Free refund policy generator
Answer three short questions about how you handle returns. Get a refund policy you can copy straight onto your store.
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- No signup
- Knows the law where you sell
- Nothing uploaded
How to write a refund policy.
Three questions, about a minute. The policy is written as you answer.
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Name your store, and say where you sell
Your business name, your website, and an email a customer can write to. Where your customers are decides which statutory rights the policy has to acknowledge, and those follow the buyer rather than your office.
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Set your window, and say what never comes back
How many days a customer has, what state an item has to come back in, and the short list of things you do not take back at all: perishables, personalised goods, downloads. The window is yours to choose, with one floor. Customers in the EU and the UK may have fourteen days to change their mind whatever your policy says.
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Decide who pays, and what they get back
Return shipping, the refund method, when the refund is issued, how long it takes, what happens to the delivery charge, and any exchange or restocking terms. These are what a shopper is actually looking for when they open this page.
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Read it, then publish it
Copy the policy onto a page at yourstore.com/refund-policy, or download it as a PDF. Link it from your footer and your checkout, and read it first. It describes your store, and only you know if it is right.
How long should your window be?
The window is the one number on the page a shopper actually remembers. Here is what each one buys you.
- 14 days Perishables, flowers, small-margin goods
The statutory floor in the UK and EU, so it is the shortest window worth publishing if you sell there at all. Tight enough that a shopper hesitating over a first order may notice.
- 30 days Most stores, most of the time
The number shoppers expect, and the one they stop reading after. Long enough to feel fair, short enough that the item still has a season left in it when it comes back.
- 60 days Higher-value goods, considered purchases
Reads as confidence rather than generosity. Return rates rise less than merchants fear, because most returns happen in the first week whatever the window says.
- 90+ days Furniture, equipment, gifting-heavy seasons
A sales argument more than a returns policy. Worth it if your margin carries the risk, and worth pairing with a restocking fee if the item is bulky to take back.
What the law says where you sell.
It follows your customers, not your office. One order shipped to Dublin puts that sale under EU rules from anywhere on earth.
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UK & EU
Any customer in the UK or the European Union.
Fourteen days to change their mind for any reason, another fourteen to send the goods back, and a refund within fourteen days of you getting them, including the standard delivery charge they paid. You can make them pay return postage only if you told them before they bought. Personalised, perishable, sealed hygiene and unsealed media goods are outside it.
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United States
Customers in California, New York and most other states.
There is no federal right to return something you simply do not want. What state law does require is that your policy be posted where a shopper sees it before they buy. Where it is not, several states hand the shopper a full refund within 30 days by default. New York also requires restocking fees to be disclosed up front.
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Australia
Customers in Australia.
Consumer guarantees cannot be contracted out of. When something has a major failure the customer chooses between a refund and a replacement, not the seller. “No refunds” and “store credit only” signs are treated as misleading conduct, and the ACCC has enforced against them.
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Canada
Customers in Canada.
No general right to change your mind: returns are whatever your posted policy says, and a policy disclosed before the sale is enforceable. Statutory rights still apply where goods are defective, not as described, or unfit for their purpose, and provincial rules are tightening around subscriptions.
What a refund policy has to say.
A shopper reads this page to answer six questions. A policy that leaves one of them open is the reason the basket gets abandoned.
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How long they have
A number of days, counted from a day you name. “A reasonable period” is not a policy. It is an argument waiting to happen.
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What condition it comes back in
Unused, unopened, tags on, original packaging. Say it plainly, because this is the line almost every returns dispute is fought over.
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What is not coming back at all
Perishables, personalised items, hygiene goods, downloads. List the exceptions, and list them before the sale rather than after it.
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Who pays the postage
You or them, and what changes when the item is faulty or you sent the wrong thing. This is the single most searched-for line on the page.
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What they get, and when
Money back to the card, store credit, or an exchange, and how many days after the parcel reaches you. Put a number on it.
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What the law gives them anyway
Statutory rights sit on top of anything you write. Acknowledging them costs you nothing and protects you from a policy that is unenforceable.
Before you publish it.
The generator writes the document. These six are yours, and none of them take long.
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Read every line
It was written from a minute of answers. You know things about your stock and your couriers that a minute cannot carry, and the document is yours the moment you publish it.
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Check the window against what you can actually do
A 90-day window on a product with a 60-day shelf life is a promise you will have to break in public. Pick the number you can honour on your worst week.
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Show it before the sale, not after
Link it from the footer, the product page and the checkout. Several US states treat an unposted policy as a 30-day full-refund policy by default, which is not the one you wrote.
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Make the returns email work
Every return starts at the address in this policy, and a shopper who gets no reply opens a chargeback instead. Send yourself one and make sure it lands.
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Never write “no refunds”
It is unenforceable against faulty goods everywhere, and in Australia it is treated as misleading conduct on its own. Say what you do take back instead.
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Keep it and your terms in step
If your terms of sale, your checkout copy and this page disagree about the window, the one most generous to the shopper is the one you will be held to.
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Is this refund policy generator free?
Yes. It is free with no signup, no limit, and no watermark on what it produces. You own the policy it writes.
Is the generated refund policy legal advice?
No. It is a template written from your answers and it is not legal advice. It covers what a normal online store does, in the language consumer law expects. Read it before you publish it, and take advice from a lawyer in your country if you sell in a regulated trade.
What is the difference between a refund policy and a return policy?
Nothing worth splitting into two pages. A return policy is about the goods coming back and a refund policy is about the money going out, and a shopper looking for either wants both on the same page. The generator writes one document that covers the journey end to end.
How long should my return window be?
Thirty days is what most shoppers expect and what most stores publish. Fourteen is the statutory floor if you sell into the UK or the EU. Sixty or ninety days reads as confidence and rarely costs as much as merchants expect, because most returns happen in the first week whatever the window says.
Can I charge a restocking fee?
In most places yes, as long as you disclose it before the sale, which is exactly what publishing this policy does. Fees usually run between 10% and 20%. New York requires the fee to be shown before purchase, and in the UK and EU a deduction on a change-of-mind return can only reflect value the item actually lost, not a flat percentage.
Do I have to accept returns if the customer just changed their mind?
It depends where they are. In the UK and the EU a statutory cancellation period of fourteen days may apply, with no reason required. In the US and Canada there is no general right to change your mind, so your posted policy is the rule, though several US states treat a store with no posted policy as offering a full refund for 30 days.
Who pays for return shipping?
Whoever your policy says, with one exception everywhere: if the item is faulty, damaged or not what was ordered, the cost is yours. For change-of-mind returns in the UK and EU you can pass the cost to the customer only if you told them before they bought.
Can I say “all sales are final”?
Not safely. It is unenforceable against faulty or misdescribed goods almost everywhere, and in Australia a blanket “no refunds” line is treated as misleading conduct in its own right. A short list of genuine exceptions (perishables, personalised items, opened hygiene goods) does the same job and holds up.
Where should I put the refund policy on my store?
On its own page at a stable address such as yourstore.com/refund-policy, linked from the footer of every page, the product page and the checkout. It has to be visible before the sale rather than after it. That is what several US states require, and it is where shoppers look anyway.
Is anything I type sent to a server?
No. The policy is assembled in your browser from your answers. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is stored, and closing the tab clears it.
Policy done. Now the store.
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