Trial Management

You can let prospects or buyers try out your product or service for a limited period before switching them to a paid subscription. Trials are independent of the normal billing cycle and plan price.

Using Free Trial, you can set the number of days an account can be in trial mode. Once the trial days are over, Chargebee automatically converts it to an active subscription and attempts to process the first payment.

Can I extend a trial subscription?

Yes. Trial days can be specified in the plan. If you need to change or extend a customer's trial days, you can do so by editing the subscription. Trials can also be extended through the API using "trial_end" in the update a subscription section. The time component of the trial is only applicable if your site's billing mode is millisecond-based.

Collecting card info during trial sign up

If you are using Chargebee's In-app checkout, you can choose to skip collecting card details at sign-up. If you are using APIs, you can choose to collect card details at sign-up or at a later time during the trial period.

Can a card be charged during trial?

Yes. If a subscription is in trial and card details are available, you can charge the card and change the subscription from trial to active immediately through the Chargebee user interface or using APIs.

Trial expired, no card info, what next?

At the end of the trial period, the customer's card information is required to charge for the subscription. When the trial expires, there are two scenarios to consider if there are no card details saved in the customer's records:

• Auto Collection - OFF: The subscription will move to Active state and the invoice generated will be in Payment Due state.
• Auto Collection - ON: The subscription will move to Canceled state and the invoice will not be generated.

What if the card info provided is invalid?

After the trial period is over, Chargebee automatically tries to charge the customer. If the card details on file are invalid or incorrect and the transaction fails, Chargebee will go through the dunning (retry) process.

You can configure the dunning period and intervals in the Dunning Settings. If it is a recurring subscription, the final action set in the dunning setting (When dunning period ends, what happens to subscriptions?) will take place. If not, the payment method will be marked as invalid and the invoice will be marked as Not Paid. You can ask the customer to add an alternate payment method or make an offline payment and record it in the invoice.

Extending trial on a canceled subscription

If you need to reactivate a canceled subscription, you can do so. When reactivating the subscription, you can also set a new trial date/time for it. Once activation is complete, the subscription will be in trial.

Can I create a paid trial subscription?

You certainly can. Sign up a customer with a trial plan and add a charge that will be invoiced immediately.

Note: When you want to sign up a customer for a paid trial, you need to have the card info.

Emailing customers who are in trial

Yes, you can send emails informing customers about the remaining days in their trial with options to upgrade to an active subscription. Currently, emails are sent to trial users 6 days before the trial ends. Email automation and configuration on a user-defined frequency can be accessed via Configure Chargebee > Email Notifications > Trial Management > Edit default emails to customize mail frequency or add new notifications.

Changing to a plan with different trial days

Switching plans during trial is certainly possible with Chargebee. The new plan configurations will override the existing one. If the new plan does not have trial days, credit card details must be present on the subscription and the customer will be charged immediately.

If you are changing to a plan that has more trial days than your current plan, the subscription will automatically update to the new plan and deduct the number of days already used.

If the new plan has fewer trial days than the current plan, the customer will be invoiced immediately.

Why can't I set the time while changing the trial end date?

Check the billing mode setting in Chargebee. If it is set to day-based billing, the time component of the trial end date is implied as 23:59:59.999 hrs.