A charge labeled “IC Instacart” on your bank statement is the membership fee for Instacart+, the company’s paid delivery subscription. It bills at either $9.99 per month or $99 per year, and the most common reason it appears out of nowhere is that a 14-day free trial rolled over into a paid plan. Forgotten signups, credit card promotions that expired, and family members using a shared account are the other usual suspects.
What the Charge Is
Instacart+ is a paid membership that removes delivery fees on grocery and retail orders of $10 or more, Costco orders of $35 or more, and eligible restaurant orders of $25 or more.1Instacart. Instacart+ Members also pay a reduced service fee on every order.2Instacart. Instacart Fees and Taxes There are two prices: $9.99 billed monthly, or $99 billed once a year. The annual plan works out to about $21 less than 12 monthly charges, but it hits your statement as one lump sum, which is why it surprises people.
The line item can read several different ways depending on how your bank formats merchant names. Common versions include “INSTACART EXPRESS,” “IC*INSTACART,” and simply “INSTACART.” If the amount is close to $9.99 or $99 (with any applicable sales tax), and anyone in your household has an Instacart account, that’s almost certainly what you’re looking at.
Why It Showed Up
Most unexpected Instacart+ charges trace back to a free trial. Instacart offers a 14-day trial, and if you don’t cancel before it ends, the card you entered at signup is automatically billed for whichever plan you picked. This kind of automatic renewal is legal under federal law as long as the terms were disclosed and you consented before entering payment details.3Congress.gov. Public Law 111-345 – Restore Online Shoppers Confidence Act In practice, plenty of people click through those disclosures without registering them.
A few other possibilities to rule out:
- A subscription you signed up for months ago and forgot.
- A promotional membership tied to a credit card (Chase co-brands and Mastercard both run offers) that converted to a paid plan when the free months ended.
- A family member who added the membership to a shared Instacart account, with billing tied to your card.
- A duplicate Instacart account under a different email, which can result in two memberships running at once.
How to Confirm the Membership Is Yours
Before you cancel or ask for a refund, verify the membership exists on your account. Open the Instacart app or website, tap the menu (three horizontal lines on the website, the account icon in the app), and select “Your Instacart+ Membership.”4Instacart. Manage Your Instacart+ Membership That page shows whether your membership is active, your next billing date, and the payment method on file.
If you don’t see an active membership but the charge is still hitting your card, the billing may be linked to a different Instacart account. Try any other email addresses you’ve used. You can also call Instacart support at 1-888-246-7822 and have them look up the charge using the last four digits of the card.5Instacart. Instacart Help Center – Get Help
How to Cancel Instacart+
Cancellation takes a couple of minutes. In the app or on the website, go to “Your Instacart+ Membership” through the menu, then choose “Cancel membership.”4Instacart. Manage Your Instacart+ Membership Instacart will show a few screens listing benefits you’ll lose. Click through until you reach a confirmation.
You should receive a confirmation email once the cancellation is complete. Check spam if you don’t see it, and save the email as proof in case another charge appears later. Your Instacart+ benefits stay active through the end of the billing period you already paid for, and no new charge posts after that.
Prefer not to deal with the app? You can cancel by phone at 1-888-246-7822.1Instacart. Instacart+
Whether You Can Get a Refund
Refund eligibility is narrower than most people expect, and it depends on which plan you’re on.
- Annual plan ($99): A full refund is available only if you cancel within the first 5 calendar days of the paid membership and haven’t placed any orders using Instacart+ benefits during that window. After 5 days, or after even a single order using the benefits, Instacart won’t refund the fee.4Instacart. Manage Your Instacart+ Membership
- Monthly plan ($9.99): Monthly memberships aren’t prorated. Cancel mid-cycle and you keep the benefits until the month ends, but no money comes back.
The 5-day window is easy to blow past when the charge came from a trial you didn’t notice. If you’re still inside it, contact support through the Help Center on the app or website, select the Instacart+ category, and request a refund for an unused membership.5Instacart. Instacart Help Center – Get Help Approved refunds are processed on Instacart’s end right away, though your bank may take a few days to post the credit.
Disputing the Charge With Your Card Issuer
If Instacart denies the refund, or if you believe the charge was genuinely unauthorized, you can dispute it directly with your credit card company. The Fair Credit Billing Act gives you 60 days from the date the charge appears on your statement to file a written dispute.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 15 – Section 1666 Once the issuer receives your dispute, it must acknowledge it within 30 days and finish the investigation within two billing cycles (no more than 90 days). During that time, the issuer can’t try to collect the disputed amount, charge interest on it, or report it as delinquent.
This protection applies to credit cards, not debit cards. If the charge hit a debit card, your options depend on your bank’s own policies rather than federal billing law.
One caution: filing a bank chargeback against Instacart will very likely get your Instacart account suspended or restricted. If you use the service, work through Instacart’s refund process first and treat a chargeback as a last resort.
If You’d Rather Keep the Membership at a Lower Price
Before canceling, check whether you qualify for a discount that makes the fee easier to swallow.
If you’ve placed an Instacart order using an EBT SNAP card within the past 6 months, you can get Instacart+ at $4.99 per month for one year, billed to a non-EBT payment method on file.7Instacart. EBT SNAP and Instacart+ Promotion After that promotional year, the membership renews at the standard $9.99 per month.
Several Chase co-branded cards include 3 free months of Instacart+ plus a $10 monthly Instacart credit; after the free months, the plan auto-renews at $99 per year unless you cancel.8Instacart. Get $0 Delivery Fees With Instacart+ and a $10 Monthly Credit Mastercard has a comparable offer: 3 free months of Instacart+ and a $10 credit on your second qualifying order of $10 or more each month.9Instacart. Mastercard Offer Both offers require the eligible card to be added directly to your Instacart account; digital wallets like Apple Pay don’t qualify. If you activated one of these promotions months ago and forgot, the post-promo renewal is very likely what you’re seeing on your statement now.
One membership can also cover up to 4 people through the family accounts feature. The owner adds up to 3 others, and everyone on the family account gets the delivery fee savings as long as one person’s membership is active.10Instacart. Family Accounts Before you cancel, it’s worth asking your household whether anyone else is using the benefits, both to figure out who signed up and to avoid cutting off someone else’s delivery in the middle of an order.