It’s a fantastic way to absorb books. A few years ago I had a daily cycle commute across Copenhagen which meant I was cycling for almost an hour every day. During this time Audible helped me use this time to devour books.
However since then I’ve moved apartments and jobs. I still find Audible valuable, I just can’t get through audiobooks in the way that I used to. I’ve often found my Audible credits are building up faster than I can get through audiobooks.
There is one thing I don’t like about Audible though. The dark patterns it employs in its attempts to keep users from unsubscribing. In fact I’d argue they’re downright nefarious. At every step of the cancellation process Audible’s design does its best to obscure your choices. You are repeatedly told that if you cancel, you will lose your valuable credits. To be clear you can pause your subscription for 30, 60 or 90 days at any time.
Therefore I thought it was only fair to demystify the process of pausing your subscription
How to pause your Audible Subscription
Step one
Head to the “Account Details” section under the profile menu.
Step two
Click “Cancel membership”.
Step three
This is the first step in the process which is a bit misleading as it implies clicking “continue cancelling” will result in losing your credits. This is not the case. Your credits are safe at this point. Click “continue cancelling”.
Step four
At this point things seem to start seeming very final. Again this is not the case, simply keep “I don’t use it enough” selected and click “Cancel membership”.
Step five
Finally the options! From here you can choose to either pause your membership, or select one of the other available offers. What you see here may vary slightly. In the past I have also been offered a 3 month membership period at half-price.
Step six
Enjoy your membership break and use up those credits. Don’t forget that Audible credits expire 12 months after being issued. Pausing your membership won’t prevent credits expiring.
What about annual Audible plans?
If you have an annual Audible plan, you won’t be able to pause your subscription. This is because you have effectively prepaid for the entire year upfront. However you can cancel your subscription and you will still be able to keep and access any audiobooks in your Library, even without a membership.
Looking for a way to use up your spare credits?
If you have a few credits to use up and would like some book recommendations, these are some books I’ve thoroughly enjoyed on Audible:
- Good Strategy Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt
- Putin: Prisoner of Power by Misha Glenny
- Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don’t Make Sense by Rory Sutherland
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- The Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded Edition by Don Norman
- At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson
I’ve been an Audible member since 2008. Lately, I’ve been accumulating credits in my Audible account so I decided to start exploring my Audible account options. This guide covers what I discovered and includes step-by-step instructions for how to cancel your Audible membership plus other options such as how to pause your Audible account or switch your Audible plan.
Instructions to Cancel Audible Membership
To cancel your Audible membership, follow these instructions:
1. Go to the Account Details page on the Audible desktop site.
2. Click “Cancel Membership” at the bottom of the “Membership details” section.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions and steps. Before you cancel, Audible will make sure you don’t leave anything on the table and try to resolve any issues you have. We cover some of these items in more detail below.
4. After you cancel, an automated email will be sent to you as proof of your plan changes.
Things to Consider Before You Cancel Audible
Before you cancel your subscription, Audible will try to understand why and offer some recommendations, deals, and assistance to keep you as a customer. These include:
Remaining Credits
Do you still have any remaining credits?
You’ll want to use these because after you cancel you will lose access to your member benefits and all credits at the end of your final billing period. Helpfully, Audible will remind you if you have unused credits:
Exchange Audible Books
Did you know that Audible has a satisfaction guarantee?
This guarantee means if you didn’t love one of your listens, you can exchange it for another. We’ve put together the following guide to help with this: How to Return or Exchange Audible Audiobooks. Audible will also notify you of this before you finish canceling:
Switch Your Audible Plan
Have you considered switching your Audible membership to a different plan?
Available plans include Audible Plus, Audible Premium Plus (1 or 2 credits per month or 12 credits upfront), and Audible Silver:
Audible Cancellation Special Offers
Why are you canceling your Audible membership? Audible will you to take a minute to answer this question:
Depending on your answer, you may receive an offer from Audible such as the following Audible annual plan deal:
Contacting Customer Care
Are you wanting to cancel Audible because of unresolved issues e.g. technical problems?
If so, Audible asks you to contact Audible Customer Service to see if they can help. I’ve always found interactions with this team to be positive to don’t hesitate to do this. There are also multiple contact options – chat, phone, and email – which is nice.
How to Pause Audible Membership
Instructions to Pause Audible Membership
An alternative to canceling is to pause your Audible membership.
Perhaps, like me, you’ve been accumulating credits. Whatever the reason, Audible members with monthly plans can pause their account one time every 12 months. That pause can be anywhere between one to three months. For membership plans that don’t earn credits, this feature is not available.
To pause your Audible membership, follow these instructions:
1. Go to the Account Details page on the Audible desktop site.
2. Click “Pause Membership” at the bottom of the “Membership details” section.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions and steps to pause your Audible membership.
Note: if you don’t see an option to pause your membership or if you are not eligible to pause your membership through self-service (like me – see screenshot below), you need to contact Audible Customer Service. Contact options include chat, phone, and email. I paused my Audible membership by contacting customer service via chat and the process took no longer than 5 minutes.
4. When done, Audible sent me the below confirmation email confirming my Audible membership was on pause:
Things to Consider Before You Pause Audible
As per the above email, when pausing your Audible membership you should be aware of the following:
- While on pause you won’t be billed for your membership and you can still use your remaining credits. However, you will not have access to the Audible Plus Catalog until your membership resumes.
- You will still be able to listen to the titles you added to your library with credits, and purchase individual titles at Audible.com without membership. Your username and password will stay the same.
- You can change your mind about pausing and resume membership anytime you would like.
What’s your experience with canceling, pausing, or switching your Audible membership? Let us know if the comments below.
Are you looking for an Audible alternative? If so, check out our post on the 5 Best Alternatives to Audible. Benefits offered by some of Audible’s competitors include a more generous free trial, cheap audiobooks with no membership requirement, the ability to support your local bookstore, and more.