A No-Refunds Policy Does Not Stop a Chargeback: Write the Promise, Keep the Proof and Know the Limits Before You Sell on Gumroad

A no-refunds policy is a statement, not a shield

Gumroad’s refund policy page says sellers can set their own refund policies, including a no-refunds policy, but that card networks still allow customers to file chargebacks at any time. It adds that too many successful disputes can put a Gumroad account at risk of suspension even if the policy is clearly stated. A creator who sets no refunds to avoid the work of handling them may find the policy does not remove the problem it was meant to remove.

This article offers a short check to run before you sell a digital product: promise, proof, limits and refund. It is editorial synthesis built from four Gumroad help pages. It is not a Gumroad feature, not legal advice and not an estimate of what any policy will do for your sales. None of the four pages shows a date in the text I read, and Gumroad can change them.

Promise: write the policy where the buyer will see it

The custom refund policy page says you add a policy in the product settings and should be clear about the conditions, whether a 30-day money-back guarantee or a firm no-refunds policy. It says the policy lets Gumroad Support issue refunds, or not, on your behalf, and that Gumroad includes your policy in any credit card or PayPal dispute.

The policy is shown on the product page, with optional fine print that opens in a modal, and you can copy a policy from another product. The page also says that when the policy modal is visible, the product URL carries an anchor you can share to send a customer straight to it.

Two limits sit in the refund policy page. Gumroad says it reserves the right to issue refunds within 90 days of purchase, at its discretion, to prevent chargebacks, and that it emails the seller with the reason if support refunds a sale on the seller’s behalf. For website purchases processed by Gumroad, the page describes honoring Brazilian consumers’ withdrawal requests within seven days of delivery even when the product is set to no refunds. The same page says in-app purchases are refunded by Apple or Google, not Gumroad. These are Gumroad’s stated policies; a policy you write does not override them. Whether other laws apply to your sales is a question for your own advice, not for these pages.

Proof: know what you could show if a buyer disputes

The chargebacks page describes a chargeback as a card provider reversing the payment, not a refund request made through Gumroad, and says the creator is responsible for covering both the refunded amount and any payment processing fees, while Gumroad returns its platform fee. It says that for purchases made through Stripe Connect or PayPal Connect, you fight the dispute through your own Stripe or PayPal account.

For disputes Gumroad handles, the page says you get 72 hours to submit additional information, with 48 extra hours if that period includes a weekend (UTC), and can submit once. Late notification can shorten that window: the email gives the actual deadline, and Gumroad submits at the end of it. If no time remains to ask you, Gumroad submits what it has without your statement. The form accepts supporting files in JPG, PNG or PDF, such as customer communication. The page is plain that Gumroad can only state your case and there is no guarantee of winning.

Gumroad’s tips for lowering your rate are worth reading as a list of evidence you might want to be able to produce: specific product descriptions, clear billing terms, reliable delivery, a stated refund policy, quick replies to buyer email, no misleading marketing, and records of communications and proof of delivery. The page also says a buyer who does not recognize a charge may dispute it, and suggests that the name shown on the statement should match your brand. These are Gumroad’s suggestions. The page does not say any of them guarantees a result.

Limits: two thresholds that change how your account works

The refund policy page says that if more than 1% of your customers dispute their purchases, Gumroad enforces a refund policy on your entire account. It counts unique customer emails rather than individual sales: several disputed charges from one email count once, while different email addresses count separately. If your account is set to no refunds at that point, Gumroad changes it to a 30-day money-back guarantee, and refund policies you already offer of seven days or more stay as they are. While enforced, the account-wide policy cannot be edited in Settings; Gumroad says to contact support with dispute-reduction steps to request a different period of at least seven days.

The chargebacks page describes a second threshold: if your chargeback rate goes above 1.5% of your sales volume over the last 365 days, Gumroad holds part of each payout, keeping 25% of your balance in reserve and paying out up to the other 75%. The rate uses sales from the last 365 days that were not refunded; disputes you win stop counting once reversed. The reserve covers only money Gumroad holds for you, and Gumroad checks once a day to lift this chargeback hold when the rate returns to 1.5% or below. Suspension, account review or another hold can still keep payouts held until separately resolved. The page also says a refund is cheaper for everyone than a dispute, so making refunds easy is the fastest way to bring your rate down.

Note what is Gumroad’s statement and what is not. The pages describe these thresholds and tell you what Gumroad does. They do not say what policy produces a lower dispute rate for any particular product, so choosing between a 30-day guarantee and a shorter window is a business decision for you.

Refund: know what each kind of refund does

For Gumroad-issued refunds, the issuing a refund page says they can only be processed if your balance can cover the transaction amount, and that refunds should be issued from the Gumroad dashboard because refunds made directly in Stripe or PayPal are not supported. It describes a full refund and a partial refund from the customer drawer in the Sales dashboard.

The page says that after a full refund the customer can no longer access the content or receive the product’s updates, and that the buyer’s product rating is deleted. After a partial refund the customer keeps access. It describes one case where a partial refund ends a membership that is pending cancellation, when the setting that removes access at membership end is on. On fees, it says Gumroad returns its own fee on the refunded portion and keeps the payment-processing portion. For Stripe Connect and PayPal Connect purchases, the seller is responsible for both Gumroad’s fees and the processor’s fees on the refund.

The refund policy page suggests that when a customer threatens a chargeback you offer a partial refund. Whether that is the right offer for your product is your call. The point of the check is to know in advance what each choice does to access, ratings and fees.

A hypothetical walkthrough

Imagine a creator who sells a template pack and has set the product to no refunds because earlier buyers kept asking for money back after downloading. A buyer who does not recognize the charge on a statement disputes it.

Under the pages above, the policy is shown to the buyer and included with the dispute, but it does not stop the dispute, and the chargeback reverses the payment when it occurs, with the creator covering the refunded amount and processing fees. If the dispute is later won, the page says the returned money is added back to the creator’s Gumroad balance; the debit is not delayed until a loss. The creator’s check is to read the product description for whether it says exactly what is in the pack, to keep the delivery and support messages, to confirm the name on statements matches the brand and to decide in advance whether a 30-day guarantee would be easier to manage than disputes. For illustration only; the creator reads their own account, plan and local rules first.

Keep a short record and check the pages again

Before you list a product, decide what promise you want to make. If you plan your content with a creator tool such as Launchvibes, add the product promise and the refund wording to the idea so the post, the product page and the policy say the same thing. A promise you can state in a sentence is easier to keep.

Keep a short record: the policy for each product, the date you set it, what the description promises, what you send after purchase and the date you read Gumroad’s pages. Related earlier articles on digital product updates and exit plans for paid communities cover the buyer promise and what happens when a paid offer ends.

Check Gumroad’s current pages and your own account before you sell anything. This article reflects four Gumroad help pages at the time of writing. It does not cover Gumroad’s fees page, terms, product ratings page or the Stripe and PayPal dispute pages, and it does not replace advice about your situation.