Overview

Required plan

This feature or setting is available to all customers on any Recurly subscription plan.

Prerequisites

• A valid billing contact email address must be configured on your Recurly site for fallback notifications
• Sender Authentication is strongly recommended before going live with custom from addresses

Limitations

• Email notifications are only sent to valid email addresses; addresses ending in @test.com or @example.com are treated as invalid
• The Trial Ending email can only be enabled for plans with a trial length greater than three days
• The Gift Card Balance Low reminder is fixed at seven days before renewal and is not configurable
• The Sender Authentication feature is only available to sites that do not have their own paid SendGrid account

Definition

Email templates in Recurly are predefined layouts and formats that businesses use to send automated or scheduled emails to their subscribers. These templates maintain brand consistency, streamline communication, and ensure the right information reaches customers at every stage of the subscription lifecycle.

Important: To stay compliant with regulations and standards such as PCI-DSS and HIPAA, avoid including sensitive information — such as protected health information or credit card numbers — in your email templates.

Key benefits

• Consistent branding: Every email your subscribers receive reflects your brand's identity and voice, without requiring manual effort on each send.
• Increased efficiency: Automating repetitive communications frees your team to focus on higher-value work.
• Personalized communication: Dynamic parameters let you tailor each email to the individual recipient, making messages feel relevant rather than generic.
• Fewer errors: Predefined formats reduce the risk of mistakes that come with manually drafted communications.
• Stronger engagement: Well-structured, on-brand emails give subscribers the information they need and build trust over time.

Key details

Email notification templates

Recurly offers a comprehensive set of email notification templates covering account actions, billing events, subscription changes, gift cards, and dunning scenarios. All templates are in English by default unless you modify them.

When no valid email address is associated with an account, notifications are sent to the site's billing contact instead.

Debt collection email notifications

To support compliance with the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), Recurly gives merchants the option to send all payment-related emails between 2:00 – 4:00 PM ET daily. Emails that would otherwise send outside that window are held and delivered the following day during the same timeframe.

This setting is available on the Site Settings page. When enabled, it applies to the following templates:

• New Invoice
• New Subscription
• Trial Ending
• Bill Date Reminder
• Term Renewal Reminder
• Mastercard Reminder
• SEPA Renewal Reminder
• BACS Renewal Reminder
• Credit Card Expired
• Ramp Price Change
• Gift Card Balance Low
• Payment Declined
• Payment Declined Due to 3D Secure 2
• Invoice Past Due
• Expired for Non-Payment

Header and footer templates

• Email header: An optional section that can be added to the beginning of all email templates
• Email footer: An optional section that can be added to the end of all email templates

Account templates

• Activate account: Sent when a customer creates an account using their subscription email address on your account management portal
• Password reset: Sent automatically when someone requests a password reset
• Password has been reset: Notifies customers that their password was changed, helping maintain account security

Invoice templates

• New invoice: For manual payment collections — sent when a manual invoice is generated or a new subscription with manual collection is initiated
• New credit invoice: Sent when a credit invoice is generated and posted manually
• Payment confirmation: Confirms a successful payment transaction, excluding $0 invoices and new subscriptions. Can be configured to send to all customers or only Mastercard users; be sure to include any required cancellation guidelines for Mastercard subscribers
• Payment refunded: Notifies subscribers of a refund on a transaction

Subscription templates

• New subscription: Sent to the customer after a successful sign-up or when a subscription with a future start date is activated
• Subscription change: Notifies subscribers of changes made to their existing subscription
• Subscription pause scheduled: Sent when a subscription is scheduled to be paused
• Pause reminder: Sent [n] days before an upcoming subscription pause (default: seven days; configurable in template settings)
• Pause cancellation confirmation: Sent when a scheduled subscription pause is canceled
• Subscription resume reminder: Sent [n] days before a paused subscription resumes (default: seven days; configurable in template settings)
• Subscription canceled: Sent upon subscription cancellation
• Subscription expired: Sent when a subscription terminates, either immediately or at the end of a post-cancellation billing cycle
• Trial ending: Sent before the trial period ends, informing the customer of the upcoming transition to a paid subscription. Required by law in many regions. Only available for plans with a trial length greater than three days

Subscription renewal templates

• Bill date reminder: Sent before the upcoming billing date
• Term renewal reminder: Sent before the renewal or billing date to keep subscribers informed
• 6-month reminder: Sent every six months that a subscription is active, in compliance with specific regional regulations
• Annual reminder: Sent yearly from the subscription start date, in compliance with specific regional regulations
• Mastercard reminder: Sent before the billing date to Mastercard users, including required subscription cancellation instructions per Mastercard policies
• SEPA renewal reminder: Sent to customers using the SEPA payment method
• BACS renewal reminder: Sent to customers using the BACS payment method
• Credit card expired: Sends a one-time reminder before a card's expiration date, ahead of the next billing cycle. Only triggered for cards that are expiring — not cards already expired at import
• Ramp price change: Notifies subscribers of an upcoming price change in a ramp pricing model subscription

Note: The number of days prior can be configured within the renewal reminder templates.

