How to Cancel Equinox Membership (2026)

Equinox rewrote this process after New York's Attorney General took action over how hard it had been. The channels below are the ones Equinox itself now publishes.

1. Find the notice period in your membership agreement. Equinox says notice periods vary by state and that some states have additional cancellation methods, so this is the one number nobody can give you generically. If you cannot find your agreement, ask [email protected] for a copy.
2. Pick a channel that leaves a record. Email to [email protected] and canceling in your online account both timestamp themselves; a phone call to Concierge does not.
3. Send the request with your full name, the club you belong to, and the date you want the membership to end.
4. If you are inside an initial commitment period, ask what ending it early costs before you send anything — the terms are in your agreement, and the answer changes whether you cancel now or at the end of the term.
5. Watch for the dues-increase clause. Equinox notes that in certain states you may have extra rights if you cancel soon after your dues go up, which is worth using if a price rise is what prompted this.
6. Keep the confirmation and check the next statement against the effective date you were given.

Yes — logging into your account on equinox.com is one of the channels Equinox lists, alongside email to [email protected].

That is not a courtesy. On May 30, 2025 the New York Attorney General announced a settlement in which Equinox paid $600,000 in penalties and agreed to fix its subscription practices, after finding it had failed to disclose subscription terms clearly, failed to give the acknowledgment New York law requires, and failed to offer a cost-effective, easy-to-use online cancellation mechanism. The settlement covered Equinox clubs, SoulCycle, and Equinox+, and included restitution for members who had tried to cancel between February 9, 2021 and December 31, 2024.

The practical takeaway: if you enrolled online, you are entitled to an online way out. If a club tells you to come in and sign something, that is a preference, not a requirement.

Equinox publishes its channels clearly and its numbers not at all, because the numbers are set by state and by contract. Here is what is actually stated.

Two things decide what a gym has to let you do, and only one of them is settled. The federal rule most people have heard of is not in force: the FTC's click-to-cancel rule, which would have required canceling to be as simple as signing up, was thrown out in full by the Eighth Circuit on July 8, 2025, weeks before compliance was due. The FTC reopened the rulemaking with an advance notice of proposed rulemaking in March 2026 and took comments until April 13, 2026; no replacement rule exists yet. The agency still sues over hard-to-cancel subscriptions under ROSCA and Section 5 of the FTC Act, so this is not a free-for-all — but there is no federal cancel button to point at today.

State law is where the real rights are. In New York, General Business Law § 624 lets you cancel any health-club contract within three business days of signing, with no penalty, and requires every dollar back within ten business days. It also gives you an exit later: a doctor-certified disability lasting more than three months, a move of more than 25 miles from any club the chain operates, or the club no longer providing what it sold you. Death releases the estate. Separately, § 527-a says that if you signed up online, you have to be able to cancel online — that is the law the Attorney General used against Equinox in May 2025.

California runs on the same idea with different numbers: Civil Code § 1812.85 requires a five-day cooling-off period on health-studio contracts, refunds are pro-rated to what you actually used, and the disability, death, and 25-mile relocation outs are all there. Since July 1, 2025, AB 2863 has required businesses to offer cancellation through the same channel you signed up in.

Equinox is the clearest example of why the state rules matter more than the federal ones right now. The May 2025 New York settlement was brought under the state's automatic-renewal law, not under any federal rule, and it is what produced the online cancellation route members use today.

Most other states have their own health-club statute with a similar cooling-off window and similar medical and relocation exits. Look yours up before you accept a no at the front desk. This is general information, not legal advice.

Equinox suggests a freeze rather than a cancellation if you will be away for a while, and at Equinox prices a freeze is worth asking about — [email protected] handles it, and it protects whatever rate you are on.

There is also a route most members miss: since February 2026 Equinox has accepted FSA or HSA money for monthly dues through Flex, which with a Letter of Medical Necessity can take a real bite out of the cost. The fees attached are small but not nothing, and our guide has the arithmetic.

If you are going anyway, go with the numbers. We track what every gym in New York City actually charges, so you can see what Equinox costs next to Life Time, Chelsea Piers and the rest of the premium end before you commit to another contract.