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Pause Subscription

The pause subscription feature allows you to temporarily suspend billing for a customer without canceling the subscription. It is a strategic retention tool.

Benefits

  • Reduce churn: Prevents cancellations by offering a temporary alternative
  • Preserve revenue: The service remains active for the already-paid period
  • Flexibility: Accommodates situations such as vacations, budget constraints, or seasonal usage
  • Customer experience: Demonstrates commitment to the subscriber's needs

Prerequisites

To pause a subscription, it must:

  • Have a status of active or past_due
  • Cannot be a future subscription, in trial, or canceled

Pause Behavior

When pausing a subscription, you configure:

FieldDescription
BehaviorHow to handle pending invoices
Resume onOptional date for automatic resumption

Behavior for Pending Invoices

BehaviorDescription
mark_uncollectibleMarks pending invoices as uncollectible
keep_as_draftKeeps future invoices as drafts
voidVoids pending invoices

Effects of Pausing

  • Status changes to paused
  • No invoices are generated during the pause
  • No charges are made
  • The current period is not altered
  • Coupons continue to expire normally (they do not pause along with the subscription)
  • MRR: Zero contribution during the pause
  • Analytics: Paused subscriptions count as "active" (not as churn)

Resuming

Manual Resumption

  1. Navigate to the subscription in the dashboard
  2. Click "Resume"
  3. The status returns to active
  4. The pause field is cleared
  5. A new billing cycle begins

Automatic Resumption

If a resumption date (resumesAt) was set, the subscription is automatically resumed on that date.

Events

EventDescription
subscription.pausedSubscription paused
subscription.resumedSubscription resumed

Considerations

  • Each pause must be completed before starting another
  • Changes to the subscription during the pause cancel the scheduled pause
  • Closing the customer's account immediately terminates all paused subscriptions
  • Paused subscriptions do not appear in the "pending billing" list