Manage Your Trial and Subscription

Overview

Eligible CntX signups receive a 30-day free trial through Stripe checkout (`trial_period_days`). During trial you can explore onboarding, context setup, calendar generation, and integrations subject to plan limits.

When the trial ends, you must activate a paid subscription to avoid interruption. Ongoing subscription changes—payment method, cancellation, seat quantity—run through the Stripe Customer Portal, linked from Settings → Billing.

When to use

• You are in trial and want to subscribe before access limits appear.
• You must update a card, download invoices, or add Business seats.
• Trial days remaining show in the header upgrade CTA.
• You upgraded from Pro to Business and need company-level billing.

Before you start

• Sign in as company ADMIN (or the individual payer on Plus / Pro).
• Open Settings → Billing or follow the trial banner / pricing redirect.
• Know your target plan and how many platform seats or contributor add-ons you need.
• Changing plans does not delete context, calendars, or content items.

Steps

1. Check trial status

1. Open Settings → Billing.
2. Note plan name, trial end date, and days remaining.
3. Review seat usage if you invited users during trial.

Trial limits still allow onboarding; generation, crawl, or seat caps may appear as you approach quotas.

2. Subscribe during trial

1. From Billing or the pricing page, choose your plan (Plus, Pro, Business, Agency).
2. Complete Stripe Checkout with payment details.
3. Return to CntX—subscription status should show active or trialing-until-conversion depending on timing.

You can subscribe before day 30 to avoid last-minute checkout friction.

3. Open the Stripe Customer Portal

1. In Settings → Billing, click Customer Portal (or Manage subscription).
2. Wait for redirect to Stripe-hosted billing pages.

From the portal you can:

• Update payment method and billing address
• View and download invoices
• Cancel at period end
• Change plan where Stripe products allow

4. Add Business seats or contributor add-ons

For Business company subscriptions:

1. Invite users under Settings → Users until you need more than three platform seats.
2. Add CONTRIBUTOR platform users if external collaborators require login (2 €/month each).
3. Confirm Billing reflects updated quantities after Stripe sync.

Seat changes may take a webhook cycle to appear—refresh after a minute if counts lag.

5. Handle trial expiration

If trial ends without payment:

• Upgrade prompts and pricing redirects appear on login.
• Some generation or crawl actions may block until subscription is active.
• Data remains stored; activating a plan restores entitlements.

6. Upgrade path examples

• Plus → Pro — gain multi-user sharing and more workspaces via individual subscription update.
• Pro → Business — move to company billing with centralized user management and unlimited workspaces.
• Business → Agency — add portfolio management; client companies hold production quotas.

Use checkout or portal flows presented in-product—do not create duplicate companies.

Expected result

• Billing page shows accurate plan, trial, or active status.
• Stripe portal opens reliably for payment maintenance.
• Seat counts match invited users and billed contributor seats.
• No data loss when converting from trial to paid or changing tiers.

Tips

• Subscribe a few days before trial ends if crawls or calendar generation are business-critical.
• On Pro, remember each invited user carries their own subscription—even during trial coordination.
• Email-only contributors never require seat changes; platform CONTRIBUTOR seats do.
• Portal errors (`billing portal URL unavailable`) usually clear after re-login—contact support@cntx.app if persistent.

Next step

If you are closing the account, read Cancel or Delete Your Account. Agencies should also review Manage Delegated Companies before canceling gateway access clients still rely on.