Recurring plans

A recurring plan is a reusable template that defines the pricing and billing rules for recurring payments. A plan defines the billing model, amount, billing frequency, billing schedule, renewal behavior, setup fee, trial configuration, and number of billing cycles.

After you create a plan, use its planId to create recurring payments for consumers. You can retrieve all plans, get details for a specific plan, update a plan, or perform lifecycle actions on a plan. Recurring payments inherit the plan configuration, but you can override supported plan settings for an individual recurring payment as required.

The recurring plan serves as a foundation on which a recurring payment is built.

Features

The following features help you create and customize your recurring plan.

Recurring plan features
Feature	Description
Plan type	Choose the recurring business model for your plan. Select from three `planType` options: `Subscription`, `Installment`, and `Deferred`. Subscription: Defines a recurring payment schedule with a predetermined billing amount. The plan uses either a standard amount for all consumers or a customized billing amount for individual consumers. Installment: Define a recurring billing arrangement with a fixed number of billing cycles. Configure this plan type with a positive `planAmount` and a `totalBillingCycleCount` greater than zero. Deferred: Defines a billing arrangement in which payment begins on a required future `startDate`, which must be after today and no later than one year from today. Payment begins after a deferred period.
Plan amount	Set the price you charge consumers for your plan by passing the `planAmount` and `currencyCode` fields.
Billing schedule	Set the billing frequency of the recurring plan by passing the `billingFrequencyUnit` (`DAY`, `WEEK`, `MONTH`, `YEAR`) and `billingFrequencyCount` (1,2,3,4, ...) fields. Common billing frequencies include: Daily Weekly Monthly Quarterly Yearly For example, to set up a recurring plan that charges your consumer once every quarter, set `billingFrequencyUnit` to `MONTH` and `billingFrequencyCount` to `3`. To charge your consumer once every 7 weeks, set `billingFrequencyUnit` to `WEEK` and `billingFrequencyCount` to `7`.
Plan status	Select the status of the recurring plan. You can immediately activate a plan or keep it in draft for future editing. By default, the status is `DRAFT`. Draft: Use this status to edit a recurring plan before marketing it. Edit all fields of the plan as needed. Active: After finalizing the plan details, set the status to `Active` to enroll consumers.
Auto-renewable plans	Setting `autoRenew` = `true` on a recurring plan allows recurring payments created from that plan to auto-renew. Each recurring payment retains its own `auto-renew` setting. Installment payments do not auto-renew.
Trial support	A subscription plan includes a trial period and a date window during which the trial offer is available.

Supported plan types

Recurring Billing supports the following plan types.

Supported plan types
Plan type	Use cases	Features
Subscription plans	Streaming services Membership programs Software subscriptions Service contracts	Recurring billing schedules Optional trial periods Auto-renewal support Subscription lifecycle management
Installment plans	Tuition payment programs Payment plans Purchases paid over a fixed number of charges	Fixed payment count Predetermined payment schedule Installment-based billing model
Deferred plans	Promotional billing Deferred subscription enrollment Delayed billing programs	Delayed billing start Future activation of scheduled payments Deferred payment collection model

For information on how to manage a recurring plan, refer to manage recurring plans.

Manage recurring plans

Recurring plans

Features

Supported plan types

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