Using the Play Console website or app, you can view your app’s orders, issue refunds, and manage subscription cancellations for items your users have purchased.
Google Play's refund policies are available in the Google Play Help Center, but you're also responsible for setting your own policies for refunds. Buyers may contact you directly with questions about refunds or cancellations. You must issue refunds in accordance with your policy. It is your responsibility to notify your users of any changes to your refund policies and ensure that the policies comply with applicable laws.
Note: If you’re a user looking for a refund on an item you purchased, visit the Google Play Help Center.
Access and permissions
If you're an account owner, you can access merchant features in Play Console.
For other team members to access these features, account owners need to give users one or both of the following permissions:
- View financial data: If this permission is set to "Global," users can view financial and sales reports.
- Manage orders: If a user has the "View app information" permission for one app and the global "Manage orders" permission, the user will only be able to manage orders for the specific app.
Note: Play Console permissions are separate from any permissions managed within the Google payments center.
Find orders
- Open Play Console.
- On the left side, select Order management
.
- Using the "Search by Order ID or email" box, search by order ID or the user's full email address.
- Open the Play Console app
.
- Select an app.
- Go to the "Orders" section.
- Tap an order to see the item details, cost, any taxes and fees, and the order history. To find an order, you can search by order ID or the user's full email address.
Order statuses
On your Order management page, a status is displayed for each order. Here’s what they mean:
| Status |
Description |
| Chargeable |
Order is being processed. |
| Canceled |
Payment was canceled during processing by the user or due to a payment issue. |
| Chargeback |
A credit card charge disputed by a customer to their issuing bank.
|
| Charged |
Payment was successfully charged. |
| Partially refunded |
Part of the payment amount was refunded. |
| Payment declined |
User's payment method was declined. |
| Processing refund |
Requested refund will be completed shortly. |
| Refunded |
Full payment amount was refunded. |
Select the type of order you want to refund or cancel
You can issue full or partial refunds for items your users have purchased.
Issue a full refund using the Play Console website
- Open Play Console.
- On the left menu, select Order management .
- Select the orders you’d like to refund.
- To find a specific order, search by order ID or a user’s full email address.
- To refund multiple orders at the same time, make sure you only select orders made by one user.
- Click Refund orders.
- Select the appropriate refund percentage and amount.
- In Refund notes, select the refund reason.
- Click Refund.
Issue a full refund using the Play Console app
- Open the Play Console app .
- Select an app.
- Go to the "Orders" section.
- Select the order you'd like to refund. To find an order, you can search by order ID or the user's full email address.
- Under the price, tap Refund.
- Select the appropriate refund reason.
- Tap Refund.
- If the Refund button isn’t available, the order has already been refunded.
Issue a partial refund using the Play Console website
If you want to refund only part of an in-app purchase, you can issue a partial refund using the Play Console website.
Note: You can’t issue partial refunds for paid apps. Partial refunds are only supported for orders placed after March 2018.
When you issue a partial refund, the percentage of the refund also applies to your payout and service fee amounts. For example, if you issue a partial refund for 50% of an order, 50% of your payout and 50% of the service fee paid to Google is refunded to the user.
To issue partial refunds:
- Sign in to Play Console.
- On the left menu, select Order management .
- Select the orders you’d like to refund.
- To find a specific order, search by order ID or a user’s full email address.
- To refund multiple orders at the same time, make sure you only select orders made by one user.
- Click Refund.
- Find the switch next to Partial refunds. Then, click the switch until it turns blue.
- Type a percentage (less than 100%) or pre-tax amount (less than the order total) to refund.
- Post-tax refund amounts are generated automatically.
- Select the appropriate refund reason.
- Click Submit.
- If the Submit button isn’t available, the order has already been refunded.
- You can issue multiple partial refunds for an order, but you can’t refund an amount greater than or equal to the order total.
If you cancel a subscription, the user won't be charged again and will retain the subscription until the end of the current billing period.
Important: Canceling a subscription doesn't issue a refund.
Using the Play Console website
- Open Play Console.
- On the left menu, select Order management .
- Select the order that you want to cancel. To find an order, you can search by order ID or the user's full email address.
- Select Cancel subscription.
Using the Play Console app
- Open the Play Console app .
- Select an app.
- Go to the "Orders" section.
- Select the order that you want to cancel. To find an order, you can search by order ID or the user's full email address.
- Under the price, tap Cancel subscription > Cancel subscription.
