How to Cancel Cloudflare in 2026 (Downgrade, Transfer DNS, Close Account)

Updated 2026-03-03 · 7 min read

Cloudflare Services You Might Be Paying For

• Pro Plan: $20/month per domain — WAF rules, image optimization, mobile redirect
• Business Plan: $200/month per domain — custom WAF, 100% SLA, priority support
• Enterprise: Custom pricing — dedicated account team, advanced DDoS
• Workers: $5/month base — serverless functions (pay-as-you-go on top)
• R2 Storage: $0.015/GB/month — S3-compatible object storage
• Images: $5/month for 100K images — image optimization and delivery
• Zero Trust: $7/user/month — secure access for remote teams
• Registrar: At-cost domain registration — no markup (actually a good deal)

Step 1: Downgrade Paid Plans to Free

1. Log into dash.cloudflare.com
2. Select the domain you want to downgrade
3. Go to Overview → scroll to plan section
4. Click Change Plan → select Free
5. Repeat for every domain on your account
6. Downgrade takes effect at end of current billing cycle

Step 2: Cancel Add-On Services

1. Workers & Pages: Dashboard → Workers & Pages → delete all workers and set plan to free
2. R2 Storage: Delete all buckets first, then disable R2
3. Images: Dashboard → Images → cancel subscription
4. Zero Trust: Settings → Account → cancel Zero Trust plan
5. Email Routing: Free, but disable if moving DNS
6. Check Billing → Subscriptions for any other active services

Step 3: Transfer DNS Away from Cloudflare

If Cloudflare manages your domain's nameservers:

1. Export your DNS records: Dashboard → DNS → Export (saves as BIND zone file)
2. Set up DNS at your new provider (Route 53, Google Cloud DNS, Namecheap, etc.)
3. Import your zone file or manually recreate records
4. Update nameservers at your domain registrar to point to the new DNS provider
5. Wait for propagation (24-48 hours, usually faster)
6. Verify your site works before proceeding to account deletion

Step 4: Transfer Domain Away (If Registered with Cloudflare)

1. Dashboard → select domain → Manage Domain
2. Disable Transfer Lock
3. Request Auth Code (EPP code)
4. Initiate transfer at your new registrar using the auth code
5. Transfer takes 5-7 days
6. Domain must be registered for at least 60 days before transfer

Step 5: Delete Account

1. Confirm all domains are removed or transferred
2. Confirm all paid services are canceled
3. Go to My Profile (top right) → Communication tab
4. Scroll to bottom → Delete this account
5. Confirm deletion
6. Account and all data are permanently removed

Alternatives to Cloudflare

• Fastly: Better for enterprise — real-time log streaming, edge computing (VCL), more control
• AWS CloudFront: Best if you're already in the AWS ecosystem — tight S3/Lambda integration
• Vercel/Netlify: Best for static sites and Next.js/React apps — built-in CDN and deploys
• Bunny.net: Cheapest CDN — pay-per-use pricing, no minimum. Great for cost-conscious sites.
• Google Cloud CDN: Best if you use GCP — integrates with Cloud Load Balancing

Bottom line: Cloudflare's free tier is hard to beat. If you're paying for Pro or Business, downgrading to free might give you 90% of what you need at $0. But if you're truly leaving, export DNS first — everything else is secondary.