Course Refund Policy Template and Platform Rules 2026

A good course refund policy states one window, one condition and one way to ask, and it fits the rules of the platform that holds the money. Below are three policy wordings you can copy, a table of how Teachable, Kajabi, Thinkific and Podia each handle refunds as checked on 30 September 2026, and the card dispute clock that sits behind all of them.

A course refund policy is the written promise on your sales page and checkout about when a student can get their money back and what they must do to ask. It is not legal advice, and in a few countries a policy cannot remove rights the buyer already has. That caveat is covered near the end.

What do the big course platforms do when you refund a student?

The mechanics differ more than most creators expect, and the differences decide what your policy can promise. This table is built from each platform's own help pages, read on 30 September 2026. Platforms change these rules, so check the linked page before you publish a policy that depends on one.

Platform | Refund window | Fees on a refund | Access after refund | Partial refunds

Teachable | 14 days by default, manual refunds up to 30 days | Stripe and platform fees not returned since 6 November 2025 | Not removed automatically | Not stated on the page

Kajabi | Up to 180 days on Kajabi Payments, Stripe and PayPal | Not stated on the page | Not revoked automatically | Yes, any amount

Thinkific | No limit stated on the page | Processing fees not returned, tax returned proportionally | Kept unless you tick the removal box | Yes

Podia | No limit stated on the page | Stripe fees not refunded, Podia transaction fees are | You choose whether access stays | Through Stripe or PayPal directly

Sources: Teachable on issuing student refunds, Kajabi on refunding customers, Thinkific Payments refunds, and Podia on issuing refunds.

Three details in that table change what you should write. A refund does not remove access on Teachable, Kajabi or Thinkific unless you do it yourself, so a policy that says access ends on refund needs a step in your routine. You also absorb processing fees on Teachable, Thinkific and Podia refunds, so a 100 percent guarantee costs you slightly more than the price of the course. And on Teachable a refund is paid from your account balance, with a daily cap of $10,000 per school on refunds run through its payment gateways.

Which refund policy wording should you use?

Three wordings follow, each for a different kind of offer. Replace the brackets, keep the structure, and publish the one you choose on the sales page, at checkout and in the confirmation email.

Wording 1: a flat time window (self-paced course)

"If [course name] is not right for you, email [address] within [number] days of purchase and we will refund the full price. No reason needed. Access ends when the refund is issued."

Best for lower priced, self-paced courses. It is the simplest to run and the easiest for a buyer to believe. Teachable's default of 14 days is a workable starting point if you have no better reason to choose a number.

Wording 2: a do-the-work guarantee (higher priced course)

"Complete [named lessons or assignments] and submit [named proof] within [number] days of purchase. If you have done the work and [course name] did not help, email [address] with your submitted work and we will refund the full price within [number] business days."

Best when the price is high enough that a bare time window invites people to watch everything and then ask. The condition must be something a student can verify from their own account, or it reads as a trap.

Wording 3: a cohort refund with a start-date cutoff

"You can cancel for a full refund until [date], [number] days before the first live session. After that date, your seat is held for you and we refund only if we cancel or reschedule the cohort. If we do not reach [minimum number] enrolled students by [date], every payment is refunded automatically."

Best for live cohorts, where a late cancellation leaves an empty seat you cannot refill. The last sentence matters most if you pre-sell, because the minimum-enrollment refund is what makes a pre-sell fair, as covered in how to pre-sell a cohort before it exists.

What should every refund policy say, whatever the wording?

• The window, in days, and the exact event it starts from: purchase date, first payment, or cohort start.
• The single way to ask: one email address or one form, never "contact us".
• What happens to access, and who removes it.
• How long a refund takes from your side, in business days, and that it returns to the original payment method.
• What happens to payment plans: whether remaining instalments are cancelled and whether paid instalments are refunded.
• What is excluded, for example bonuses, one-to-one calls already held, or physical goods, stated in plain words.

Why does the card dispute clock matter for a refund policy?

Because a student who cannot get a clear answer from you can ask their bank instead, and that costs you more than a refund. Stripe's documentation says card networks typically allow cardholders to start a dispute within 120 days of the original payment, and some PayPal and buy-now-pay-later disputes allow up to 180 days.

