Set the billing cycle date in Checkout
You can explicitly set a subscription’s billing cycle anchor to a fixed date (for example, the 1st of the next month) in Checkout.
For the initial billing period up until the anchor, you can customize how to handle prorations with the proration_behavior parameter. By default, proration_behavior
is set to create_prorations, and customers receive a prorated invoice. If proration_behavior
is none, customers receive the initial period up to the billing cycle anchor for free.
Starting on the billing cycle anchor, customers are billed the full subscription amount. The billing cycle anchor and the recurring interval of its price determine a subscription’s future billing dates. For example, a monthly subscription created in Checkout on May 15 with an anchor at June 1 is billed on May 15, then always on the 1st of the month.
Create a Checkout Session with a billing cycle anchor
To configure a billing cycle anchor, set the subscription_data.billing_cycle_anchor
parameter when you create a Checkout Session in subscription
mode.
The anchor must be a future UNIX timestamp before the next natural subscription billing date.
If the billing cycle anchor is during a session’s active period and a customer attempts payment after it has passed, Checkout displays and charges for the full period starting with the billing cycle anchor instead of the prorated period before the billing cycle anchor.
Disable prorations
To disable prorations, set the subscription_data.proration_behavior
parameter to none when creating a Checkout Session.
Similar to a free trial, the initial period up to the billing cycle anchor is free. Unlike a trial, no 0 USD invoice is generated. Customers receive an invoice with the full subscription amount on the billing cycle anchor date.
In the Checkout Session response object, amounts attached to the line items and total details are always 0 when prorations are disabled. Additionally, the payment status of the Session is set to no_payment_required
to reflect that payment is delayed to a future date.
Current limitations
- You can’t use trials in Checkout with a billing cycle anchor.
- One-time prices can’t be used in Checkout Sessions when
proration_behavior
is none. - You can’t apply
amount_off
coupons to Checkout Sessions with a defaultproration_behavior
of create_prorations.