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Public preview

Configure trial offers on subscriptionsPublic preview

Offer free or paid trials for items in a subscription.

Use the Trial Offer API to manage both free and paid introductory periods for your subscriptions with a single API integration. Trial offers enable you to qualify high-intent leads, reduce trial abuse, and provide discounted rates to your customers for a limited duration (for example, 1 USD for the first week of an offer).

Use cases

With trial offers, you can run promotional pricing and product offering experiments directly in Stripe. Common use cases for trial offers include:

Use case Description
Discounted trials To improve trial-to-paid conversion and generate revenue, you can set up discounted trials. For example, you offer a reduced introductory price of 4 USD for 4 weeks or a free 7-day trial.
Free trials To offer a free trial subscription, include a 0 USD item in the subscription.
Upgrade trials To upsell premium features, you can configure upgrade trials. For example, you offer a customer on a basic plan a 7-day trial to access premium features at the basic rate. Then, when the trial ends, you automatically convert them to the premium rate.
Item-level trials To sell add-ons, AI packs, and other feature bundles, you can set up item-level trials. You can offer customers a trial for a single line item in a subscription while billing other items at their regular price.

Before you begin

Limitations

  • Trial offers apply to recurring subscription items only. Non-recurring items aren’t eligible for paid trials or discounted trial pricing.
  • Dashboard and customer portal support is limited during public preview. You can use both the dashboard and customer portal to view trial offers created using the API, but you can’t use them to create, manage, or modify trial offer items.
  • You can’t modify the trial length after you create the subscription or schedule trial extensions and reductions.
  • Trial Offer API and trial_end limitations:
    • You can’t use trial offers and the legacy trial_end parameter together. We recommend using the Trial Offer API to configure discounted trials and free trials.
    • If you use Checkout, you can’t use trial offers. To create trialing subscriptions through Checkout, you must use legacy free trials with trial_end. See Configure free trials.

How trial offers work

Products describe the specific goods or services you offer to your customers and Prices define the unit cost. A subscription charges a customer for those products, at the specified price, on a recurring basis. When you create a trial offer, you specify a trial price and a duration of the trial for a product. When the trial ends, the subscription automatically transitions to the regular price or another price you configure.

Trial offers don’t replace products or prices. Trial Offer is a separate object that attaches a discounted or free price to a Subscription item for a limited time, without modifying the item’s underlying price.

Create a trial offer

To create a trial offer, pass a price using the price.id to define the cost during the trial period. You can set this to 0 USD for free trials or any positive amount for paid trials. Next, set the trial duration.type to relative (based on billing intervals) or timestamp (based on an absolute date). For relative duration, use iterations to define the number of billing intervals. Then, define what happens when the trial ends using the end_behavior. Use transition to specify the price.id that the subscription transitions to when the trial ends.

Create a trial offer with a relative duration

Command Line
cURL
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curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/product_catalog/trial_offers \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -H "Stripe-Version: 2026-03-25.preview" \
  -d "price=
{{PRICE_ID}}
" \
  -d "duration[relative][iterations]=1" \
  -d "duration[type]=relative" \
  -d "end_behavior[transition][price]=
{{PRICE_ID}}
"

Create a trial offer with a timestamp duration

Command Line
cURL
Stripe CLI
Ruby
Python
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No results

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/product_catalog/trial_offers \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -H "Stripe-Version: 2026-03-25.preview" \
  -d "price=
{{PRICE_ID}}
" \
  -d "duration[type]=timestamp" \
  -d "end_behavior[transition][price]=
{{PRICE_ID}}
"

Attach a trial offer to a new subscription

To attach a trial offer to a subscription, specify the trial_offer.id in the items.current_trial.trial_offer parameter:

Command Line
cURL
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No results

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/subscriptions \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -H "Stripe-Version: 2026-03-25.preview" \
  -d "customer_account=
{{CUSTOMER_ACCOUNT_ID}}
" \
  -d "billing_mode[type]=flexible" \
  -d "items[0][current_trial][trial_offer]=to_123" \
  -d "items[0][quantity]=1"

Update subscriptions with a trial offer

Add a trial offer to an existing subscription

To add a trial offer to an existing subscription, specify the trial_offer.id in the items.current_trial.trial_offer parameter:

Command Line
cURL
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No results

