup forms plugin — https://wordpress.org/plugins/official-mailerlite-sign-up-forms/ (2026-10)
[14] MailerLite's own Shopify App Store listing — https://apps.shopify.com/mailerlite-email-automation (2026-10)
[15] MailerLite public status page — https://status.mailerlite.com/ (2026-10)
[16] MailerLite vendor page on paid newsletter subscriptions — https://www.mailerlite.com/features/paid-newsletter-subscriptions (2026-10)
[17] MailerLite GOLITE50 sale terms — https://www.mailerlite.com/legal/golite50-sale-terms (2026-10)
[18] MailerLite vendor Free plan page — https://www.mailerlite.com/free-plan (2026-10)
[19] Mailchimp vendor pricing page — https://mailchimp.com/pricing/ (2026-09)
[20] Mailchimp vendor documentation on pricing plans — https://mailchimp.com/en/help/about-mailchimp-pricing-plans/ (2026-09)
[21] Mailchimp vendor plan comparison page — https://mailchimp.com/en/pricing/marketing/compare-plans/ (2026-09)
[22] Trustpilot aggregate score for Mailchimp — https://www.trustpilot.com/review/mailchimp.com (2026-09)
[23] Mailchimp vendor documentation on contacts — https://mailchimp.com/en/help/about-your-contacts/ (2026-09)