How to Cancel McAfee Antivirus and Stop Auto-Renewal (2026)

Updated 2026-02-16 · 6 min read

McAfee is one of the hardest subscriptions to cancel — and that's by design. They auto-renew at $119.99/year (up from the $29.99 introductory price), hide the cancel button behind multiple screens, and use aggressive retention tactics. Here's how to actually cancel it.

Method 1: Cancel Online (Recommended)

1. Go to home.mcafee.com and sign in
2. Click My Account → Subscriptions
3. Find your active subscription and click Turn off auto-renewal
4. McAfee will show you a series of retention offers — click through all of them
5. You may need to click "No thanks" or "Continue canceling" 3-4 times
6. Finally confirm cancellation

Method 2: Cancel by Phone

Call 1-866-622-3911 (Mon-Fri 8am-8pm ET, Sat-Sun 8am-5pm ET)

Say: "I want to turn off auto-renewal on my McAfee subscription."

The agent will try to offer you a discount. If you want to cancel, say: "No thank you, I just want auto-renewal turned off."

Method 3: Cancel via Chat

1. Go to service.mcafee.com
2. Click the chat icon in the bottom right
3. Type "I want to cancel my subscription"
4. You'll be transferred to a live agent — be firm about canceling

How to Get a McAfee Refund

How to Completely Remove McAfee from Your PC

Canceling the subscription doesn't remove the software. McAfee is notorious for being difficult to uninstall:

1. Download the McAfee Consumer Product Removal Tool (MCPR)
2. Close all programs and run MCPR.exe
3. Accept the agreement, type the captcha, and click Next
4. Wait for the removal to complete, then restart your computer
5. After restart, check Add/Remove Programs — remove any remaining McAfee entries

Why not just use Add/Remove Programs? McAfee installs multiple components (WebAdvisor, Firewall, VPN, True Key) that don't all uninstall cleanly. The MCPR tool catches everything.

Do You Need Antivirus in 2026?

Windows users: Windows Defender (built into Windows 10/11) is genuinely good now. Independent tests from AV-TEST consistently rate it highly. You don't need a paid antivirus unless you're in a high-risk environment.

Mac users: macOS has built-in protection (XProtect, Gatekeeper). McAfee on Mac is almost always unnecessary.

Free Alternatives to McAfee

• Windows Defender — built-in, free, excellent protection (best option for most people)
• Malwarebytes Free — great for on-demand scanning alongside Defender
• Bitdefender Free — lightweight with real-time protection
• Common sense — don't click suspicious links, keep your OS updated, use a password manager

McAfee's Dark Patterns

McAfee uses several tactics to make cancellation harder:

• Price anchoring: $29.99 first year → $119.99 renewal makes the "50% off" retention offer ($59.99) seem like a deal
• Fear messaging: "Your device will be UNPROTECTED" warnings during cancellation
• Multiple confirmation screens: 3-4 screens of "are you sure?" before you can actually cancel
• Pre-installed bloatware: Comes pre-loaded on many new PCs, making it feel "official"
• Popup notifications: Even after canceling, leftover McAfee components show scary "you're at risk" notifications