How to Cancel BetterHelp: Steps, Fees & Refund Rules

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• Three routes end a BetterHelp membership. Account settings, the Cancel Subscription button in the betterhelp.com footer, and support at contact@betterhelp.com or 888-688-9296.
• Canceling part-way through a cycle returns nothing. Access runs to the end of the period you have paid for, and unused live sessions expire with it.
• Two separate refunds carry the BetterHelp name. Subscription refunds go case by case to contact@betterhelp.com; the FTC-ordered program for 2017 to 2020 customers has its own administrator at info@BetterHelpRefundProgram.com.

BetterHelp pairs you with a licensed therapist for online messaging and a weekly live session, and bills weekly, every four weeks, or quarterly. Two of the three cancel routes need no login. Cancel before your renewal date, and the next charge stops; nothing from the cycle you are in comes back.¹ Ask BetterHelp about a different therapist, financial aid or insurance

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Before you cancel: what is going wrong

Five published options change a BetterHelp membership without ending it: a different therapist, financial aid, its insurance offering, employer or EAP access through BetterHelp Business, and psychiatry through UpLift alongside therapy at a $26 average copay for eligible members. No pause or hold appears on any of its pages, so a break means canceling and signing up again later.This article is for information only and is not medical advice. Talk to a doctor or licensed clinician before starting, stopping, or changing any treatment.

$280 to $400 every four weeks

Self-pay runs $70 to $100 a week, billed every four weeks, and 59.8% of US adults with a mental illness and an unmet need for care said care was unaffordable.² BetterHelp’s answers are financial aid, applied for on the signup form, with existing members told to ask support, and its insurance offering, which works with 125 or more plans at about a $23 average copay but takes commercial plans only.³ Our BetterHelp financial aid guide covers who qualifies. On Medicaid or Medicare, Grow Therapy takes both in many states, and on a commercial plan, Rula patients typically pay $15 a session.

A therapist who is not working out

BetterHelp’s own list of signs the therapist is the problem includes feeling judged, feeling unheard, and feeling worse after sessions.⁴ A new therapist is free, and BetterHelp publishes no limit on how many times you can ask. In your account, go to the profile icon, account settings, my therapist, request a new therapist, then pick someone or let BetterHelp match you. You do not have to give the therapist you are leaving a reason.⁴ BetterHelp publishes more than 30,000 providers and puts matching at a few hours to a few days.⁵

The most common reason people stop

Feeling better is the most common reason people give for ending therapy.⁶ Making no progress is the first sign BetterHelp names for a mismatch.⁴ Live sessions expire with the billing cycle, so a planned last session belongs inside the period you have paid for.¹ Tell your therapist which it is, whether you are stopping because you feel better or because you feel worse.If you feel unsafe or are thinking about suicide or self-harm, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. BetterHelp sessions are booked in advance and are not emergency care.

What happens when you move or take a break

Time was a barrier named by 47.0% of adults with a mental illness and an unmet need for care.² A move to another state can end a match that was working, because your therapist has to be licensed where you are when the session happens. Nothing on BetterHelp pauses billing for a quiet month either.¹ Online-Therapy.com offers a one to four week pause instead.

Uneasy about the next session

A wish to stop that turns up a few days after a painful session usually traces back to that session, and clinicians suggest saying so to your therapist before you cancel. If the dread comes before every appointment, the problem is more likely the match itself or feeling unsafe with this therapist, and BetterHelp’s answer to both is the free switch. See what BetterHelp costs with financial aid or insurance

How to cancel BetterHelp

Canceling one session is separate from canceling the membership. A session dropped inside 24 hours of the start, or missed, may cost $15 per occurrence on top of the subscription.¹

From inside your account

Log in, open Menu, then My Account, then Payment settings, then Cancel Membership.⁷ BetterHelp’s own instructions name that screen two ways, Payment settings and Payments and credits, so check both labels. Time it before your renewal date, which runs from the day you were matched rather than the day you paid.¹ A confirmation email follows, and billing stops at the end of the cycle.³

The Cancel Subscription button in the site footer

The control sits at the bottom of every betterhelp.com page and needs no login. It opens a box headed Subscription cancellation request, with one field for your email address and a Confirm Termination button. BetterHelp cannot verify the account if that address is wrong, and members who have lost access to it report being unable to stop the billing.

