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Turn Automatic Renewal On or Off

Auto-renew helps ensure your website remains online without needing to track the expiry date. This guide explains how to enable and disable automatic renewal and make a payment for your site’s purchases.

About Automatic Renewal

By default, WordPress.com plans, domains, and other subscriptions are set to automatically renew to ensure no disruption in your services, loss of features, or expiry of your domain name. Automatic renewal ensures that everything is taken care of in advance and allows time to resolve any issues with payment.

If a purchase is automatically renewed and you didn’t intend it, you can follow the steps to refund the auto-renewal (within the refund window.) You can check past renewals in the Billing History section of your account.

If you subscribed during a promotion, used a coupon code, or received a discount, your subscription will automatically renew for the full subscription price at the end of the discount period.

When Renewal Occurs

With automatic renewal enabled for your website, the renewal charge occurs one month before the expiration date for yearly plans. For example, if your plan is set to expire on October 15, 2024, the renewal will occur on September 15, 2024. If the automatic renewal is turned off, the plan will expire on October 15, 2024.

Your subscription is extended from the original expiration date, so renewing 30 days in advance does not result in losing any time you paid for. If you have a yearly subscription, you will be notified by email before your card is charged.

For monthly plans, automatic renewal occurs on the expiration date.

If you upgrade your plan or renew for a longer term (e.g., from annual to two years), you will receive a prorated upgrade credit for the unused time on the existing plan and your new plan will have a new expiration date.

Check Renewal Date

To see when you will be charged next and confirm if your subscription is set to automatically renew or not, take the following steps:

  1. Click on your profile at https://wordpress.com/me.
  2. On the side, select the Purchases menu option:
The profile menu with a blue box around the "Purchases" section.
  1. Here, you’ll find a list of all your active subscriptions on WordPress.com. Click on any plan, domain, or other subscription to view it.
  2. Check under “Subscription Renewal,” where auto-renew will be set to ON or OFF. If it’s enabled, the next billing date will be shown:
A box drawn around the Subscription Renewal details with auto-renew ON.
Automatic renewal is enabled
  1. Go back to your purchases and click on the “Billing History” tab to see which plans, domains, and other purchases have already been renewed.

Turn Off Automatic Renewal

If automatic renewal is turned off, your subscription will be removed on its expiration date and will not be renewed. It’s recommended that you keep automatic renewal enabled so your site does not expire unexpectedly.

To turn off the automatic renewal, follow these steps:

  1. Click on your profile at https://wordpress.com/me.
  2. On the side, select the Purchases menu option:
The profile menu with a blue box around the "Purchases" section.
  1. Click on your plan or other purchase.
  2. Under “Subscription Renewal,” click the ‘ON’ link in the “Auto-renew is ON” text:
A box drawn around the Subscription Renewal details with auto-renew ON.
  1. A popup will confirm if you wish to disable automatic renewal. Click the “Turn off auto-renew” button to do so.
  2. You will then see the following labels that confirm auto-renew is disabled:
    • “Auto-renew is OFF” under the “Subscription Renewal” section.
    • “(this will not be billed)” note under the “Payment method” section.
An arrow pointing to the auto-renew OFF section and the message "this will not be billed" underlined under Payment method.
Disabled auto-renew on the plan subscription.

You will be notified via email before your subscription ends. If you wish to renew your plan or other subscription, click on the “Renew now” button to manually extend your subscription at any time.

Turn On Automatic Renewal

If you have disabled automatic renewal and wish to enable it again, follow these steps:

  1. Click on your profile at https://wordpress.com/me.
  2. On the side, select the Purchases menu option:
The profile menu with a blue box around the "Purchases" section.
  1. Click on the plan or other purchase.
  2. Under “Subscription Renewal,” click the ‘OFF’ link in the “Auto-renew is OFF” text.
    • If you have not added a payment method, you will be prompted to add one now so the subscription can be billed on the renewal date.
  3. After a few seconds, the page will reload, and your subscription will read, “Auto-renew is ON.”

Renew Manually

To make a payment to renew a plan, domain, or other purchase manually, take these steps:

  1. Click on your profile at https://wordpress.com/me.
  2. On the side, select the Purchases menu option:
The profile menu with a blue box around the "Purchases" section.
  1. Select the purchase you wish to pay for.
  2. Click the “Renew now” button at the top right or the bottom of the page.
  3. Complete the checkout screen to pay for your renewal.
Screen showing domain management page with arrows pointing to renewal button options.

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