Short answer
- A course you bought does not expire. Udemy’s rule: “Once you purchase a course, you’ll have access for life, provided that your account is in good standing and Udemy continues to have a license to that course” (Udemy).
- Courses you take through a subscription do expire with the subscription. Udemy: “You will have unlimited access to subscription content as long as you have an active subscription.”
- Personal Plan certificates go too: “certificate access for the courses will be lost if the subscription expires or is canceled” (Udemy).
- Refunds: 30 days for individual courses; subscriptions are not refunded unless the law requires it (Udemy).
“Lifetime access” is how Udemy describes the courses you buy. The promise has conditions, though, and one large exception: courses you take through a subscription. This guide goes through the rules in Udemy’s help center, line by line, and adds what happens to your certificate. We checked every rule on September 22, 2026.
How long you keep a Udemy course
| How you got the course | How long you keep access | Certificate of completion |
|---|---|---|
| Bought it (any price, with or without coupon) | for life, while your account is in good standing and Udemy holds the license | yes |
| Enrolled in a free course | for life, same conditions | no (since March 17, 2020) |
| Through Personal Plan or another subscription | only while the subscription is active | yes, but lost when the subscription ends |
| Free course received through a Personal Plan offer | “Lifetime Access is not available for this course” | tied to the subscription |
| Bought, then refunded | not documented; if you buy it again, your earlier progress is not restored | not applicable |
Sources: Udemy lifetime access, Personal Plan FAQ, free course experience, refund status.
What you paid doesn’t matter: “Your access to a course is not affected by the price you paid for it.” A course bought in a sale or with a coupon has the same access as one bought at full price.
The two conditions behind “lifetime”
1. Your account must be in good standing. If Udemy suspends an account for breaking its rules, this condition is no longer met.
2. Udemy must still hold a license to the course. Udemy says “instructors may remove their courses from our marketplace, or, Udemy may have to remove a course from the platform for policy or legal reasons.” There is an important difference between removing and unpublishing: when an instructor unpublishes a course, “the course content remains on the platform and is still accessible to students who are enrolled in the course” (Udemy). So a course disappearing from search doesn’t mean it disappears from your account.
The subscription exception
Udemy sells courses two ways: as “a non-exclusive lifetime license to a single course” or through “subscription-based plans” (Udemy quarterly report, SEC). The lifetime promise only covers the first.
With Personal Plan, you get access to a catalog of more than 28,000 courses (Udemy annual report, SEC), but:
- access ends at the end of your billing period after you cancel;
- you can’t pause: “Once your Personal Plan subscription is canceled, the course progress and certificate access via the course will be lost upon cancellation”;
- courses can also leave the subscription catalog while you’re subscribed;
- courses you bought before subscribing stay yours for life.
Sources: Personal Plan FAQ, certification preparation.
If you want to keep a subscription course permanently, buy it individually. And before you cancel a subscription, download the certificates you’ve earned, because certificate access through the course ends with it.
Does a Udemy certificate expire?
Udemy’s help center doesn’t give certificates of completion from purchased courses an expiration date. What it does say:
- Only paid, approved courses come with a certificate. “Free courses and courses that only include practice tests do not offer a certificate of completion” (Udemy).
- Personal Plan certificates are lost with the subscription (see above).
- “Udemy is not an accredited institution. Certificates demonstrate skills and accomplishments, but they cannot be used for formal accreditation.”
That last point matters more than the expiry question. A Udemy certificate shows you finished a course. It is not a certification: it doesn’t replace an exam from a certifying body. Udemy says so itself for its exam-prep courses: “Udemy does not provide the certification exam” (Udemy). Our Certification Cost Index lists what the actual exams cost.
One exception with formal value: Udemy is “registered with NASBA as a sponsor of continuing professional education,” so selected courses in accounting, finance and related fields can earn CPE credit. You need to complete the course, answer the review questions and score at least 70% on the qualified assessment; state boards of accountancy decide whether they accept the credit (Udemy CPE).
Refunds and what they cost you
| Purchase | Refund |
|---|---|
| Individual course | within 30 days, if the request meets Udemy’s refund policy; after that, none |
| Subscription on udemy.com | no refunds, “unless otherwise required by applicable law” |
| Purchases in the iOS or Android app | handled by Apple or Google |
Source: Udemy refund policy.
Udemy can refuse a refund if “a notable amount of the course has been consumed or downloaded,” and some payment methods only get credit instead of money back. If you’re refunded and later buy the course again, your earlier progress is not restored.
What a Udemy course costs
Instructors set their course prices, and Udemy converts them into local prices with “a country-specific price tier matrix” (Udemy). Subscription fees “may vary, depending on several factors, including the location of your account” (Udemy). Udemy’s help center doesn’t publish a US price; its pricing page showed us, from Germany on September 22, 2026, Personal Plan “from €13.00 per month.” Check the price for your location on Udemy’s pricing page.
Udemy is now part of Coursera
Coursera announced on May 11, 2026 that it had completed its combination with Udemy (Coursera investor relations). The rules above are the ones in Udemy’s help center on September 22, 2026. If they change, the help center pages linked here are where it will show first. At the end of 2025, Udemy reported more than 290,000 courses and nearly 84 million learners (Udemy annual report, SEC).
Comparing Udemy with other platforms? See MasterClass vs Udemy, Udemy vs Treehouse and our Coursera alternatives.
Frequently asked questions
If I buy a course on Udemy, does it expire?
No. Purchased courses come with lifetime access, as long as your account is in good standing and Udemy still holds the license to the course.
Do Udemy courses expire if the instructor removes them?
If an instructor unpublishes a course, enrolled students keep access. Udemy says courses can be removed from the platform “for policy or legal reasons”; in that case access can end.
What happens to my courses if I cancel Personal Plan?
You lose access to subscription courses at the end of your billing period, including your progress and certificate access. Courses you bought individually stay in your account.
Does a Udemy certificate expire?
Udemy doesn’t list an expiration date for certificates from purchased courses. Certificates earned through Personal Plan are lost when the subscription ends.
Are Udemy certificates accredited?
No. Udemy says it “is not an accredited institution” and its certificates “cannot be used for formal accreditation.” Selected courses can earn NASBA CPE credit.
How we checked these facts. Access, certificate and refund rules come from Udemy’s help center; catalog figures from Udemy’s annual and quarterly reports filed with the SEC; the Coursera combination from Coursera’s investor relations site. All checked on September 22, 2026. Certificate Quest is not affiliated with Udemy or Coursera and earns nothing from links on this page.