Cleo AI cash advance customers were covered by a $17 million FTC settlement entered in April 2025, but as of September 2026 the FTC has announced no refund program or payment date. Nothing is claimable yet; our best-case estimate puts a refund announcement in late 2026.
Where Do Cleo AI Refunds Stand?
Eighteen months after the FTC announced a $17 million settlement with cash advance app Cleo AI, no one has been paid and no refund date exists. The FTC has not opened a Cleo refund program, has not named a refund administrator, and has not said who will qualify. Cleo does not appear on the FTC’s list of active refund programs as of September 26, 2026.The court case has also gone quiet. The last entry on the federal docket is dated July 15, 2025, and the FTC’s own case page still lists the matter as “Pending,” last updated May 2, 2025.
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Why Late 2026 Is the Best Case
The FTC has never given a payment timeline for Cleo, so any date is an estimate. Ours is based on the steps every FTC refund program goes through before an announcement: the agency collects the money, hires a refund administrator, pulls the company’s customer records, decides who is eligible and how much each person gets, and only then posts the program on its refunds page. That process commonly takes 6 to 18 months after the money is collected.If the $17 million reached the FTC in mid-2025, the short end of that range has already passed and the long end runs to late 2026 or early 2027. That makes a refund announcement in late 2026 the best-case scenario. It could be later, and it depends on the full amount having been collected, which the public record does not confirm.
None of the pre-announcement steps have been made public for Cleo yet. A new entry on the FTC’s refunds page is the signal to watch.
What Happened in Court
The FTC filed its complaint and a proposed settlement order in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on March 28, 2025. Judge Andrew L. Carter Jr. signed the stipulated order on April 25, 2025. It entered a $17 million judgment for the FTC and required Cleo to pay that amount, which Cleo said it was holding in escrow, within 7 days of entry.On April 30, 2025, the judge denied Cleo’s request to permanently seal parts of the complaint, and the unredacted complaint was refiled in early May.
On July 8, 2025, the FTC asked the court to order Cleo to show cause why it should not be held in contempt and sanctioned under the settlement order. Six days later, on July 14, the FTC withdrew the motion, and the judge denied it as moot on July 15. The filings available publicly do not say what prompted the motion or how it was resolved, and neither the FTC nor Cleo has commented on it. There has been no activity on the docket since.
What the FTC Alleged
According to the FTC’s complaint, Cleo’s ads promised users access to cash advances of hundreds of dollars, but few users received amounts close to what was advertised. The FTC also alleged that advances promoted as same-day or instant required an extra fee, and could still take until the next day even after that fee was paid. The complaint further alleged that Cleo made its monthly subscription hard to cancel, including by telling some users they could not cancel while an advance was still outstanding.Cleo settled the case. Beyond the payment, the order bars Cleo from misrepresenting the amount, timing or fees of its advances. It also requires the company to disclose subscription terms clearly, get users’ informed consent before charging them, and offer a simple way to cancel. The FTC said the $17 million would be used for refunds to consumers harmed by the practices it described.
What Cleo Users Should Do Now
There is nothing to file. When the FTC starts a refund program, it typically uses the company’s own records to find eligible people and sends payments automatically, by check or PayPal, and it posts the details on its official refunds page. The FTC has not said which Cleo users will qualify.Any message claiming to be a Cleo refund before the FTC posts a program should be treated as suspect. The FTC never charges a fee to receive a refund and never asks for a bank password or payment to release one.
Questions
When will Cleo AI refunds be paid?
No date has been announced. The FTC has not opened a Cleo AI refund program or named a refund administrator. Based on how FTC refund programs usually move, our best-case estimate is that a refund announcement could come in late 2026, but that is an estimate, not an official date, and it could be later.
Do I need to file a claim for a Cleo AI refund?
No claim form exists. The FTC usually identifies eligible people from the company’s own customer records and pays them automatically, and it announces any claim process on its official refunds page if one is needed.
Did Cleo AI pay the $17 million?
The public record does not say. The order required payment within 7 days of its April 2025 entry. In July 2025 the FTC asked the court to order Cleo to show cause why it should not be held in contempt, then withdrew that motion six days later. Neither the court nor the FTC has publicly explained how it was resolved.
What did the FTC accuse Cleo AI of?
The FTC alleged that Cleo advertised cash advances of hundreds of dollars that few users actually received, charged extra for same-day or instant delivery that could still arrive the next day, and made it hard to cancel its paid subscription. Cleo settled the case.
Sources
• FTC — Cleo AI settlement announcement (March 27, 2025)• FTC — Cleo AI, Inc., FTC v. case page
• FTC complaint (PDF)
• Stipulated order (PDF)
• Court docket — FTC v. Cleo AI, Inc., No. 1:25-cv-02594 (S.D.N.Y.)
• FTC — active refund programs
