How to Cancel or Downgrade HubSpot Marketing Hub: The Exact Steps and Dates
This is the procedural post. If you have decided to leave Marketing Hub or drop a tier, here are the settings to open, the person to email, the number of days that matter, and what your account turns into afterwards, all from HubSpot’s own documentation, checked 2026-09-05. If you have not decided yet, the seven questions to answer before you renew is the decision; this is the execution.
The three rules that shape everything
Per HubSpot’s cancellation and downgrade documentation and the Customer Terms of Service:
- Changes land on the renewal date, not when you ask. “The downgrade will go into effect on your renewal date, not immediately.” The terms add that you “are not permitted to downgrade your Subscription Service during your Current Term.”
- Professional and Enterprise need a person, with notice. Contact your assigned Contract Manager “at least five business days prior to your renewal date.” Starter customers email support.
- Auto-renewal is on until you turn it off. Subscriptions renew for the shorter of the prior term or one year unless the order says otherwise, and “you must turn off the auto-renewal setting in the Account & Billing section of your HubSpot account prior to the end of your Current Term.”
Everything below is those three rules turned into a sequence.
Step 1: find the renewal date
Click your account name in the top right, open Account & Billing, then the Subscriptions tab. Each subscription shows its renewal date and, before the term ends, the renewal price. Put the Marketing Hub date in the team calendar with reminders at 60, 45 and 30 days. Every other step is timed from it.
Step 2: export what will not survive
Marketing Hub assets do not come back after the downgrade. Before anything else:
- Custom reports and dashboards. Export them. On Starter and Free they are gone.
- Workflows. Screenshot each active workflow and write down its trigger, branches and exit. You will rebuild the ones that matter elsewhere.
- Landing page and email content. Save the copy and images. Free-tier pages are template-only and limited, and marketing email at volume stops.
- Lists. Download any list you need as a segment definition in the next tool.
What syncs and what does not is the full object-by-object map of what stays in the CRM and what has to be rebuilt.
Step 3: flip contacts to non-marketing, a month early
Marketing contacts are the billed ones. Per HubSpot’s marketing contacts page, switching a contact to non-marketing “will take effect in the following month.” Do it at least one billing cycle before the renewal so the final invoice, and any downgrade quote, is calculated on the contacts you actually market to. HubSpot marketing contacts, explained covers the mechanism and the audit.
Step 4: turn off auto-renewal
Back in Account & Billing, disable the auto-renewal setting for the Marketing Hub subscription. This is the step that stops the term rolling over. It does not, on its own, downgrade or cancel anything, and it does not end the current term. Do it now anyway; it is the safety net if the next step slips.
Step 5: request the downgrade or cancellation
Starter: email HubSpot support and ask for the downgrade options. Per the documentation, that is the route for Starter subscriptions.
Professional or Enterprise: contact your assigned Contract Manager, in writing, at least five business days before the renewal date. State the subscription, the change you want (downgrade to Starter, downgrade to free, or cancel), and the effective date you expect, which is the renewal date. Keep the email. Five business days is HubSpot’s minimum, not a target; the renewal checklist works from 30 days out.
Downgrading to Starter rather than free keeps authenticated marketing email sending and the Starter contact tier at $20 a seat, which is the right landing spot if you still want to send the occasional email from HubSpot. Downgrading to free keeps the CRM and the free tools.
Step 6: run the replacement in parallel until the date
The change takes effect on the renewal date. Until then Marketing Hub keeps working, which is the window to run the replacement alongside it: rebuild the three workflows that matter, send one campaign from each, and watch a lead move through both. Switch the HubSpot workflows off on the renewal date, not before. Keep the CRM, drop the hub has the sixty-day version of this.
What the account becomes. Per HubSpot’s documentation, once the subscription ends “your account will be downgraded to HubSpot’s free tools.” Contacts, companies, deals and lifecycle stages stay in the free CRM; the terms confirm HubSpot continues to provide its free services after termination. Workflows, marketing email at volume, A/B testing, custom reports and the SMS add-on stop. Nothing about the CRM data changes.
If you want to delete the account entirely
Most teams should not; the free CRM is worth keeping as the system of record. If you do, HubSpot’s documentation says it can only happen after every subscription has ended: open the Delete Account tab in Account & Billing and enter your Hub ID to confirm. An account with an active subscription commitment cannot be deleted, even with auto-renewal off, so this is a step for after the renewal date has passed.
The dates, on one line
Renewal date minus 60 days: find the date, export reports, document workflows. Minus 45: flip non-marketing contacts, turn off auto-renewal. Minus 30: decide, and write to your Contract Manager. Minus 5 business days: HubSpot’s stated minimum for a downgrade request. Renewal date: the change takes effect; switch off the old workflows. After: delete the account only if you must.
Where Marqeable fits
If the reason for the downgrade is that the campaign and reply work needs to happen somewhere that does it with you, Marqeable is one of the tools built for the keep-the-CRM configuration: it connects to HubSpot or Salesforce, drafts and publishes the campaign from a brief, runs follow-ups based on what each lead does, and answers website chat and text replies in seconds, with email replies drafted for your approval and every reply, meeting and activity written back to the record. Private beta, small early cohort, month-to-month, beta pricing quoted on the call and locked for life for early customers. The homepage comparison shows it next to Marketing Hub row by row.
Frequently asked questions
Can I cancel Marketing Hub immediately?
No. Downgrades and cancellations take effect on the renewal date, and the terms do not permit downgrading during the current term. Cancelling stops the next renewal, not the current one.
How much notice does HubSpot need?
Professional and Enterprise: contact your Contract Manager at least five business days before renewal. Starter: email support. In every case, turn off auto-renewal in Account & Billing before the term ends.
What happens to the account afterwards?
It is downgraded to HubSpot’s free tools. CRM data stays; Marketing Hub features stop.
How do I delete the account entirely?
After all subscriptions have ended, use the Delete Account tab in Account & Billing and enter your Hub ID. Accounts with active commitments cannot be deleted.
The bottom line
Cancelling or downgrading Marketing Hub is six steps and three dates: find the renewal date, export what will not survive, flip contacts a month early, turn off auto-renewal, write to your Contract Manager at least five business days out, and let the change land on the renewal date with the replacement already running. Do it in that order and the CRM never notices. Do it in renewal week and you pay for another term.
See it live: Marqeable drafts full campaigns from a brief, runs follow-up automations across text and email, answers every visitor and reply, and links revenue to the exact message, with a human approving every send.
Marqeable runs your campaigns, answers every visitor, text, and email in seconds, and turns them into booked jobs and meetings - even at 9pm on a Saturday. We’re in private beta with a small early cohort. Get early access
