It is possible to update the subscription price for currently subscribed students, but the exact steps depend on your payment processor.
Applies to:
- Plan: Start, Grow, Expand, Pro, Pro + Growth, Premier, Plus
- Roles: Site Owner, Site Admin
About This Feature
When an existing subscription or payment plan price is changed, the available options to update the subscription for currently subscribed students depend on your payment processor.
If you are using Thinkific Payments, you have the option to apply the update to existing subscriptions at the moment you make updates to the price or apply updates manually. If you are using Stripe, you have multiple options to update the subscription price for existing paying students.
Updating Subscription Price in Thinkific Payments
If you use Thinkific Payments and would like to update the price of an existing subscription:
- For individual students, this can be done within a student's profile from the Users table. To do this, follow our guide here: Change Subscription Price.
- For multiple students with existing subscriptions, you can apply a new price to all of your existing subscribers when updating the subscription price. To do that:
- Follow these steps to open the Pricing tab of the product you want to edit the subscription price for: Create a Subscription Price for Your Product
- Find the subscription price you want to edit
- Select three ellipses
- Select Edits
- Make necessary edits
- Select Save
- Select whether to apply the new price to new subscriptions only or to new and existing subscriptions
- Select Download list of affected subscribers to see the list of affected subscribers
- Use Thinkific's mass user email or your email provider to notify customers of the upcoming changes
- Once communicated, check the I have communicated this change to existing subscribers box to confirm you have communicated the changes
- Click Update pricing
If you applied changes to new and existing subscriptions, you will receive an email confirming the changes have been made and scheduled.
Important Considerations
- At the moment, existing subscriptions can only be updated for subscriptions set as a primary price. Changes to existing subscriptions who purchased using additional pricing options or a monthly payment plan are not supported.
- When applying the price change to existing subscribers, the new price takes effect at each subscriber's next billing cycle that occurs at least 30 days after you apply the change. The notice and waiting period cannot be adjusted.
- When applying the price change to new subscribers, the new price takes effect immediately.
- It is your responsibility to notify the existing subscribers about the change in their subscription.
- Changes applied to existing subscribers apply to Active and Past Due subscribers; subscribers currently in a free trial are not impacted.
- You cannot schedule a second bulk price change while one is still pending.
- Any discount coupons on a subscriber's subscription are removed when the price change takes effect.
- Once confirmed, the scheduled change cannot be undone. To reverse it, apply a new bulk update (if no change is currently pending) or update affected subscribers individually.
- You cannot update subscriptions for existing subscribers if you have changed your currency after these subscriptions have started (i.e. if the present currency of your site and the currency in which subscriptions are paid are different).
Updating Subscription Price in Stripe
If you are using Stripe, have made changes to your subscription pricing, and need to update the price for currently subscribed students, you have 3 options:
- Option 1: Ask Students to Cancel and Re-register
- Option 2: Manually End Enrollment and Cancel Subscription in Stripe
- Option 3: Manually Edit the Existing Subscription in Stripe
Option 1: Ask Students to Cancel and Re-register
Your student can choose to cancel their subscription by going into My Account > Billing on your site and clicking the Cancel button. This will remove the subscription within Stripe as well. The student can then re-register for the course at the new price plan and subscription.
See detailed student instructions here: How can students manage their billing?
Option 2: Manually End Enrollment and Cancel Subscription in Stripe
The Site Owner/Admin can end the enrollment for the student in that specific course however, they will still need to manually cancel the subscription in Stripe. Ending an enrollment in Thinkific does NOT cancel the subscription in Stripe.
Once the subscription is canceled in Stripe, the student can then re-register for the course at the new price plan and subscription in Thinkific.
Learn more here:
Option 3: Manually Edit the Existing Subscription in Stripe
It is also possible to edit a student's current subscription price in Stripe. This method does not require any changes in Thinkific. It will update the student's subscription to your new price and ensure the subscription is still tied to Thinkific.
Once you create a new price in Thinkific and save that price, it is pushed to Stripe and you will see it as a new Stripe product. The Stripe product name automatically populates with your course or bundle name, so it should be easy to locate in your Stripe account.
To edit the subscription price for existing students, you will need to change the Stripe price associated with their existing subscription. You do not need to delete the subscription in this case, however, you will need to update the subscription for your student. To do this, remove the existing product and add your new Stripe price (the updated price) to the student's existing subscription. See How to Update a Subscription in Stripe (below) for step-by-step instructions.
Please note that updating the Stripe product does not change the course or bundle that a student is enrolled in on Thinkific. The student will continue to be enrolled in the same course or bundle as initially enrolled at the beginning of their subscription unless they re-register in a different course or bundle themselves.
This is performed entirely in Stripe. Since this is outside of Thinkific, we are not able to assist or troubleshoot this method. We recommend reaching out to Stripe directly if you have any questions.
How to Update a Subscription Plan in Stripe
- Make sure an order has already gone through for your new subscription price. If no one has purchased at the new price yet, you can create an order by using a 100% off coupon and signing up as a test student for your new price.
- Go into your Stripe Dashboard
- Under Billing, click Subscriptions
- Choose the customer whose subscription pricing you want to update
- Click Update subscription
- Under the current pricing plan, click the three dots and choose Remove product
- Click Add product and find the pricing plan you want to change it to
- If you don’t want your pricing change to be pro-rated to the current billing cycle (ie. you don't want your student to be charged right now), click Pro-ration off in the top of the screen
- Click Update subscription in the top right
And that's it! Now your student will be charged at the new price going forward.