In this guide
Before you start.
- Cancel a free trial early. Ancestry's terms state that a trial may be cancelled at any time prior to two days before the end of the trial period without a further charge, and that the subscription starts once the trial period ends if you do not. A 14-day trial is effectively a 12-day decision.
- Check who bills you before you go looking for a cancel button. Ancestry states that a membership purchased in the Ancestry app through the Apple App Store, Google Play or Amazon has to be cancelled through that store, and that the store also handles any refund.
- Your tree and your DNA results are not at stake. Ancestry states that cancelling does not delete your trees, DNA or Ancestry account, and that the account becomes a free registered guest once the membership expires.
- If you hold more than one membership, cancel each of them. Ancestry Pro Tools is billed as its own line, and a family history membership and Pro Tools are not cancelled by one action.
- Cancel with room to spare. Ancestry's own support attributes a charge arriving after a cancellation to the membership having been cancelled too close to the renewal date.
FOLLOW THE RIGHT BILLING ROUTE
Cancel Ancestry, step by step.
Cancel on the Ancestry website
This is the route for a membership bought from Ancestry directly, which is most of them. The option sits in your account settings rather than anywhere in the tree or DNA sections.
- Sign in at ancestry.com and open your account settings.
- Find the membership section, which lists each membership you hold and its renewal or expiry date.
- Choose the option to cancel that membership, or to cancel the trial if you are still in one.
- Work through the screens that follow. Ancestry offers alternatives such as pausing, switching plan or keeping the membership before it will finish the cancellation, so read which button continues the cancellation and which keeps you subscribed.
- Keep going until a cancellation confirmation number appears on screen, and check your email for the confirmation message.
Ancestry's stated test of success is the confirmation: you know the membership or trial is cancelled when you receive a cancellation confirmation number on screen or by email. Save it. It is what you will need if a charge arrives anyway.
Cancel a Google Play-billed membership
If you subscribed inside the Ancestry Android app, Google Play took the payment. Ancestry cannot stop that charge and says so.
- Open the Google Play Store app on your Android device, or go to play.google.com.
- Tap your profile icon in the top right.
- Select Payments & subscriptions, then Subscriptions.
- Select Ancestry.
- Tap Cancel subscription and follow the instructions.
Google states that when you cancel, you can still use the subscription for the time you have already paid for. A membership billed this way also cannot be paused through Ancestry.
Cancel an Apple or Amazon membership
Ancestry sells through the Apple App Store and Amazon as well as Google Play. The rule is the same: the store that charged you is the only one that can stop it.
- For an Apple purchase, open Settings on your iPhone or iPad, tap your name, tap Subscriptions, tap the Ancestry subscription, then tap Cancel Subscription. You might need to scroll down to find it.
- For an Amazon purchase, open your Amazon account and find the app subscriptions or memberships area, then cancel the Ancestry subscription there.
- Check the receipt email if you are unsure which store took the money: the sender tells you who bills you.
- Ask that store for any refund. Ancestry directs refunds for store purchases to the store.
If the Ancestry subscription is missing from the list, you are signed in with a different account than the one that paid, or the membership was bought from Ancestry directly and belongs in the website route above.
Cancel by phone
Worth using when the website will not complete the cancellation, or when you cannot sign in to the account that holds the membership.
- Call Ancestry's support line, which is listed on its contact support pages.
- Say clearly that you want the membership cancelled rather than paused or downgraded.
- Ask for the cancellation confirmation number before you end the call.
- Check that the confirmation email arrives, and keep it.
A phone cancellation is only as good as its confirmation. Ancestry's support treats the confirmation number as the record that the cancellation happened.
What happens next?
- The membership runs to its expiry date. Cancelling stops the renewal rather than cutting off access on the day, so you keep the membership benefits until the date shown in your account settings.
- Your account becomes a free registered guest. Ancestry states that cancelling does not delete your trees, DNA or account, and you can still sign in, view and build your family tree, and see your AncestryDNA results and matches.
