Plans, subscriptions, customers, pricing models, and billing cycles - the building blocks of Billing & subscriptions.
Billing & subscriptions is built on a small set of objects: a plan defines what customers pay, a subscription attaches a customer to the plan, and Revolut collects each payment on schedule. This page explains how those objects fit together and how pricing models, subscription states, and billing cycles work. By the end, you'll be ready to pick the right pricing model and create your first plan.
Core concepts
Billing & subscriptions is built around the following core objects:
| Concept | What it is | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Plan | The terms customers are billed under - pricing model, billing interval, currency, and optional phases such as trials | "Pro Monthly": £29/month with a 14-day free trial |
| Subscription | A customer's attachment to a plan, tracking its billing cycle, payment schedule, and state | Alice's subscription to "Pro Monthly", active and billed monthly |
| Customer | The person or business subscribing to a plan, with a saved payment method | A customer with two subscriptions on different plans |
One plan can power many subscriptions for multiple customers. Each subscription tracks its own state independently - cancelling one customer's subscription doesn't affect other customers on the same plan:
Pro Monthly and Pro Annual could also be modelled as two variations of a single plan - see Plans.
Plans
A plan defines the terms under which customers are billed. A plan specifies the pricing model, billing interval (for example, monthly or annual), currency, and any optional phases such as free trials or promotional pricing. You create plans once and attach multiple customers to the same plan.
For example, you might create a plan called "Pro Monthly" that charges £29/month with a 14-day free trial. Every customer who subscribes to that plan inherits those terms.
A plan can also offer multiple pricing options - for example, monthly and annual variations of the same product - where each variation runs as its own billing schedule and can consist of sequential phases, such as a trial phase followed by standard billing.
Subscriptions
A subscription connects a customer to a plan. When a customer signs up, Revolut creates a subscription that tracks the billing cycle, payment schedule, and current state. Revolut automatically collects payments according to the plan's schedule - you don't need to trigger each payment manually.
A subscription can run indefinitely (until cancelled) or for a pre-defined number of billing cycles, depending on how you configure the plan.
Customers
A customer is the person or business subscribing to a plan. Customers provide their payment method when they sign up. Revolut saves the payment method securely and uses it for all subsequent automatic charges in that subscription.
A customer can have multiple subscriptions, each on a different plan. For example, a customer might have one subscription for a monthly software licence and another for a usage-based API plan.
How it works
Every subscription is shaped by what its plan charges (pricing models), what happens to the subscription over time (subscription states), and when it charges (billing cycles).
Pricing models
Plans can use any of the following pricing models, individually or in combination:
| Pricing model | How it works | Example | Dashboard | API |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed / flat-rate recurring | A fixed amount charged at each billing interval. | £9.99/month for a basic plan. | Yes | Yes |
| Per-seat / per-unit | A per-unit amount multiplied by the number of seats or units the customer subscribes to. | £5/user/month for 10 users = £50/month. | Yes | Yes |
| Usage-based (metered) | Charges based on actual usage you report during the billing period, priced per unit or in volume tiers. | £0.10 per API call; customer made 1,000 calls = £100. | No | API only |
| Free trials | A trial period before the first payment is collected. | 14 days free, then billing begins automatically. | Yes | Yes |
| Introductory & promotional phases | Discounted or custom pricing for a limited number of billing cycles. | 50% off for the first 3 months, then standard price. | Yes | Yes |
| Instalments | A larger charge split into multiple recurring payments over a set period. | £600 total split into 6 monthly payments of £100. | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-currency | Plan prices defined in multiple currencies for different regions. | £19/month in GBP, $24/month in USD. | Yes | Yes |
| Package / bundle | A single price for a predefined set of features or services. | £29/month for the "Pro" package including 5 features. | Interim* | Interim* |
* An interim approach is available - see the relevant section below for details.
You can combine multiple pricing models within a single plan - all combined charges are collected at the same time, in the same billing cycle. For example, a plan can charge a fixed base rate of £10/month plus £3 per seat, with a 14-day free trial.
Fixed / flat-rate recurring
The simplest pricing model. You charge a fixed amount at a regular interval - for example, £29/month or £290/year.
When to use:
- Single-tier SaaS plans
- Membership services with one membership level
- Subscription boxes with a fixed monthly price
Annual plans with a discount compared to the monthly equivalent are a common way to improve retention and cash flow. For example, Pro Annual costs £290/year instead of paying £29/month for 12 months (£348) - a saving of £58.
Per-seat / per-unit
You charge based on the number of units or "seats" a customer uses. The total amount is calculated as the per-unit price multiplied by the customer's quantity.
When to use:
- Team-based SaaS where pricing scales with team size
- Per-device or per-licence software
- Services priced per user (for example, £12/user/month)
If you bill seats as usage - reporting the seat count via the API during the billing period - you can add or remove seats throughout the cycle, and the final charge reflects the usage you report. See Adjust seat count.
