How to Cancel DigitalOcean and Stop Billing

How to fix it

Try these in order — the most common fix is first.

1. 1. Destroy resources

   Copy steps
   1. Droplet > Settings > Destroy; tick snapshots and volumes to delete with it
   2. Then check Images (snapshots), Volumes, Networking (reserved IPs, load balancers, firewalls), Databases, Kubernetes, Spaces and App Platform apps
   3. Download any data you need first, destruction cannot be reversed
   Did this fix it? Yes No

2. 2. Deal with teams

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   1. If you are the sole owner of a team with other members, delete the team or assign a new owner
   2. If you are the only member, the team is deleted automatically; the team payment method is charged its final balance
   Did this fix it? Yes No

3. 3. Deactivate the account

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   1. Click your profile icon (top right) > My Account
   2. In Deactivate account click Deactivate, then Deactivate Account
   3. Choose whether to purge data: not purged lets you reactivate later; purged is permanent and you would need a new verified account
   Did this fix it? Yes No

4. 4. Check billing and refunds

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   1. Usage is invoiced monthly in arrears and docs describe no separate final invoice beyond the team final balance
   2. For a charge made after you destroyed everything, open a billing ticket; refund policy is at the discretion of support
   Did this fix it? Yes No

Symptoms

You want to stop being charged or close your DigitalOcean account.

Why it happens

• Billing is per resource, so an empty account with leftovers still costs money
• Snapshots, volumes, backups, reserved IPs and load balancers keep billing after a Droplet is destroyed
• Teams you own must be deleted or handed over before deactivation

This guide also covers

• cancel digitalocean
• delete digitalocean account
• close digitalocean account
• digitalocean refund

The same problem in other apps

All billing, cancellation & refunds guides →

• AWS Unexpected Charges: Why Is My AWS Bill So High? (AWS)

Other DigitalOcean errors

• DigitalOcean Droplet SSH Permission Denied (publickey)
• DigitalOcean Droplet SSH Connection Refused or Timed Out
• DigitalOcean Droplet 502 Bad Gateway (Nginx)
• DigitalOcean Droplet Out of Memory (OOM Killer)
• DigitalOcean App Platform Build Failed
• DigitalOcean App Platform Deploy Failed or 502 After Deploy
• DigitalOcean Account Locked or Verification Required
• DigitalOcean Unexpected Bill: Charged for Deleted or Powered-Off Droplets