Academia Reviews 

I was shocked to receive an autorenew yesterday and a price-hike to £250 from a company I mustakenly thought that I could trust. I did not realise that I was signed to a scam. I came here and saw that many others have suffered exactly the same experience. Their subscriotions should fall off a cliff and thisbshould be publicised. We all get those emails from our streaming services apologising for 10% price increases and the produce programming, but this company merely “shop-window” your work and then push you off a cliff with, in my case, an increase, without warning, from £150 (already expensive) to £250 a year. I swore I had cancelled this subscription, but will do so again and block my card. I am looking forward to the automatic reply to this review. I never realise that I was signed up to sucha company using the connotations of “academia.” I have recently retired, and so this payment has taken a lot away from me

I never authorized the most recent charge from Academia Premium, and I was not notified before it was billed. *My credit card number had changed, and they still managed to charge my new card, which I never entered on their site.* That’s deeply concerning and feels like a serious breach of trust and security.
I reached out to request a refund and was told that they do not issue refunds under any circumstances, even for unauthorized transactions. That is completely unacceptable. This constitutes a scam.
This is not a subscription I actively signed up for, and there is no way to manage it through Apple or any standard platform. You are forced to navigate their confusing website just to attempt cancellation, and even then, they make it difficult to confirm.
Avoid this company at all costs. Never give them your credit card as they will use it for unauthorized charges, and their customer support will do nothing to help you.

Wish I'd read and understood the details of the Academia.edu autorenew program. I received notice of autorenewal on the last day of my subscription, and canceled immediately ... only to be told that's not the deal. They say I've now paid for 365 days of nothing I want. In my opinion one gains NOTHING by being on autorenew, so SHOULD NOT do it. Clever-lawyer-drafted language screws the customer. If you think you may want to renew, let them ask you to do so .... I imagine you might get a significantly better price offer.

I attempted to cancel my auto-renewal and believed I had successfully done so. However, it turns out the process required scrolling to the bottom of the page and clicking “confirm” or “cancel” a second and third time—something that was not made clear.

Frankly, this feels like a textbook case of dark patterning and confirmshaming, which has no place in an academic platform. Academia.edu should be held to higher standards. This kind of design erodes trust and is unbecoming of an institution that claims to support scholars.

Premium subscription taken despite having cancelled my Premium account. This company is a predatory company. Beware

I was charged for an annual Academia Premium subscription on May 18, 2025, despite believing I had canceled it. It could’ve been helpful if they sent reminders or even just receipts for the billing like other ethical websites and companies. Academia.edu has refused my refund request, and their cancellation process is confusing and unclear. As a student, this unexpected charge caused financial hardship. I signed up for Academia.edu Premium and later attempted to cancel the subscription during the trial period. However, I recently discovered that I was still charged an amount of 358,630.37 MNT (~$104 USD) on May 18, 2025, despite believing I had successfully canceled. I received no email notification before the renewal and was unaware that two separate steps were required to cancel properly.

I contacted Academia.edu support immediately after noticing the charge. They acknowledged the payment and confirmed that auto-renewal was turned off but refused to issue a refund, citing their policy. I explained that the cancellation interface was unclear, and I thought I had completed it. As a student, this is a significant amount of money for me, and I never intended to continue the subscription.

Every person here should ban together for a lawsuit if they do not get reimbursed for these sudden hike charges. Horrible, and a shame as i found it to be useful, but not $500 by any means. No one would pay that in any class of society for a website built on the work of the academics on it.

Academia.edu renewed my Premium subscription without clearly informing me of a massive price increase from €107 to €434 per year. That’s almost a 400% jump — and I received no direct notification or warning about this change.

This practice violates European consumer law, which requires that any price increase be clearly, individually, and timely communicated before an automatic renewal is processed. Despite this, Academia refuses to offer a refund.

I've filed a formal complaint with PayPal and will also report this to the European Consumer Centre (ECC).

My advice:
If you’re in the EU, assert your legal rights and file a complaint via your national consumer agency or the ECC. Be extremely cautious with Academia Premium — their billing practices are unethical at best, and potentially illegal.

Doubled the premium subscription cost from $249 in 2024 to $498 in 225 without notice.

This is a complete rip off. Very expensive, no value, no refund. Avoid at all cost. For me, never ever again

I had the really bad experience of finding out that over £200 had been taken from my account without warning. On closer inspection, in what looked like junk mail entitled "Update on Academia Premium" received 4 days before my money was taken, there was a mention towards the bottom that my fee would now be rising from £69 to over £200.
This isn’t just bad practice — it’s likely to be against UK consumer law (Consumer Rights Act 2015 and the CMA’s rules about fair auto-renewals). Hidden notices and big surprise price increases are not allowed, and terms saying "no refunds" can’t override consumers' basic legal rights.
If you get caught out by this scam you can dispute the payment with your bank (chargeback / Section 75); or otherwise to report the matter to Trading Standards and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). Fortunately for me PayPal returned my money.
Ignore the 'customer service' responses to reviews. I will update this review if I ever see or hear of such assistance that is sincere and actually helpful. Those in actual academia can sometimes tend to assume that we can trust organisations that purport to support learning. Sadly that isn't always the case. Avoid.

This is a scam website. I innocently and now realise naively paid the £1 fee to view a publication on their website and didn’t realise that buried within the labyrinth of their terms and conditions was a trap to lock you into an expensive subscription. I have been to their website to try and release me from their subscription but the mass of conditions and obligations are purposefully designed to confuse and cheat you of your rights. I have been to PayPal and stopped any payments to this company in the future. I live in England and will refer this company to the appropriate authorities.

I subscribed for a month free trial a couple of years back. I cancelled my subscription, but they charged me anyways. The charged 100$ last year, and 300$ this year and they are not willing to refund. When I tried to cancel, you have to go through 2 or 3 different sites a reaffirm your choice of cancelling, which is deceptive enough to imply that the customer cancelled, without them actually doing so.

Absolutely appalled to find I'd paid £200 for something I didn't ask for - this 'company' is a complete con.
And ignore the ‘so sorry’ drivel - I have filled in the form and got nothing except ‘unfortunately …’ This money was stolen from me. It’s a criminal act. Wish I could give a negative star rating.

I was not using it and subscribed trial for 3$ . next year i was charged $89 which i didnt know in 2024 but yesterday i was charge $449 Invoice Number 785D4864-0003 . First the price difference . Second I dont use it anymore . Please refund .

I cancelled my subscription and was charged the annual fee anyway.
The articles in my field of interest are of very poor quality.

UPDATE: Received my refund without any questions asked.

I got charged for 1 year, and i did not want that, i just forgot to cancel the subscription. I made a request for a refund and it s been 3 days and no answear just a mail that my request has been received, i want to know when i can get my money back because i have the 30 day refund eligibility and it s my first year.

UPDATE:
I got my money back after like 6 days, even tho it was Easter when i made the request so maybe for other people it might be faster. They followed the rules on the site so it is a big tumbs up from me.

Poor customer service. Poor selection. Don’t waste your money

Stay away! You will receive a lot of spam emails and furthermore they will charge you for a yearly subscription in a very non transparent way.

I canceled my subscription almost 2 years ago and they kept taking money from my bank account on 2024 and 2025. I just realized this today! Avoid this site!