Cancellation Policy by Basecamp
Updated 17 October 2025
This document outlines the cancellation policy for various online services provided by 37signals. It details the steps users can take to cancel their accounts, explains what happens to data and billing after cancellation, and describes circumstances under which 37signals may initiate account termination, such as inactivity or abusive behavior.
Cancellation policy
Last updated: July 18, 2022
We want satisfied customers, not hostages. That’s why we make it easy for you to cancel your account directly in all of our apps — no phone calls required, no questions asked.
Account owners can follow these instructions to cancel in-app:
HEY: if you’ve paid for HEY, navigate to "Account & Billing" from the Me menu (top-right corner of the app) and select "Cancel your subscription". You can continue using your account until your paid period expires and your account is automatically canceled, or you can close it earlier after your subscription is stopped, from the "Account & Billing" section, selecting "Close your account now". If you haven’t paid for HEY, you can directly close your account from the "Account & Billing" section.
Basecamp 2: billing liaisons may also cancel Basecamp 2 accounts
Writeboard: standalone writeboards can be deleted by clicking "Delete writeboard" below the document’s contents.
Our legal responsibility is to account owners, which means we cannot cancel an account at the request of anyone else. If for whatever reason you no longer know who the account owner is, [contact us]({{ site.email_support }}). We will gladly reach out to any current account owners at the email addresses we have on file.
What happens when you cancel an account?
Except for paid HEY accounts, you won’t be able to access your account once you cancel, so make sure you download everything you want to keep beforehand. If you have a paid HEY account, you can cancel your subscription and keep using your account until your paid period expires. Then the account will be automatically canceled and will become inaccessible. You can also choose to cancel your account earlier.
We’ll permanently delete the content in your account from our servers 30 days after cancellation, and from our backups within 60 days. Retrieving content for a single account from a backup isn’t possible, so if you change your mind you’ll need to do it within the first 30 days after cancellation. Content can’t be recovered once it has been permanently deleted.
We won’t bill you again once you cancel. We don’t automatically prorate any unused time you may have left but if you haven’t used your account in months or just started a new billing cycle, [contact us]({{ site.email_support }}) for a fair refund. We’ll treat you right.
37signals-initiated cancellations
We may cancel accounts if they have been inactive for an extended period:
For trial accounts:
For HEY: 60 days after a trial has expired without being upgraded
For other services: 30 days after a trial has expired without being upgraded
For frozen accounts: 180 days after being frozen due to billing failures
For free accounts: after 365 days of inactivity
We also retain the right to suspend or terminate accounts for any reason at any time, as outlined in our Terms of Service. In practice, this generally means we will cancel your account without notice if we have evidence that you are using our products to engage in abusive behavior.
About this template
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