Academia Reviews 812

I subscribed to Academia.edu for a $1 trial, and a year later I was charged $99 without any warning or reminder.
What’s worse, I had already canceled my subscription, yet it somehow renewed anyway. When I reached out, they refused to issue a refund. The whole flow feels misleading and poorly designed, making it far too easy to get charged unintentionally.
The “.edu” branding is also confusing and gives a false sense of legitimacy. Overall, this experience feels deceptive and very frustrating.
Be extremely careful — what looks like a cheap trial can quietly turn into a $99 charge with no heads-up.

I was charged for a subscription renewal that I did not want. I had already canceled my subscription, but somehow it renewed anyways. Then they wouldn't refund me, I assume because they have a nice embezzlement scheme going with this type of UI snafu. Very annoying. Also EDU is misleading, bad marketing.

Jacked up annual subscription costs by almost 100% in one year. I didn’t see the email. Fortunately my credit card tagged the renewal as suspicious and declined it. Goodbye forever, Academia, for being so greedy and avaricious. Look that up in your scholarly articles.

Friday, 04/10/2026 - Allegedly from 2/01 until (today) the writing of this review), I went and removed a pre-paper I wrote on the Traditional Mount Sinai, that had been on Academia.edy for several years. I removed it because I had a book coming out and was ready to start promoting it around 2/10/2026. However, it kept popping back up for people kept reading it up to even today. I figure this cost me at least allegedly a good faith Estimate of $10,000.00 in book sales.

Academia.edu used to be a good service. It's no longer affordable for most people, certainly not for retired people, and many people are complaining about the grotesque price increase. It was 150%, in my case, from $200 to $499, aka $500, via a notification I never saw. I learned about the price increase when I found the shocking charge on my credit card. They refused to give a refund, and I later learned that that is illegal, according to Claude AI, under California Law AB 2863 (effective July 1, 2025), California Bus. & Prof. Code 17602 and 17603.

I'm going to file complaints with the California Attorney General, the Federal Trade Commission, the Better Business Bureau, and then sue Academia.edu. Too bad. I was looking forward to continuing to patronize Academia.edu in my retirement. What a shame when a company behaves this way!

Unethical practices- charged me with for a year's subscription without my approval. I complained directly to them via email and they attempted to shame me with "all the good work we are doing"

Shame on you!!!

This is a very poor service. The automatic renewal will hit you without asking if you want to renew it. Scam.

Why aren't there negative numbers?
Academia has always been just shy of useless. Instead of suggesting new topics, I would get recommendations for the same article over and over and OVER again.
I got the trial premium membership with the intention of cancelling after I got what I needed. That's what I did. I have witnesses. So imagine my surprise when I was charged $159 for the year.
Email subject: NO
Body (emended) I cancelled this a month ago. Give me my money back.
Them: Nope, not refundable but you're helping out a GREAT organization!
Me: Give me my money back. I'm an artist, I don't have that kind of cash just lying around.
Them: You snooze you lose. But we'll cancel your autopay for next year...
Me: You know, I didn't get an email when I cancelled the first time, and I didn't get one when you cancelled the autopay. Hmmmm.
I go to Paypal and repeat this to them.
Suddenly my money reappeared as if by magic.
I will never, ever use that site again.

UPDATE: They claimed that because I cancelled so close to the registration date (It was a WEEK!), the cancellation didn't show up, and they had refunded my money because that change had only caught up with them now (or some such). Utter crap.

I 1st subscribed to Academia.edu in 2019, it cost £69/year. It gives you access to a large library of academic papers which is somewhat useful but the downside is they are not new papers and the newer ones are on obscure subjects and low rated authors. The main problem is massive price rises and they don't inform you first. Last year the subscription was £162 this year £334 and they refused to refund when I wanted to cancel the subs.

The level of coercion, the pitfalls and the greed of Academia.edu have reached such proportions that one should cease working with and submitting to this platform. It is also disgusting trying to consult Academia.edu and see how they exploit academics.

just took £80 out of my daughter in laws
account NOT AUTHORISED

Agree with the reviews on here. They just charged me £250 for an auto-renewal I did not even authorise or know of. They did not send an email around the time saying they were about to charge. Only saw it on my cc statement. Never give your credit card details to this company.

Predatory Billing Practices and Unfair Refund Denials - Avoid at All Costs!

​I am writing this to warn other researchers and students about the deceptive billing practices of Academia.edu.
​On January 15 , I used a trial to download 6 specific research papers. Since then, I have not used any Premium features and had no intention of continuing the service. However, on February 22, 2026, I was suddenly charged 145,000 KRW for a "first-year annual subscription" without any prior notification or invoice.
​My account settings clearly had the "payments for Academia Premium" notifications disabled, yet they proceeded with the charge without my consent. This is a clear violation of transparent billing practices.
​What is even more frustrating is their customer support. Despite their own policy stating that "first-year subscription payments are refundable within 30일," they repeatedly send me the same "copy-and-pasted" template response claiming renewals are non-refundable. They are not even reading my emails or addressing the fact that this is my FIRST year, not a renewal.
​I have already requested a refund on the same day the charge occurred, but they continue to ignore my legitimate rights as a consumer.
​If you value your money and privacy, DO NOT link your payment information to this site. I am still demanding a full refund immediately.

Billing to my credit card without consent - could only be resolved by AmEx.

They ripped us off for almost twice the annual fee that they initially stated. Our credit card company won’t cancel the charges even though we were never informed of the increased rate.
On top of that, the site is not even useful, so it’s doubly a rip-off.

Where is the zero option.
Scam beware.

Academia enrolled and charged me for the Academia Premium. I did not want that and wanted to end my account with them and I am not an annual charge plan. I have filled about 10 different companies with them over the past 24 hours. I believe that customer service is an Ai system. I informed my bank not to accept the charge but it appears that Academia has been able to go around and post a charge. I will report Academia to the Federal Trade Commission if this matter can not be cleared up. What they are engaging is fraud, pure and simple.

Suddenly I was charged $159. I never intended to subscribe for a year, and they have no way to cancel it. I feel totally ripped off.

If they were legit they would refund money in such situations, not smugly sit there with my money sneering at me. I'm 73 and this money I need for food, etc.

I recommend staying clear of this BS scam site.

Wish I could give this company a 0. I don’t recall ever signing up for a premium subscription. I first signed up for a free acct in 2014 under my university email, and set up forwarding to a new email, which is linked to my PayPal. This company withdrew 5$ from my acct on Jan 1, 2024, for “signing up for a premium account” (?), then $179 dollars from my account on Jan 31, 2024, then $299 on Jan 1, 2025, and now a whopping $499 on Jan 1, 2026. I’ve never used their premium services. The sent me an email titled “update on academia premium” that plainly states that I could request a refund within 14 days of the auto renewal, but they refused to send back the $499. I work for a law firm and am exploring a potential suit against this company.

After the trial subscription, they charge me 80$. I accepted, and they told me there wouldn't be any additional charges. But in january the charged me other 80$ dollars, saying it was the second payment for my whole year, when in a previous message, they told me they cancelled the subscription. Shitty page. It's definitely not worth it. I'm already seeing if taking legal actions