Refunds and cancellations in AWS Marketplace - AWS Marketplace
Refund request types for AWS Marketplace productsAWS Marketplace product refund policy and approvalsRequesting an agreement cancellationRequesting a billing adjustment (refund)Tracking cancellation requestsTracking billing adjustmentsNotificationsUsing the AWS Marketplace APIsChannel Partner Private Offers (CPPO)Requesting a bulk refundLegacy refund request process

Refunds and cancellations in AWS Marketplace

All paid products in AWS Marketplace must have a stated refund policy for software charges. The refund policy must include the terms of the refund and a method of contacting the seller to request a refund.

As a seller, you are responsible for defining the terms of your refund policy. However, we encourage you to offer buyers a refund option for usage of the product. You must comply with your posted refund policies.

AWS Marketplace provides self-service tools for sellers to initiate agreement cancellations and billing adjustments (refunds) directly from the Agreements page in AWS Partner Central (formerly AWS Marketplace Management Portal) or through the AWS Marketplace APIs, without requiring AWS Customer Service involvement. Billing adjustments are processed automatically after validation and do not require buyer approval. Cancellation requests are sent to buyers for approval with a 7-day response window.

Note

In AWS Partner Central, refunds are referred to as billing adjustments. Both terms refer to the same process of returning funds to a buyer or reducing the outstanding balance on an invoice.

Refund request types for AWS Marketplace products

Buyers can request different types of refunds for AWS Marketplace products. For AWS Marketplace products sold by AWS, refer to the refund policy page and then submit a support case using the Support Center Console. If a buyer requests a software refund directly from AWS, we instruct them to contact the seller using the support contact information you provided for the product in question. Refunds of any AWS infrastructure charges are at the discretion of AWS and are handled separately from software refunds.

For products sold by a third-party seller, buyers must refer to the product detail page to view the refund policy. Software charges for AWS Marketplace subscriptions are paid to the seller of record, and refunds must be requested from the seller directly.

AWS Marketplace product refund policy and approvals

The following list describes the AWS Marketplace refund policy and whether your approval is needed:

  • Free trials — If you list your software as a free trial product, AWS can issue refunds on your behalf for software charges that accrue within seven days of converting to a paid subscription. Refunds issued in connection with free trial conversions require no action on your part. By enabling a free trial on a product, you agree to this policy.

  • Private offers — All refunds for private offers must be authorized by you before AWS can process them.

  • Software metering refunds — If you use the AWS Marketplace Metering Service to meter the usage of your software, AWS can issue refunds on your behalf for software charges resulting from software metering errors. If these errors are common across multiple buyers, AWS reserves the right to determine an appropriate refund for each buyer and apply it directly to each buyer. By using the AWS Marketplace Metering Service with a product, you are agreeing to this policy.

  • Subscription cancellation within 48 hours of purchase — If a buyer cancels their subscription within 48 hours of a non-private offer purchase, AWS issues a full refund (cancel with 100 percent refund). Refunds issued in connection with cancellation within 48 hours of purchase require no action on your part. After 48 hours, such buyer request is at your discretion. By listing your product on AWS Marketplace, you agree to this policy.

  • Subscription upgrade — If a buyer replaces an existing non-private offer subscription with a more expensive subscription or a subscription of equal value, AWS can issue refunds on your behalf for the lower-tier subscription.

  • Subscription downgrade — All downgrade subscription refund requests must be authorized by you before AWS can process them.

  • Seller-initiated billing adjustments — As the seller of record, you can initiate billing adjustments (refunds) for any agreement through the Agreements page in AWS Partner Central or through the Billing Adjustments API. Billing adjustments don't require buyer approval and are processed automatically after validation. Refunds are irreversible after they've been processed.

  • Seller-initiated cancellations — As the seller of record, you can initiate agreement cancellation requests through the Agreements page in AWS Partner Central or through the Cancellation API. Cancellation requests are sent to the buyer for approval. If the buyer doesn't respond within 7 days, the cancellation is automatically approved and the agreement is canceled.

All AWS-authorized refunds are processed automatically and require no action on your part.

Requesting an agreement cancellation

You can initiate an agreement cancellation request from the Agreements page in AWS Partner Central. Cancellation requests are sent to the buyer for approval. The buyer has 7 days to approve or deny the request. If the buyer doesn't respond within 7 days, the cancellation is automatically approved and the agreement is canceled.

