How to Cancel a Shopify Subscription: Pause, Close or Delete, and Keep the Domain

To cancel a Shopify subscription, the store owner opens Settings, then Plan, and clicks Cancel plan. That deactivates the store at the end of the current billing cycle, not on the day you click. Shopify's help centre, read on 18 Oct 2026, offers two other exits on the same screen: the cheaper Pause and Build plan, which keeps the store and turns off checkout, and, once the store is closed, a request to erase your customers' personal data, which is permanent. None of the three refunds the plan fee you have already paid.

This entry prices each exit as Shopify documents it, then works through the three things that keep billing or break after you leave: apps, the final invoice and a domain bought through Shopify.

Pause, close or delete: which one you want

The three options are easy to confuse because they sit behind the same button. They differ in cost, in what customers can do, and in whether you can come back.

Pause suits a seasonal store or a planned break. Closing suits a store you might reopen within two years, or are simply done with. Deleting is only for when you want the customer data gone, and it can only follow a close.

Pause and Build: what stops and what still works

On Pause and Build your storefront stays visible, but nobody can buy. The help centre lists what is switched off: online store checkout, POS, discounts, abandoned checkout recovery, gift cards, and the third-party integrations that publish your products to channels such as Facebook and Google. You can send draft order invoices, but those orders cannot be completed.

What stays on is the admin. You can log in, edit products and read basic reports about the site, which is the point of the plan: a store can be rebuilt or restocked while it is shut to buyers. If you would rather customers not see the products at all, Shopify suggests turning on private mode, which shows a password page instead.

Four rules decide whether it is available and what it costs you:

• Only the store owner can choose it, and only after the free trial on a paid plan. Plus stores cannot use it.
• The change takes effect at the end of the current billing cycle. Until then the store keeps taking orders, so turn on private mode if you need sales to stop now.
• Apps stay installed and keep billing. Uninstall the ones with recurring charges before or right after pausing.
• Your old plan is gone. Reopening means subscribing to a plan again at its current price.

On price, Shopify's help centre describes Pause and Build only as "a reduced monthly fee" and does not state the figure in the articles we read on 18 Oct 2026. Third-party pages quote different numbers for it, so read the amount in your own admin before you confirm, and treat any figure quoted elsewhere as unverified.

Closing the store: the final bill and unused time

Closing, which Shopify calls deactivating, cancels the subscription at the end of the billing cycle you are in. If your cycle ends on 25 November, the store closes on 25 November.

At the moment you cancel, Shopify uninstalls all apps and charges anything pending: outstanding app usage charges, transaction fees and shipping label charges. The help centre says that if nothing is outstanding, no final invoice is issued. It also points to Shopify's terms of service, which set a strict no-refund rule for plan fees, including on cancellation, so the unused part of an annual plan is not returned.

Some invoices can still arrive after the store has closed. The billing guide names three sources: third-party charges billed outside Shopify, such as apps or domains with their own billing; chargebacks on earlier sales; and charges from any other Shopify store you own.

Two things outlive the subscription and are easy to forget. Money already in the Shopify Payments pipeline still reaches the bank on the usual dates. The catch is that a failed transfer can no longer be repaired from a closed admin. And customers can still file chargebacks against past orders; to submit evidence, you have to reactivate the store. Payout timing itself does not change when you close; only your ability to troubleshoot it does.

Any credits on the account stay available for 60 days after you close, then expire.

Before you close: what to save

The help centre's checklist, condensed:

1. Export your store data as CSV files: products, customers, orders.
2. Download a backup of any theme you bought. Themes are licensed to the store they were bought for; support can move the licence to another store you own.
3. Export the gift card file if you sold gift cards, and settle open subscription or pre-order orders with refunds where needed.
4. Decide what happens to the domain, before the cycle ends.
5. Note your myshopify.com address is gone for good: a new store can reuse the name but not that URL.

The theme point deserves weight. A paid theme is one of the larger one-off costs in a Shopify build, as our entry on Shopify theme costs shows, and the licence does not follow you to a new store by itself.

The domain bought through Shopify

A custom domain disconnects from the store when it is deactivated, and its renewal is not cancelled by closing the store. If it is due to renew before your close date, the help centre warns, you may still be charged for it.

To keep the domain, transfer it to another provider. Shopify unlocks it when you start the transfer and gives you an authorisation code for the new provider. A transfer can take up to 7 days, and if it is not completed within 30 days the domain locks again and you start over. Generic extensions such as .com cannot transfer until 60 days after you bought the domain, transferred it in or changed its contact details; that wait is an ICANN rule, so it applies at every provider. While you wait, you can point the domain at a new host from its DNS settings, and turn off auto-renew if you do not want it.

One more delay applies to the address itself. Shopify keeps its HSTS security policy on your domain for 90 days after you leave. If the new platform uses HTTPS, nothing happens. If it does not, visitors see a certificate warning until the 90 days are up.

A domain you bought elsewhere is simpler: remove it from the store in the admin, point its DNS at the new platform, and turn off auto-renewal at that registrar if you no longer need it.

Apps and third-party subscriptions

Apps billed through Shopify are uninstalled when you close, and their usage charges land on the final bill. Apps that bill you directly, outside Shopify, are not stopped by anything you do in the Shopify admin. Cancel those with each developer. On Pause and Build, nothing is uninstalled for you at all.

The stack is usually larger than owners remember. Our audit of what Shopify apps actually cost is a useful list to check against before the last cycle ends.

Reopening later: what is kept and for how long

A closed store's information is guaranteed for 2 years. Reactivate within that window and you reopen without rebuilding, after paying any outstanding charges and choosing a plan. If you reactivate before the current billing cycle has ended, Shopify does not bill you again until the next regular date, on monthly or annual billing alike. Custom domains have to be reconnected.

Deleting the data ends that option. Only the store owner can request deletion, only from a store that is already closed, and Shopify says the customers' personal data is erased within 14 days of the request being completed. After that the store cannot be reopened.

The short version

If you are taking a break, Pause and Build keeps the store and the admin for a smaller fee, but strip out paid apps first. If you are done, close the store, export everything, and move the domain before the cycle ends. Delete only when you are certain. If the reason for leaving is cost, the revenue crossovers between plans may show a cheaper fit, and our Shopify review sets out what you would be giving up. You can also compare current Shopify plans before deciding.