Create one-time payment, subscription-based, or payment plan pricing for your courses and bundles with Thinkific Payments!
Thinkific Payments is currently in a private Beta. We will notify you when it is available to all customers.
In this article:
Create a One-Time Payment Price for Your Course or Bundle
Create a Subscription Price for Your Course or Bundle
Create a Payment Plan for Your Course or Bundle
Add Additional Prices for Your Course or Bundle
Managing Multiple Student Payments from the Orders Table
About This Feature
We know that generating sales is a crucial aspect of growing your business. We also know that time spent on payments is time not spent teaching. That’s why we’ve launched Thinkific Payments - to help you sell more courses and spend less time doing it!
As part of Thinkific Payments, our new built-in checkout is regularly tested and optimized to help maximize conversions. As well, order tracking, refunds, and payouts are now built right into Thinkific.
How It Works
Thinkific Payments allows you to accept payment from students through Thinkific's Built in Checkout - without connecting with a third-party payment provider. In the past, our built-in checkout required you to connect with Stripe or Paypal to process payments. Now with Thinkific Payments, all you need is a Thinkific account and a bank account to start selling your courses.
Once you've set up your Thinkific Payments account, you'll see the options for one-time payments, subscription-based pricing, and payment plans in the Thinkific Course Builder.
Student refunds, orders, recurring payments, and payouts to your bank account are all tracked in your Admin Dashboard.
Important Considerations
- At this time, Thinkific Payments supports course pricing and payments in USD and CAD.
- If you previously used Stripe or PayPal to process payments on Thinkific, you can log into your Stripe or PayPal account for records of any student payments that were processed before signing up for Thinkific Payments.
- Only the Site Owner can set up or make changes to a Thinkific site's Thinkific Payments account.
- The Site Owner, Site Admins, and Course Admins can set a course or bundle's pricing, however, changes made by Course Admins will be sent to the Site Owner/Site Admins for review.
Set Your Course Pricing
First, make sure to set up your Thinkific Payments account, and then you can start pricing your courses and bundles! Check out the pricing options below for information on each pricing option.
Create a One-Time Payment Price for Your Course or Bundle
For instructions on how to set up one-time payment pricing for your products check out our guide: Create a One-Time Payment for Your Course or Bundle.
Create a Subscription Price for Your Course or Bundle
For instructions on how to set up subscription pricing for your products check out our guide: Create a Subscription Price for Your Course or Bundle.
With Thinkific Payments, you have the option to set the subscription payment frequency to Day(s) and Week(s), as well as the standard options of Month(s) or Year:
Create a Payment Plan for Your Course or Bundle
For instructions on how to set up payment plan pricing for your products check out our guide: Create a Payment Plan for Your Course or Bundle.
Add Additional Prices for Your Course or Bundle
For instructions on how to set up additional prices for your products check out our guide: Provide Additional Prices For Your Course or Bundle.
Managing Student Payments
Recurring student payments for subscriptions and payment plans can be viewed in the Orders Report and Users tabs of your Admin Dashboard.
To review an individual student's payments for subscriptions and payment plans:
- Click Support Your Students in the navigation menu on the left-hand side of your Admin Dashboard
- Select Users
- In the Users table click on a student's Full Name to view their profile
- Select the Payments tab
The Payments tab will only appear in a user's profile if they have purchased a subscription or payment plan using Thinkific Payments.
