Ramp pricing lets you define a series of price changes that take effect automatically over a subscription's lifetime. Use it to attract new customers with a lower introductory price that steps up over time, or reward long-term subscribers with a price that decreases as the relationship grows.

Not included in Starter or Pro — contact Recurly Sales to upgrade

1Definition 2Key benefits 3Key details 4Create a plan with ramp pricing 5Create a subscription with ramp pricing 6Edit a subscription with ramp pricing 7Migrate existing subscribers

Prerequisites

Only Bill What Changed must be enabled to use ramp pricing.
If your account was created before May 2018, Credit Invoices must also be enabled. Contact [email protected] to have these features added to your account.

Definition

Ramp pricing is a Recurly feature that lets you define a series of price points — called ramp intervals — that change automatically over a subscription's billing periods. Prices can step up to attract new customers at a lower introductory rate, or step down to reward long-term subscribers with loyalty pricing. Up to 12 intervals can be configured per plan.

Key benefits

Customer acquisition Start subscribers at a lower introductory price that increases over time — a natural way to reduce sign-up friction without permanently discounting your offering.

Customer retention Reward loyalty with a pricing model that decreases over time, giving long-term subscribers a tangible reason to stay.

Future price adjustments Start with a single price point and add ramp intervals later — so you can adapt to market changes or business strategy shifts without rebuilding your plans.

Key details

Ramp pricing is fully compatible with all other Recurly features including coupons, gift cards, trials, aligned renewals, paused subscriptions, plan changes, and subscription modifications.

Ramp intervals

Intervals can represent a price increase or decrease
Up to 12 intervals per plan or subscription
Prices can be set in all currencies configured on your site
Intervals can extend beyond the subscription term; if the term auto-renews, intervals continue at the configured schedule once a new term starts
A subscription must be created from a plan that already has ramp intervals — you can't add ramp intervals to a subscription independently

Pausing subscriptions

Ramp-priced subscriptions can be paused immediately or scheduled for pause
The ramp interval schedule pauses with the subscription and resumes on unpause
Modifying the pricing schedule cancels any scheduled pause and generates an invoice for the next billing cycle

Trials

Trials work alongside ramp pricing. Set the trial duration on the plan — the first ramp interval price is charged once the trial period ends.

Ramp price change email

An email template is available to notify subscribers of upcoming price changes.

Configure the Ramp Price Change template under Subscription Renewal templates in your email settings
The email is sent when a new ramp interval begins
Supported template parameters: next_ramp_interval_start_date and next_ramp_interval_price
If the ramp price change email is scheduled on the same day as other renewal reminders, it takes priority

Exports

A dedicated Subscriptions — Ramp Pricing Export provides detailed information for each ramp interval per subscription. See the export documentation for details.
The Subscriptions, Subscription — History, and Subscriptions — Churned exports now include two additional columns: pricing_model and current_ramp_id

Analytics

Ramp-priced plan performance is available in the Plans, Promotions & Pricing section of Recurly Analytics.

Activity logs

Activity logs capture before-and-after comparisons for changes to a ramp-priced subscription's pricing schedule — useful for support teams verifying whether a change has already been applied.

Checkout and Hosted Pages

Checkout and Hosted Payment Page display the starting price — the price of the first ramp interval. Display additional pricing details on the page your customer is directed from.
Hosted Account Management Page shows the cost of the next ramp interval at the next invoice date.

Salesforce integration

Ramp-priced subscriptions can be created via Salesforce using the default ramp intervals from the plan.

Sandbox to production

Ramp pricing can be tested on all Recurly sandbox and development sites. In production, it's available only on Professional or Elite plans.

When converting a sandbox or development site to a Core production site, all ramp-priced plans are deleted and cannot be edited or re-enabled on the Core plan. Once upgraded to a Professional or Elite plan, ramp-priced plans can be created and used normally.

Changing plans on a subscription

You can change the base plan of a subscription immediately, at the billing date, or at renewal. When changing plans, you can modify the ramp interval schedule for the new plan — including removing introductory intervals and switching directly to the full price — without creating a new plan or saving and re-editing the subscription.

Example

A customer completes the intro ramp interval on a lower-priced plan and is now paying full price. If they want to upgrade to a higher-priced plan, you can move them directly to the full price on the new plan, bypassing its introductory intervals entirely.

Create a plan with ramp pricing

Open the new plan form

Navigate to Configuration → Plans in the Recurly Admin Console and click New Plan.

Fill in the plan details and select Ramp pricing

Complete all required fields. Under Billing Configuration, your end-of-subscription-term setting — auto-renew or expire — won't affect the ramp schedule for the subscription's lifetime. Under Pricing Model, select Ramp from the dropdown.

Set the first ramp interval price

Enter the price per billing period for your first ramp. Prices can increase or decrease depending on your strategy.

Add additional ramp intervals

Click Add another ramp to add more intervals. You can add up to 12 ramps per plan.

Save and review the plan

Once created, the plan appears in the Plans list. The price displayed is the first ramp interval's price.

Edit the plan when needed

Navigate to the plan and select Edit Plan to modify ramp intervals and pricing at any time.

Multiple currencies If your site has multiple currencies enabled, you can set a price for each ramp interval in each currency.

Create a subscription with ramp pricing

Open the add subscription form

In the Recurly Admin Console, navigate to the customer's account and click Add Subscription.

Select the ramp-priced plan

Choose the ramp-priced plan you want to assign to this subscription.

Review the ramp schedule

By default, the subscription uses the ramp pricing schedule from the plan. Review it before proceeding.

Customize the ramp schedule (optional)

To override the plan's default ramp schedule for this subscription, click Edit Pricing.

Apply and save

Make your changes in the side dialog, then click Apply Changes. The updated pricing schedule is reflected immediately. Select Save on the subscription form to finalize.

Edit a subscription with ramp pricing

Note Only immediate changes can be made to a ramp pricing schedule on an existing subscription.

Open the subscription edit form

Navigate to the subscription and click Edit Subscription.

Open the pricing editor

Click Edit Pricing to open the ramp schedule editor.

Make your changes

Add new price change intervals, adjust the price or duration of an upcoming interval, or modify the price for the current billing period.

Apply the changes

Click Apply Changes to update the pricing schedule. If you modified the current billing period's price, a prorated invoice is generated.

Save the subscription

Click Save on the subscription edit form to apply all changes.

Migrate existing subscribers

If you're rolling out ramp pricing across your existing subscriber base, use the approach that fits your situation.

New subscribers

Create ramp-priced plans

Set up new ramp-priced plans for new subscribers.

Offer them at sign-up

Use these plans for new subscription sign-ups so new subscribers get automatic price changes from day one — no manual workarounds needed.

Existing subscribers

Create ramp-priced plans

Set up new ramp-priced plans to migrate existing subscribers to.

Move subscribers via the API

Use the subscription change endpoint to shift existing subscribers to the new ramp-priced plan. The subscription adopts the base ramp schedule from the plan, and you can then modify the pricing schedule per-subscription as needed.