How to Cancel a Microsoft 365 Subscription in Australia (2026)

Cancel path: account.microsoft.com/services/microsoft365 > find your subscription > Manage > Cancel subscription > I don't want my subscription, signed in with the Microsoft account that bought the subscription rather than a different one.

Australia is missing from Microsoft's prorated refund list. On Microsoft 365 Basic, Personal and Family, Microsoft's refund policy names the countries where you can cancel mid-term and get a prorated refund, and Australia is not one of them. For every other country that table reads "Prorated refunds are not available." So six months into an annual Personal or Family plan, cancelling stops the next renewal and gives you nothing back for the unused months. Microsoft 365 Premium and Pro sit on a separate table with a different rule, below.

Cancel Microsoft 365 on the web

Take this path if Microsoft bills you directly. If Apple, Google or a retailer bills you, skip to the store-billed section below, because these steps will not stop your charge.

1. Go to account.microsoft.com/services/microsoft365 and sign in with the same Microsoft account used to buy the subscription.
2. Find your Microsoft 365 subscription and select Manage.
3. Select Cancel subscription, a button Microsoft notes "might say Upgrade or Cancel", depending on the subscription.
4. Read the Please review panel at the top of the cancel page, which Microsoft uses to offer you a cheaper plan.
5. At the bottom, select I don't want my subscription, because the other button, I want to keep my benefits, keeps you subscribed.

If you see Turn on recurring billing where you expected Manage or Cancel, you are already done. Microsoft's wording: "this means your subscription is already set to expire on the date shown, and you won't be charged after this date. No further action is required."

Cancelling and turning off recurring billing are different

Turning off recurring billing leaves the subscription running to its expiry date and stops the next charge. Microsoft's support page puts it this way: "You (and anyone you have shared your Microsoft 365 Family subscription with) can continue to use your subscription as normal until the expiry date."

Cancelling is the action that triggers the refund check. Microsoft will not tell you whether you qualify for money back until you go through the cancel flow: "To check refund eligibility on a Microsoft 365 Basic, Personal, Family or Premium subscription you purchased from Microsoft, you will need to cancel it first." If no refund is issued, "Access to Microsoft 365 typically continues until the end of the current billing period."

So if you want out and might be owed a refund, cancel. If you only want the charges to stop and you intend to use the time you paid for, either action gets you there.

What Microsoft 365 costs in AUD

Prices as listed on Microsoft's Australian plan comparison page on 11 September 2026, in Australian dollars.

Personal and Family both advertise "Try free for 1 month". Personal includes 1 TB of cloud storage; Family includes up to 6 TB, 1 TB per person.

The refund policy, and where Australia sits

Microsoft publishes two refund windows, and you want both before you cancel.

The first purchase window: "In most cases, you may receive a refund within 30 days of your initial purchase or before your first recurring billing date (whichever is sooner)."

The renewal window, which is the one most people need: "you're entitled to a refund of your most recent recurring billing charge if you cancel your subscription within 30 days after payment. This refund right is limited to one time per Microsoft account, per subscription product."

That second rule is the practical answer to an annual renewal you did not want. Cancel inside 30 days of the charge and you can get that year's payment back once. Use it on the same product twice and Microsoft's policy says no.

Australia does not get a prorated refund on most plans. Microsoft's refund policy table for Microsoft 365 Basic, Personal and Family lists Canada, Denmark, France, Israel, Korea, Türkiye and a run of Nordic and French territories as places where you can "cancel at any time" for a prorated refund. Every other country, Australia included, reads: "Prorated refunds are not available." Cancelling month seven of a twelve month Personal plan refunds nothing.

Premium and Pro are the exception, which matters if you pay A$329 a year. Microsoft runs a second table for Microsoft 365 Premium and Microsoft 365 Pro whose "All other countries" row reads: "To receive a prorated refund, cancel within 14 days of initial purchase." That is a 14 day window from purchase rather than a standing right, and it is more than the other plans get.

Microsoft states further limits plainly. Eligibility "is determined automatically during the cancellation process", so there is no arguing a number with a person. And the policy "doesn't apply to prepaid retail subscription codes, which are subject to the return policies of the retailer from which you purchased the code".

