Free trials

Free trials let your users explore paid Features for a limited time for free, helping them build confidence in a purchase decision. With Clerk Billing, you can turn on free trials for any Plan, or set the same trial period across all your Plans.

For help choosing between a free trial, a 100% Discount, or a complimentary price, see Free and complimentary access.

Enable free trials

To enable free trials for your Plans:

1. In the Clerk Dashboard, navigate to the Subscription plans⁠ page.
2. Select the Plan you want to enable free trials on.
3. Enable Free trial and set the number of trial days (between 1 and 365).

Payment method requirement

By default, users must provide a payment method to start a free trial. This helps prevent abuse and ensures a smooth transition to a paid service when the trial ends.

You can disable this requirement to allow users to start a free trial without entering payment details during checkout. To do so:

1. In the Clerk Dashboard, navigate to the Billing Settings⁠ page.
2. Toggle off the Require payment method for free trials option.

What your users experience

Starting a trial

A user can receive one free trial in an application. To be eligible, a user must:

• Have a verified primary email address.
• Not have held a paid Subscription.
• Not have used a free trial with that email address. Trial usage is tied to the verified primary email address, so deleting an account and signing up again with the same email address doesn't grant another trial.

Users who aren't eligible go through the regular paid checkout instead.

To detect when a trial starts, listen for the subscriptionItem.active webhook event and check that the event's data.is_free_trial property is true.

During a trial

Users get access to the Plan's paid Features for the configured number of days. The following rules apply during the trial:

• If a user cancels their Subscription during their trial, they keep access until the original trial end date. Once the trial ends, they are moved back to the free Plan and are not charged.
• If a user switches to a different paid Plan during an active free trial, their current trial ends and they are charged for a full billing period of the new Plan. They receive access through the new paid Plan and are not granted another free trial.

When the trial ends

What happens when the trial ends depends on the Subscription's state and payment method:

• If the Subscription was canceled or no default payment method is on file, the user is moved to the free Plan and is not charged.
• Otherwise, Clerk attempts to charge the default payment method on file. This may be different from the payment method used during checkout. If the payment succeeds, the paid Subscription begins. If it fails, the user is moved to the free Plan immediately. Failed free trial renewals do not receive a grace period.

If the trial hasn't been canceled, both you and your users will receive notifications when it is about to expire:

• You'll receive a subscriptionItem.freeTrialEnding webhook event 3 days before the trial expires.
• Users receive an email notification 3 days before their trial expires.

If the trial period is shorter than 3 days, these notifications are sent immediately when the trial begins.

Manage trials

You can manually change the duration of a user's trial:

• Cancel at the end of the trial: Cancel the trial while allowing the user to keep access to the paid Features until the trial period ends. This prevents their default payment method from being charged when the trial period ends.
• End immediately: Immediately move the user back to the free Plan and terminate their access to the paid Features they were trialing.
• Extend a trial: Make a user's trial last longer. You must extend a trial by at least 1 day and no more than 365 days.

You can only manage the trial of a user while the trial is active. Once a trial ends, you can no longer extend or cancel it.

To manage a trial for a Subscription:

1. In the Clerk Dashboard, navigate to the Billing > Subscriptions⁠ page.
2. Select the user whose trial you want to manage.
3. Under Subscriptions, open the three-dot menu to see the available actions for managing the trial.