> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.opentherapy.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Cancellation policy

> Choose from four cancellation presets, and understand exactly what each one charges and when.

Your cancellation policy belongs to your practice. Open Therapy enforces the one you choose rather than imposing one.

Set it under **Availability** in your workspace.

## The four presets

| Policy       | Free cancellation | Inside the window | No-show |
| ------------ | ----------------- | ----------------- | ------- |
| **Flexible** | 12 hours          | No fee            | 50%     |
| **Standard** | 24 hours          | 50%               | 100%    |
| **Firm**     | 48 hours          | 50%               | 100%    |
| **Strict**   | 48 hours          | 100%              | 100%    |

What each is for:

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Flexible — half a day's notice and no fee" icon="lock-open">
    Suits short-notice and first-time bookings. Worth considering for initial consultations
    specifically: someone who's never met you is the most likely to get cold feet, and a fee at that
    moment costs you the client rather than the hour.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Standard — a day's notice, then half the fee" icon="calendar">
    What most therapists here use, and the default.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Firm — two days' notice, then half the fee" icon="calendar-clock">
    For a diary that's hard to refill.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Strict — two days' notice, then the full fee" icon="lock">
    The strictest we'll enforce.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

<Tip>
  The four are spread so that two differ only in the fee and two only in the window. That lets you
  move one dimension at a time — if 24 hours isn't enough notice, try Firm before reaching for Strict.
</Tip>

## Choose one before you take bookings

<Warning>
  A session booked before you've chosen a policy carries **no fee for anything** — no late fee and no
  no-show fee. A fee nobody chose is not one we'll collect on your behalf.
</Warning>

Changing your policy applies to new bookings. A session already booked keeps the terms it was booked under, which is what makes them enforceable.

## Two rules that aren't yours

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="You never charge for your own cancellation" icon="shield-check">
    If you cancel, the client is refunded in full regardless of notice. Not a setting, and deliberately
    not one.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Cancelling after the start time is a no-show" icon="clock">
    A client who cancels once the session was due to begin pays the no-show rate, not the late rate.
    Otherwise the no-show fee is avoidable by anyone who remembers to press the button on their way
    past.
  </Card>
</Columns>

## What the client sees

The policy is generated from the terms actually in force, so the wording on your profile, at checkout, in the confirmation email and in the cancellation dialog is the policy being enforced rather than a description of it.

On **Standard**, a client reads:

|                    |                                                                |
| ------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------- |
| More than 24 hours | Cancel or reschedule yourself, no fee, no conversation needed. |
| Inside 24 hours    | 50% of the session fee, charged to the card on file.           |
| Did not attend     | Full fee. Rebates can't be claimed on a missed session.        |

And in one line on your profile: *"Free cancellation up to 24 hours before. Inside that, 50% of the fee."*

Before confirming, the client sees the exact amount on the confirm button — for example, **Cancel and pay \$105.00** — so the charge can't be dismissed by reflex.

## What you receive

A cancellation fee settles like a session fee: the platform fee, card processing and GST come off it, and the rest is yours. Card processing is clamped so a refund can never put you in debt — you net zero rather than owing us the difference.

See [Fees](/fees) and [Refunds and disputes](/therapists/refunds-and-disputes).

## Worked example

A \$210 session on **Standard**:

| Client cancels | You're paid         | Client refunded |
| -------------- | ------------------- | --------------- |
| 3 days before  | \$0.00              | \$210.00        |
| 6 hours before | \$105.00, less fees | \$105.00        |
| Doesn't attend | \$210.00, less fees | \$0.00          |
| You cancel     | \$0.00              | \$210.00        |