When support has to do it for you

Support handles billing questions, subscription changes, and refund requests at contact@betterhelp.com, on 888-688-9296, or at betterhelp.com/contact.³ Canceling anywhere else does not stop the charge, since BetterHelp bills the subscription directly rather than through an app store.

What you get back

BetterHelp bills the whole cycle in advance, and its terms carry no proration clause.

Taken from BetterHelp’s Terms and support pages on September 22, 2026.14A discretionary refund is the only money you can get back, and BetterHelp asks for your account email, the reason, the amount, and any documentation.³ No refund window and no processing time appear anywhere on its site, though Talkspace and Online-Therapy.com both publish a 90-day window from the charge date.Trustpilot’s 9,690 reviewers rate BetterHelp 3.8 out of 5, with 80% at five stars, and Cancellation and Refund among the topics those reviewers raise most.⁸ BetterHelp holds an A+ accreditation at the Better Business Bureau, where 340 complaints were filed over three years, and the most recent ones are dominated by charges that continued after a cancellation.⁹

BetterHelp refunds and the FTC refund program

The subscription refund above is decided case by case by customer service at contact@betterhelp.com.³ The other refund is a government program with its own administrator and its own email address. In March 2023 BetterHelp agreed to a $7.8 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over sharing user data with advertisers; the order was finalized in July 2023 and refunds were paid to affected users from June 2024.¹⁰¹¹ Payments go to people who paid for BetterHelp or one of its seven sibling sites, such as Teen Counseling and Regain, between August 1, 2017 and December 31, 2020.¹⁰ A first round paid nearly $5.2 million in June 2024, and a second in April 2025 sent more than $2.6 million to over 534,000 people.¹⁰ Questions go to info@BetterHelpRefundProgram.com or 1-833-637-4774, run by Ankura Consulting Group. Canceling a subscription has no bearing on a claim; our BetterHelp controversy page covers the settlement.

Sessions your therapist cancels

The $15 fee in BetterHelp’s Terms covers sessions you cancel late or miss, not sessions your therapist drops.¹ Support is the route, at contact@betterhelp.com or 888-688-9296. A refund in that situation is decided case by case like any other, and a new therapist costs nothing.³

Deleting the account and what BetterHelp keeps

Erasing the account is a second request after canceling, and BetterHelp’s opt-out page lists the two steps in that order.⁷ In your account, open Menu, My Account or Account settings, then My Personal Information, where one link requests complete erasure and another a copy of your data, covering questionnaire answers, worksheets, journal entries, and the messages you sent your therapist.¹² Export first; it is the only documented way to keep a copy. Confirmation arrives within 24 hours, and without account access, contact@betterhelp.com or DPO@betterhelp.com handles the request once your identity is verified.¹² Cancel and do nothing else, and your data is kept for 3 years after your last login if you never started therapy, or 10 years if you did.¹² Ask for erasure and almost everything goes within 24 hours, apart from the Clinical Health Record of notes, dates of service, messages and shared worksheets, erased after 10 years.¹² BetterHelp can decline erasure under a litigation hold or legal requirement.¹²

If you decide to leave

A free switch of therapist changes nothing about your BetterHelp billing, so a problem with the price or the billing model takes a different service.Paying for weeks you do not use. Online-Therapy.com lets you keep every remaining pre-paid day when you cancel, and its cancel screen offers a pause of one to four weeks, which pushes your renewal date out by the same length.Cash-pay, with messaging as the main format. Talkspace sells messaging at $69 a week and messaging with up to four 30-minute video sessions a month at $99, and its plans can be paused or canceled at any time.Per-session billing through commercial insurance. Rula patients typically pay $15 a session, and its 21,000-plus providers cover more than 100 specialties, often with video available the next day.Using Medicaid or Medicare. Grow Therapy takes both in many states where BetterHelp’s insurance route does not, and offers insured sessions for $0 to $50, with $100 or more out of pocket. Check BetterHelp’s current plans and insurance options