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FAQ: Lapsing from a paid account to a Basic account

Are you lapsing from Starter, Standard, or Advanced? Read this instead.

If you choose not to renew your Plus, Pro, Business, or Premium subscription on Vimeo and it expires, your account will downgrade to a Basic plan. This article answers the most common questions about lapsing to the Basic plan on Vimeo.

In this article:

What features do I lose when I lapse to Basic?

If your paid membership lapses to Basic, you will lose access to certain features, depending on the membership type:

  • Vimeo Premium accounts that lapse will lose access to all livestreaming features, Google Analytics, team collaboration, lead generation, priority conversion, VIP and chat support, advanced analytics, custom embed settings, automatic closed captions, domain-level privacy, Portfolios, Review Pages, SEO support for Showcases, and Vimeo On Demand.
  • Vimeo Business accounts that lapse will lose access to Google Analytics, team collaboration, lead generation, priority conversion, VIP support, advanced analytics, custom embed settings, automatic closed captions, domain-level privacy, Portfolios, Review Pages, SEO support for Showcases, and Vimeo On Demand.
  • Vimeo Pro accounts that lapse will lose access to priority conversion, VIP support, advanced analytics, custom embed settings, automatic closed captions, domain-level privacy, Portfolios, Review Pages, and Vimeo On Demand.
  • Vimeo Plus accounts that lapse to Basic will lose access to priority conversion, priority support, advanced analytics, custom embed settings, automatic closed captions, domain-level privacy, and the ability to set a password for videos.

What happens to team members on my account if I lapse to Basic?

If your account lapses to Basic, team members will no longer have access to the team account. However, they will retain their own free personal accounts that were created when they accepted the team invitation.

If you move back to a paid plan with multiple seats for team members, your team will regain access to the team account with data and access grants preserved.

How is video storage handled when my account lapses to Basic?

If you downgrade from a paid plan to Basic, your storage allowance will reflect the entitlements of your new plan. Any stored videos that exceed your Basic plan's storage limit will be locked and unavailable, unless you upgrade to a plan with the necessary storage allowance.

You won't be able to upload new videos until your usage is within your plan's storage limit. To do this, you can either delete videos from your library to free up storage, or upgrade your plan to increase your storage limit.

You can see your storage usage in your account settings, or in the lower left corner of your library.

What is my weekly upload limit when my account lapses?

  • After your account lapses, you will have a weekly upload limit of 500MB up to 5GB total account storage.
  • If your total video storage exceeds 5GB, you will lose the ability to upload new content upon lapsing.
  • You can free up storage on your existing account by deleting some of your older videos, rough cuts, or backups until you are under the 5GB cap.

What happens to my stored source files when my account lapses?

  • Because storing source files is costly, we only offer that service to paying members. If your paid membership lapses to Basic, any source files stored on Vimeo will be deleted after 60 days and cannot be recovered.
  • The HD and SD versions of your videos will remain available.

How are privacy and embed settings impacted when my account lapses?

  • Videos set to the Unlisted and Hide from Vimeo privacy settings will be switched to Private instead.
  • If your account is in Private Mode and you lapse, all your videos will be set to Private.
  • Videos with a password will keep the password until you change your settings, but passwords cannot be added to videos once you're on a Basic account.
  • Any videos with player customizations will revert to the default player appearance options for Basic accounts.
  • If you have domain-level privacy set on your video, your embed privacy setting will be changed to "Nowhere." You must change the setting to "Anywhere" to keep it embedded.
  • Your advanced settings will automatically be restored if you renew your paid membership. Any videos you haven't modified since lapsing will return to how they were before your account lapsed to Basic.

What happens to my collections when my account lapses?

  • You will keep and be able to edit the groups, channels, and showcases you created as a paid member, but you will not be able to create new ones beyond the Basic limits.

Do I lose access to developer tools and the API if my account lapses?

  • Access to the Vimeo API, your account's API apps, and authentication tokens will remain valid even if your membership status lapses or expires.
  • That said, you will no longer be able to use the API to access specific account features, such as retrieving direct file links or setting domain-level embed privacy.

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