Bookings
Free to cancel
Withdrawing an inquiry or declining a quote costs nothing. Nothing is charged until you pay, and nothing below applies until then.
Two situations refund you in full even after payment. Both override the refund schedule below.
Soon after payment
If you cancel soon after paying, and your event is still far enough away, you get a 100% refund. The exact deadline is shown on the booking and in the cancel window.
The location changed after you booked
If your photographer moves the event, you can cancel for a full refund for 48 hours from the notice, or until the event starts if that comes sooner. After that deadline the ordinary schedule applies again.
Once you have paid and the free-cancellation cases above don't apply, your refund is set by how far ahead of the event you cancel. The percentages are fixed by Pickxel and are the same for every photographer. Days shown here are the platform defaults — see below.
7 or more days before the event
85% refund
3 to 6 days before the event
50% refund
The last days before the event
25% refund: from below the photographer's second threshold until the day before the event (1 to 2 days before, at the platform defaults)
On the day of the session
No refund on the day of the session: the refundable amount goes 85% to your photographer and 15% to Pickxel at the platform defaults, which is what a no-show pays them on a booking with the standard 15% fee and no travel fee.
The same-day step applies to bookings paid on or after October 19, 2026. Bookings paid before keep the three-step schedule they were paid under, where 25% holds right up to the event. Your booking page shows the schedule that applies to it.
What a photographer can change: only the two day thresholds — the "7 or more days" and "3 days" boundaries. Some photographers give you longer at 85%, others less. The percentages themselves are platform-set, and the ones in force when you pay are locked to your booking.
You see the real numbers before you pay. The photographer's actual thresholds appear in the booking form, and the policy is locked to your booking at the moment you pay. If the photographer edits it afterwards, your booking keeps the version you agreed to.
Secured venue fees: if your photographer has already secured and paid for a venue, that part of the price is non-refundable and goes to the photographer. Your refund percentage is applied to the rest.
A full refund when your photographer cancels
If your photographer cancels after you have paid, you get back everything you paid, refunded to your original payment method automatically. The schedule above only applies to a cancellation you make.
If the date is the problem, reschedule rather than cancel — there is no fee for it.
One reschedule each
You and your photographer each get one reschedule request per booking — two at most. Either of you can propose a new date on the booking; the other accepts or declines.
Rescheduling doesn't reset the clock
If you move your booking later and then cancel, your refund is worked out from the earliest date you moved from, not the new one. Your booking page says which date it is measured from.
Find it in your dashboard and open the booking details.
Select a reason for cancellation (helps us improve).
Before you confirm, the cancel window shows your refund in dollars for this booking — including any free-cancellation window still open and any non-refundable venue fee.
Confirm to cancel. This cannot be undone.
Your refund goes back to your original payment method automatically. It can take 5 to 10 business days to reach your original payment method.
Not in the way you might expect. Every booking on Pickxel uses the same schedule: 85%, then 50%, then 25%, and nothing on the day of the session. What varies is the timing: each photographer sets the two day boundaries between the first three steps, and you see theirs in the booking form before you pay.
Yes, in three cases: you cancel before paying; you cancel inside the free-cancellation window after paying (the deadline is shown on the booking); or your photographer changes the event location or cancels on you. Outside those, 85% is the most the schedule returns.
It is split between your photographer and Pickxel, and the photographer's share grows the later the cancellation — they had less time to fill the date. You can see the exact split for your booking in the cancel window before you confirm.
Propose a new date from the booking details page, or message your photographer first if you want to agree on one. Rescheduling is free and doesn't trigger a cancellation.
Contact Pickxel support. In cases of documented emergencies (medical, family, natural disasters), we may offer more flexible refund options.
No. Once the shoot has taken place, you cannot cancel. If you just do not like how the photos look, ask your photographer for a revision instead. A dispute is only for objective failures, such as photos not delivered or photos that don't match the package.
A no-show is handled as a dispute, not a cancellation. Report it from the booking after the event's end time, and a person at Pickxel reviews it. If Pickxel confirms your photographer didn't show, you get a full refund. If a client does not show, the photographer is paid in full and no refund is issued.