Gift card templates

• Gift card delivery: Delivered to the recipient immediately after purchase or on a predetermined delivery date
• Gift card purchase confirmation: Confirms the purchase to the buyer after a gift card is bought
• Gift card balance low: Alerts the customer that their gift subscription is nearing its end, prompting them to update their billing information seven days before renewal (this timing is not configurable)
• Gift card redemption reminder: Reminds the recipient to redeem their gift card one month after the delivery date if it remains unused

Dunning management templates

This section lets you create email templates to manage failed payment scenarios. You can set different send intervals, choose the number of messages sent, select specific templates, and determine the final status of a subscription and invoice if payment isn't collected.

• Post-trial payment declined: Part of the trial dunning cycle — alerts subscribers to an unsuccessful payment after their trial ends
• Payment declined: Notifies customers when a payment fails during the regular billing cycle. Multiple messages can be configured to send at different intervals, giving you control over the cadence of reminders
• Payment declined due to 3D Secure 2: Alerts customers to payment declines that require 3D Secure 2 (3DS2) authentication. This email replaces the standard Payment Declined email for applicable transactions and follows the same dunning cycle settings. Supported gateways: Adyen, Worldpay, First Data, Payeezy, and SagePay/Opayo
• Invoice past due: Notifies customers of past-due manual invoices as part of the manual invoice dunning cycle
• Expired for non-payment: Sent during any dunning cycle to notify subscribers their subscription has expired due to non-payment

Customization

Recurly gives you several ways to personalize your email templates — from adding images and dynamic parameters to configuring CC/BCC recipients and custom sender addresses. For a full list of available parameters, see the Parameters section below.

Adding CC or BCC addresses

You can add CC or BCC addresses to any automated email — useful for monitoring customer actions such as cancellations or payment declines.

To add a CC address:

1. Go to your Email Templates page
2. Find the template you want to update and click Customize
3. Click Edit
4. In the CC Email Address field, enter the email addresses you want to copy (separate multiple addresses with a comma)
5. Click Update Email Template to save

To use BCC instead, go to Advanced Settings → Email Settings and check the Send email copies as BCC option.

Changing the from address

By default, your site's primary email address is used for all outgoing emails. Each template can have its own sender address and display name. Use the following format:

"Recurly Support" <[email protected]>

Configuring HTML emails

Recurly automatically sends both plain-text and HTML versions of every email. Subscribers see the HTML version if their email client supports it; otherwise, they receive the plain-text version. You can customize both versions independently or disable the HTML version for individual email types.

Adjusting headers and footers

Your emails include default header and footer content. To remove them from a specific template, delete the {{{header}}} and {{{footer}}} tags from the template body.

Displaying foreign currencies correctly

To render non-US currency symbols correctly, use three curly braces ({{{) instead of two ({{). This preserves the raw text and displays the correct symbols.

Using boolean sections for custom messages

You can personalize emails based on subscription conditions using boolean sections. For example, in a New Subscription email, you might want to show different messaging depending on whether a trial period applies:

{{#subscription_has_trial?}}
  Your account will be billed {{{subscription_total_amount}}} in 10 days.
{{/subscription_has_trial?}}

{{^subscription_has_trial?}}
  Your mandate ID is: {{direct_debit_mandate_id}}.
{{/subscription_has_trial?}}

The ^ character tests that a variable is false. The second block runs only if the customer is not in a trial period.

You can also use this technique to hide content when a value is absent — for example, suppressing the next payment date if none exists:

{{#subscription_next_payment_date}}
  Next Payment Date: {{subscription_next_payment_date}}
{{/subscription_next_payment_date}}

You can apply the same pattern to customize renewal reminders for Direct Debit customers based on whether a mandate ID is present:

{{#subscription_has_trial?}}
  Your account will be billed {{{subscription_total_amount}}} in 10 days.
{{/billing_has_active_mandate?}}

{{^subscription_has_trial?}}
  Your mandate ID is: {{direct_debit_mandate_id}}.
{{/billing_has_active_mandate?}}

Invoice line items

In templates such as New Subscription, Payment Confirmation, Payment Declined, New Invoice, and Invoice Past Due, you can list the invoice line items for your customers:

{{#invoice_line_items}}
{{{line_amount}}} -- {{line_description}}
{{{line_date}}}
{{/invoice_line_items}}

Subscription add-ons

To display the add-ons a customer has subscribed to:

{{#subscription_add_ons}}
{{add_on_name}}
{{add_on_price}}
{{/subscription_add_ons}}

Coupons and discounts

To display coupon details and discount amounts on invoices:

{{#invoice_has_discount?}}
  {{#invoice_discounts}}
  Coupon: {{coupon_code}} // Good For {{coupon_lifetime}}
  {{/invoice_discounts}}
  Discount: {{{invoice_discount_amount}}}
{{/invoice_has_discount?}}

To display active coupon redemptions on a customer's account:

{{#account_has_coupon?}}
 {{#coupons}}Coupon: {{coupon_code}} // Good For {{coupon_lifetime}}{{/coupons}}
{{/account_has_coupon?}}

Note: This won't show single-use coupons that have already been redeemed. Use the invoice discount template above for those cases.