You can issue full or partial refunds for subscriptions your users have purchased.
Issue a full refund using the Play Console website
- Open Play Console.
- On the left menu, select Order management .
- Select the subscriptions you'd like to cancel and/or refund. To find an order, you can search by order ID or the user's full email address.
- Refund and revoke: If you refund the most recent order in a subscription, the order is refunded, the user’s subscription is removed immediately, and future recurrences are automatically canceled. You can also perform this action with the Google Play Developer API.
- Refund only: If you refund an older order in a subscription, the order is refunded and the subscription remains active. You can also perform this action with the Google Play Developer API.
- Select the appropriate refund reason.
- Select Submit.
Issue a full refund using the Play Console app
- Open the Play Console app .
- Select an app.
- Go to the "Orders" section.
- Select the order that you want to cancel. To find an order, you can search by order ID or the user's full email address.
- Under the price, tap Refund.
- Select the appropriate refund reason.
- Tap Refund.
Issue a partial refund using the Play Console website
If you want to refund only part of a subscription, you can issue a partial refund using the Play Console website.
Note: You can’t issue partial refunds for paid apps. Partial refunds are only supported for orders placed after March 2018.
When you issue a partial refund, the percentage of the refund also applies to your payout and service fee amounts. For example, if you issue a partial refund for 50% of an order, 50% of your payout and 50% of the service fee paid to Google is refunded to the user.
To issue partial refunds:
- Open Play Console.
- On the left menu, select Order management .
- Select the orders that you’d like to refund.
- To find a specific order, search by order ID or a user’s full email address.
- To refund multiple orders at the same time, make sure you only select orders made by one user.
- Click Refund.
- Find the switch next to Partial refunds. Then, click the switch until it turns blue.
- Type a percentage (less than 100%) or pre-tax amount (less than the order total) to refund.
- Post-tax refund amounts are generated automatically.
- Select the appropriate refund reason.
- Click Submit.
- If the Submit button isn’t available, the order has already been refunded.
- You can issue multiple partial refunds for an order, but you can’t refund an amount greater than or equal to the order total.
After issuing a refund or canceling a subscription
- After you issue a refund, it can't be reversed.
- Google will return the service fee to you. You'll see the returned service fee on your next earnings report.
- If you refund an order before Google has issued a payout for that order, you won't receive the amount you refunded to your buyer in your next payout. If you refund an order after you've received the payout for it, the amount you refund your buyer will be deducted from a future payout.
- If you issue a refund and your account balance becomes negative and remains negative for at least 48 hours, Google will collect funds from you in accordance with our Terms of Service and debit the bank account that normally receives your payouts. The amount withdrawn from your bank account will equal your negative balance as of the day Google initiates the debit.
Subscription cancellations
- No future orders will be charged on that subscription.
- You'll see a "Canceled" order status on the order details page.
- After a subscription is canceled, it can't be restated.
- Google payments will send a cancellation notification email to the buyer indicating that their subscription has been canceled.
Why was an order refunded?
If you see a refunded order that you don’t recognize, it may have been refunded by Google. These refunds are issued as a courtesy to your users or as required by law and are included as part of our Developer Distribution Agreement.
The following are a few examples of when refunds can be issued:
- User returns a paid app: After purchasing a paid app, a user has up to two hours to return it for a full refund. They can only return an app once. If they purchase the same app again, they won’t be able to return it a second time.
- User requests a refund: Users can request a refund on Google Play.
- Unauthorized or accidental purchases: In some cases, our support team may refund purchases made by mistake or without the user’s consent.
Account reviews
To ensure a safe purchasing environment and compliance with our Terms of Service, our specialists review payments profiles on a regular basis. During this time, you will be temporarily unable to process refunds through your account.
This change in your normal refunding should be rare, and the process is normal. You'll be able to resume processing refunds through your account 24 hours after your refund attempt is first declined.
I can't issue refunds
Refund limit exceeded
If you received an error message while trying to refund past orders or subscription cancellations (for example: “You can’t refund this order because you’ve reached the maximum refund value limit. Try again later, or contact us”), please contact us.
I can't issue a partial refund
If you can’t issue a partial refund, the following are a few reasons why this can happen:
- Partial refunds are only available for in-app purchases and subscriptions. Paid apps don’t support partial refunds.
- Some payment methods don’t support partial refunds.
- Subscribe with Google orders can’t be refunded.
- The order was placed before March 2018.
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