Important

Cancellation only cancels future invoices that have not been issued. It doesn't automatically refund existing open invoices. If you also need to refund past charges, you must submit a separate billing adjustment request. See Requesting a billing adjustment (refund).

Prerequisites

  • You must be the seller of record for the agreement. For Marketplace Private Offers (MPPO), this is the ISV. For Channel Partner Private Offers (CPPO), this is the channel partner (CP).

  • The agreement must be active.

  • There must not be an existing active cancellation request for the same agreement.

  • No related agreement should exist for the agreement being canceled. For instance, a usage agreement can't be canceled if it has an associated annual discount agreement.

To request an agreement cancellation

  1. Sign in to AWS Partner Central and navigate to the Agreements page.

  2. Select the agreement you want to cancel and choose Request cancellation.

  3. Review the agreement information (Buyer account ID, Agreement ID, Offer ID). Choose a cancellation reason from the dropdown. In the Additional details field, you can optionally include a message to the buyer.

  4. Choose Submit request.

  5. Upon successful submission, you'll receive a link to the buyer response form. You can optionally expedite the process by sharing the response form link with the buyer directly. You can also copy the link later from the Cancellation requests tracking table.

Withdrawing a cancellation request

You can withdraw a pending cancellation request from either the Cancellation requests tab or the request details page. To withdraw a pending request from the Cancellation requests tab, select the request you want to withdraw and choose Withdraw request. In the dialog box, provide a withdrawal reason.

Requesting a billing adjustment (refund)

You can initiate billing adjustments (refunds) from the Agreements page in AWS Partner Central. Billing adjustments allow you to either refund buyers for charges on existing invoices, or reduce the outstanding balance on invoices that have not yet been paid. Billing adjustments don't require buyer approval and are processed immediately upon successful validation.

Important

If the billing adjustment you want to apply is dependent on cancellation of the agreement, submit the cancellation request first and wait for approval before submitting the billing adjustment.

Prerequisites

  • You must be the seller of record for the agreement. For Marketplace Private Offers (MPPO), this is the ISV. For Channel Partner Private Offers (CPPO), this is the channel partner (CP).

  • To adjust invoices issued in countries with Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance requirements, you must first complete secondary user verification and enable multi-factor authentication (MFA). To become KYC-verified, see Complete the Know Your Customer process and Managing your secondary user for KYC for more information.

To apply a billing adjustment

  1. Sign in to AWS Partner Central and navigate to the Agreements page.

  2. Select the agreement you want to adjust and choose Apply billing adjustment.

The billing adjustment wizard guides you through four steps:

Step 1: Provide details

Review the agreement information (Buyer account ID, Agreement ID, Offer ID). Choose a billing adjustment reason from the dropdown. In the Additional details field, you can optionally include a message to the buyer. Choose Next.

Step 2: Select invoices

In the Available invoices table, select the invoices you want to adjust. You can filter invoices by either invoice date or billing period. Choose Next.

Step 3: Adjust billing amounts

You can either start from zero and manually enter custom adjustment amounts for each selected invoice, or you can start from the maximum adjustment amount per invoice and optionally modify individual amounts as needed. The value you enter must be a positive number and can't exceed the maximum adjustment amount for that invoice, and is exclusive of taxes. If the maximum adjustment amount is less than the original charge amount, this indicates that a partial adjustment was previously applied. In this case, the maximum adjustment amount represents the remaining balance. After you've made your adjustments, choose Next.

Step 4: Review and apply

Review the details of your billing adjustment to ensure that all the information is correct. Next, choose Apply billing adjustment. In the confirmation window, provide written confirmation by typing the total adjustment amount.

Important

Billing adjustments are irreversible after they have been processed. For unpaid invoices, adjustments are deducted from the total amount due. For paid invoices, adjustments are applied as either credit memos or cash refunds.

The buyer is notified by email and Amazon EventBridge event when the billing adjustment is processed.

Tracking cancellation requests

You can track all cancellation requests from the Cancellation requests tab on the Agreements page.

  1. Sign in to AWS Partner Central.

  2. Navigate to the Agreements page.

  3. Choose the Cancellation requests tab.

The cancellation requests table displays the following columns: Request ID, Request status, Agreement ID, Buyer ID, Request date, and Response date.

You can filter by status or agreement ID.

To view details of a specific request, select the request and choose View details. You can also choose Withdraw request to withdraw a pending request, or Copy link to copy the buyer approval link.

