Student Refunds

This article goes over Teachable’s refund policy and shows how to issue a refund to students as a school owner.  For students, follow the steps outlined on requesting a refund.

Teachable:pay and the Monthly Payment Gateway

Student Refund Policy

As per our Terms of Use, if a school is using one of Teachable’s payment gateways (i.e., teachable:pay or the Monthly Payment Gateway), then their students are entitled to a full refund within 14 days of their initial payment for course purchases. The 14-day default student refund policy is effective August 25, 2023.

For coaching and digital download products, or any bundle that contains a coaching or digital download product, creators are solely responsible for setting the refund policy. These products do not need to adhere to the 14 day refund policy. However, you can still refund coaching and bundle purchases through the Teachable admin up to 30 days after purchase.

Issuing a Refund

School owners can issue refunds through Teachable within 30 days of the original purchase date. After 30 days, school owners no longer have the ability to issue refunds within the school’s admin area. Refund requests after 30 days can be made by contacting Teachable Support.

Issuing a refund does not impact the student's enrollment in the product or stop future payments of a subscription/payment plan. To unenroll a student from a course and/or cancel their future payments, visit the Enrollments tab of their user profile.

When a refund is issued for a transaction processed through teachable:pay or the Monthly Payment Gateway, then all transaction and processing fees are returned to the school owner. If a partial refund is issued, then school owners are only charged transaction and processing fees for the non-refunded amount of the transaction—the rest of the fees are returned to the school owner. Similarly, if a student had tax added to their charge, the tax amount is refunded in proportion to the refund. For example, if you refund 50% of the total payment, 50% of the tax will be refunded as well.

Students should allow for their credit/debit card refunds to take up to 7-10 business days to process.

If you enabled PayPal as a payment option for your students, and a student requests a refund on a PayPal payment, then the refund will be issued to their PayPal account immediately.

To issue a refund to a student, complete the following steps:

1. Select Users from your admin sidebar and click Students. 

   Alternatively, locate the transaction that you wish to refund in the Sales > Transactions section of your school admin (skip to step #6).

2. Click the student you want to refund from the list.
3. Inside the individual student profile, click Purchases. Then, click the specific transaction you would like to refund from the Purchases History section.
4. Scroll down to the Refund section. Click Refund Transaction.

1. Enter the Refund Amount and the Refund Reason (optional) in the modal that appears. 
2. Click Refund Transaction to issue the refund.

Custom Refund Policies

To request a policy outside of Teachable’s Terms of Use, fill out this form. If approved, Teachable Support will email confirmation of your custom refund policy.

Custom Payment Gateways

Student Refund Policy

Transactions processed through custom payment gateways are handled by a third-party processor. Therefore, Teachable’s refund policy does not apply.

Issuing a Refund

School owners can issue refunds to students through Teachable (as outlined above) or through their Stripe and/or PayPal accounts. For more information about issuing refunds, contact Stripe or PayPal support.

Refund Issues

There are several reasons why a student may not have received their refund. Before contacting Teachable Support, we recommend reviewing the following:

• Refund Date - If the refund was issued on a credit/debit card transaction, then it may take up to 7-10 business days to process with Stripe.
• Refund Destination - Refunds are issued to the student’s original payment method. Make sure that your student is checking the correct account and/or bank statement.
• Statement Details - If the original transaction was processed by teachable:pay or the Monthly Payment Gateway, then the refund will appear on the statement as Teachable. If the original transaction was processed by a custom payment gateway, then the name of your school will typically appear on the student’s statement.
• Chargeback - If the student disputed the transaction with their credit/debit card company or PayPal, then the transaction is put on hold by their bank and a refund cannot be processed until the student withdraws their dispute.

Frequently asked questions

How do student refunds work at Teachable?

Teachable gives you the flexibility to offer the refund policy that’s right for your business.
The default student refund policy is 14 days, effective August 25, 2023. However, Teachable schools can request a custom refund policy that is longer than 14 days.

Refunds for student purchases can be issued by a school admin or Teachable Support.

• Refunds issued by school admins
  • A school admin can always manually issue a student refund within 30 days of purchase regardless of your school’s refund policy length.
  • If a school admin would like to authorize a refund to a student after 30 days, they will need to log in and contact Teachable Support to complete this request for them.

• Refunds issued by Teachable Support at the student’s request
  • Teachable Support can issue refunds on your behalf at the request of students in accordance with your school’s refund policy under certain conditions.
  • In order to uphold our commitment to empowering creator ownership of their relationship with their students, Teachable Support will only issue student refunds when
    • (1) the student has attempted to contact the school directly to request a refund with no response,
    • (2) Teachable Support has reached out to the school directly to request a refund on behalf of the student with no response, and
    • (3) if the refund was requested within the school’s refund policy period.

• Refunds issued by Teachable Support at the school’s request
  • Teachable Support can assist you with issuing a student refund after 30 days when the in-app refund option is no longer available. To request a refund on behalf of a student, you can contact Teachable Support with the student email and transaction details.

How do I request a custom refund policy for my school?

To request a custom refund policy, please fill out this form. Once approved, Teachable Support will email you confirmation of your custom refund policy.

How can I confirm whether I already have a custom refund policy in place?

Once a custom refund policy is approved, Teachable Support will email the Teachable admin confirmation of the custom refund policy. If you can’t find this email and would like to confirm that you already have a custom refund policy in place, please log in to contact Teachable Support.

What are my options for a refund policy?

Teachable gives you the flexibility to offer the refund policy that’s right for your business. While the default student refund policy is 14 days (effective August 25, 2023), Teachable schools can set a refund policy that is longer than 14 days by filling out this form.

Once you have confirmed, we can process your custom refund policy request.