How to Pause or Cancel Audible Membership

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Audible makes it easy to pause or cancel your subscription. While the pause option is useful if you want to take a break from Audible payments or want to catch up with unfinished titles, cancelling your membership may be a better option in certain situations.

You can pause or cancel your Audible membership from Account Name > Account Details > Membership Details on Audible’s website.

Before showing you how to pause or cancel Audible membership, let’s discuss some of the pros and cons of both options to see which option makes more sense in your situation.

Pause Vs Cancel – Which Option to Choose?

This section will help you with your decision to pause or cancel your Audible membership.

5 Things to Know Before Cancelling Audible Membership

You can use Audible without a subscription, purchase individual audiobooks, and listen to all your purchased titles after cancelling your membership.

Other important things to know include.

You can cancel and reactivate your Audible membership as many times as you want without any restrictions.
If you cancel your Audible subscription, you will lose all of the unused credits. It is important to use all credits before cancelling your membership. If you need time to decide where to use your credits or want to wait for sales to get the most out of the credits, you can pause the membership. This will give you an extra 90 days to use the credits.
You can pre-order audiobooks using credits and books will be delivered to your account on the release date, irrespective of your membership status. This is the best option if you are waiting for the next book in a series or your favorite author is releasing a title soon and it is available for pre-order.
Audible allows you to exchange any title that you do not like. To use this feature, you need an active Audible membership. Return any title you did not like and get your credit back to purchase another title before cancelling your membership. You can return any title you purchased in the last 365 days using credits.
If you have decided to cancel because you think Audible is expensive, you can check out several other ways to save money on Audible. You can pause your account to take a 3-month break from the monthly membership fee. It is also possible to downgrade your membership plan to Audible Plus which gives you unlimited access to the Plus Catalog.

You can go to Account Name > Account Details > Membership Details and click on Switch Membership to change your membership plan

After the cancellation, you can rejoin Audible anytime you want. There is no restriction on how many times or how often can you cancel or reactivate your Audible membership.

5 Things to Know Before You Pause Your Audible Membership

Members can put their Audible membership on hold to take a break from monthly payments without cancelling the membership.

You are eligible to pause the membership after 30 days of paid membership.

You can pause your Audible membership for up to 3 months (90 days) once every 12 months. The 12-month period starts once your membership is resumed again. This means you can pause again after 15 months at most.
Audible members billed through Apple’s App Store or Google’s Play Store are not eligible to pause their memberships.
Pausing membership will pause your monthly payments and membership benefits. You can not access the Plus Catalog or get your monthly membership credits during the pause period.
The existing credits can still be used and you can also buy credit bundles and participate in 2-for-1 sales. Explore other ways to get most out of Audible sales and deals.
You can resume (unpause) or cancel your membership anytime during the pause period or It will auto-resume after 90 days for your monthly membership payments.

If the Pause Membership option is unavailable for your account, you may not be eligible to pause your membership.

You can contact Audible Customer Service through email, chat, or phone call and they will help you with the process.

Pause or Cancel? My Recommendation

Audible has no issue with how many times you cancel and rejoin Audible. That being said, putting your account on hold through the pause option can be a better option in some situations.

pause vs cancel Audible membership — Pros & Cons of Pause and Cancel option

Pause makes more sense when

You have accumulated lots of credits and need some time to use them before getting more credits
You want to take a break from audiobooks because of your busy schedule but do not want to cancel your subscription
You have plenty of unfinished titles in your account’s library and need to catch up.
You want to cancel the membership but are not sure how to use the existing credits. Pausing will give you 90 extra days to think and use your credits and get advantage of any sales or offers during this period.

Cancelling an Audible membership is a better option when

You tried Audible’s free trial and do not think it is for you. You want to cancel to avoid future monthly payments.
You are not eligible to pause your membership and want to take a break from monthly payments. This could be because you need to finish the unlistened titles or have a bunch of credits saved up.
You want more control over when to rejoin Audible and continue your membership without checking back again. If you just want to take a break from audiobooks and are not sure when you will be back again, cancelling is a better option.
You want to try other Audible alternatives [like Chirp where you can buy audiobboks without a subscription] or get free audiobooks from your local library via Libby or hoopla.

I would suggest giving the pause option a try, even if you want to cancel your membership. This will give you enough time to use up the existing credits and catch up with your unfinished titles. You can cancel anytime during the pause period.

How to Pause or Cancel Audible – A Complete Guide

If you are looking for how to pause Audible membership or how to cancel Audible membership, follow the instructions below.

Go to Audible’s website and sign in to your account
Click on Account Name > Account Details

The first option on the side menu is Membership Details. This section has your current membership plan details and gives you the options to Switch Membership, Pause Membership, or Cancel Membership.

If you click on the Pause Membership option, you will be asked to confirm to pause your membership. Once you click on Continue, the membership will be paused.

If you want to cancel, click on Cancel Membership and Audible will guide you through the process.

Like any other subscription service, Audible does not want you to leave. If you choose it’s too expensive as the reason for cancellation, Audible generally offers you to stay for a discounted membership price for a few months.