How to cancel Shutterstock
MediumAbout 10 minutesChecked against published steps 3 September 2026
Opens Shutterstock's own cancellation page. You will need to be signed in to your Shutterstock account.
Cancelling Shutterstock
About 10 minutes · Medium
USE YOUR REMAINING DOWNLOADS FIRST
Unused downloads in the current period are lost. Licences already taken are permanent.
Sign in and open Subscriptions in your account
Cancel the auto-renewal
Keep the licence records for anything you have used
- Notice period
- None — cancelling takes effect straight away.
- How you will know it worked
- Confirmation email.
- What happens after you cancel
- Everything you have already licensed stays licensed FOREVER. A Shutterstock licence does not expire when the subscription does, so images and footage already in your work remain legal to keep using, and the licence records stay in your account as proof. This is the fear that stops people cancelling, and it is unfounded. What you do lose are the downloads you have not used. They do not roll over and they are not refunded, so spend them before the period ends — that is the one piece of timing that matters here. Annual subscriptions run to the end of their term. Cancelling stops the renewal rather than ending the term early, and Shutterstock does not refund the unused part.
- How we checked
- Checked against Shutterstock's published instructions on 3 September 2026.Nobody has walked this flow, so treat the steps as their account of it rather than ours.
What else are you paying for?
Find possible recurring subscriptions in your bank statement. Cancel OS reads a statement export you give it and flags the charges that look recurring, for you to confirm.