If the charges keep coming

Microsoft does not publish a single descriptor for its Australian charges. The one example its billing page gives is an in-app purchase, "MICROSOFT*CANDY CRUSH", so a MICROSOFT* line is a lead rather than proof. Microsoft's own instruction is to match the charge against your order history in your Microsoft account.

If a Microsoft charge lands after you cancelled, work through Microsoft's own causes first. You cancelled inside the two-day cut-off, or the subscription sits on a different Microsoft account from the one you signed in with. Microsoft's dashboard has an Investigate control next to a charge on the Manage your payments page for exactly this.

What Australian Consumer Law gives you

Consumer guarantees cover a Microsoft 365 subscription bought for personal or household use, and Microsoft's own refund policy concedes the point: it "doesn't affect any additional rights you may have under applicable law".

Those guarantees are not a change of mind refund. The ACCC lists the occasions when you are not entitled to a repair, replacement or refund, and the first is where consumers "got what they asked for but simply changed their mind, found the product cheaper somewhere else, or decided they didn't like the purchase or had no use for it". Deciding you no longer need Word does not get your annual payment back, and the lack of a prorated refund in Australia is not on its face an unfair contract term.

The guarantees bite when a service fails. For a major problem with a service, the ACCC says you can "cancel the contract and get a refund", with the caveat that "this may not be a full refund, as the consumer needs to pay a reasonable amount for any work done so far and as expected". A charge taken after you cancelled correctly is a different argument again, and a simpler one: you are asking for money you never agreed to pay.

If Apple, Google or a retailer bills you

Cancelling inside your Microsoft account does not stop a charge collected by the App Store or Google Play. Microsoft says so directly: "If you purchased a Microsoft 365 subscription from Google Play or the Apple App Store, contact their customer support for cancellation or refund."

To tell which rail you are on, open account.microsoft.com/services. If there is no cancel option, Microsoft lists the possible reasons: a third-party store or retailer is billing you, you are signed in to the wrong Microsoft account, recurring billing is already off, or there is an overdue amount and you "cannot cancel until any overdue amount is paid". On the retailer case, a subscription bought "from a third-party retailer such as Amazon, Best Buy, or Harvey Norman" is managed by that retailer, not by Microsoft. Your receipt email settles which it is in seconds.

Billed by Apple:

On iPhone or iPad, Settings > tap your name > Subscriptions > tap the subscription > Cancel Subscription, and on a Mac, App Store app > click your name > Account Settings > Subscriptions > click the subscription > Cancel Subscription there. Refunds go through reportaproblem.apple.com, where you choose "Request a refund". Apple says Australian consumers "retain their rights under the applicable consumer protection laws and regulations". Our App Store subscriptions guide covers the flow in more detail.

Billed by Google Play:

On Android, open the Play Store, go to Subscriptions, select the subscription, then Cancel subscription, and on a computer, go to subscriptions on play.google.com, select Manage, then Cancel subscription there. Google's refund policies are set out separately and vary by product and payment method. The Google Play subscriptions guide has the full path.

Bought as a prepaid key from a retailer:

There is nothing to cancel. The subscription expires on its own date, Microsoft's refund policy does not cover the code, and any refund is a matter for the shop that sold it to you.

Personal, Family and what happens to the other five people

A Family subscription is shared, and cancelling it reaches everyone you shared it with. Microsoft's cancel page states that if you cancel Family, "all the people you shared your subscription with will also have their storage allowances reduced". Microsoft does not spell out where each of them lands, only that the allowance drops, so tell them before you cancel rather than after their phone stops backing up photos.

Downgrading is the middle option Microsoft pushes in the cancel flow, and for a household of two it can be cheaper than Family. The Please review panel is where those alternative plans appear.

Free trials

The one month trial converts unless you stop it. Microsoft's Australian Terms of Sale: "If you are taking part in any trial-period offer, you must cancel the Service by the end of the trial period to avoid incurring new charges unless we notify you otherwise. If you do not cancel the Service at the end of the trial period, you authorize us to charge your payment method for the Product or Service."

Combine that with the two-day cut-off and the safe move is to cancel a trial as soon as you know you do not want it, not on the last day. If your trial runs through the App Store, Apple asks for more room still: "If you signed up for a free or discounted trial subscription and you don't want to renew it, cancel it at least 24 hours before the trial ends." The free trial guide has the general rule for every service.