How to Cancel Overleaf Premium in 2026 (Export Your LaTeX Projects First)

Overleaf is the go-to online LaTeX editor for academics. Premium costs $15-30/month. Before canceling, check if your university provides free institutional access — many do. Here's the full process.

Check for Free University Access First

Many universities provide Overleaf Professional for free to students and faculty:

• Check if your institution is listed at overleaf.com/for/universities
• Log in with your university email (.edu) to check for institutional license
• If available, you get Premium features for free — no personal subscription needed

How to Cancel Overleaf Premium

1. Go to overleaf.com/user/subscription/plans
2. Click Cancel my subscription or Downgrade
3. Confirm cancellation

Your access continues until the billing period ends. Then you're on the free plan.

Export Your Projects (Important!)

1. Open each project
2. Click Menu (top left) → Download → Source (downloads as .zip)
3. Or download the compiled PDF
4. For GitHub sync users: make sure your repos are up to date

Free vs Premium — What Changes

Free tier keeps:

• Unlimited projects
• Full LaTeX editor and compilation
• 1 collaborator per project
• Basic compile speed

You lose:

• Collaboration: Unlimited collaborators → 1 per project
• Compile timeout: Extended → 1 minute (can cause issues for large documents)
• Track changes: Premium only
• GitHub/Dropbox sync: Premium only
• Full document history: 24 hours on free vs full history on Premium
• Priority compile: Slower compile on free tier

Free LaTeX Alternatives

• TeXLive + VS Code (free) — local LaTeX installation, LaTeX Workshop extension for VS Code. Most powerful option.
• MiKTeX (free) — Windows LaTeX distribution, works with any text editor
• CoCalc (free tier) — online LaTeX editor with collaboration, similar to Overleaf
• Papeeria (free tier) — online LaTeX editor, simpler than Overleaf
• Typst (free) — modern alternative to LaTeX, much simpler syntax, growing academic adoption

The 1-Minute Compile Limit Workaround

The free tier's 1-minute compile timeout is the biggest practical issue. If your document times out:

• Split large documents into chapters using \input or \include
• Reduce image sizes and use PDF/vector graphics instead of PNG
• Use draft mode for editing (\documentclass[draft])
• Or compile locally (TeXLive) and use Overleaf just for collaboration