Will you still have free Nitro if you cancel?

The short answer is yes, you‘ll still have access to Nitro perks until the end of your current subscription period when you cancel.

Canceling won‘t immediately revoke access to features like animated avatars, server boosts, higher Go Live streaming quality, and exclusive games. You‘ll continue enjoying all the benefits until your subscription expiration date.

But what exactly happens behind the scenes when you cancel Nitro? Let‘s dig deeper into the details.

Canceling just stops auto-renewal – it doesn‘t instantly remove benefits

Here‘s an analogy to understand how cancelation works:

Imagine you sign up for a 1 month trial membership at a fancy gym. You get access to all the facilities like the pool, steam room, and fitness classes. But halfway through the month you decide you want to cancel your membership.

Does the staff come and kick you out instantly, still in your gym clothes and mid-workout? Of course not! You‘d still be allowed to serve out the remainder of your 1 month trial period, even though you canceled future auto-renewal.

Discord Nitro works the same way. Canceling prevents you from being charged again at the end of your subscription cycle – but it doesn‘t suddenly revoke your current access.

You‘ll continue enjoying all the perks right up until the subscription expiration date. Discord won‘t cut you off early.

According to their official help article:

You will have access to Discord Nitro perks until your billing cycle ends when you cancel Discord Nitro. All your server boosts and other Nitro perks will end at the end of your billing cycle.

So in short, canceling just means turning off the auto-renewal tap – it doesn‘t instantly drain away your benefits. You‘ll still have full access until the active subscription period finishes.

Why you may want to cancel even if you‘re enjoying Nitro

There‘s a few reasons why you might cancel Nitro even if you‘re getting value from it currently:

• To avoid being charged after a free trial ends – Discord offers 1 month free trials of Nitro for new users. Many opt to cancel right before the trial finishes to avoid unexpectedly being billed $9.99 on their payment method.

• To temporarily pause your subscription – You may want to take a break from Nitro for a while if you‘re low on funds or not using Discord as much. Canceling lets you always resume later.

• To switch payment methods – If your card on file expires or you want to pay with a different source, canceling ensures you don‘t get auto-renewed and charged before updating your details.

• To re-evaluate if you‘re getting $9.99 of value per month – Periodically checking whether you‘re really using Nitro‘s perks can prevent wasted money from inertia.

The key is that canceling doesn‘t erase your access immediately – it just gives control back over your subscription if you‘re not sure about auto-renewal.

Step-by-step guide to canceling Nitro

Canceling your Nitro subscription is straightforward:

1. Login to the Discord website or desktop app.

2. Click your profile picture and go to "User Settings".

3. Select "Discord Nitro" in the left sidebar.

4. Next to your active Nitro subscription, click "Cancel".

5. Confirm in the popup that you want to stop future auto-renewal when your subscription expires.

And that‘s it! The cancelation will prevent you from being charged again at the end of the current billing period. But you‘ll continue having full access to Nitro until then.

Easy, right? Now let‘s look at exactly what happens after canceling…

All Nitro perks and boosts will be removed after your subscription ends

Although canceling won‘t instantly revoke your Nitro access, you‘ll lose all the premium benefits once your active subscription period finishes.

This means:

• No more animated avatar or profile banner
• Loss of higher Go Live streaming resolution and frame rate
• Removal of ability to use custom emojis across all servers
• Loss of Nitro Games like Hades, Celeste, and SpeedRunners
• Expiration of any active server boosts you‘ve purchased

According to Discord, after cancelation:

Your Server Boosts will expire at the end of your current billing cycle along with your subscription. When your Server Boosts expire, your server will lose any benefits it received from your boosts.

This means if you‘ve used your Nitro boost discount to raise a server‘s levels for more emoji slots, higher bitrate streaming, and other perks, those will all be removed once your subscription ends.

So be aware canceling does not only affect your personal profile – it will also downgrade any servers where you used Nitro boosts. Those servers will have to find new users to boost them to regain the lost levels.

How canceling gifted Nitro subscriptions works

The process is the same if you cancel a gifted Nitro subscription vs one you paid for yourself:

• You continue having access until the gift expires
• Perks like animated avatars and server boosts are removed after expiration
• The auto-renewal is stopped to prevent being charged anything

However, Discord does enforce you can‘t be re-gifted Nitro by the same person for 6 months after canceling a gift. This prevents potential abuse where users continually re-gift subscriptions.

Aside from that limitation, canceling a gifted subscription works the same way. Your access simply ends when the gift duration runs out rather than auto-renewing.

According to Discord‘s gifting policy:

If you cancel a gifted Nitro subscription, you will continue to have access until the subscription expires at the end of the gift period. Once the gift subscription expires, you will lose access to Nitro benefits.

So you won‘t lose anything immediately, but perks will be removed at completion of the gift‘s duration.

What happens if you already have an active subscription?

Another scenario is you already have a paid Nitro subscription active, and then receive an additional gifted subscription.

Fortunately, the extra time stacks instead of going to waste. The gifted time will be added to the end of your current period.

Discord‘s help page confirms:

If you already have an active Nitro subscription and accept a gift that differs from your current subscription, that gifted subscription will be added to your Discord account as Account Credit.