Adding images

To add an image such as your company logo, insert the following HTML in your email header:

<body>
<div style="border-bottom:1px solid #E8E8E8; margin:0px 14px;">
<img style="padding:0px 0px 6px 0px;" src="http://mycompanylogo.gif"/>
</div>

Email deliverability

Sender Authentication

Recurly's Sender Authentication feature lets you verify your DNS records directly from the Email Templates page — the most reliable way to ensure your emails are delivered successfully.

To set it up:

1. Copy the DNS values shown in Recurly
2. Add them to your DNS provider
3. Return to Recurly and click Verify DNS

If a template has a specific "from" address configured, that template name appears under the associated domain in the Sender Authentication panel. Templates using the default sender address are listed as Default Sender.

Note: Sender Authentication is only available to sites that do not have their own paid SendGrid account. If you're using a paid SendGrid integration, refer to the SendGrid documentation instead.

Customizing email preferences

Recurly supports email preference management at both the site level and the plan level.

Site-level customization:

1. Go to the Email Templates page
2. Select the enabled templates you want to update
3. Click Edit next to Settings
4. Toggle the status to your desired setting

Disabling an email at the site level deactivates it across all plans.

Plan-level customization:

1. Confirm the email template is active at the site level
2. Go to Customization → Plans
3. Find the plan you want to update
4. Uncheck the email template box to disable it for that plan

Template management tools

Live email preview

While editing a template, click the Preview button to see a real-time view of your changes before saving.

Sending test emails

To see exactly how an email will appear to your subscribers:

1. Open the email template editing page
2. Click Send Test Email (located next to the Preview button)

If the test email doesn't arrive shortly, check your spam or junk folder.

Resetting templates

Recurly periodically updates its default email templates. These updates won't overwrite your customizations, but if you want to revert a template to the Recurly default:

1. Click Customize on the appropriate email template
2. Click Edit in the "Plain-text Body" or "HTML Body" section
3. Scroll to the bottom and click Reset Template (shown in red; only visible if you've customized the template)
4. Confirm the reset

Resetting a template does not affect the HTML Enabled flag, TO address, BCC address, or subject line.

Parameters

Email parameters are placeholders that automatically pull in personalized details when an email is generated. Use them to make your communications more relevant and accurate.

Best practices:

• Use parameters consistently across templates to avoid confusion
• Only use a parameter where it adds clear context
• Always send a test email after adding new parameters to confirm they render correctly

Basic parameters

Advanced parameters

Template parameters

Company information

For merchants using Multiple Business Entities, the company value merged into each email parameter reflects the Business Entity applied to the associated invoice, or the overriding Business Entity applied to the customer's account.

Subscription plan details

Shipping address parameters for subscriptions

Subscription alteration parameters

Account details

Coupon parameters

Billing information

Invoice details

Line item details

Subscription and add-on information

Subscriptions

Gift card fields

Transaction fields

Direct debit fields

Ramp pricing fields

Custom fields

Recurly supports email parameters for custom fields on Accounts, Plans, Subscriptions, Items, and Charges. This lets you merge custom field values directly into your email templates.

Note: Custom field names may only contain alphanumeric characters and underscores. Special characters in field names are automatically converted to underscores, and sequences of underscores are reduced to a single underscore.

Parameter format:

• Field value: {{account_custom_field_<name>}}
  • Example: {{account_custom_field_has_professional_services_engagement}} merges the value of the custom field "Has professional services engagement" from the account object
• Boolean (yes/no): {{account_custom_field_<name>_<value?>}}
  • Example: {{account_custom_field_does_customer_have_professional_services_engagement}} returns true/false for the field "Does customer have professional services engagement?"

FAQs

How does overriding the trial_ends_at date via API affect emails? If the trial end date is set within three days, the Trial Ending email won't be sent.

Does setting a future start date trigger the Renewal Reminder? Yes, if the date is more than two days out.

What happens if there's no email address on file for an account? The site's default billing contact email is used. Make sure you're collecting or passing the subscriber's email address to Recurly.

Can the Renewal Reminder and Trial Ending emails be configured via API? Currently, these can only be configured through the admin console.

Will changes to email templates affect existing subscribers? Yes — as long as the subscriber's subscription meets the criteria for those emails, they'll receive the updated version.

Can upcoming invoice or subscription details be included in Renewal Reminder or Trial Ending emails? No. These emails reference data available at the time they're generated.

If both the Term Renewal Reminder and the Annual Reminder are enabled and a subscription is renewing at the 12-month mark, which template gets sent? If both templates are configured to trigger on the same number of days prior, only one will send — the Term Renewal Reminder takes priority. To send both, configure them to different day values.

If a merchant enables the Annual Renewal Reminder, will it apply to existing subscriptions? Yes. Once enabled, the Annual Renewal Reminder applies to all subscriptions — both new and existing — for any plans that have the template enabled.