Pausing vs. Canceling Hulu: Here's What to Do When You Need a Break

Key Takeaways

You can pause your Hulu subscription for up to twelve weeks, which saves content and automatically reactivates.
Canceling your subscription also retains saved data and allows for an indefinite break.

With the amount of streaming services today, sometimes you have to cut a few loose to balance the books. Hulu offers a “convenient” option to pause your account, but let’s see how that compares to canceling your subscription outright.

Pausing Your Hulu Subscription

When you need a break from Hulu, the platform allows you to pause your subscription for free for up to 12 weeks or three months.

Here’s how to pause your Hulu membership:

Sign in to Hulu on a browser.
Navigate to your account settings by selecting your Name > Account.
Under Your Subscription, you’ll see the option to Pause Your Subscription. Select PAUSE.
On the next page, choose how many weeks (1–12) you would like to pause your subscription for. Confirm with PAUSE SUBSCRIPTION.

Hulu's account managers offers a dropdown menu of how many weeks (1-12) to pause a subscription

The pause will go into effect at the start of your next billing cycle. At the end of the specified number of weeks, your account will automatically resume, and you can pick up wherever you left off.

Canceling Your Hulu Subscription

If you are unsure if you’ll be ready to return in 12 weeks, you can also cancel your Hulu membership altogether.

Follow the steps above to get to your Account page, then:

Scroll to Your Subscription > Cancel Your Subscription and select CANCEL.
On the next page, the platform will offer alternatives, such as pausing or a less expensive plan, if one exists. If you’re sure, go ahead and click CANCEL SUBSCRIPTION.

Hulu offers alternate options to canceling a subscription outright

Don’t fret: if you want to return to Hulu later, you can always sign up for a subscription again. If you use the same email address, the platform will retain your saved content and watch your progress.

Canceling vs. Pausing Hulu

At first glance, the option to pause your Hulu subscription may seem appealing because it feels less permanent than canceling. However, canceling is just as temporary, as Hulu will still preserve your saved titles and progress.

Here are a few key reasons for canceling instead of pausing:

There’s no limit to how long the platform will save your data. Hence, you can cancel your subscription for as long as you need, and your saved content will be there when you return.
Pausing limits you to a 12-week period. When your account reactivates, it automatically charges your payment card for one billing cycle. You can choose to initiate another pause, but you’ll have already paid for that extra month.
With canceling, you can take advantage of seasonal or bundle deals, like the Hulu on Disney+ bundle, when you sign up again.
Reactivating an account manually is a small price to pay for flexibility.

With seasonal deals, you’ll likely need to use a new email address, meaning no saved content.

Because you don’t lose your data when you cancel, canceling is ultimately a more flexible option. The only one that seems to gain from the pause feature is Hulu, as automatic reactivations must help retain more customers. Canceling puts the power in your hands. And hey, if you’re not reaching to sign back up for Hulu, then that should tell you something.