Understand Plans, Subscriptions and Billing

Overview

CntX billing separates who pays from what you build. Your company, workspaces, context, calendars, campaigns, and content items persist across plan changes; upgrading or downgrading adjusts entitlements and Stripe charges, not your editorial history.

Two subscription shapes exist in the architecture:

• UserSubscription — Individual billing for Plus and Pro users. Each user has their own Stripe customer and subscription.
• CompanySubscription — Centralized billing for Business and Agency companies. One Stripe customer per company covers seats and optional add-ons.

Workspaces inherit the effective plan from the company or user context. Quotas for crawl pages, social calls, and storage apply per billing period based on your subscription anniversary—not necessarily the calendar month.

New signups typically receive a 30-day free trial via Stripe Checkout (`trial_period_days`). During trial you can complete onboarding, Context Discovery, calendar generation, and integrations within plan limits. When the trial ends, activate a paid subscription through checkout or the Stripe Customer Portal linked from Settings → Billing.

When to use

Read this guide when you:

• Choose between Plus, Pro, Business, or Agency at signup or renewal.
• Need to know whether a colleague requires a paid seat or can participate as an email-only contributor.
• Hit quota or seat limits during trial or production use.
• Manage Agency owned or delegated client companies with separate billing responsibilities.
• Open Settings → Billing and want invoices, payment methods, or cancellation explained.

Before you start

• Sign in as ADMIN for company-level billing (Business/Agency) or as the individual payer on Plus/Pro.
• Know your team size, workspace count, and whether external collaborators need platform login.
• Understand contributor types (see below)—not every collaborator is billed.
• Changing plans does not delete data; canceling at period end retains read access policies defined by Stripe state and in-product gates.

Steps

1. Plans at a glance

Storage quotas scale similarly (Plus 5 GB, Pro 20 GB, Business 100 GB). Agency acts as a gateway account; owned and delegated Business clients carry their own production usage.

2. Trial and activation

1. Signup offers trial where eligible—complete Stripe Checkout if prompted.
2. During trial, Settings → Billing shows plan name, trial end date, and days remaining.
3. Subscribe before expiration via in-product upgrade or pricing redirect to avoid interruption.
4. After payment, status moves to active; quotas reset on subscription anniversary each period via Stripe `invoice.paid` webhooks.

3. Seats and contributors

Platform users (ADMIN, MANAGER, EDITOR, VIEWER, CONTRIBUTOR with login) consume seats according to plan rules:

• Plus — 1 user.
• Pro — Each invited user holds their own Pro subscription; workspace sharing capped at 3 users on same domain.
• Business — 3 seats included; additional platform seats billed as add-ons. Invite via Settings → Users.

Contributors come in two types:

Email-only contributors do not appear as Stripe seats. Platform contributors with UI access count toward contributor add-ons on Business plans.

4. Manage subscription in Stripe

1. Open Settings → Billing.
2. Click Customer Portal or Manage subscription.
3. From Stripe-hosted pages: update card, download invoices, cancel at period end, or change plan where products allow.

Seat quantity changes on Business may require inviting users first, then confirming updated quantities after webhook sync.

5. Usage quotas and limits

• Crawl jobs increment pagesCrawled toward your plan limit. Exceeding quota stops crawls with status `LIMIT_REACHED`.
• Social listening calls count toward `socialCallsPerMonth` per plan tier.
• Quotas reset on your billing anniversary, not necessarily the 1st of the month.
• Trial users see the same mechanics with trial entitlements—heavy crawl early in trial may surface upgrade prompts.

6. Agency-specific billing

Agency subscriptions cover the operator company. Client companies fall into:

• Owned accounts — Created by the agency; client may be unaware; agency administers billing relationship per commercial agreement.
• Delegated accounts — Existing Business company delegates admin access; client retains their own subscription and pays CntX directly.

Agency gateway quotas are minimal; production crawls and generation consume client company entitlements.

Expected result

You can predict cost drivers: plan tier, seat count, contributor add-ons, and crawl usage. Settings → Billing accurately reflects trial or active state. Inviting a colleague triggers the correct subscription path (individual Pro checkout vs Business seat add-on).

No surprise data loss occurs on upgrade. Workspace limits expand per plan (Plus → single workspace; Business → unlimited). You know where to open Stripe for invoices and cancellation.

Tips

• Pro sharing — Three Pro colleagues on the same email domain share one workspace but each pay individually—confirm finance understands per-user billing.
• Business centralization — Move from Pro to Business when you need role management, unlimited workspaces, and one invoice.
• Contributor confusion — Voice of Field email contacts are not billed seats; CONTRIBUTOR role with login is.
• Quota planning — Large site crawls during onboarding consume pages quickly; prioritize key URLs or stagger discovery.
• Trial expiration — Data remains; activation restores generation and crawl. Do not recreate companies—subscribe the existing tenant.
• Agency clients — Clarify who pays before creating owned vs delegated companies; billing responsibility differs materially.

Next step

Manage Your Trial and Subscription for step-by-step checkout and portal actions. If you operate client portfolios, continue with Use Agency Mode and Manage Delegated Companies.