Pending updates

Learn how to handle payment failures when updating subscriptions.

Updating a subscription generates a new invoice when:

The subscription requires payment for the first time, such as the end of a trial period.
The billing period changes.
Changing the subscription causes a proration and proration_behavior=always_invoice.

Many subscription updates don’t generate new invoices or trigger pending updates, including:

Configuration changes (payment methods, tax settings, retry settings)
Metadata updates on subscriptions or subscription items
Discount applications (applied to future invoices)
Billing threshold adjustments
Setting cancel_at_period_end to true
Adding one-time charges with add_invoice_items

These updates apply immediately without payment implications. For a complete list, see What doesn’t trigger prorations.

By default, Stripe applies updates regardless of whether payment on the new invoice succeeds. If payment fails, rolling back the updates is a manual process. You need to create a new invoice, prorate items on the invoice, and then initiate payment again. However, with the pending updates feature, you can make changes to subscriptions only if payment succeeds on the new invoice.

Before you begin

You can use pending updates if the subscription’s collection_method is charge_automatically and when the subscription’s payment method is either a card or Link.

Update the subscription
Server-side

You can use pending updates with the update subscription, create subscription item, and update subscription item calls. When you make the update, set payment_behavior=pending_if_incomplete. The example below adds a new price to a subscription. Because proration_behavior=always_invoice, an invoice is created and payment is attempted when the update is made.

If payment succeeds, the subscription is updated. If payment fails, the Subscription object that’s returned contains a pending_update hash with the changes:

{
  "id": "sub_49ty4767H20z6a",
  "object": "subscription",
  "application_fee_percent": null,
  "pending_update": {
    "expires_at": 1571194285,
    "subscription_items": [
      {
        "id": "si_09IkI4u3ZypJUk5onGUZpe8O",
        "price": "price_CBb6IXqvTLXp3f"
      }
    ]
  },
}

Handle failed payments
Client-side

After making the update, check the pending_update hash on the subscription or listen for the customer.subscription.updated event in your webhook. A populated pending_update hash means the payment failed and your subscription update isn’t applied.

Build logic to handle payment failures due to card declines and customer authentication requests:

For card declines, attach a new payment method to the customer. Then use the pay endpoint to pay the invoice that the update generates.
For customer authentication, follow the requires action flow.

A successful payment immediately applies the changes in the pending_update hash and updates the invoice to paid.

If payment fails again, the pending_update hash remains on the subscription with the original expiry date and no changes are applied.

OptionalCancel or change pending updates
Server-side

Supported attributes for pending updates

Pending updates only support attributes that control proration behavior or generate new invoices.

The update subscription endpoint supports the following attributes:

expand
payment_behavior
proration_behavior
proration_date
billing_cycle_anchor
items
- price
- quantity
trial_end
trial_from_plan
add_invoice_items

The create subscription item and update subscription item endpoints support the following attributes:

expand
payment_behavior
proration_behavior
proration_date
price
quantity

Expired updates

If you don’t take any action after an update fails, Stripe voids the invoice and discards the update after it expires.

A pending update’s expired_at time matches the first occurrence of either the trial end or the earliest items.current period end. This applies if either time is within 23 hours of the update request. Otherwise, the expiration is 23 hours from the update request.

Stripe also automatically voids the invoice and removes the pending update if any of the following occurs:

The subscription reaches a billing threshold.
A subscription schedule linked to the subscription transitions to a new phase.

Pending updates events

Use webhooks to listen for the following events related to pending updates:

Event	Purpose
`customer.subscription.updated`	Receive notifications for subscriptions, checking for the `pending_updates` hash and resolving payment failures if needed.
`customer.subscription.pending_update_applied`	Receive notifications when pending updates are applied so that you can take further actions like upgrading, downgrading, provisioning, or deprovisioning services.
`customer.subscription.pending_update_expired`	Receive notifications when pending updates expire or are automatically voided, and if needed, try the update request again.

Pending updates and subscription schedules

You can use both pending updates and subscription schedules to manage subscriptions. A schedule phase change discards a pending update and voids the associated invoice. Retry the update request after the phase transition if needed.

Metered items

If a subscription includes metered items, Stripe bills any outstanding usage on the pending update invoice. However, if the pending update expires before payment, Stripe discards this usage, which prevents any subsequent invoices from billing for them.

If the pending update removes a metered price, Stripe disregards any usage reported between the pending update’s creation and the resulting invoice payment. You can’t bill for that usage. However, if billing_mode=flexible is on the subscription, Stripe bills for usage when removing a metered price.