You need to cancel a Fiverr order. Maybe the buyer's brief turned out to be completely different from what your gig covers. Maybe the requirements were never submitted and the buyer has gone silent. Maybe the scope crept far enough that finishing the order would cost you more than you earn from it.
Whatever the reason, how you cancel matters. A cancellation initiated before the deadline is handled differently than one after. A mutual cancellation is handled differently than a unilateral one. And a cancellation that happens after you have already delivered is a different situation entirely.
This guide covers the process step by step, explains what the buyer sees, and is honest about the metric impact so you can make an informed decision before you proceed.
The Two Types of Cancellation on Fiverr
Mutual cancellation is where both the buyer and seller agree to cancel the order. You initiate it through the Resolution Centre, the buyer receives a notification and either agrees or rejects, and if they agree the order is cancelled. This is the standard cancellation process for most situations.
Unilateral cancellation happens when one party escalates to Fiverr support and Fiverr steps in to cancel the order based on a policy violation or unresolvable dispute. This is less common and carries more weight in Fiverr's evaluation of both parties.
In almost all situations, initiating a mutual cancellation is the right first step. Escalating to Fiverr support before attempting a mutual cancellation is generally less effective and creates a support record that may be reviewed during level evaluations.
How to Initiate a Mutual Cancellation (Step by Step)
Step 1: Go to the order page. Orders are accessible from Selling in your main dashboard.
Step 2: Click the "Resolution Centre" button. It appears as a small link near the order details.
Step 3: Select "Cancel this order" from the Resolution Centre options.
Step 4: Choose the cancellation reason from Fiverr's dropdown menu. The options include: the buyer ordered by mistake, the buyer is unresponsive, the order is outside my area of expertise, the buyer and I mutually agreed to cancel, and a few others. Choose the most accurate one. Fiverr uses these selections in aggregate to understand cancellation patterns, and they are also visible to buyers in some contexts.
Step 5: Add a brief message in the text field. This message is visible to the buyer and explains why you are requesting cancellation. Keep it factual and professional. One or two sentences is enough. Do not express frustration. Do not make accusations.
Step 6: Submit the request. The buyer receives a notification and has 48 hours to respond.
If the buyer agrees: the order is cancelled, funds are returned to the buyer, and the cancellation is recorded in your metrics.
If the buyer does not respond within 48 hours: Fiverr automatically cancels the order on your behalf. This still counts as a cancellation in your metrics, but the automatic approval prevents the situation from remaining unresolved indefinitely.
If the buyer rejects the cancellation: the order returns to active status. You have three options from here: attempt to resolve the underlying issue through the inbox, re-initiate a second cancellation request with additional explanation, or escalate to Fiverr support through the Resolution Centre.
What the Buyer Sees
When you initiate a mutual cancellation, the buyer receives an email notification and an inbox notification informing them that you have requested to cancel the order. The notification includes the reason you selected and the message you wrote.
The buyer sees two options: accept the cancellation or decline it. If they accept, their payment is returned to their Fiverr balance within 24 hours in most cases. Fiverr's refund policy specifies that credits returned to a Fiverr balance can be used for future purchases, while original payment method refunds follow the payment provider's timeline.
One thing sellers often want to know: does cancelling affect the buyer's ability to leave a review? Under Fiverr's current policies, buyers can leave a review on a cancelled order in certain circumstances, including if the delivery was more than 24 hours late or if the seller was unresponsive. A mutually agreed cancellation initiated before the deadline by a responsive seller is less likely to generate a review than a late-delivery cancellation.
What Cancellation Does to Your Metrics
Every cancellation reduces your order completion rate. This is true regardless of who initiated it, regardless of the reason, and regardless of whether the buyer was at fault.
The proportional impact depends on your total order history. If you have 100 completed orders and one cancellation, your completion rate drops from 100% to approximately 99%. If you have 5 completed orders and one cancellation, it drops to approximately 83%. Early cancellations have a disproportionately large metric impact.
The completion rate also feeds into your Success Score through the dispute resolution dimension. Fiverr's private feedback system asks buyers about their experience even with cancelled orders in some circumstances. An order cancelled professionally and promptly, with clear communication, generates different private feedback than one that drags on for days before being cancelled with no explanation.
A cancellation also counts against your on-time delivery rate if the order was cancelled after the deadline had passed. This means a late-then-cancelled order affects two metrics simultaneously.
The practical implication: initiate cancellations early if they are inevitable. A cancellation requested on day one of an order affects your metrics the same as one requested on day eight, but the day-one cancellation does not also incur a late delivery strike.
When Cancellation Is the Right Decision
The situations where cancellation is clearly the right call:
The buyer's requirements reveal that the project is substantially outside the scope of your gig. This happens when buyers order without messaging first and the brief describes something your gig does not cover. Delivering a bad-fit project produces a worse outcome for both parties than cancelling early.
The buyer has not submitted requirements within the expected timeframe and has not responded to inbox messages. An order sitting with no buyer input is a liability. A brief request to the buyer, followed by a cancellation if there is no response after 48 hours, is more professional than allowing an order to go late because the buyer disappeared.
The buyer has fundamentally changed what they want mid-project to a degree that makes the original scope undeliverable. Scope changes of this scale are better handled as a cancellation and a new, properly scoped order rather than trying to deliver a moving target.
The situations where cancellation is not the right call:
When the issue is a buyer who is dissatisfied with a delivered result but has not used their revision rounds. A revision request is the right path, not a cancellation.
When the buyer is being difficult but the project is within scope and deliverable. Difficult buyers produce lower Success Score private feedback, but a completed order with mediocre metrics is usually better than a cancellation.
When you are simply behind schedule. An extension request through the deadline extension feature is the right tool here, not cancellation.
If the Buyer Requests the Cancellation
If the buyer initiates a mutual cancellation request, you receive a notification and have 48 hours to accept or decline.
Accepting is appropriate when the cancellation reason is legitimate — the buyer ordered by mistake, the project no longer fits their needs, or the scope genuinely cannot be delivered within your gig parameters.
Declining is appropriate when you have already delivered work that meets the brief and the buyer is attempting to cancel rather than use their revision process. A politely worded decline, accompanied by a revision offer through the inbox, is more effective than either accepting or escalating immediately.
The Metric Recovery Path After a Cancellation
One cancellation in an otherwise healthy order history is a minor event. The completion rate recovers as new completed orders accumulate. The specific recovery rate depends on your total order volume, but three to five successful completed orders after a cancellation typically restore the proportional metric to a level that does not affect level evaluation.
The path forward: do not immediately take any order to replace the cancelled one. Take the next order where the brief is clear, the scope is unambiguous, and the buyer has communicated professionally. A second problem order shortly after a cancellation compounds the metric damage.
For the broader order management strategy, see the Fiverr order management guide. For handling difficult situations that sometimes lead to cancellations, see the handling difficult buyers guide.
Fiverr's cancellation process and metric calculation are updated periodically.