How to Cancel Udemy in 2026 (Get a Refund + Free Learning Alternatives)
Updated 2026-02-20 · 5 min read
📚 The Eternal Sale Scam
Udemy lists courses at $84.99-$199.99, then runs "sales" dropping them to $9.99-$19.99. These sales happen every 2-3 weeks. The "regular" price is fiction — no one should ever pay it. This is textbook fake urgency pricing designed to make you impulse-buy during the "sale" before you've researched whether the course is any good. Most Udemy buyers have 5-15 courses they've never started.
Udemy Products
Individual courses: One-time purchase, lifetime access — no subscription
Udemy Personal Plan: $16.58/month (billed annually) — access to 12,000+ courses
Udemy Business: $30/user/month — team learning platform
The hidden cost: Most purchased courses are never completed — studies show only 5-15% of Udemy students finish a course
How to Get a Refund on Courses
Udemy offers a 30-day refund policy on individual course purchases
Go to udemy.com → My Learning
Find the course → click the ⋯ menu → Request a Refund
Select your reason and submit
Refund is processed in 5-10 business days to original payment method
Exceptions: Refund may be denied if you've consumed most of the course or requested too many refunds
Cancel Udemy Personal Plan
Go to udemy.com → Account Settings → Subscriptions
Click Cancel Subscription
Access continues until the end of your billing period
Courses purchased individually are kept — only subscription access ends
Delete Your Udemy Account
Go to Account Settings → Account Security
Click Close Account
This permanently deletes your account, course progress, and certificates
Download any certificates of completion you want to keep before deleting
Free Learning Alternatives
YouTube: Literally free, often better quality than Udemy. Channels like freeCodeCamp, Traversy Media, fireship.io are excellent.
freeCodeCamp.org: Free full-stack web development curriculum — 300+ hours, certificates included
MIT OpenCourseWare: Free MIT lectures and materials for 2,500+ courses
Coursera (audit mode): Audit most courses for free (no certificate) — includes Stanford, Yale, Google courses
edX (audit mode): Free access to Harvard, MIT, Berkeley courses
Your local library: Many libraries offer free LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, or Skillshare access
💡 The Course Collector Trap
Buying courses feels productive. Watching courses feels like learning. But only doing the work IS learning. Before buying another course, finish the ones you have. Better yet: start a project, Google what you don't know as you go, and learn by building. One completed project teaches more than 10 unfinished courses.
🔍 Find All Your Learning Subscriptions
Udemy, Coursera, Skillshare, MasterClass, LinkedIn Learning — learning subscriptions stack up. Upload your bank statement to JustCancel to find every recurring charge.