Coursera Reviews 1,219

Horrible customer service experience. DO NOT and I repeat DO NOT use the free trial. You will end up getting charged and they will not issue a refund.

I did not utilize any of the courses or benefits and I was still denied a refund, $60 down the drain.

kind of feels redundant adding another bad review based off all the others, but this company are crooks. Steer clear!

This company is truly the worst. They care only about money.
Never take a course here.
They advertise a free 7-day trial, but then refuse refunds, claiming you used their premium service for any lectures watched during that period. How can an education company be so unethical?
They won't refund you for services you didn't even use.
Moreover, while offering AI technology courses, they demand users prove their viewing progress. This alone makes them untrustworthy. Teaching cutting-edge technology, yet requiring consumers to personally prove their learning logs? Isn't that a Stone Age method? Absolutely do not take courses here.

I am extremely disappointed with my experience with Coursera.

I purchased a course subscription, but I am unable to access the course content. Every time I try to continue the course, I receive the following message:

"Purchase a subscription to unlock this item. If you have just completed the previous item, please refresh your browser to unlock this item. If you have completed the previous item and a refresh still shows this page, please contact Coursera 24x7 support."

I have already completed the previous item and refreshed the browser multiple times, as instructed. I also contacted Coursera support and followed all the troubleshooting steps they suggested.

However, the issue has still not been resolved after more than 3 days, even though support mentioned that the issue was escalated to their engineering team. I have not received any clear timeline or proper update.

This is very frustrating because I paid for the course but cannot access the content.

At this point, I am requesting either immediate course access or a full refund. If the issue continues unresolved, I will escalate this further through my payment provider and other consumer complaint platforms.

I hope Coursera addresses this issue promptly.

You subscribe to Coursera Plus as it includes access to a course you are interested in... surprise, you get subscribed to both Coursera Plus and the course you enrolled into. So you basically start a trial for 1 service and end up subscribed to 2 services. Amazing misleading marketing strategy. Will never recommend this platform to anyone. Also, even if the course is labeled as "Completly translated" it is not, it is just subtitled. They could use the "Subtitled" tag for that case xD

I have an active Coursera Plus annual subscription ($399/year, renewal March 2027) but I CANNOT enroll in any course. Your platform shows me a payment popup instead of recognizing my Plus membership. I've submitted a support ticket and still no resolution. Every day this bug persists is a day of paid service I'm losing. Fix this.

Paid for six months access to a course. When doing the course it suggests timeframes and deadlines for the tests. The final test deadline suggested a date at the end of the six months, fine. I come to log in to do this, only to find my course has expired, as Coursera define six months as 180days. I contacted them to point out a) six months is 182 days, and b) the site suggesting deadlines past the expiry of the course is misleading. They suggested I pay for the course again to allow me to finish the final test. Seek the training you would like elsewhere

Greedy Terrible Company. I tried to cancel my bill the day it charged but they wouldn't let me. Make sure to cancel your free trial this company is a money grab.

I accidentally subscribed to a $49 plan and requested a refund immediately. It has been 7 days since I opened my case (#06032436), but I have received no response from the support team except for automated emails.
I have not watched any videos or used any educational content. I am clearly within the 14-day refund period. This lack of communication is very disappointing. Please review my case and process the refund as soon as possible.

I accidentally subscribed to a $49 plan and requested a refund immediately. It has been 7 days since I opened my case (#06032436), but I have received no response from the support team except for automated emails.
I have not watched any videos or used any educational content. I am clearly within the 14-day refund period. This lack of communication is very disappointing. Please review my case and process the refund as soon as possible.

Charged me $100 with no email notifications. I was not even using the service after the 7 day free trial, so I was not aware they were charging me.

1 star - Charged after trial, support closed my case without resolution

Signed up following a YouTube recommendation, found the course content poor quality and unsuitable, and did not return after the first day. I believed I had cancelled during the trial period. No reminder was sent before the subscription converted to a paid charge.

When I raised a refund request, I was told by the support agent: "this is my final message on this topic" and the case was closed. No engagement with my complaint, no attempt at resolution.

This is not an isolated experience. Read the reviews here carefully before signing up. If you do join, set a calendar alarm for day 6 of your trial, screenshot any cancellation you make, and monitor your bank account. If you are charged unexpectedly, go directly to PayPal's Resolution Centre or your card provider rather than relying on Coursera's support.

I would have probably rated this higher but the customer service was a let down. I started a course under their "Free" trial and it just wasn't what I expected. I requested a refund a couple days after they charged me and they refused to refund. I wouldn't recommend especially if your just trying them out.

I came to Coursera with high expectations since they are the official learning center for Google Courses. Unfortunately, my experience was a huge failure. In its current form, this platform feels less like an educational resource and more like a scam.

Here are the major issues I encountered:

MISLEADING 7-DAY TRIAL: The premise of a trial is to evaluate the platform. However, I found that most of the valuable content was locked and only accessible if I paid immediately. A trial that restricts access to the actual courses you want to try is completely useless and deceptive.

CONFUSING NAVIGATION: The user interface is a disorganized mess. I enrolled in a main course that relies on several sub-courses, but I had absolutely no way of knowing if the modules I was taking during my trial were actually part of the original course I enrolled in.

BROKEN LABS AND TECH FAILURES: The entry-level, basic courses worked fine, but the moment I tried to access more substantial material, the platform broke. During a lab, I encountered massive technical difficulties, including persistent login failures and execution errors on the course page. How can I evaluate a platform when the tech infrastructure doesn't even function?

ABYSMAL CUSTOMER SUPPORT: When I reached out for help regarding the broken labs, I was forced into a loop with an automated chatbot that provided nothing but generic, unhelpful responses. Zero real human support.

Initially, I thought this would be a well-prepared system. Instead, the basic courses are too rudimentary to justify the cost, and the advanced features are broken and locked away. I cannot and will not recommend Coursera to anyone.

I signed up for a 7 day free trial to take a course that, after completing it, I would never have paid money for. It felt rushed and was very poorly done. At times, the instructor made no sense and he said "Um" constantly. After signing up, I received an email that said I would be charged on 2/20/26 so I assumed that meant I had until 2/19/26 to cancel. I believe they do this on purpose so that folks miss the true cancellation deadline. They charged me on 2/19/26 instead of 2/20/26 and when I contacted them to request a refund, they rudely denied my request. I will look elsewhere (i.e. Udemy, etc.) for online courses from now on for these reasons.

They are sneaky with their autorenewals payments.
They will spam you with random stuff but no messages on payments. Easy to forget after a free trial and you find paying for months without using this. Classic trap, I know. And yes, this may be legal but it is sneaky. I expected better from them.

Really disappointed in my interactions with the company. The quality of the course was really poor in my opinion but i realise that's a subjective thing and maybe someone else liked it but it's a topic i know well and in my opinion, the quality of the material fell well short of other materials i'm familiar with on the topic.

I tried to cancel my subscription and had an unpleasant experience resulting in me reminding Coursera of their legal obligations (i live in the UK so enjoy some additional consumer protections that this American company was not familiar with - of course i've ensured they are familiar now).

No longer meaningful; assignments graded 0 by peers; peers submitting your assignment as theirs... 7day trial still requires card #... auditing means watching intro videos only, not seeing any course content.

Just another example of the summary above. The support team is ineffective to the point of me thinking it genuinely is just another AI bot instead of an actual person. A technical glitch resulted in me being unable to access my account for over a year. Will be finding every option within my power to get my money back.