How Billing Works
How your billing behaves based on what you and your customers do
Commet does the right thing by default. Every billing decision follows one rule:
If a change benefits your customer, it applies immediately. If it harms them, it applies at renewal.
No configuration needed. This is how every scenario works.
Quick Reference
When You Make Changes
| What you do | What happens to existing customers |
|---|---|
| Raise the price | They keep their current price until renewal |
| Lower the price | They keep their current price until renewal |
| Change usage-based pricing | New price applies starting next period |
| Increase limits or included seats | They get it right away |
| Decrease limits or included seats | Keeps current limits until renewal |
| Add a feature to a plan | They get it right away |
| Remove a feature from a plan | Keeps the feature until renewal |
| Deprecate a plan | They keep their plan, nothing changes |
| Delete a plan | You choose: cancel them or migrate them (at renewal) |
| Delete a customer | Their subscription ends immediately |
| Change a free plan's included balance/credits | Updates right away for everyone on the plan |
When Your Customer Makes Changes
| What they do | What happens |
|---|---|
| Upgrade to a more expensive plan | Immediate — they get credit for unused days and pay the difference |
| Downgrade to a cheaper plan | Keeps current plan until renewal, then switches |
| Switch from free to paid | Immediate — pays full price, no credit (free = $0) |
| Switch from monthly to yearly | Immediate |
| Switch from yearly to monthly | Keeps yearly plan until it expires, then switches |
Automatic Events
| What happens | What your customer experiences |
|---|---|
| Trial starts | They use the product, no charge. Overage is blocked — usage stops at included limits |
| Trial ends | They're charged the current price, overage activates normally |
| Payment fails | They keep access while we retry — canceled only if all retries fail |
| Canceled subscription | They'd need to start a new subscription at the current price |
Decision Tree
Who makes the change?
│
├── YOU (Dashboard)
│ │
│ ├── Does it benefit your customer?
│ │ ├── YES (more limits, new feature) → IMMEDIATE
│ │ └── NO (fewer limits, higher price) → AT RENEWAL
│ │
│ ├── Free plan?
│ │ └── Activated instantly, no checkout. Can still buy credits/balance/add-ons
│ │
│ ├── Trial plan?
│ │ └── Card captured, tries product (overage blocked), can buy extras, charged when trial ends
│ │
│ ├── Deleting a plan?
│ │ └── Choose: cancel or migrate to another plan → AT RENEWAL
│ │
│ └── Deleting a customer?
│ └── Subscription ends → IMMEDIATE
│
└── YOUR CUSTOMER (Portal)
│
├── Upgrading?
│ └── IMMEDIATE — pays the difference for remaining days
│
├── Going from free to paid?
│ └── IMMEDIATE — pays full price
│
├── Downgrading?
│ └── AT RENEWAL — enjoys current plan until it expires
│
└── New plan has lower limits than their current usage?
└── Allowed, but they'll see a warning about extra costsExplore Each Topic
- Pricing Changes — What happens when you change your prices
- Plan Changes — Upgrades, downgrades, and switching plans
- Billing Intervals — Monthly, quarterly, and yearly billing
- Invoices — What invoices your customers receive and when
- Proration — How mid-cycle charges are calculated
- Trials — How trial periods work
- Free Plans — How free plans work
- Payment Failures — What happens when a payment fails
- Seats — How seat-based billing works
How is this guide?