Plan price increase: What to consider
Master the operational decisions behind a Recurly plan price increase before modifying your billing UI. Learn how to segment subscribers, establish notice timelines for monthly and annual billing cycles, manage customer grandfathering overrides, and safely execute pre-increase legacy plan audits without risking permanent data loss.
Acquire • Plan price increase
What to consider
The decisions to lock in before you touch the UI — segments, timing, grandfathering, and legacy plan cleanup.
Navigation Menu
Navigate Home
What to consider
Know your subscriber segments
Not every subscriber should be treated the same way. Before you migrate anyone, identify which group they belong to — each requires a different approach.
New subscribers
Once you update the plan's price in Recurly, all new subscriptions get the new rate automatically. No additional action needed. Update the plan price first, before communicating the change to existing subscribers.
Active subscribers on the current plan
These subscribers need to be explicitly migrated via API — either at their next renewal (least disruptive) or immediately mid-cycle (unusual; only for significant repositioning). A third option is grandfathering specific accounts at their current rate. See Recurly Docs: Change subscription for the API mechanics.
Subscribers under contract
Review contracts before migrating anyone in this group. If a subscriber's agreement specifies a fixed price or locked renewal terms, you may not be able to apply the increase until that period ends. When in doubt, check with your legal or finance team first.
High-value or long-tenure subscribers
Your highest-value accounts — by revenue, tenure, or strategic relationship — warrant individual consideration. Some are candidates for a personal outreach before the standard notification goes out. Others may be right for grandfathering.
Timing your increase
Moving too fast is the most common mistake. Rushing the timeline leads to subscriber surprise, support volume spikes, and avoidable churn.
Choose your effective date strategically
Avoid major holidays, Q4 renewal peaks for B2B accounts, or any period when your support team is understaffed. Mid-quarter windows with predictable renewal volume work best.
Monthly plans — 30 days minimum notice
Monthly subscribers feel the change at their very next renewal. Give them at least 30 days to decide whether to stay.
Annual plans — 60–90 days minimum notice
Annual subscribers have a larger financial commitment and deserve more lead time. Some may prefer to lock in at the current rate for one more cycle before the new price applies.
Stagger notifications, not the change itself
If your subscriber base is large, send notices in batches over a week to prevent a single-day support spike. The plan price update and migration can happen on one date — the communication rollout can spread out.
Grandfathering strategy
Grandfathering means locking a specific subscriber at their current price while the rest of your base moves to the new rate. It's a powerful retention tool when used deliberately — and a pricing integrity problem when used as a default.
- High-risk churn accounts: A subscriber who has already flagged pricing concerns is a candidate for a retention conversation, not a migration notice.
- Long-tenure advocates: Subscribers who have been with you 3+ years and actively refer others. A grandfathered price is a low-cost loyalty signal.
- Strategic accounts: Subscribers whose logos, referrals, or case studies carry commercial value beyond their subscription revenue.
- Promotional commitments: Anyone who was explicitly promised a locked-in rate as part of a campaign or sales conversation.
If grandfathering becomes your standard response to any pushback, you undermine the price increase entirely. Use it for specific accounts with specific reasons — not as a pressure valve for every complaint.
A grandfathered price is a subscription-level unit amount override. You update the plan price for everyone, then apply a custom unit amount to specific subscriptions to lock them at the old rate. See Recurly Docs: Subscription management guide for the API pattern.
Legacy plan cleanup
Before touching any plan, export your active subscriptions as a baseline — you'll need this for migration and for post-change comparison. See Recurly Docs: Subscriptions export.
In Recurly Subscriptions, there is no "inactive" toggle for plans — plans are deleted. Once deleted, a plan cannot be reactivated, and existing subscriptions on that plan cannot be edited (including price, frequency, and add-ons). Migrate all subscribers off a legacy plan before deleting it. See Recurly Docs: Plans.
- Export active subscriptions before making any changes — this is your pre-change baseline.
- Consolidate overlapping plans: If you have multiple plans priced within a few dollars of each other, simplify before increasing. A confused plan structure makes migration harder.
- Check add-on and coupon interactions: A price increase on the base plan affects how percentage discounts and add-on fees calculate. Confirm whether your increase should affect base price only or net pricing as well. Note: percentage discounts never apply to plan setup fees.