- Historical records are what you lose. Ancestry states that records attached to your tree which require a membership will not be visible after it ends, though they stay linked to the tree and become visible again if you resubscribe at the same level or higher. Searching and viewing the record collections needs an active membership.
- Pro Tools follows its own clock. Its access runs to the expiry date shown in account settings, and cancelling only Pro Tools does not affect the family history membership.
- A gift membership does not auto-renew, so there is nothing to cancel. Ancestry states that gift memberships do not automatically renew.
WHEN IT DOES NOT WORK
If you get stuck.
I cancelled and was charged anyway
Ancestry's own support gives the usual cause: the membership was cancelled too close to the renewal date. The second cause is that the cancellation never completed, and Ancestry's test for that is the confirmation, it says that without a cancellation confirmation email your membership likely is not cancelled. If you do hold a confirmation number and were charged after it, that is the case to take back to Ancestry, with the number.
The cancellation flow loops or the page goes blank
Ancestry puts pause, switch and keep offers between the cancel button and the confirmation, and leaving at that point leaves the membership active. Work through every screen and read the buttons rather than clicking the prominent one. If the page will not complete, try a different browser, and if it still fails use the phone line and ask for the cancellation confirmation number on the call.
There is no cancel option in my account
This normally means Ancestry does not bill you. A membership bought inside the Ancestry app is billed by Apple, Google Play or Amazon, and Ancestry states it must be cancelled through that store. Check the receipt email to see who charged you. The other possibility is that you are signed in to a different Ancestry account than the one holding the membership.
Someone else pays for my membership, or I pay for a relative's
The cancellation happens inside the account that holds the membership, so whoever can sign in to that account is who can cancel it. If a relative set the account up for you, you need its sign-in rather than your own, and a password reset to the email on the account is the usual way in. Cancelling your own account does nothing to a membership billed under theirs.
I cancelled but I want the money back, not just the renewal stopped
Cancelling and refunding are separate requests and Ancestry's refund rules depend on the plan and how long you have been a member, with tighter terms once a subscription has renewed. Ask Ancestry directly, and quote the cancellation confirmation number. If a store billed you, ask that store instead: Apple, Google Play and Amazon each apply their own policy to charges they collected.
GOOD TO KNOW
Questions, answered.
Do I lose my DNA results if I cancel Ancestry?
No. Ancestry states that cancelling does not delete your trees, DNA or account. Your account becomes a free registered guest and you keep access to your DNA results and matches. What needs a membership is the historical record collection.
What happens to my family tree after cancelling?
The tree stays and you can still view and build it. Records attached to it that require a membership stop being visible, but Ancestry states they remain linked to the tree and become visible again if you resubscribe at the same level or higher.
When do I have to cancel an Ancestry free trial?
Ancestry's terms state that a trial can be cancelled at any time prior to two days before the end of the trial period without a further charge. Leave it to the last day and the subscription starts.
How do I know the cancellation worked?
By the confirmation. Ancestry states you know a membership or trial is cancelled when you receive a cancellation confirmation number on screen or by email, and its support treats the absence of that email as a sign the cancellation did not go through.
Does deleting the Ancestry app stop the billing?
No. If a store bills you, the subscription keeps running until it is cancelled in that store's subscription settings, and if Ancestry bills you the membership continues regardless of whether the app is installed.
Can I pause my Ancestry membership instead?
Ancestry offers pausing as an alternative during the cancellation flow for memberships it bills directly. It states that memberships purchased through Apple, Google Play or Amazon cannot be paused.
Provider resources
- Ancestry: canceling a subscription
- Ancestry: accounts after cancellation
- Ancestry: managing a membership purchased in the Ancestry app
- Ancestry: unexpected charges
- Ancestry: renewal and cancellation terms
- Google Play: cancel, pause, or change a subscription
- Apple: view, change, or cancel subscriptions
Instructions reviewed .
Subex is independent of Ancestry. Availability and cancellation terms can vary by plan, billing provider and country.
