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What happens if I lapse from a paid account to a Basic account?

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

Unsure which plan type you have? Check “Membership” in the upper left corner of your account settings.

If you choose not to renew your membership on Vimeo and your membership (monthly or yearly subscription) expires, your account will downgrade to a Basic Membership upon expiration. Read on to learn what will change in your account when you downgrade to Basic.

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? 

When added to a team on your account, team members are provided their own free Vimeo account.

If your account lapses to Basic, team members will not have access to the team account. However, they will retain their own free personal accounts. 

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 your paid membership expires, you will keep any videos you uploaded while you were a Basic member, but you may lose some of the videos uploaded during your subscription.
  • Though there is a 5GB total storage cap on Basic accounts, if you downgrade from a paid membership plan to Basic, you will still get to keep 10GB of the video you uploaded most recently during your membership.
  • Any storage above the 10GB cap will be moved to our storage archive for up to one year, starting with the earliest videos you uploaded to Vimeo as a paid subscriber. You'll regain access to those videos if you renew your paid membership during that time.
    • Note that if you re-purchase a membership after you've lapsed, it may take some time (up to an hour) for your videos to be moved from our archive back into your account.

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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