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/subscriptions/
{{SUBSCRIPTION_ID}}
 \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -H "Stripe-Version: 2026-03-25.preview" \
  -d "items[0][current_trial][trial_offer]=to_123"

Add a trial offer to a subscription with existing items

To add a trial offer as another item to a subscription that has existing items, add an item to the items array and specify the trial_offer.id in the items.current_trial.trial_offer parameter:

Command Line
cURL
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No results

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/subscriptions/
{{SUBSCRIPTION_ID}}
 \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -H "Stripe-Version: 2026-03-25.preview" \
  -d "items[0][id]=
{{SUBSCRIPTION_ITEM_ID}}
" \
  -d "items[1][current_trial][trial_offer]=to_123" \
  -d "items[1][quantity]=1"

Convert a subscription item to a trial offer

To convert an existing subscription item to a trial offer, include the items.id and specify the trial_offer.id in the items.current_trial.trial_offer parameter:

Command Line
cURL
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No results

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/subscriptions/
{{SUBSCRIPTION_ID}}
 \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -H "Stripe-Version: 2026-03-25.preview" \
  -d "items[0][id]=
{{SUBSCRIPTION_ITEM_ID}}
" \
  -d "items[0][current_trial][trial_offer]=to_123"

Change the item quantity for a trial offer

To modify the item quantity for a trial offer, update the subscription:

Command Line
cURL
Stripe CLI
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No results

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/subscriptions/
{{SUBSCRIPTION_ID}}
 \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -H "Stripe-Version: 2026-03-25.preview" \
  -d "items[0][id]=
{{SUBSCRIPTION_ITEM_ID}}
" \
  -d "items[0][quantity]=2"

Add a trial offer to a subscription schedule

You can only use timestamp trial offers with subscription schedules. Unlike relative duration trials, which end after a set number of billing intervals, timestamp trials end on an absolute date. To create one, set the trial offer’s duration.type to timestamp:

Command Line
cURL
Stripe CLI
Ruby
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No results

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/product_catalog/trial_offers \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -H "Stripe-Version: 2026-03-25.preview" \
  -d "price=
{{PRICE_ID}}
" \
  -d "duration[type]=timestamp" \
  -d "end_behavior[transition][price]=
{{PRICE_ID}}
"

Next, use phases.items.trial_offer to attach the trial offer to the schedule phase of the subscription schedule:

Command Line
cURL
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curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/subscription_schedules \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -H "Stripe-Version: 2026-03-25.preview" \
  -d "customer_account=
{{CUSTOMER_ACCOUNT_ID}}
" \
  -d start_date=1610403705 \
  -d "phases[0][items][0][trial_offer]=to_123" \
  -d "phases[0][end_date]=1610403706"

View subscriptions with trial offers

When you retrieve a subscription, the response includes the configuration for each item, including trial offers:

Command Line
cURL
Stripe CLI
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No results

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/subscriptions/
{{SUBSCRIPTION_ID}}
 \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -H "Stripe-Version: 2026-03-25.preview"

Cancel a subscription at the end of a paid trial

To cancel the subscription when the paid trial ends, create a subscription with a trial offer and set the cancel_at parameter to the end of the trial period.

This pattern supports opt-in renewals by ensuring customers aren’t converted to a recurring subscription by default.

Command Line
cURL
Stripe CLI
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No results

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/subscriptions \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -H "Stripe-Version: 2026-03-25.preview" \
  -d "customer_account=
{{CUSTOMER_ACCOUNT_ID}}
" \
  -d "items[0][current_trial][trial_offer]=to_123" \
  -d "items[0][quantity]=1" \
  -d cancel_at=1610403706

Use trial offers with other features

Trial offers with usage-based billing

When creating a Price object, you can specify a metered price instead of a recurring price and attach it to a trial offer. This lets you offer the same usage-based billing functionality at a discounted price.

To use a metered price, set the usage_type to metered and add an existing meter to track usage.

