An AI tool announcing its closure starts a clock. This timeline walks through what to confirm, what to save, what to cancel and when, so nothing important disappears with the service.
This guide is general information, not technical or legal advice. If you’ve lost money or personal information, contact your bank, IDCARE on 1800 595 160, or report it through ReportCyber at cyber.gov.au.
Quick summary
- AI platform shutdown announcements typically give users 30 to 90 days to export data, but export capacity can degrade as servers are scaled down, so act within 48 hours.
- The commonly repeated 30-day export window is an industry custom, not a contract term, and some terms make you responsible for keeping your own backups.
- Export the hardest-to-recreate content first: custom settings, conversation histories with real research or decisions, and bulk generated files.
- Consumer guarantees under Australian Consumer Law apply automatically to services bought from 1 January 2011 onward, so prepaid time on a service that shuts down early may earn a refund.
- Assume zero retention of your data after the shutdown date, and request deletion before the doors close rather than after.
AI tools close more often than most software, because many are young companies pivoting, merging or running out of money. When one you rely on announces it is shutting down, the order you do things in matters more than speed alone. Export before you cancel, cancel before you pick a replacement, and confirm everything on the company’s own pages rather than in an email. This timeline runs from the day the news lands to the cleanup a month later.
Day One: The Day You Hear the News, What to Confirm First
Before you click anything, confirm the announcement is real. Shutdown news is a gift to scammers, who send emails about “urgent data export” linking to fake login pages. Check the company’s own website or an in-app notice rather than following a link from an email, and be suspicious of any message asking you to re-enter payment details.
Once you are satisfied the news is genuine, find the actual deadline in writing on the company’s own pages. Screenshots and forum posts are not deadlines. The company’s shutdown page, or a direct reply from its support team, is what you work from.
It also helps to work out which kind of closure you are dealing with, because that sets your timeline more than anything else.
| Shutdown mode | Typical warning | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Orderly sunset | Years | Time to plan, but do not rely on published hard dates |
| Acquisition | Months | Data may move to the new owner |
| Quiet decay | No date at all | Service degrades until it stops working |
| Lights-out closure | Nothing | One day the service is simply gone |
One widespread belief is worth correcting early. The much-repeated 30-day export window is an industry custom, not a contract term, and many platforms’ terms say nothing about data return at all. Some terms go further and state that you are responsible for maintaining backups of your data, and that the company has no responsibility for deleted data. Read the terms if you can face it, but plan on the assumption that the deadline is the only protection you have.
The First 48 Hours: Download Your Data and Conversation History
Act fast here even if the official deadline looks generous. Shutdown announcements for AI platforms typically give users 30 to 90 days to export their data, but export capacity often degrades as servers are scaled down, and simultaneous export requests can overwhelm the infrastructure that is left. The practical advice is simple: export within 48 hours of the announcement.
Work in priority order, saving the hardest-to-recreate content first:
- Custom settings, custom instructions and any personalisation the tool has built up about you.
- Conversation histories that contain real research, decisions or workflows you would struggle to rebuild.
- Bulk libraries of generated images, audio or other files, which can take the longest to download.
- Project files and version history.
- Generic generated content you could produce again without much effort.
Do not assume the standard export includes everything. Some services export only part of what your account holds, and uploaded files, custom settings and conversation records may sit in separate places. If the export offers a choice of formats, take the option that keeps the data in a form another tool could import later.
Be careful
Assume zero retention after the shutdown date for everything. Anything you did not export by then is gone, so start the download that takes longest, such as a bulk image library, before the small stuff.
Before moving on, open a few of the exported files and check they actually work. An export that will not open is not a backup, and discovering that after the service has closed leaves you with nowhere to go. Store the files with the rest of your backups rather than only on one drive.
Days Two to Five: Cancel the Subscription and Check Your Refund Rights
Once your data is safely downloaded and verified, deal with the money. First, check what cancelling actually does. Some services cut off access immediately, some make accounts read-only, and some start a deletion countdown sooner than the public shutdown date. If cancelling ends your access, leave cancellation until the exports are finished.
Check the billing rules too. Cancelling may not stop charges until the end of an annual or fixed-term agreement, and if you bought the subscription through a reseller or another provider, the cancellation process may be different from cancelling directly with the company. If you were on a free trial rather than a paid plan, the usual advice about trials and unwanted charges applies: cancel deliberately and confirm the cancellation in writing if you can. Our guide to free trials and subscriptions covers the traps.
Now the refund question. Under Australian Consumer Law, most services bought in Australia from 1 January 2011 onward carry consumer guarantees automatically, with no extra paperwork needed. Among them is a guarantee that a service will be delivered in a sensible period, or by the date you arranged with the supplier. If you paid for twelve months and the service shuts down after three, you have arguably paid for something that was not supplied, and a service that stops being provided may not meet the guarantees. Keep your proof of purchase, because a business is entitled to ask for one.
