How to View and Cancel Recurring Payments in PayPal

When you pay for a subscription with PayPal, you often set up something called an automatic payment or billing agreement, which is a standing permission that lets a merchant charge you on a schedule. The good news is that PayPal keeps all of those permissions in one dashboard, so you can see exactly who is allowed to bill you and switch any of them off.

The fast answer

As of mid-2026, on the PayPal website:

1. Log in at paypal.com and open Settings (the gear icon).
2. Click Payments.
3. Select Automatic Payments (in some accounts this is labeled Subscriptions and saved businesses).
4. Choose the merchant you want to stop.
5. Click Cancel and confirm.

The PayPal mobile app follows the same Settings path, so you can do this from your phone if that is easier.

What canceling here actually does, and does not do

This is the part worth reading slowly, because it prevents the two most common mistakes.

Canceling the PayPal agreement stops future PayPal charges from that merchant. Once canceled, the merchant no longer has standing permission to pull money through PayPal, and the agreement cannot be switched back on from either side. If you change your mind later, you sign up again through the merchant's normal checkout.

It does not close your account with the merchant. This is the big one. Turning off the payment permission in PayPal does not tell the service you are done. The merchant may still consider your membership active, and some businesses can bill you a different way, for example a card they also have on file. The clean approach is to cancel with the merchant directly first, then remove the PayPal permission as a backstop.

It does not automatically refund the current period. If a charge for this cycle already went through, canceling stops the next one but does not claw back the payment you already made. That is a separate conversation with the merchant.

Timing matters

As of mid-2026, PayPal's own terms note that you should cancel a recurring automatic payment at least three business days before the next scheduled charge. If you cancel too close to the billing date, a payment that is already in motion can still post. So the earlier you switch it off, the cleaner the break.

Refunds

PayPal itself is the payment rail, not the seller, so it does not issue refunds for a merchant's subscription on its own. If you were charged for something you did not want, request the refund from the merchant. If the merchant refuses and you believe the charge was unauthorized or the item was not as described, PayPal's Buyer Protection dispute process is a separate avenue you can open from your PayPal activity, though it is meant for genuine disputes rather than ordinary "I forgot to cancel" situations.

Why the dashboard is your friend

The Automatic Payments list is genuinely useful even when you are not canceling anything, because it is an honest inventory of every business you have given standing permission to charge you. It is worth scanning every few months. You may find an old agreement you forgot existed, quietly waiting for the merchant to use it again.

Two steps, one habit

Because canceling in PayPal and canceling with the merchant are two different actions, it is easy to do one and assume the other is handled. Pairing them is the habit that keeps you clean, and remembering to do it before the next charge is exactly where a reminder helps. Track your trials and subscriptions on TryMyCompany, and a reminder arrives before each renewal, so nothing surprises you and you have time to close both the merchant account and the PayPal permission before the date arrives.