Viewing a Student's Payments Table
Once you navigate to the Payments tab in your student's profile, you will see all of their subscription and payment plans that were purchased through Thinkific Payments:
This table shows:
- Product - The title of the course or bundle
- Status - The payment status of the subscription or payment plan (see below for more information)
- Price - The price of the subscription or payment plan. If you have set up a custom first payment for subscription pricing, this value will also appear in the Price column
- Created - The date and time (in your timezone) the subscription or payment plan was purchased
- Last updated/payment - The date and time (in your timezone) of the most recent payment for a subscription or payment plan
- Canceled date - The date and time (in your timezone) a subscription or payment plan was canceled
Subscriptions and payment plans can have the following statuses:
- Active - Recurring payments are ongoing, the student is up-to-date on payments and has access to the course or bundle
- Canceled - Recurring payments have been canceled, and the student does not have access to the course or bundle. This status is displayed when either the student or creator cancels the recurring payments (see below for more information)
- Past due - A payment for a subscription or payment plan failed. The student does not have access to the course or bundle (see below for more information)
- Closed - This status is for payment plans only and is displayed when all payments have been made. The student will have access to the course or bundle until the enrollment expiry date
Cancel a Student's Subscription or Payment Plan
If you need to cancel a student's subscription or payment plan you can do so from the Payments table:
- Click the ellipses (3 dot icon). This button will only show for products with Active or Past due statuses
- Select Cancel Subscription or Cancel Payment Plan
- Type cancel into the text field
- Click to Cancel Subscription or Cancel Payment Plan. Please note that this action will finalize the cancelation
Once the cancelation is complete, the Status of the subscription or payment plan will automatically update to Canceled in the Payments table. The student will lose access to the course or bundle on the date their next recurring payment was due (i.e. at the end of their current billing period).
Students can cancel subscriptions from their account profile on your Thinkific site. For more information check out our guide: How can students manage their billing and credit card information?
Failed Payments
If a student's recurring payment fails, the Status in the Payments table will show as Past due and the student will lose access to the course or bundle.
Thinkific Payments will then retry the failed payment four times over a three-week period. By default, students will be notified via email if their subscription or payment plan payment fails.
If the payment is not successfully captured after three weeks, the subscription or payment plan will be canceled. Students will then have the option to re-enroll in the course or bundle. Student progress in a course or bundle is saved even if a subscription or payment plan is canceled or past due.
Managing Multiple Student Payments from the Orders Table
To review multiple students' orders check out the Orders table in the Orders Report. This table shows all student orders made through Thinkific's Built in Checkout - including orders processed through Thinkific Payments.
For more information on which orders were processed through Thinkific Payments, see our article: Did my student's purchase go through Thinkific Payments, Stripe, or PayPal?
Refund a Student's Order
For instructions on how to refund a student's order from the Orders table check out our guide: Thinkific Payments: Refunds.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Thinkific Payments cost to use?
Thinkific Payments costs the same as Stripe to use.
If you're located in Canada, the fees for successful transactions are 2.9% + 30 cents, +0.8% for adaptive acceptance, +0.6% for international cards, and +2% if currency conversion is required.
If you're located in the United States, the fees for successful transactions are 2.9% + 30 cents, +0.8% for adaptive acceptance, +1% for international cards, and +1% if currency conversion is required.
If you're looking for more information about fees, please email payments-support@thinkific.com.
I signed up for Stripe originally, what happens when I sign up for Thinkific Payments?
When you sign up for Thinkific Payments, all payments going forward will be processed through Thinkific Payments. If you previously integrated with Stripe for recurring payments, you can log into your Stripe account for records of any payments that were processed before signing up for Thinkific Payments.
Can I switch back to Stripe if I don't like Thinkific Payments?
Absolutely. Please email payments-support@thinkific.com for assistance.
Is Thinkific Payments available to Creators outside the USA and Canada?
Thinkific Payments is currently in a private Beta and only available to Creators based in the USA and Canada.
Students do not have to be located in the USA or Canada to purchase courses from Creators using Thinkific Payments.
How do my students get receipts?
Thinkific Order Receipts will send automatically - when enabled - for orders made through Thinkific's Built in Checkout, including payments processed through Thinkific Payments. For more information about automatic order receipts and how to enable them, check out our article: Student Order Receipts and Payment Notifications.
Students can view their Order History from their Student Account and Profile. Students also have the option to print order summaries from this area of their account.