Academia Reviews 832

As many of you have reported, academia.edu's charges are unethical and predatory. I emailed them threatening with legal action and they refunded the 389$ that they sneakily had charged to my account. If you email them for a refund, ask them where is it public their pricing (it is impossible to find).

This website have a untrusteable sistem of payments and they take of your credit card long-term subscription without asking the client's, is like a online scam, I'm still waiting for the refund of my money.

This company is predatory. They increased their subscription rate by stealth by about three hundred percent. If there was an option to give zero or negative stars I would. Avoid academia Premium

In 2023 I subscribed just to check it out, and even that came to me as a 'push' notice as I would not have normally considered or looked for the subscription. The cost was 45.50 USD.

I have not really seen any benefit of staying a member and have not used the service at all.

Today, two years later, I got charged 411.25 USD -- without any prior question or notification. I only now realized that they charged me 136.35 USD last year, which somehow went unnoticed on my behalf, unfortunately.

I have written a complaint to them but have not heard back.

I received an email informing me of changes to the Premium service on 3/25, with the new subscription price ($299) buried under a long list of services. I immediately went to cancel autorenewal, and went through to a page prompting my reasons for cancelling. I selected, but apparently there were two additional prompt pages to fully cancel that I did not see. I never received an email reminder of the payment, nor that it had been paid. I found it on my bank statement. I have never changed my email preferences on their website and found that the only option opted out of was Premium payment emails - something I certainly never opted out of through my own volition. The price increase is almost 2x what it was the year before, not accounting for the fact that I enrolled at a discounted price. Absolutely vile lack of transparency and intentional exploitation of their client base.

My credit card had a charge of $379 for this service. I was surprised because a) I thought I had canceled auto-renewal, and b) because I only paid $99 for the service in 2024. I received *no* notice of the increase, and I was not warned that the charge was coming.

I reached out to Academia.edu and they sent me a canned response telling me I was not entitled to a refund because I was not eligible.

I notice that most of these reviews are about the same issue, going back to at least 2024. A decent business would pay attention and amend their predatory billing practices.

Several people have complained about this to the Better Business Bureau. Apparently if you do that, Academia tends to grant a "one time exception" to their rigid refund policy. Thanks to all the folks who've reached out to the BBB.

Despite not using my account since last year, Academia.edu charged me €445 without any prior notice or my explicit consent. This charge was made without informing me or seeking my authorization, which is totally unacceptable.

I checked their refund policy, and they don't offer refunds for renewal payments. However, under California consumer protection laws (Cal. Civ. Code § 1750 et seq.), businesses must provide clear and conspicuous notice before auto-renewing a subscription. Since I didn't receive such notice, this charge might be in violation of these laws.

I am therefore formally requesting a full refund of this unauthorized charge. If my request is not met, I will escalate this issue by filing formal complaints with the California Attorney General’s Office, the Better Business Bureau (BBB), and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

Overall, my experience with Academia.edu has been highly frustrating and disappointing. I would caution others to be wary of their subscription practices and lack of transparency.

BEWARE After 9 years Academia subscription I am now fighting to get a refund. The maximum sub anually has been £82. This year it's £202.80. That's two and a half times as much. No warning given, no reminder email. It's just taken from the bank account.
Nor is the service much good in recent years. A lot of spammy emails, the search system is weak. I can't say I have had any solid benefits from membership. I kept it going because it sent me emails on who was reading my work which I thought would be a useful PR list now I'm publishing my PhD. But they are not worth it. Not with this greedy cheating.

If I could give less than 1-star for this review I would. Academia.edu have sneakily jacked their premium subscription fees by an obscene amount with less than a week's notice being given. The notification that this was happening was buried amongst a deluge of emails that were sent from the same address that day in what appears to be a deliberate attempt to make it difficult to catch. The cancellation process is nightmarish with no confirmation emails being sent - so there is no way of knowing whether you've successfully unsubscribed or if you are going to be charged through the nose the next day. On top of this, most of the premium features everyone signed up for are no longer offered, and the site now functions as little more than a spam mill. Predatory (possibly illegal), obscene, and obfuscating. Avoid at all costs

On March 18th, 2025, I found my account flagged as “suspicious” and couldn’t log in — but Academia.edu still charged me for a membership renewal. How can I be locked out and still billed?