So you won‘t miss out on any subscription time – the timers essentially combine into one longer period. There‘s no disadvantage to redeeming spare Nitro gifts even while subscribed.

The impact of canceling on servers and friends

While canceling Nitro only prevents your own auto-renewal, it can indirectly impact servers you boosted and friends you gifted subscriptions to.

Here are the potential downstream effects of canceling:

• Lowered Server Perks – Any servers you boosted will revert back 1 level per boost when your Nitro expires. Other boosters will need to replace your boost to regain the higher tiers.

• Removal of Added Emoji Slots – Servers will lose any additional emoji slots gained through your boosts, decreasing total emojis back to the lower base amount.

• Lower Go Live Stream Quality – Without your boosts, servers will revert to a lower max bitrate and resolution for Go Live streams. Pixelation and compression artifacts may increase.

• Preventing Friends From Gifting You Nitro – Friends who gifted you subscriptions can‘t re-gift you Nitro for 6 months after you cancel to prevent potential Nitro subscription abuse.

• Friends May Feel Disappointment – Friends that gifted you subscriptions may feel sad or disappointed if you immediately cancel their gift instead of appreciating the full duration.

So before canceling, consider the potential impacts on any communities you‘re supporting and friends who have shared their subscriptions with you. While canceling is your right, it can indirectly affect parts of the Discord ecosystem you‘re involved in.

Data on Discord Nitro subscriber cancelation rates

How many Nitro subscribers actually go through with canceling before their subscription renews?

Discord hasn‘t publicly shared detailed data on their cancellation and retention rates. However, we can look at some broader industry benchmarks:

• Software industry average monthly cancellation rate – 5.06% [source]
• Computer software category monthly cancellation rate – 4.16% [source]
• Top quartile of software companies – <2.5% monthly cancel rate [source]
• Consumer mobile apps – ~20% cancel within 1 month of subscribing [source]

Given Discord likely falls somewhere between general software and consumer mobile app sectors, we can estimate the monthly Nitro cancellation rate is likely somewhere around 10-15%.

Of course, the rate will be higher immediately after free trial periods end. But for ongoing subscriptions, approximately 1 in 10 users likely cancel before each renewal.

This means the large majority stick with Nitro long-term once subscribing, highlighting the value it provides. But it‘s normal for some percentage to cancel each month as financial situations and app usage changes.

Avoiding regrets if canceling Nitro

Here are some tips to avoid regrets or issues if you do decide to cancel Nitro:

• Screenshot your Nitro profile customization – Your banner, avatar, and other profile edits will reset after canceling. Take screenshots so you can recreate the look later if resubscribing.

• Export rare custom emojis – Download any rare or personal custom emojis from servers before canceling so you don‘t lose access.

• Use up Nitro Games time – Make the most of perks like Nitro games before your subscription ends so you don‘t miss out.

• Check for boosted servers – See which servers will be impacted by your boosts expiring before canceling. Forewarn impacted owners if possible.

• Give advanced notice to friends – Let any friends who gifted you Nitro know you‘ll be canceling so they understand why you can‘t accept new gifts for 6 months.

With some planning, you can make the transition smooth and minimize any downsides of reverting to a free user.

Reflecting on the Nitro experience before canceling

Before hitting that cancel button, take a moment to reflect on your time as a Nitro subscriber:

• What features did you enjoy most? Animated avatar? Server emojis? Higher quality streaming? Take note of the perks that really brought you joy so you can prioritize them in the future.

• What benefits did you not really use? If you didn‘t touch certain features like mobile video streaming or Nitro games, consider whether a cheaper subscription tier like Nitro Basic may be more suitable for your needs.

• How has Nitro impacted your Discord experience? Are your servers more lively and engaging? Has chatting and connecting with friends been more fun? Look at the big picture of how Nitro has improved your social world on Discord.

• Would you recommend Nitro to a friend? Based on your experience over the past weeks or months, do you think Nitro provides good value? If yes, maybe it‘s worth sticking with. If not, canceling is likely the right call.

Reflecting on what you appreciated most about Nitro can help inform whether you may want to resubscribe down the line, or look into other options like Nitro Basic for more cost-conscious perks.

You can always resubscribe later

The bright side of canceling is you can always reactivate Nitro anytime by resubscribing. Just head back to the Nitro tab in User Settings and re-purchase a plan.

You‘ll instantly regain access to all the same benefits and profile customizations as before. It will be like you never canceled in the first place.

This makes trying out life without Nitro very low risk – if you later decide the magic is missing, resubscribing will bring back all the joy just a click away. No harm done.

So don‘t look at canceling as a permanent goodbye to features you love. More like a "see you later" until you‘re ready to reunite.

Closing thoughts

Canceling Discord Nitro does not immediately remove access to premium features. Rather, you‘ll continue enjoying all benefits until your subscription period expires.

Only then will perks like animated avatars, server boosts, and exclusive games be revoked. So cancel with confidence knowing you‘ll still get what you paid for.

Down the road if you find yourself missing Nitro, resubscribing instantly restores all the same benefits and customizations. For most, periodic canceling just provides billing control until they are ready to reactivate and enjoy Nitro again.

So don‘t be afraid to cancel your subscription if you need to – just be sure to make the most of it until your final expiration date!