This policy explains when we refund money and how to ask. It is part of our Terms of Service.
Refunds are not automatic. Credits and subscriptions are digital services that cost us money to deliver the moment you use them, so we refund where there is a substantive reason — not on request alone, and not because a purchase was later regretted. What follows is where we draw that line, so you know before you buy rather than after.
Payments are handled by Paddle as merchant of record: Paddle is the seller, takes the payment and issues the invoice. So a refund we agree to is carried out by Paddle, and Paddle can also refund a payment on its own initiative.
Changing your mind after you buy
If you are a consumer in the EU, the EEA, Switzerland or the UK, you have a statutory right to withdraw from a distance contract within 14 days. Because Paddle is the seller, that right runs against Paddle and is governed by Paddle's buyer terms and refund policy, which you accept at checkout.
Consumers in a number of other countries have a comparable right on their own terms, and the period is often shorter than 14 days. Paddle's refund policy lists them country by country — if you are outside the countries named above, read it for yours rather than taking the 14 days as the rule everywhere.
Under those terms the right is lost once you have consented to immediate supply and actually started using what you bought. So the two situations differ:
- You have not used it. A credit pack you have not spent from is refundable on request — the statutory right applies, and our own policy below reaches the same answer anyway.
- You have started using it. Paddle's terms treat the right as spent for what has been delivered, and the rest of this policy governs the remainder.
Two things we will not claim. We do not decide the scope of your statutory rights — where the law gives you more than this policy, the law wins. And we do not say that spent credits are irrecoverable as a matter of law: we say what we do below, and mandatory law overrides it wherever it speaks.
When we refund, and when we do not
We refund where the reason sits with us or with the payment rather than with a change of mind:
- the service did not do what the pricing page says it does, and we could not put it right;
- you were charged twice, or charged after cancelling;
- a subscription renewed for a period you did not intend to start and you tell us early in that period, before making real use of it;
- something went wrong on our side and cost you the work you paid for.
We normally decline where the service has already been delivered:
- the credits are spent. A pack whose credits have been used, in whole or in part, is normally not refundable — the translations were produced, and producing them cost us;
- the billing period was used. A subscription period during which you ran jobs or published to a store is not refunded because the plan turned out to be more than you needed;
- the purchase is old. Asking about a charge from several billing periods ago, having used the service since, is a request we will usually decline;
- it keeps happening. See the last section.
None of this displaces your rights under the law where you live: if the service is faulty or not as described, your statutory remedies apply whatever this policy says, and the withdrawal right above applies on its own terms.
What happens to a subscription refund
The outcome changes your access, and the difference matters:
When you ask for a refund and want to stop:
- If we approve it, your subscription ends at that point. You get the money back and the paid features stop — you are not both refunded and still using what you paid for.
- If we decline it, your access continues to the end of the period you already paid for, and the subscription then ends without renewing.
A refund we give while you are staying — a goodwill one, say — changes nothing about your access: the money comes back and your subscription runs on.
If you simply want to stop paying, you do not need a refund: cancel in your account, keep the access you paid for until the period ends, and nothing renews.
Credit packs
Packs are refunded in full or not at all. We do not refund part of a pack — a part-refunded pack would leave your balance in a state neither of us could explain later.
That is why an untouched pack is the straightforward case and a used one is not: refunding a pack takes back all of its credits, so if you have spent some of them, the refund pushes your balance below zero. Where the pack is largely unused and the reason is a good one, we may still do it and say so plainly. Where most of it is gone, the answer is normally no.
If you bought a bigger pack than you meant to, ask before you spend from it: the answer is a full refund plus a fresh purchase of the one you wanted. There is no hurry from our side — credits you bought do not expire, so an unspent pack keeps its value while your account exists.
Credits you have already spent
Spent credits are not refundable: the work they paid for has been done, and it cost us to do it.
If a payment is refunded or reversed after credits from it have been spent, the credits go back with the money. That can leave your balance negative, and a negative balance carries into the next period rather than disappearing at renewal. Topping up or renewing clears it first.
Free and bonus credits
Welcome credits, promotional credits and anything else we grant have no cash value. They are not refundable and cannot be transferred or exchanged.
How to ask
Use our contact form and pick Billing & refunds, or write to [email protected]. Tell us which payment you mean — the date and amount are enough — and what you would like to happen.
A person reads it, and a person decides — there is no automatic rule that approves or refuses for us. We answer as quickly as we can, normally within a few business days, and if we say no we say why. If we agree, Paddle returns the money to the payment method you used; how long it then takes to appear depends on your bank or card issuer, not on us.
What this policy does not limit
- Your rights as a consumer. Where the law where you live gives you more than this policy, that law applies.
- Chargebacks. You can dispute a payment with your bank or card issuer. Nothing here removes that, though we would rather you talked to us first — it is faster, and a dispute freezes the account while it runs.
- Paddle's own discretion. As the seller, Paddle may refund a payment on its own terms, whatever this policy says.
Repeated refunds
We may decline a refund, or stop selling to an account, where refunds are being requested repeatedly in a way that looks like using the service for free rather than being unhappy with it.