Cancellation request statuses

API status UI label Description
Pending approval Pending approval The request has been submitted and is waiting for the buyer to approve or deny. The buyer has 7 days to respond. If no response is received, the request is automatically approved.
Approved Approved The buyer approved the cancellation, or the request was automatically approved after 7 days. The agreement is canceled.
Rejected Denied The buyer denied the cancellation request. You can submit a new request if needed.
Canceled Withdrawn You withdrew the cancellation request before the buyer took action.
Validation failed Validation failed The request did not pass automated validation.

Tracking billing adjustments

You can track all billing adjustment requests from the Billing adjustments tab on the Agreements page.

  1. Sign in to AWS Partner Central.

  2. Navigate to the Agreements page.

  3. Choose the Billing adjustments tab.

The billing adjustments table displays the following columns: Adjustment ID, Invoice ID, Status, Agreement ID, Buyer ID, Submitted, Processed, and Creation date.

You can filter by agreement ID, creation date, or status.

Note

If you submitted billing adjustments for multiple invoices in a single request, each invoice appears as a separate row in the table. All rows from the same submission will have different billing adjustment request IDs.

Billing adjustment statuses

API status UI label Description
Pending In progress The adjustment has been submitted and is being processed.
Completed Adjusted The adjustment was processed successfully. The buyer receives a credit memo or cash refund.
Validation failed Failed Your billing adjustment request failed automated checks. You may need to submit a new request with corrected information.

Notifications

You receive automated notifications for cancellation and billing adjustment status updates through two channels:

Cancellation notifications

Event Recipients Email subject (seller)
Cancellation request submitted Seller, Buyer, Manufacturer (CPPO) "You submitted an agreement cancellation request"
Cancellation request approved (by buyer or auto-approved) Seller, Buyer, Manufacturer (CPPO) "Agreement cancellation request approved"
Cancellation request denied by buyer Seller, Buyer, Manufacturer (CPPO) "Agreement cancellation request denied"
Cancellation request withdrawn by seller Seller, Buyer, Manufacturer (CPPO) "Agreement cancellation request withdrawn"
Cancellation request failed validation Submitter only "Agreement cancellation request failed"

When a cancellation request is submitted, the seller's email also includes a response form URL that can be shared directly with the buyer to expedite approval.

Billing adjustment notifications

Event Recipients Email subject (seller)
Billing adjustment processed Seller, Buyer, Manufacturer (CPPO) "Billing adjustment processed"
Billing adjustment failed validation Submitter only "Billing adjustment request failed"
Note

Billing adjustments don't generate a "submitted" notification. You receive a single notification when the adjustment is completed or if it fails.

Note

If a billing adjustment fails instantly (for example, the refund amount exceeds the maximum refundable amount), the request is not created and no notification is sent. You see the error directly in the console or receive an error code through the API.

Important

For CPPO agreements, the ISV (manufacturer) receives notifications when the channel partner submits or completes cancellation and billing adjustment requests. However, the refund amount and message to buyer are not included in ISV notifications to protect channel partner margin information.

Using the AWS Marketplace APIs

In addition to the console experience, you can manage cancellations and billing adjustments programmatically using the AWS Marketplace APIs.

Cancellation API

The AWS Marketplace Self-Service Cancellation API enables you to manage agreement cancellation requests programmatically.

Endpoint: https://agreement-marketplace.us-east-1.amazonaws.com

Operation Description
SendAgreementCancellationRequest Initiate a new cancellation request for an agreement
AcceptAgreementCancellationRequest Accept a pending cancellation request (buyer action)
RejectAgreementCancellationRequest Reject a pending cancellation request with a reason (buyer action)
CancelAgreementCancellationRequest Withdraw a pending cancellation request (seller action)
GetAgreementCancellationRequest Retrieve details of a specific cancellation request
ListAgreementCancellationRequests List cancellation requests with optional filters. Supports pagination.

Billing Adjustments API

The AWS Marketplace Billing Adjustments API enables you to manage billing adjustments (refunds) programmatically.

Endpoint: https://agreement-marketplace.us-east-1.amazonaws.com

Operation Description
ListAgreementInvoiceLineItems Retrieve invoice line items for an agreement to identify invoices eligible for adjustment
BatchCreateBillingAdjustmentRequest Create billing adjustment requests for one or more invoices (up to 5 per request)
GetBillingAdjustmentRequest Retrieve details of a specific billing adjustment request
ListBillingAdjustmentRequests List billing adjustment requests with optional filters. Supports pagination.