Command Line
cURL
Stripe CLI
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No results

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/prices \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -d currency=usd \
  -d billing_scheme=per_unit \
  -d unit_amount=1 \
  -d "recurring[interval]=week" \
  -d "recurring[usage_type]=metered" \
  -d "recurring[meter]=mtr_123" \
  -d "product_data[name]=Trial Period Price"

Next, attach the price to a trial offer as you would with any other recurring price:

Command Line
cURL
Stripe CLI
Ruby
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No results

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/product_catalog/trial_offers \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -H "Stripe-Version: 2026-03-25.preview" \
  -d "price=
{{PRICE_ID}}
" \
  -d "duration[relative][iterations]=1" \
  -d "duration[type]=timestamp" \
  -d "end_behavior[transition][price]=
{{PRICE_ID}}
"

Additional considerations

Subscription trialing status and trial offer

When using trial offers, a subscription’s status is determined by the price of the trial:

  • Free Trials (0 USD): If a subscription only contains trial offers, and all trial offer prices are set to 0 USD, the subscription status is trialing. This matches the legacy trial_end behavior and is ideal for “no-card-required” or standard free trial flows.
  • Paid Trials (>0 USD): If the subscription has a regular price item, or the trial offers have a non-zero price, the subscription status will be active, incomplete, or past_due. This behavior mimics other subscriptions without trial offers. Because a paid trial requires an immediate successful payment to begin, the subscription follows the standard PaymentIntent lifecycle. This ensures that your existing billing logic—such as webhooks for successful payments—remains consistent, whether the customer is paying a promotional price or the full recurring amount.

Events

Every time a trial changes, it triggers Events. Make sure that your integration handles them. For example, you might want to email a customer before a trial ends. Learn more about handling subscription events.

The following table describes the events that trigger before a free trial ends, when a trial subscription pauses or cancels, and when a subscription resumes and becomes active.

Event Description Use case
customer.subscription.deleted Sent when a subscription ends. Stop providing access to your product in response to this event. The subscription moves to the canceled status and sends this event after a free trial ends without a payment method, and if the subscription’s missing_payment_method end behavior is set to cancel.
customer.subscription.resumed Sent when a subscription is no longer paused. When you receive this event, grant the customer access to the product if they lost access while the subscription was paused. Paused subscriptions are converted into active subscriptions they resume. Resuming a subscription might generate an invoice and corresponding Payment Intent that must be paid before the subscription moves out of the paused status.
customer.subscription.paused Sent when a subscription is fully paused. Invoicing won’t occur until the subscription resumes. When you receive this event, you can revoke the customer’s access to the product until they add a payment method and the subscription resumes. Stop providing access to your product in response to this event. The subscription moves to the paused status and sends this event after a free trial ends without a payment method and if the subscription’s missing_payment_method end behavior is set to pause. The subscription remains paused until explicitly resumed.
customer.subscription.trial_will_end Sent 3 days before the trial period ends. If the trial is less than 3 days, it triggers this event immediately. Configure the subscription to automatically send an email to your customer 3 days before the trial period ends.

Setting a billing anchor when a trial offer ends

When a trial offer ends and transitions to the regular recurring price, customers need to begin a fresh billing cycle immediately. By default, the subscription’s billing_cycle_anchor automatically resets to the time the trial ends (now). This ensures that your customers are charged the full amount for their first regular interval immediately, without generating prorations.

If you don’t want your billing_cycle_anchor to change, you can set it to unchanged.

Configuration options for billing_cycle_anchor include:

  • now (default): Resets the subscription’s billing_cycle_anchor to the exact time the trial offer completes. This creates a new billing cycle for the regular price and generates a full-amount invoice with no proration.
  • unchanged: Maintains the original anchor from when the subscription was first created. The period between the trial end and the next natural anchor date are billed as a prorated amount.

For example, if you offer a 7-day trial for 1 USD and want the first 20 USD monthly charge to cover a full month starting on day 8:

  1. Jan 1: Subscription created with a 7-day trial offer.
  2. Jan 8: Trial ends. The billing_cycle_anchor automatically resets to Jan 8.
  3. Invoice: Stripe generates an invoice for the full 20 USD recurring price for the period of Jan 8–Feb 8. No proration is applied.
Command Line
cURL
Stripe CLI
Ruby
Python
PHP
Java
Node.js
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.NET
No results

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/subscriptions \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -H "Stripe-Version: 2026-03-25.preview" \
  -d "customer_account=
{{CUSTOMER_ACCOUNT_ID}}
" \
  -d "items[0][price]=
{{PRICE_ID}}
" \
  -d "items[0][current_trial][trial_offer]={{TRIAL_OFFER_ID}}" \
  -d "trial_settings[end_behavior][billing_cycle_anchor]=unchanged"

See also

On this page
Proxying: stripe.com/de-lu/docs/billing/subscriptions/trials ✕