By default, WooCommerce Subscriptions require manual intervention to cancel a subscription to avoid accidental cancellations. However, we can cancel a subscription programmatically.

cancel-subscription-programmatically.php

add_action( 'woocommerce_subscription_status_updated', 'auto_cancel_pending_cancellations', 10, 3 );

function auto_cancel_pending_cancellations( $subscription, $new_status, $old_status ) {
    // Ensure we are dealing with a valid subscription object
    if ( is_a( $subscription, 'WC_Subscription' ) ) {
        // Check if the new status is 'pending-cancel'
        if ( 'pending-cancel' === $new_status ) {
            // Attempt to cancel the subscription
            try {
                $subscription->update_status( 'cancelled' );
                // Optionally log the cancellation
                error_log( 'Subscription ID ' . $subscription->get_id() . ' has been automatically cancelled.' );
            } catch ( Exception $e ) {
                // Log any errors
                error_log( 'Error cancelling subscription ID ' . $subscription->get_id() . ': ' . $e->getMessage() );
            }
        }
    }
}