A charge labeled “DESCRIPT” on your bank statement is a subscription payment to Descript, Inc., a San Francisco audio and video editing software company. In almost every case, the descript charge on your bank statement is an auto-renewal of a monthly or annual plan, a per-seat or per-drive fee tied to an account you may have forgotten about, or a trial that converted to a paid subscription.
Matching the Amount to a Plan
Descript bills exclusively in U.S. dollars, so if you’re outside the United States, your bank’s exchange rate will make the statement figure slightly different from the sticker price.1Descript Help Center. Manage and Update Your Payment Method The current plans are:2Descript. Pricing
- Hobbyist: $24/month, or $192/year ($16/month billed annually).
- Creator: $35/month, or $288/year ($24/month billed annually).
- Business: $65/month, or $600/year ($50/month billed annually).
- Enterprise: custom pricing.
Smaller one-off amounts between $25 and $200 usually mean a “top-up” purchase for extra media minutes or AI credits on the Creator or Business plan.3Descript Help Center. Top Ups: Buy Additional Media Minutes and AI Credits A pending charge of $0 or $1 that disappears within a few days is a Stripe authorization hold to verify your card, not an actual charge.1Descript Help Center. Manage and Update Your Payment Method
Why the Charge Showed Up Unexpectedly
Descript subscriptions renew automatically, monthly or annually, until you actively downgrade to the Free plan.4Descript Help Center. Why Has My Account Been Charged A few structural quirks explain most “I didn’t sign up for this” charges.
Annual renewals. If you signed up for an annual plan a year ago, the renewal hits as a lump sum. Complaints filed with the Better Business Bureau describe consumers receiving no advance email warning before the renewal cleared.5Better Business Bureau. Descript, Inc. Complaints
Multiple drives or accounts. Every Descript “drive,” or workspace, has its own separate subscription. If you own two drives, you’ll see two charges even under one account.6Descript Help Center. How Billing Works in Descript Signing up a second time with a different email — sometimes just a typo on the original address — creates a whole separate paid subscription.4Descript Help Center. Why Has My Account Been Charged
Trial conversion. Free trials convert to paid subscriptions when the trial period ends. Some BBB complainants said the conversion happened without a clear warning.5Better Business Bureau. Descript, Inc. Complaints
Cancellation that didn’t take. Several consumers reported continued monthly billing after they believed they had canceled. If you own more than one drive, canceling one does not cancel the others.7Descript Help Center. Downgrade or Cancel a Subscription
Added seats. Adding a team member or an extra email to a drive triggers a per-seat charge. One BBB complainant reported an unexpected $291.44 charge after adding a single email address.5Better Business Bureau. Descript, Inc. Complaints
Mid-cycle upgrade proration. If you upgraded plans partway through a billing cycle, Descript charges the prorated difference immediately.6Descript Help Center. How Billing Works in Descript
How to Stop Future Charges
Descript doesn’t have a “cancel” button in the traditional sense. You stop billing by downgrading the subscription to the Free plan inside the app or at web.descript.com:7Descript Help Center. Downgrade or Cancel a Subscription
- Open App Settings (Command/Control + comma).
- Select the correct Drive from the sidebar.
- Go to the Plan tab and click Change plan.
- Choose Downgrade to Free and confirm.
Your paid access continues through the end of the billing cycle you already paid for, and your projects stay intact. Repeat the process for every drive you own. Check your inbox for any other email addresses that might have been used to create a second account.
If you only want a temporary break, monthly subscribers can pause billing for one to three months. Access to the drive is suspended during the pause, and the subscription resumes automatically when the pause ends. Annual and legacy plans cannot be paused.8Descript Help Center. Pause Your Descript Subscription
How to Get a Refund
Descript’s help center says refunds are available if you cancel and request one within a set window, though the exact timeframe isn’t published on the pages reviewed.9Descript Help Center. Billing Consumers filing BBB complaints have described that window as short — 48 hours or seven days — and have reported refund denials for requests made outside it, including cases where the customer said no renewal notice was received.5Better Business Bureau. Descript, Inc. Complaints Top-up purchases for extra minutes or AI credits are explicitly non-refundable.3Descript Help Center. Top Ups: Buy Additional Media Minutes and AI Credits
To request one, contact Descript at mail@descript.com. As of the most recent BBB data, the company holds an F rating, with nine total complaints filed and eight of them unanswered by the company.10Better Business Bureau. Descript, Inc. BBB Profile Complainants describe interactions limited to AI chatbots and automated responses.
If Descript declines, you can file a chargeback with your credit card issuer or bank. Federal consumer protection guidance confirms that cardholders can dispute charges they believe are unauthorized or that a company keeps billing after a cancellation request.11Federal Trade Commission. Getting In and Out of Free Trials, Auto-Renewals, and Negative Option Subscriptions
One boundary to know: Descript’s terms of service include a binding arbitration clause and a class-action waiver. You must first try to resolve the dispute by writing to mail@descript.com or sending certified mail to 375 Alabama Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, CA 94110. If the matter isn’t resolved within 30 days, you can proceed to arbitration through the American Arbitration Association. Claims under $10,000 can be resolved without an in-person hearing, and any dispute must be filed within one year of the claim arising or it’s permanently barred.12Descript. Terms of Service
Consumer Protection Laws That May Apply
The FTC finalized its “click-to-cancel” rule in October 2024, requiring sellers to make canceling a subscription at least as easy as signing up, to disclose material terms before collecting billing information, and to obtain express, informed consent before charging. The rule’s core cancellation and consent provisions took effect in mid-2025 and remain subject to legal challenges in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.13Federal Trade Commission. FTC Announces Final Click-to-Cancel Rule
California’s Automatic Renewal Law, amended in 2024 with additional provisions effective July 1, 2025, applies to Descript because the company is headquartered in California. It requires businesses to obtain express affirmative consent to auto-renewal terms, send annual reminders that include the charge amount and cancellation instructions, and provide 15 to 45 days’ notice before renewing a subscription lasting one year or more. It also requires 7 to 30 days’ notice before a fee increase and prohibits obstacles to online cancellation for consumers who enrolled online.14California Office of the Attorney General. Consumer Alert: California’s Automatic Renewal Law
If you believe Descript charged you without proper disclosure or consent, you can report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, to the California Attorney General’s office, or to your own state attorney general.