I contacted support immediately, but I’m still waiting, with no access and no clear answer. I feel ignored and extremely disappointed.

Academia.edu, please reach out and resolve this. I just want what I paid for — or a refund if access isn't possible. This experience has been deeply frustrating.

My Experience with Academia.edu: Unintentional Premium Subscription and Lack of Transparency

Recently, I discovered a charge of €117 on my account for a premium subscription to Academia.edu, which I did not knowingly authorize. This unexpected deduction has been both surprising and frustrating.

Unclear Subscription Practices

I have maintained a free account on Academia.edu and have always been cautious not to engage with premium offers. Despite this, I was enrolled in a premium subscription without my explicit consent. This incident raises concerns about the platform’s subscription practices and the clarity of their terms.

Shared User Experiences

Upon investigating, I found that numerous users have reported similar experiences. For instance, a user shared that they were charged €216 without prior notice and faced difficulties obtaining a refund.

Conclusion
My experience with Academia.edu has been disappointing. I advise users to monitor their account activities closely and exercise caution to avoid unexpected charges.

Very hard to unsubcribe

Charge very expensive so suddenly without notice.

Scam website. Please avoid it at all costs!!

I signed up for a trial 1 year ago and was pretty sure I canceled it, but I was still charged $99 one week later. Again, I'm pretty sure I've canceled the sub after that.

After one year, they charged me again with $499 WITHOUT WARNING!! I'm pretty sure this is very very unethical.

I will proceed with the following legal actions (Malaysia):
1. Lodge report to my Bank
2. Report to National Scam Response Centre (NSRC)
3. Lodge a police report
4. Report to Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to have this website blocked for good.

Auto renewal of product with huge price increase without notice! I did not turn on auto renew and they billed my Amex over £202 without giving me notice or option to cancel. Process to unsubscribe is deliberately difficult and confusing. Everyone should cancel their subscriptions and contact credit card companies for a refund if Academia.edu to not provide one.

Another victim of the premium subscription scam here.

Academia.edu have helped themselves to £202.80 from me via Apple Pay. They seem delighted that this can't be refunded, proudly telling me that "this payment falls outside our refund policy that we also describe in our terms of use in our 'subscriptions' subsection", despite me not wanting a premium subscription and never using the site in a way that warrants that level of expenditure. I missed the renewal reminder by 48 hours because, like many colleagues, I filter the relentless "did you write this paper?" emails from Academia to a separate folder.

£202.80 is a massive 150% increase in the subscription cost. I can't afford to lose that amount of money. Yet Academia seems fine with that, leaving me feeling like a victim of fraud.

To add insult to injury, they managed to take my money via Apple Pay even though the only payment details they have on record for my account is a debit card that's expired. But apparently, they can get away with it and there's nothing I can do about it! Such a shrewd business model. Well done, Richard.

As a matter of ethical integrity, users should cancel their subscriptions with immediate effect. It is a completely amoral platform all round, and association with this grubby little venture can only damage an academics reputation.

Academia should also bear in mind its user base isn’t vulnerable pensioners who don’t use the internet much, but researchers, investigative journalists, ethical hackers, lawyers, etc. who will bite back.

This company literally steal your money. Subscription auto-renew was applied without warning and the fee went up from 60 euros to more than 400 euros. They refuse to give refunds. I can’t believe it’s legal.

I was shocked to discover that Academia.edu had charged me a significant amount for a Premium subscription I had no recollection of signing up for. There were no clear reminders or warnings before the charge, and when I contacted customer service, they refused to issue a refund.

Little value in the first place, followed by over doubling the price with next to no warning. Do not use this service.

A yearly subscription got taken from my account with no warning and after sending a message to "Premium" support asking to allow me to pay for a monthly subscription, I was left for days waiting for a reply. I had thought about a monthly subscription but I have decided to cancel. I lodged a dispute with PayPal and they returned my money. I got a message from support the day after I was told by PayPal I was getting a refund. Shoddy service and no contact details, they only reach out when they want your money. Deliberately confusing to switch off and cancel. Just my experience with them.