Nintendo enables auto-renewal by default when you sign up for Switch Online, and the toggle to turn it off is buried a few menus deep. A lot of people grab a membership for one game, forget about it, and get charged again months later. Here's how to stop that.
When you cancel, you keep access until the end of your current billing period. No partial refunds.
Online multiplayer stops working. Classic game libraries (NES, SNES, Game Boy, N64, GBA, GameCube) become inaccessible. Cloud save backups are retained for 180 days after your membership expires, then Nintendo may delete them. Save data stored locally on your console is not affected. If you're on a family plan, all members in your group lose access when the membership ends.
Cancel on Nintendo Switch
- Open the Nintendo eShop from the HOME menu
- Select your profile icon in the top-right corner
- Scroll down to Nintendo Switch Online
- Select Cancel Your Subscription by Turning Off Automatic Renewal
- Confirm when prompted
Cancel on Nintendo Switch 2
- Open the Nintendo eShop
- Select your profile icon to access Account Information
- Find your Nintendo Switch Online subscription
- Select Cancel Your Subscription by Turning Off Automatic Renewal
- Confirm
Cancel via web browser
- Go to accounts.nintendo.com and sign in
- Select Shops & Subscriptions
- Find your Nintendo Switch Online membership
- Select Cancel Your Subscription by Turning Off Automatic Renewal
This is the fastest method if you don't have your Switch nearby.
Nintendo turns on auto-renewal the moment you subscribe, including during the free 7-day trial. If you signed up for the trial just to try it, you need to turn off auto-renewal at least 48 hours before it expires or you'll be charged. Also worth knowing: once you turn off auto-renewal, you can't turn it back on. You'd need to buy a new membership entirely.
Current pricing (AUD)
| Plan | Price | Accounts |
|---|---|---|
| Individual | $5.95/mo, $11.95/3mo, $29.95/yr | 1 |
| Family | $54.95/yr | Up to 8 |
| + Expansion Pack (Individual) | $59.95/yr | 1 |
| + Expansion Pack (Family) | $109.95/yr | Up to 8 |
The base plan gets you online multiplayer, cloud saves, and the NES/SNES/Game Boy classic libraries. The Expansion Pack adds N64, Game Boy Advance, Sega Mega Drive, and GameCube games (GameCube on Switch 2 only), plus DLC for Mario Kart 8, Animal Crossing, and Splatoon 2.
If you're on the Expansion Pack and barely touch the retro libraries, dropping to the $29.95/yr base plan saves you $30 a year and still covers online play and cloud saves.
What happens to your cloud saves
This is the big one. Nintendo keeps your cloud save backups for 180 days after your membership lapses. If you resubscribe within that window, your saves are restored. After 180 days, Nintendo says they "cannot guarantee" your cloud data will be retained, which is polite corporate speak for "it gets deleted."
Your local save data on the console itself is fine. Cloud saves are a backup, not the primary copy. But if your Switch breaks or gets lost during that gap, you've got no safety net.
Family plan considerations
If you bought a family membership, cancelling affects everyone in your Nintendo Account family group (up to 8 people). Let them know before you pull the trigger. Individual members of the group can't manage the auto-renewal settings either. Only the account holder who purchased the plan can cancel.
If only one or two people in the family actually use online play, it might be cheaper for them to grab individual memberships at $5.95/mo rather than keeping a $54.95/yr family plan running.
Is it worth keeping?
Compared to PlayStation Plus ($11.95/mo for Essential) or Xbox Game Pass ($12.95/mo for Core), Nintendo Switch Online is cheap. The base plan works out to $2.50/mo on the annual rate. The question is whether you're actually using it. If you haven't played online or opened a retro game in months, that's $30 a year going nowhere.
Nintendo sorted. But between gaming, streaming, and app subscriptions, how much is quietly slipping through each month?
Most people find 3-5 subscriptions they forgot about when they actually look. Upload a bank statement to Subtracker and see every recurring charge in 2 minutes. No bank login. No manual entry. $12.99 once.
See what you're paying forChris Raad
Chris is the founder of Subtracker. He built this tool after experiencing the pain of discovering thousands of dollars in unused SaaS sprawl just before tax time.