Once a dispute opens, Stripe debits the disputed amount plus a dispute fee, the fee is not returned even if you win, you usually have 7 to 21 days to respond depending on the network, and you cannot refund the payment outside the dispute process while it is open. The whole process can take two to three months. A refund policy with a window at least as long as the gap before a student would give up and call their bank is cheaper than winning a dispute.

Teachable also uses these numbers to decide who may set a custom policy. Its help page requires at least $10,000 in gross merchandise volume, 90 or more days of sales history, a refund rate under 10 percent and a chargeback rate under 1 percent, and it says reviews typically take 2 to 3 weeks.

When does a refund policy not protect you?

When the buyer lives somewhere with rights that a policy cannot remove. In the UK, GOV.UK tells sellers that customers can cancel up to 14 days after delivery, and that for downloads and streaming you must get the customer to confirm before the content starts that they will lose that right. If you do not follow the procedure, GOV.UK says the customer keeps the 14 day right to cancel.

In Australia the competition regulator states that a business cannot take away consumer guarantees by displaying a "no refunds" sign or otherwise saying refunds are unavailable. If you sell into the UK, the EU or Australia, a short checkbox at checkout and advice from a local lawyer are worth more than a cleverly worded policy.

This section describes what the named official pages say on the date checked. It is not legal advice and it does not cover every country.

Where should the policy appear?

Put the same words in four places, so nobody can say they did not see it.

Place | Why

Sales page, near the button | The promise is part of the decision, so it belongs where the decision happens

Checkout | The buyer agrees to it at the moment of payment, and you can point to it if a dispute opens

Confirmation email | It is the record the student can find in six weeks

Inside the course | A link in the first lesson and the footer handles the student who lost the email

Email number four in the cart-open phase of a launch sequence is usually where refund policy and payment plans get answered directly, so use the same wording there, as laid out in the course launch email sequence template. If your sales page does not show the policy at all, the structural fixes in 8 mistakes coaches make with their website are a good next read.

If you have not settled where the course will live, Kajabi vs Teachable vs Thinkific vs Podia pricing compares the plans, and the cost of a launch agency shows where a refund reserve fits in a launch budget.

Who is this for?

Coaches and course creators writing a first policy, or rewriting one after a dispute. The wordings work for a solo creator selling through any of the four platforms above.

Frequently asked questions

How long should a course refund window be?

Teachable uses 14 days by default, and Kajabi allows refunds up to 180 days on its payment options. Thinkific and Podia state no limit on their refund pages. Pick a window you can honour without resentment, and remember that card networks typically allow disputes for about 120 days.

Can I say no refunds on my course?

You can publish a no refunds policy in many places, but it does not remove rights in every country. Australia's regulator says a no refunds sign cannot take away consumer guarantees, and the UK gives a 14 day cancellation right unless you follow the digital content procedure. Ask a local lawyer before selling abroad.

Do I lose the processing fee when I refund a student?

Usually yes. Teachable stopped returning Stripe and platform fees on refunds from 6 November 2025, and Thinkific does not return the original processing fees. Podia returns its own transaction fee but not Stripe's. Budget a little over the course price per refund when you choose a guarantee.

Should a refund remove the student's access?

Say so in the policy and do it yourself, because Teachable, Kajabi and Thinkific do not remove access automatically when you refund. Kajabi has a manual step in the Contacts tab, and Thinkific has an optional checkbox in the refund screen. Otherwise a refunded student keeps the course.

Key takeaways

• A refund policy needs a window, a condition, one way to ask, and a statement on access.
• Choose the wording by offer: flat window for low price, do-the-work guarantee for high price, start-date cutoff for cohorts.
• Teachable defaults to 14 days, Kajabi allows up to 180, and Thinkific and Podia state no limit on their pages.
• Refunds return the course price but usually not the processing fee, and they do not remove access by themselves.
• Card networks typically allow disputes for about 120 days, and a dispute costs a non-refundable fee.
• A policy cannot remove buyer rights in the UK or Australia, so check the rules where you sell.

If you want the sales page and emails built around the policy

EchoPulse Media writes and builds course sales pages and launch emails for coaches, with a $299 Pilot over 14 days and a 48 hour standard turnaround per deliverable.