Managing the end of a subscription shouldn't be complicated. Recurly gives you precise control over how and when subscriptions conclude — whether a customer is canceling at their next bill date, you're terminating a subscription mid-cycle, or billing failures are driving an automatic expiration. This page covers every path to expiry and what each one means for the subscription lifecycle.
Available on all Recurly plans
When a customer ends their subscription at the next bill date or term end, that's a cancellation. If you end it early, mid-cycle, that's a termination. Both outcomes result in the subscription reaching an expired state. A canceled subscription can be reactivated before the expiry date if the customer changes their mind — but once a subscription is expired, it cannot be reactivated. A new subscription must be created instead.
Customer autonomy
Give customers the ability to cancel on their own terms — at the next bill date or term end — building trust and a positive brand experience.
Flexible expiry options
Choose from immediate, next bill date, or term-end expiration to match the right outcome to each situation.
Recoverable cancellations
Canceled subscriptions stay active until the expiry date, giving customers a window to reconsider and reactivate without losing their subscription history.
When a subscription is canceled, it enters a pre-expiry state and remains active until the selected end date. The customer retains access to the service and can reactivate the subscription at any time before it expires.
1
Navigate to the desired customer account in the Admin Console.
2
Click on the subscription name.
3
From the Subscription Actions dropdown, choose Cancel Subscription.
4
Select whether to cancel immediately, at the next billing cycle, or at the end of the term.
1
In the Admin Console, go to Configuration → Hosted Page Settings and enable Cancel subscriptions under Customer Options.
2
Once enabled, customers can cancel their subscription directly from their Hosted Account page.
Recurly can automatically cancel a subscription when it receives a webhook signal from a payment gateway indicating that a payment method or mandate is no longer valid. The cancellation applies to any subscription using the affected token or mandate.
Supported gateways:
A canceled subscription can be reactivated at any time before it expires — useful when a customer changes their mind. Once a subscription has expired, reactivation isn't possible and a new subscription must be created.
SCA / PSD2 complianceIf your account is subject to SCA or PSD2 mandates, the customer must reauthenticate their stored billing information before reactivation. See
3D Secure with stored billing information for details.
1
Navigate to the desired customer account.
2
Click on the canceled subscription's name.
3
From the Subscription Actions dropdown, choose Reactivate Subscription.
If the cancellation option was provided to the customer, they'll see a reactivation option in their Hosted Account until the subscription expires.
Termination ends a subscription immediately, mid-cycle. Unlike cancellation, there's no pre-expiry window — the subscription moves directly to expired. Use termination when you need to end a subscription right away rather than at a future date.
1
Navigate to the desired customer account.
2
Click on the subscription name.
3
From the Subscription Actions dropdown, choose Cancel Subscription.
4
On the following page, choose Terminate Subscription to end the subscription immediately.
Termination can also be triggered via API. See the API reference for the required parameters and endpoints.
TipIf you want to end billing for a set number of cycles without permanently expiring the subscription, consider using Pause subscription instead.
Within Dunning Management, you can configure Recurly to automatically expire a subscription when its invoice reaches the end of the dunning cycle without a successful payment.
Past-due invoices aren't auto-failed on expiryIf a subscription expires outside of dunning — through cancellation, termination, or natural term end — any past-due invoices currently in dunning will not be automatically failed. They'll remain open and in dunning until paid or until the dunning cycle ends. If your dunning settings are configured to leave invoices past due at the end of the cycle, those invoices will never automatically fail. To stop collection, you'll need to manually mark them as failed.
