Renewal Optimization

Overview

Renewal Optimization lets you modify subscription pricing and composition across large sets of subscriptions, without writing code or relying on engineering. You can migrate subscribers to new plans, adjust plan and Addon prices, align subscriptions to your current catalog pricing, and more, all through a guided workflow in Chargebee Growth.

Renewal Optimization is designed for growth, monetization, and billing operations teams that need to update pricing and packaging for existing subscriptions without engineering support.

Common use cases include:

• Align to Catalog: Migrate subscriptions to current pricing after a product catalog price increase.
• Per unit to tiered: Migrate customers from legacy per-unit pricing to tiered, volume, or stairstep pricing while preserving their subscription quantity.
• Apply annual or semiannual price increases across your subscriber base.
• Migrate subscribers from a legacy plan to a new plan.
• Apply percentage-based price increases to plans that match specific criteria.

To create, preview, and publish an optimization, see Managing Renewal Optimizations.

Access Renewal Optimization

To open Renewal Optimization, click Renewal Optimization in the left sidebar of your Growth site. You need a Chargebee Growth account, and Chargebee Growth support must enable the feature for that account.

The home screen shows:

• Optimization list: A table of all your optimizations with their name, status (Draft, Running, Completed, and others), and last modified date.
• Archived Optimizations: Workflows that have been archived because they are no longer required.
• Create Renewal Optimization: A button in the top-right corner to start a new optimization workflow.

Select any optimization to open it, or use the menu on the right for additional actions. Use the Filter dropdown to narrow optimizations by status.

Renewal Optimization statuses

Key Concepts

Line-item pricing versus catalog pricing

When you create a subscription in Chargebee, the catalog price is applied. If the catalog price changes later, existing subscriptions retain their original price. This is known as grandfathering. Renewal Optimization applies changes to the price at the line item level in the subscription, not to the catalog plan or Addon price.

For percentage-based adjustments, the calculation uses the current line-item price as the base. For example, if a subscriber is paying $100 (even if the catalog price is $120), a 10% increase sets their price to $110.

A flat-rate increase uses the currency of that plan item. For example, an increase of 1 is a $1 increase for USD or a €1 increase for EUR. If you need different unit amounts by currency, create separate optimizations and filter the audience by the target currency.

Choosing the Align to Catalog option updates the subscription item price to the current value in the product catalog.

Scheduled changes in Renewal Optimization

A scheduled change is a future modification to a subscription that will take effect on a specific date (usually the end of the current billing term). Common examples include a subscriber scheduled to downgrade from 20 seats to 10 seats at their next renewal, a previously scheduled price adjustment, or a cancellation set to take effect at term's end.

When you apply changes immediately, the Renewal Optimization workflow lets you manage scheduled changes for targeted subscriptions. You can choose one of the following options:

• Skip subscriptions with scheduled changes.
• Discard existing scheduled changes.
• Retain scheduled changes as-is.

For how to configure these options, see Handle scheduled changes.

Proration in Renewal Optimization

Proration determines how Chargebee calculates charges when a subscription changes mid-cycle.

• With proration enabled: Chargebee applies prorated credits to the subscription and creates a new invoice with the prorated charges for the remaining days in the billing cycle.
• With proration disabled: There are no mid-cycle charges. The subscriber continues paying the current amount through the end of the cycle, and the new price takes effect at the next renewal.

Disable proration unless you need the price change to generate mid-cycle invoices. Disabling proration avoids unexpected mid-cycle charges for routine price increases.

Subscriptions excluded from Renewal Optimization

Renewal Optimization automatically excludes the following subscription types from any optimization run:

• Paused subscriptions: Cannot be modified while paused. When resumed, they return to their previous state and do not automatically pick up past optimization changes. Create a new optimization targeting those subscriptions after they resume.
• Canceled subscriptions: No longer active.
• Advance-invoiced subscriptions: Already invoiced for future periods.
• Contract-term subscriptions: Bound by contract terms that should not be modified mid-contract.

Renewal Optimization FAQs

Can I combine multiple action types in a single optimization?

Yes, if you turn on Apply optimizations based on conditional logic?. Each rule you add picks its own action type, so one optimization can raise an Addon price for one segment and apply a coupon to another. Each rule holds one action. To apply two actions to the same subscriptions, create two rules with the same condition.

What happens to subscriptions that do not match any action rules?

They are skipped. For example, if you set up a plan change mapping from Plan A to Plan B, but a targeted subscription is on Plan C, that subscription is skipped because Plan C has no mapping.

Can I undo an optimization after publishing?

No. You cannot reverse a published optimization. Changes are applied directly to live subscriptions. Always use the Preview Changes tab to verify before publishing.

What happens to paused subscriptions?

Paused subscriptions are excluded from optimization runs. When resumed, they return to their previous state and do not automatically pick up past changes. You may need to create a new optimization targeting those subscriptions after they resume.

How long does it take for changes to be applied?

Changes are processed asynchronously in the background. Processing time depends on the number of targeted subscriptions. Small runs (hundreds of subscriptions) complete in minutes, while large runs (hundreds of thousands of subscriptions) may take one to two hours.

Does Renewal Optimization modify the product catalog?

No. Renewal Optimization modifies line-item prices on the subscription only. Your product catalog prices remain unchanged.