Canceling a Squarespace domain

Cancel an eligible domain within five days of registration for a full refund. Disable auto-renew on older domains to set them up to expire on their next charge date.

Last updated January 17, 2025

If you registered a domain or transferred a domain to Squarespace and no longer need it, you can either cancel it or disable its auto-renew. Which method you use depends on how recently you registered the domain and what type of domain you registered:

  • gTLD (Generic domains such as .com, .net, or .biz that aren't tied to a specific country.)
  • ccTLD (Domains tied to a specific country, such as .eu, .ca, or .co.uk.)

Tip

If your domain is in the process of transferring to Squarespace, you may be able to cancel the transfer. Then work with your current domain provider to cancel your domain with them.

This guide covers the details to consider before canceling, the steps to cancel or disable auto-renew, our refund policy, and how to disconnect the domain from a site.

To learn more about the life cycle and schedule for our domains, visit Squarespace domain renewals and expiration.

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Domain cancelation options by TLD

gTLD

Your options for canceling a generic top-level domain (gTLD) like .com or .net depend on how recently you registered the domain:

  • Cancel the domain - If you registered the domain within the past five days, you can cancel it immediately and receive a refund.
  • Disable auto-renew - If you registered the domain more than five days ago or a ccTLD, or if you fully transferred a domain to Squarespace, you can disable auto-renew. This stops the domain from charging again. You’ll own the domain for the remaining registration period as you wait for it to expire.

ccTLD

Country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) such as .eu or .ca don't have a cancellation grace period. To learn more, review your domain's specific rules and features. To cancel the domain, you can disable auto-renew.

Prepare to cancel

Before you cancel your domain or disable auto-renew, review the following custom email address, website, billing, and parking page details to take necessary actions.

Custom email address details

If you have a custom email service (such as Google Workspace, Outlook, Zoho, etc.) connected to the domain, canceling or letting the domain expire will disrupt your email service.

Site considerations

If you have a website connected to your domain, note the following:

Billing for legacy and free domains

Legacy and free domains bill differently due to when and how they were purchased. When canceling one of these types of domains, note the following:

Parking page domains

If you're canceling the only domain on a parking page and you don't have any other active subscriptions, this process will remove your parking page.

Cancel the domain

If you registered your gTLD domain within the last five days, you can cancel the domain immediately. We measure this five-day grace period to the minute. For example, if you registered a domain at 8:00 AM on January 1, you can cancel until January 6 at 7:59 AM.

Tip

Ensure you no longer need the domain. If you cancel your domain or let it expire, there's no guarantee you can purchase it again, or that it will be available for the same price.

To cancel the domain immediately:

  1. Open the domains dashboard. Ensure you're logged into the domain owner account for the domain you want to cancel.
  2. Click the domain you'd like to cancel.
  3. Click Delete Domain.
  4. Click Confirm.
  5. In the new window that opens, click your domain name.
  6. Click Delete domain.
  7. Click Confirm to delete your domain.

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Delete domain doesn't appear

If the Delete domain option doesn't appear in your domains dashboard, it's not possible to cancel your domain immediately. This happens for a few different reasons:

After canceling the domain

Keep the following in mind after canceling the domain:

  • Usually your domain will stop connecting to your site within an hour, though it may take up to 72 hours to process.
  • If you paid for the domain, you’ll receive a refund for the full amount. Refunds may take 3 to 10 business days to process.
  • If you registered the domain as part of our free offer, you can register a new free domain. This is helpful if you need to rename the domain.
  • Most domains become available to re-register one to three days after cancellation, but it's possible for the registrar to hold onto the domain indefinitely, preventing you from re-registering. 

Disable auto-renew

If you've had the domain for more than five days, you can disable auto-renew so it expires at what would be its next charge date. After disabling auto-renew, the domain will continue to point to your site unless you disconnect it.

  1. Open the domains dashboard. Ensure you're logged into the domain owner account for the domain you want to cancel.
  2. Click the domain you’d like to cancel.
  3. Switch the Auto-renew toggle off.

After following these steps, you can disconnect it from your site by removing its DNS records. Review the next step for details.

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Disconnect the domain (optional)

After disabling auto-renew, you can also disconnect the domain from your site in the DNS settings panel. Removing these DNS records stops the domain from directing to your primary domain or any other site. While it’s possible to reconnect the domain later, it may require additional steps depending on the domain.

To disconnect the domain:

  1. Open DNS settings for your domain.
  2. In the Squarespace Defaults section, click the red trash can.
  3. If the Squarespace Defaults section isn't listed, check for other records with www, *, or @ in the Host column and delete those records.
  4. Usually, your domain stops connecting to your site within an hour, though it may take up to 72 hours to process.

Refund policy

If you cancel your domain within five days of the initial purchase, you'll receive a full refund. We don't offer refunds after this five-day grace period.

To learn more about refunds, visit Refund policies.

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