A few points worth knowing:
- For a major failure, you can choose a refund or replacement. A business cannot push you onto a credit note instead of a refund unless you agree.
- There is no fixed cut-off on these guarantee rights, and they can still apply once any warranty the business offered has lapsed.
- The business has the right to assess the problem before providing a remedy, so expect some process rather than instant payment.
- If the company has stopped responding entirely, there may still be ways to recover the money, and it can be worth asking your bank or card provider what dispute processes they offer.
If you are unsure where you stand on a particular subscription, a consumer protection agency can point you in the right direction.
Before the Deadline: Where Your Data Goes After the Doors Close
What happens to the data you did not export depends on the company, its contracts and, sometimes, luck. The safe planning assumption is zero retention after the shutdown date. If the privacy policy or shutdown notice says otherwise, treat that as a bonus rather than a plan.
Two real cases show why it pays to be sceptical. In one matter, the Privacy Commissioner found that a bank was liable for the conduct of its third-party software provider, after a fault in that provider’s system co-mingled the Consumer Data Right data of up to 197 consumers. The lesson for users is that services often rely on third-party providers you have never heard of, and data can end up somewhere its owner did not intend. In another case, a transcription company providing services to Australian courts went into liquidation, and recordings were accessed by employees of an overseas subcontractor outside the arrangements the courts had put in place. The regulator closed its inquiries partly because the company was in liquidation, which illustrates a hard truth: once a company is wound up, getting answers, deletions or anything else becomes far harder.
That points to one concrete action: ask for deletion before closure, not after. If the shutdown notice includes a process for deleting your account and data, use it while there is still someone on the other end to action it. Note what the company says about data it has shared with processors or partners, because their copies may follow different rules.
Weeks One to Three: Testing a Replacement Without Rushing In
With the old tool handled, resist the urge to immediately hand a new one a yearly subscription. Run the replacement on a monthly plan or a free tier while you work out whether it fits. A useful test is to give it the same tasks you relied on the old tool for, and compare the results honestly. If you are choosing between services, our checklist for buying an AI subscription covers what to compare before you commit, and a timeline for trying an AI chatbot for the first time walks through a sensible first month.
Two habits carry over from the old tool. First, set the privacy and training controls before your first real conversation, not after, so the tool starts out with the settings you actually want. Our guide to locking down the privacy settings on AI chatbots steps through the common controls. Second, keep the personal-information rule: nothing typed into a chatbot should be anything you would not be comfortable seeing repeated elsewhere.
Keep your exported archive untouched during this period. You may find the replacement handles some tasks worse, and the old conversations are your reference for what good output looked like.
The Month After: Cleaning Up Accounts and Logins Tied to the Tool
The last stage is housekeeping, and it is easy to skip because nothing seems to be at stake. There is. Dead accounts are targets, and a company that no longer staffs its security team cannot respond to problems with your account.
Work through this list:
- Delete the account if the option still exists, using whatever closure process the company provided.
- Revoke any “sign in with” connections between the dead tool and your Google, Apple or Microsoft account, from the settings of the account you used to sign in.
- If you reused the same passphrase anywhere else, change it now. A unique passphrase per service, kept in a password manager, prevents this problem next time.
- Remove the entry from your password manager only after confirming you have nothing left in the account, such as a payment method or linked service.
- Watch your email for messages claiming to come from the closed company, including offers to recover your data for a fee. Scammers know which services have closed, and shutdowns are prime conditions for follow-up scams.
If anything in the closure touches your money or your legal position, a consumer protection agency or a qualified professional can look at your specific situation. Otherwise, the shutdown ends where it started, with you in control of your own copies.
Start with the export: whatever AI tool you use most, find its data export setting today and make sure you know how it works before you ever need it in a hurry.
Your questions answered
Q: How long do I have to export my data from a shutting-down AI tool?
A: AI platform shutdown announcements typically give users 30 to 90 days, but this varies and export systems can slow down or fail near the deadline. Start exporting within 48 hours of the announcement.
Q: Can I get a refund if I paid for a subscription the AI service is shutting down early?
A: Consumer guarantees apply automatically under Australian Consumer Law to most services bought from 1 January 2011 onward, and a service that stops being supplied before the period you paid for may fail them. For a major failure you can choose a refund rather than a credit note, though the business may assess the problem first.
Q: What happens to my conversations and uploaded files after the service closes?
A: The safe assumption is zero retention after the shutdown date, meaning anything you did not export is gone. Request deletion of your account and data before closure, because once a company is wound up, getting answers or action becomes much harder.
Q: Should I sign up for a yearly plan with a replacement tool straight away?
A: It is usually better to test a replacement month to month or on a free tier first, using the same tasks you relied on the old tool for. Compare plans, renewal terms and the cancellation process before committing to anything longer.