How To Cancel An Adobe Subscription And What Happens When You Do

Where the use of Adobe's products once involved one-time purchases of physical software, the company now offers its products through subscription plans, which entitle you to ongoing product updates and cloud storage. For example, a subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud gives you access to a suite of Adobe products like Photoshop, Lightroom, and Illustrator for as long as you make annual or monthly payments.

However, if you subscribed to a product through Adobe's website and no longer want to make ongoing payments, you can cancel your subscription through your Adobe account page by navigating several steps. As the company's cancellation process is the subject of a lawsuit from US regulators for its alleged complexity, we're here to help you navigate the process with a straightforward, illustrated walkthrough.

How to cancel an Adobe subscription

Note that the below process only applies to subscriptions purchased through Adobe. If you bought an Adobe subscription through a third-party app or service, you'll have to cancel through said app or service.

1. Open your Adobe account's plan page in a web browser and sign into your account if needed. You should see all the products you subscribe to on the Plans page.

2. Find the product you want to cancel and click Manage plan.

3. Click Cancel your plan in the box that reads "End your service."

Note: Adobe's support page states that the Cancel your plan option may not appear if the company is processing your payment or if a payment failed to go through. For the latter issue, it directs users to retry or update their payment information and notes that payment processing may take up to 24 hours.

4. Adobe then lists the services and features you'll lose by canceling. Click the blue Continue to cancel button.

5. A new window further details your cancellation, including any refund you may be eligible for. Scroll down past Adobe's offers for alternate payment plans and click Confirm cancellation.

Your subscription is now canceled. You should receive a confirmation email from Adobe, and you can double-check by returning to your account's plan page, which should no longer show the plan as active.

If you cancel any plan within 14 days of your initial purchase, you should receive a full refund. After 14 days, you won't receive a refund, and canceling an "Annual plan, paid monthly" entails a cancellation fee, as Adobe's support site details.

Dave Johnson Freelance Writer Dave Johnson is a technology journalist who writes about consumer tech and how the industry is transforming the speculative world of science fiction into modern-day real life. Dave grew up in New Jersey before entering the Air Force to operate satellites, teach space operations, and do space launch planning. He then spent eight years as a content lead on the Windows team at Microsoft. As a photographer, Dave has photographed wolves in their natural environment; he's also a scuba instructor and co-host of several podcasts. Dave is the author of more than two dozen books and has contributed to many sites and publications including CNET, Forbes, PC World, How To Geek, and Insider. Read more Read less