What charges are applied when upgrading or downgrading?

Playing with money is no fun. We just try to avoid it.
Written by Victor Pisarciuc
Updated 3 weeks ago

We use the Prorate method when Upgrading or Downgrading Subscription Plans

This means that if you upgrade or downgrade at any point during your current billing cycle, you will immediately be billed or refunded the difference compared to the previous subscription, rather than waiting for your changes to take effect on the next billing date.

More precisely, proration handles the increase or decrease of the subscription price when a price changes during any period of a subscription. We calculate the value you did not use from the original subscription plan (based on the number of days remaining before renewal). Separately, we calculate the value of the remaining days of the new plan (at the new rate), and then you receive a single, net refund or charge for the adjustment.

For example, changing from a $20 monthly plan to a $40 monthly plan on day 15 of the first-month results in a significant difference that you would not capture for another 15 days. By using the Prorate option, you will be charged the $10 difference immediately. The charge amount is calculated as follows:

Charge for New Subscription Plan

If the old and new subscription plans have the same period length or if the new subscription period is longer than the old subscription period, then the charge for the new subscription plan is calculated by multiplying the new price by the ratio of unused days left on the new subscription to total days in the period of the new subscription. For example, if the old subscription was monthly and a change was made on January 16 to a new $100 per year subscription, then the new charge would be $100 * (365-16)/365.


If the new subscription period is shorter than the old subscription period, then the charge will be the full-price plan for the new subscription.

Refund Portion of Old Subscription

When making changes to a current subscription, the refund will be a portion of the old subscription plan calculated by multiplying the old subscription plan price by the ratio of unused days left on the subscription plan to the total days in the period of the subscription. For example, if the old subscription was purchased on January 1 for $10 per month and a change was made on January 16 to a new yearly subscription, then the refund will be $10 * (16 /31). Additionally, the shipping price will also be prorated. Although proration does not work automatically for on-demand subscriptions because you can only prorate if the subscription has a renewal date, the prorate is obtainable with a manual refund. Therefore, you can prorate from a normal subscription to an on-demand subscription, but not the reverse.


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