Channel Partner Private Offers (CPPO)

For Channel Partner Private Offers (CPPO), the following rules apply:

  • Only the channel partner (CP), as the seller of record, can initiate cancellation and billing adjustment requests for CPPO agreements. The ISV can't initiate these requests.

  • The ISV (manufacturer) receives email and Amazon EventBridge notifications when the CP submits a cancellation or billing adjustment request.

  • ISV notifications include the selling authorization ID, Product ID, and Buyer AWS account ID, but don't include the refund amount or message to buyer to protect CP margin information.

  • The CP can view and track all active and historical cancellation and billing adjustment requests for CPPO agreements on the Agreements page and through the APIs.

Requesting a bulk refund

You can also process billing adjustments programmatically using the Billing Adjustments API (BatchCreateBillingAdjustmentRequest), regardless of the number of invoices. See Using the AWS Marketplace APIs.

The following steps explain how to create refund requests involving 20+ invoices or 20+ accounts using a support case. This process streamlines large-scale refund requests and ensures that you provide the necessary information.

To request a bulk refund

  1. Gather the following required information:

    • The seller's AWS account ID (12 digits)

    • A list of all buyer AWS account IDs (12 digits each). You can enter multiple buyers, or single buyers for multiple billing periods.

    • All product IDs

    • Offer IDs where applicable

    • All invoice IDs

    • The billing periods for each invoice

    • The AWS Marketplace Refund Ticket Reference ID

  2. Compile the required information into a CSV spreadsheet with the following columns:

    • Seller Account ID

    • Subscriber Account ID

    • Payer Account ID

    • Billing Period

    • Invoice ID

    • Targeted Amount

    • Product ID

  3. Sign in to the Support Center Console as the root user.

    Note

    You can't complete these steps unless you sign in as the root user.

  4. Create a support case to Account and billing and select AWS Marketplace.

  5. In the subject line, enter Request Bulk Refund.

  6. Under Additional Comments, enter the following:

    • Total number of accounts affected

    • Total number of invoices

    • Total refund amount

    • Business justification for the refund

    • AWS Marketplace Refund Ticket Reference ID

  7. Attach the CSV file and create the support case.

  8. The support case is routed to the next available agent for assistance.

Legacy refund request process

Important

The following legacy refund request process is being replaced by the new self-service workflows through the Agreements page. For cases not currently supported by the new experience, you can continue to use this process. This process will be deprecated in the future as support for additional cases is added to the self-service workflow. We recommend using the Agreements page or the AWS Marketplace APIs for all supported requests.

The legacy process for requesting refunds:

Step 1: Submit a refund and/or cancellation request

  1. Sign in to AWS Partner Central.

  2. Choose Marketplace refund support (or Support in the former AWS Marketplace Management Portal).

  3. Choose Request Refund.

  4. Enter the following details:

    • Subscriber's AWS account ID — The buyer's account ID used to subscribe. You can find this in the offer detail or on the Billed Revenue Dashboard. This must be the subscriber account ID.

    • Seller's AWS account ID — Your AWS account ID used to create the offer.

    • Product ID — You can find this in the offer detail or on the Billed Revenue Dashboard.

    • Billing period — You can find this on the Billed Revenue Dashboard. For monthly usage invoices, this is the calendar month previous to the invoice date.

    • Refund amount — Indicate full or partial refund.

  5. In the Additional comments (optional) field:

    • For contract cancellation, include: "Please cancel agreement agreement-id".

    • For refunds (whether the invoice has been paid or not), include: "This refund targets invoice ID invoice-id dated invoice-date".

    • If you need both cancellation and refund, include both statements. Cancellation of a contract does not automatically cancel any issued invoices — you must explicitly request refund of each invoice that needs to be adjusted.

  6. Submit the form and save the reference ID generated on submission for further communication with AWS.

Step 2: (Optional) Create a support ticket to expedite the request

If a refund and/or cancellation needs to be expedited, you can create a support case directly with the AWS Customer Service team:

  1. Sign in to the Support Center Console.

  2. Create a new case with the following details:

    • Type: Account and Billing

    • Service: Marketplace

    • Category: Marketplace Seller Request

    • Severity: General question

    • Subject: "Please expedite refund and/or cancellation request"

    • Description: "Please expedite the refund and/or cancellation request related to reference ID: reference-id" (the reference ID from Step 1)

For information about the new self-service process, see Requesting an agreement cancellation and Requesting a billing adjustment (refund).