Cancellations FAQ

If I want to stop paying for something, do I need to cancel it?

The answer for most things is "Yes".

Most Hetzner products are automatic subscriptions. That means that they automatically renew themselves. Customers who want to stop paying for most of our products need to actively cancel or delete them on the correct user interface. Even if the customer is not actively using the product (the product is idle), it still uses resources, and we will still invoice customers for them.

It is possible to immediately cancel almost all Hetzner products and to only pay the hourly price. The product's bill will never exceed its monthly price cap. If you delete the product before the end of the billing month, we will only bill you for the hourly rate. There are a couple of exceptions. Please see below for more information.

Which products do NOT automatically renew themselves?

The following products do NOT automatically renew themselves. They are not subscriptions. They are one time payments. If you want to continue to use them after a specific period, you must order them again or order a renewal.

• SSL certificates (only fee-based certificates); free certificates renew themselves
• Some larger colocation contracts, for cages, for example.
• Remote Hands ( = customer service based on 15 minute increments that Hetzner support teams do for customers )
• KVMs: Please see the article about KVMs.

What is the cancellation period at Hetzner?

The cancellation periods for many products are shorter than what is listed in our Terms and Conditions. In a few rare situations, the cancellation period is still 30 days till the end of the month. For many products and services, customers can cancel them immediately.

Which interface to do I need to use for the cancellation?

See the chart above.

How do I cancel my Cloud servers and other Cloud products?

You can automatically and immediately cancel your contract for your Cloud Servers, Snapshots, Backups, Volumes, Networks, Floating IPs, and other Cloud products. To do this, log into your account on Cloud Console. Then find the server or product that you would like to cancel and click on "Delete".

Once you confirm the cancellation and finish the quick cancellation process, your server will be deleted and your contract for that product will be cancelled. However, your user account will remain active. Since we invoice Cloud Servers on an hourly basis, you will receive an invoice AFTER you have successfully cancelled your server. We will only invoice you for the part of the the billing period when your server still existed.

How do I cancel web hosting, managed servers, Storage Shares, and managed domains?

Log onto your konsoleH account using your client number and password. Then click directly on the product (domain, server, etc.) that you would like to cancel. On the left under "Contract", you will see "Cancel Account". Please pay close attention to the instructions there. Then you can select the date when you want the cancellation to take place. You can also tell us what you would like us to do with your domain (delete the domain, change the domain's provider, keep the domain as it is). Please be absolutely sure to click on "Cancel Account" if you no longer wish to keep the memory for the domain.

Your customer profile will remain in place. As soon as you have finished the cancellation process, you will receive a summary and a confirmation of the cancellation via email.

Important notes about domains:

To cancel some domains, you will need an authorization code (auth-code) if you would like to move your domain to another provider. Now let's imagine that you have a server and a domain on that server. You cancel the server, but you do NOT request that we transfer the domain to another provider. We will then assume that you want to KEEP the domain, and we will send you an invoice for it as usual.

Domains are one of the few products that we invoice customers for in advance. That means when you order a new domain, you will see it on your bill in the following month, and you will pay for the domain for one complete year. If you register a domain now, and cancel it a few days later, you still need to pay for a full year anyway.

SSL certificates

Fee-based SSL certificates

If you would like to cancel your SSL certificate contract, you can do this with immediate effect. SSL certificate contracts last for 1 year. These contracts do NOT automatically renew themselves. You need to renew them manually, even if you do not cancel them. If you would like to renew an SSL certificate, you can do this by going to the SSL Manager on konsoleH (Administration; SSL Certificates).

Free SSL certificates

For the free SSL certificates, such as those from Let's Encrypt and Digicert's Basic SSL, we will automatically request a certificate extension. There is no additional cost for the extension. However, in some circumstances, you may be asked to re-do the authentication needed for the certificate extension. If this is the case with your certificate, we will inform you via email about how to do this.

Dedicated servers, Storage Boxes, IP addresses, automated domains and other Robot products

Log onto your Robot account. Find the product you would like to cancel under the product categories at "Main functions" on the left (Select the specific server, product, or service). Under the "Cancellation" menu tab, you can see the earliest possible cancellation date or select another date of your choice. Confirm the cancellation to finish the process. You should then see a new entry under the "Notices" of cancellation tab.

Domains on Robot (automated domains)

.de, .com, .net domains on Robot

Exception: If you have a domain that ends in .de, .com, or .net, you can cancel your domain contract at any time via your Robot account; you can also cancel them effective immediately.

.info, .biz, .eu, .at, .org domains on Robot

The contracts for our domains have a cancellation period that is 30 days to the end of the month. You can find an explanation for what 30 days to the end of the month means here.

Software licenses

The earliest possible cancellation date for license contracts is at the end of the billing month. We invoice customers for software licenses for full calendar months. So if you cancel your license on January 3, we will still invoice you for the full month of January.

Colocation

You can cancel your contract by writing us a support request via your Robot account. Note that the cancellation periods and policies are different for colocation and dedicated root servers. With colocation, you can only cancel your contract by day, not by hour.

IP addresses and subnets

You can cancel these on Robot by logging onto your account and navigating to the IP address and subnet.

Custom hardware

Write a support request using your Robot account to cancel any custom hardware.

Custom network connections & hardware

Write a support request using your Robot account to cancel any custom network connections or networking hardware.

How do I cancel DNS entries?

You can delete all DNS entries via the DNS Console at any time, and you can delete them effective immediately.

How do I cancel my entire account and everything in it?

The much faster and more secure way to delete your products/services with us is to use the correct customer console and cancel each thing one by one. With the consoles, you can immediately cancel most products/services. Also, by using the consoles, you may avoid making a mistake. For example, if you cancel a domain, the customer interface will prompt you to make a decision about what you want to happen to the domain after you cancel it. You may want, for example, to transfer the domain to another provider rather than to also cancel the domain's registration. With the customer console, you simply have a better overview of all of your products and services with us.

How to cancel an entire account

This is NOT the normal method for cancelling products and services with us, and is really only intended for special situations, for example, if a customer dies and their family members do not have access to the account.

To cancel using this method, please do the following: 1. If you still have access to your account, write a support request using the customer console. If not, write a support request using support@hetzner.com. Make sure to include information about the account, like the name on the account, your customer number, etc. (This helps us to confirm that you should have access to the account.) 2. List ALL of the products/services on the account separately. (You can find these on the invoices.) 3. State clearly that you would like to cancel ALL of those services and everything on the account, and state which date you would like the cancellation to take affect. 4. Wait for 30 days. (With this cancellation method, our 30-day-to-the-end-of-the-month policy is in effect.) 5. Pay any open invoices. You can pay these without access to the account using a bank/wire transfer. Make sure to include the customer number on the transfer form in the reason for the payment. 6. If you have access to the account, go here, read the information carefully, and click on "Delete account".

What happens to my data after the cancellation goes into effect?

Do NOT cancel a product or service unless you are 100% certain that you no longer want or need the data.

There is a risk that we may delete your data immediately. In reality, the deletion may occur a few hours or days later; it changes based on the product/service itself, and based on when you cancel it. However, the time will vary. So plan on your data being deleted immediately.

We cannot restore data saved on services/products once you have canceled them.

What happens if my account isn't active for a long time?

If you do not have any active products on the account, and you do not log into it for a year, we will send you a warning. You then have 4 weeks to log into the account to make it remain active. But if you do not log in during these 4 weeks, we will delete your entire customer account.