Subscription cancellation statistics

These statistics come from the research database behind Postbye's company guides, not from a survey of customers. Each share is computed from the same files at build time, and the methodology section lists what each file is and the date it was last checked.

• 6,007 of the 8,671 companies (69.3%) are sorted into 30 category hubs, led by News & magazines, Insurance & protection plans and Software & apps.
• 36.0% of verified companies list no refund or a limited refund in their terms, the most common trap.
• 23 jurisdictions regulate automatic renewal only for some contracts, and 5 have no such law that we found.

Of the 950 companies we checked by hand against their own pages, 62 list a postal route for cancelling; the other 888 list only their own routes, such as online, by phone or by email, so cancel there first: a letter to them adds a dated written record of your request. 16 of the 888 say they do not process cancellations sent by mail.

10 of the 950 companies we verified by hand (1.1%) publish a dedicated cancellation P.O. box, named for cancellations on the company's own pages and separate from its head-office address, for example LA Fitness and Tinder. For the rest, a letter goes to the mailing address on file. We hold a mailing address for 8,456 of all 8,671 companies; an order for one of the other 215 is handled by hand. The subscription cancellation by mail guide explains the steps.

6,007 companies (69.3% of the database) sit in one of 30 category hubs. The other companies are in the database with their mailing address but are not sorted into a hub yet. The 10 largest hubs hold 79.5% of the categorised companies.

For the 950 companies we verified by hand, we record the traps in their official terms: details that cost money or time if missed. 939 of them (98.8%) list at least one. We count a company in a row below when any of its traps contains the row's keyword, so the table is a keyword count, not a legal reading of each contract.

A company can appear in more than one row. The keywords counted are a fee to cancel or leave early (fee, except in the phrase "fees already paid"); a notice period (notice); no refund or a limited refund (no refund, non-refundable, not refundable, not refunded, prorated); billing through an app store (App Store, Google Play, iTunes, Apple). 212 companies mention a fee, which is why the guide on cancellation fees and the guide on early termination fees matter before you send a notice.

We track 8,942 distinct searches made of "cancel" and a company name. People in the US run them 725,060 times a month in total. The 25 biggest account for 63.2% of that. Source: Google Ads keyword data, October 2026. Each query is counted once, in the form people type it, so a company with two spellings can appear twice.

Companies with a page have their own cancellation guide, such as X Premium, YouTube TV, Amazon Prime.

Streaming & entertainment leads with 222,650 monthly searches, 30.7% of all the cancel searches we track. The last row is searches for companies we have not sorted into a category hub yet.

We read the automatic renewal statute of every state and the District of Columbia (51 jurisdictions) on the state's official site, last checked on October 27, 2026. A general law covers consumer contracts broadly. Sector-only states regulate renewals or cancellation for particular contracts, such as gym memberships.

Each jurisdiction's citation and main rule is in the automatic renewal laws by state table. Federal rules apply on top: the FTC explains them in its guidance on free trials, auto-renewals and negative option subscriptions, and the status of its Negative Option Rule is on the FTC rule page.

• Companies: the Postbye research database of 8,671 subscription companies. 950 entries are verified by hand against the company's own pages, the newest on November 1, 2026; cancellation routes, traps and dedicated cancellation P.O. boxes (a box counts only when the company names it for cancellations) come from those entries only, so their shares use 950 as the base. A company counts as listing a postal route only when its verified route names mail. The database also records where a letter can be sent for every company; that says nothing about how the company cancels, so no route share uses it.
• Search volumes: Google Ads keyword data, October 2026, average monthly searches in the US for queries made of "cancel" and a company name. A query is placed in a category when its company is in a hub. Queries for companies without a page are ranked but have no category.
• State laws: statute text on each state's official legislature site, checked on October 27, 2026. A jurisdiction counts as general when its law covers consumer contracts broadly, as sector-only when it has laws for particular contracts but no general one, and as none when we found neither.
• Shares are rounded to one decimal, so a table can add to slightly more or less than a full total. The statistics describe our database, not every subscription company in the market.

Cite this page: Postbye, "Subscription cancellation statistics", https://postbye.com/guides/subscription-cancellation-statistics, data checked October 27, 2026.