Usage-based (metered)
You bill customers based on their actual usage of a service - for example, API calls, gigabytes stored, or messages sent. Revolut bills the customer for the usage you report at the end of each billing cycle.
When to use:
- Cloud infrastructure (storage, compute, bandwidth)
- API platforms with per-call pricing
- Pay-as-you-go services with a recurring base fee
Tiered per-unit pricing. A usage item is priced either with a flat per-unit rate or with graduated tiers - different per-unit rates at volume thresholds. For example: £0.10 per call for the first 1,000 calls, £0.08 per call for the next 4,000, and £0.05 per call beyond that. Tiers are defined on the usage item itself, as an alternative to the flat per-unit price - not as a separate pricing model.
Usage reporting is available via the API only. The dashboard displays usage-based subscriptions and their charges, but you cannot report usage from the dashboard. See Build a usage-based subscription for the usage-reporting workflow.
Free trials
Offer a free period at the start of a subscription before the first charge. A free trial lets customers evaluate your product risk-free before committing.
When to use:
- New customer acquisition for SaaS products
- Reducing signup friction for high-value plans
- Letting customers evaluate features before paying
Revolut requires a valid payment method at sign-up, even for free trials.
If a customer cancels during the trial period, no charge is made. The subscription ends immediately and no further billing occurs.
Introductory & promotional phases
Offer a discounted rate for a limited time at the start of a subscription, then transition to the standard price. For example, "50% off for the first 3 months, then £19/month".
When to use:
- Launch promotions for new products
- Seasonal campaigns (for example, January sale)
- Competitive switching incentives
- Rewarding early adopters
Promotional pricing can be combined with free trials. For example, offer a 14-day free trial followed by 3 months at a discounted rate, then the standard price.
Instalments
Allow customers to pay for a product in fixed instalments over a set period. For example, "£100/month for 6 months" for a £600 product. The subscription automatically ends after the final instalment.
When to use:
- High-ticket products sold on payment plans
- Financing options for physical goods
- Course or certification fees spread over time
Instalment plans are distinct from open-ended subscriptions - they have a defined end date, and the subscription moves to finished after the final instalment.
Cancelling an instalment subscription early doesn't trigger an automatic or pro-rata refund of the remaining amount - you need to initiate the refund yourself.
Multi-currency
Bill customers in their local currency to reduce friction and improve conversion. Each plan is created with a specific currency, so to offer the same plan in multiple currencies you create one plan per currency (for example, a £19/month plan in GBP and a $24/month plan in USD).
When to use:
- International customer bases
- Reducing declined payments from currency mismatch
- Displaying prices in the customer's local currency at checkout
Create matching plans in each currency with locally appropriate pricing rather than converting at a fixed rate. This lets you account for regional purchasing power and local pricing conventions.
Package / bundle
Combine multiple products or services into a single subscription at a bundled price. For example, "Basic + Add-on module for £25/month" instead of purchasing each separately.
When to use:
- Multi-product bundles
- Feature packages at a single price point
Support status: Bundle pricing as a single plan with multiple components is under consideration. As an interim approach, create a single plan that represents the bundle price, or use the API to create multiple subscriptions for the same customer and manage them as a group.
Subscription states
Every subscription is always in exactly one state - no transitory states exist for subscription. Here is a quick overview about each state:
| State | Description |
|---|---|
pending | Subscription created, not yet activated - awaiting the first payment or, for trial plans, the customer's payment method |
active | Billing running on schedule |
overdue | Subscription has a failed payment attempt |
cancelled | Subscription ended - no further billing |
finished | All billing cycles of a fixed-cycle subscription completed - no further billing |
Final states (cancelled, finished) are terminal - a subscription cannot be reactivated. To resume billing, create a new subscription for the customer.
For the full lifecycle — every state transition, its trigger, and how to handle it in your integration — see Subscription lifecycle.
Billing cycles
A billing cycle is the period between two scheduled payments. The cycle length is determined by the plan's billing interval - for example, a monthly plan bills once per calendar month, and an annual plan once per year.
First payment. When a customer signs up for a plan without a free trial, they must make the first payment to activate the subscription. Until the first payment is received, the subscription stays in pending state. Once the customer pays, Revolut saves their payment method and all subsequent charges are collected automatically.
If the plan includes a free trial, the subscription is created in pending and moves to active once the customer provides a payment method. The first payment is collected at the end of the trial period.
At the end of each billing cycle, Revolut automatically charges the customer's saved payment method. If the payment succeeds, the subscription stays active and continues to the next cycle. If the payment fails, the subscription moves to overdue.
Fixed-cycle subscriptions. Some plans have a pre-defined number of billing cycles - an instalment plan, for example, might run for 6 monthly payments. Once all cycles are completed successfully, the subscription moves to finished state - no further payments are collected.