Changing your plan
How upgrades and downgrades actually work, what happens to your quota, and why there's no proration.
Plan changes happen on Billing & settings. Each paid plan has a button; clicking one sends you to Stripe Checkout, and the change lands when the payment succeeds.
Read this page before you click. The mechanics aren't what most subscription products do, and the difference costs money if you assume wrong.
What actually happens#
A plan change is not an edit to your existing subscription. It's a new subscription that replaces the old one:
You check out on the new plan
Stripe charges the new plan's full price, immediately. Checkout tells you what it's about to do above the submit button.
A new billing period starts now
Not at your old renewal date. Today becomes day one of the new period, and your next renewal is one month from today.
Your quota is refreshed to the new allocation
Immediately, and from zero — not carried over, not topped up. On Growth you get a fresh 500,000 for the new period regardless of what you'd already spent this month.
Your old subscription is cancelled
Automatically, as soon as the new payment lands. You're never on two subscriptions at once.
There is no proration
Unused time on your old plan is not credited against the new one and not refunded automatically. If you upgrade from Starter to Growth on day 25 of a month, you paid $49 for that month and you pay $199 now — the five remaining Starter days are simply gone.
This applies to downgrades made with the in-app plan buttons too, and it's worse there: switching Growth → Starter charges you $49 today and cancels the Growth subscription you'd already paid for. Downgrade through the Stripe portal instead — see below.
The practical rule: change plans near your renewal date, not just after it. If you're mid-period and not blocked, waiting costs you nothing and switching costs you the remainder.
If a change went badly wrong — you clicked the wrong tier, or upgraded a day after renewing — write to [email protected] before doing anything else. See also the refund policy.
Upgrading#
Upgrading is the one case where the mechanics work in your favour: the new, larger quota is live immediately, so an upgrade is the fastest way out of an exhausted quota. You don't wait for the next calendar month. See your quota.
Downgrading#
There are two routes to a cheaper plan, and they do different things. This is the distinction worth getting right:
| In-app plan button | Stripe customer portal | |
|---|---|---|
| Takes effect | Immediately | At the end of the period you've paid for |
| Charges you | The new plan's full price, today | Nothing today; cheaper price at next renewal |
| Current period | Cancelled and lost | Kept, at the limits you paid for |
The portal route is what most people mean by "downgrade", and it wastes nothing — you keep the plan you already bought until it runs out, then the cheaper one starts. Open it from Billing & settings → Manage billing / invoices.
Use the in-app button only when you want the change now and accept paying for it now.
If you're unsure which one you want, ask [email protected] before clicking. Reversing a downgrade you didn't mean is a refund conversation, and the refund policy doesn't refund price differences by default.
Moving to Free#
There's no Free button, because Free isn't something you buy. To get to Free, cancel — you keep paid access until the period ends, then the account drops to Free's 500 requests per month and 10 requests per minute. Your keys keep working the whole time.
Buying the same plan again#
The app rejects re-buying a plan you're already on, with one exception: Scale. Scale is the top tier, so there's no upgrade available when a Scale account exhausts its 5,000,000 requests — re-purchasing Scale refreshes the quota with a new allocation and starts a new period, at full price. It's an escape hatch, not a discount.
On any other plan, the same-plan button is disabled and a direct API call is refused; the answer there is to move up a tier.
Promotion codes#
Stripe Checkout shows an "Add promotion code" field. If you have a code, enter it there — it applies to the subscription created by that checkout.
Billing interval#
Every checkout in the app is monthly. Annual billing exists at 10× the monthly price (two months free) but isn't self-serve — ask [email protected].
Next#
Where the charge shows up, and how to get a VAT invoice.
CancellingStopping at period end, and what survives.