Create billing plans in Kinde

Once you’ve got a plan strategy along with a plan feature list, prices, and details, you’re ready to create plans in Kinde.

All plans must belong to a plan group. A plan group can contain only user plans or only organization plans—not both. When you create your first plan, Kinde automatically creates a default group based on the plan type you select and adds the plan to it.

You can define a charge, feature, or one-time charge once and reuse it across plans. For example, a Base price charge can be set to 0.00 in a free plan, 10.00 in a Plus plan, and 25.00 in a Pro plan.

Add a plan

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1. Go to Billing > Plans

2. Select Add plan, a window opens

   

3. Choose whether the plan is for Organizations or Users, or select the Group the plan belongs to. Only one of these options will appear. You cannot change these selections later.

4. Give the plan a Name (e.g., Free) and a Description. This is the name that will also appear in the pricing table (if you use one).

5. Give your plan a Key (e.g., free_plan) for referencing in your code. This cannot be changed after a plan is published.

6. Select a Default currency. This field only appears if one has not been set. You can change this later in Settings > Environment > Billing, but only before any of your plans are published.

7. Select Save

Configure plan settings

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After creating a plan, you can configure additional settings that control the subscription experience.

1. Open the plan you want to configure.
2. Scroll to the Plan settings section.
3. Configure the available options:

Collect tax automatically

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This setting controls whether Stripe Tax with automatic collection is applied when customers subscribe to the plan.

1. Open the plan you want to configure.

2. Scroll to the Plan settings section.

3. Under Collect tax automatically, choose an option.

   

Tax collection options reference

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Option	Behavior
Use account setting (default)	Follows Collect tax automatically on Settings > Environment > Billing
Collect	Always enable Stripe Tax for subscriptions to this plan
Don’t collect	Never enable Stripe Tax for subscriptions to this plan

The account setting is off by default. Turn it on in Settings > Environment > Billing if most plans should collect tax, then override only the plans that differ.

Stripe still needs Stripe Tax configured (for example tax registrations) in the Stripe Dashboard. Until a customer has a billing country—such as during a trial before a card is added—tax may temporarily use your Stripe account’s registered address.

Select Save draft or Publish to apply your changes.

Ask for credit card

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This toggle controls whether users must enter credit card details when subscribing to the plan.

• Enabled (default): Users will be prompted to enter their payment details during signup via a secure Stripe payment form.

• Disabled: Users can subscribe without providing payment information and proceed directly to your application.

  

  Disabling this option is blocked by a positive-price fixed charge, chargeable metered (usage-based) billing, or an enabled trial period. A fixed charge priced at 0 does not require payment details, so you can disable the toggle on a free plan that uses a $0 price. Priced one-time charges alone do not require payment details at signup.

When to use each setting

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Your Goal	Recommended Setting
Reduce signup friction for a free tier	Disable—let users try your product without entering payment details
Capture payment info for easier upgrades	Enable—collect card details upfront for seamless plan transitions
Offer a free trial that converts to paid	Enable—required when trial period is enabled; payment details are collected before the trial ends

Configure trial period

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Trial periods let customers try a paid plan before being charged. When a trial is active, the customer’s Stripe subscription is created with a trial window — no charges are made until the trial expires.

Enabling a trial period requires the Ask for credit card toggle to be on. You cannot enable trials on a plan where credit card collection is disabled.

In the Trials section:

1. Enable Trial period.

2. Set the Trial length (days) (default: 30, minimum: 1). This is how many days the customer can use the plan for free.

3. Set Ask for credit card before trial ends (days) (default: 3, minimum: 0). This must be less than the trial length. This controls when the customer is asked to provide payment details before the trial expires.

4. Select Save draft or Publish to apply your changes.

   

How trials work at runtime

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• When a customer subscribes to a trial plan, they get full access to the plan features immediately — no payment is collected upfront.
• The pricing table shows a “Free trial for N day(s)” badge on plans with a trial enabled.
• A background process automatically prompts the customer to verify or update their payment details the configured number of days before the trial ends.
• When the trial period ends, Stripe attempts to convert the subscription to paid according to your plan pricing, provided valid payment details are in place.

Trial period configuration reference

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Setting	Description	Default	Constraints
Trial period	Enable or disable the trial for this plan	Off	Requires “Ask for credit card” to be on
Trial length in days	Number of days the customer can use the plan for free	30	Must be ≥ 1
Days before trial end to prompt for credit card	How many days before trial expiry the customer is prompted for payment details	3	Must be ≥ 0 and less than the trial length

Add fixed charge (subscription fee) to a plan

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A fixed charge is a recurring amount that does not change with usage and is billed in advance. You can pick a billing interval of daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly.

1. In Fixed charges, select Add charge.

   1. If the charge already exists, select Use existing feature, then select it from the list.

      You only need to create a new charge if the item is unique. For reusable items such as Base price, select the existing charge but change the line item description and price for each plan.

   2. If this is a new charge, give it a name (e.g., Platform fee). If you’ll reuse this charge across plans, choose a generic name. This cannot be changed later.

2. Add a Line item description. This appears on the customer invoice, so it might be more specific than the name, e.g. Acme platform subscription, starter plan.
3. Set the Price. You may be asked to set a default currency if you haven’t already.

You can add more than one fixed charge per plan, each with a different interval (monthly, daily, and so on). See Mixed-interval pricing for details.

Set the billing interval

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After entering the charge name and price, configure how often the fixed charge is billed:

1. Open the Billing interval dropdown.

2. Choose Day, Week, Month, or Year. The default is Month.

   

   • The interval you select determines how often Stripe bills the customer for this fixed charge.

   • The Offer as annual toggle is only available for non-yearly intervals (Day, Week, Month). If you select Year, the Offer as annual toggle does not apply. Selecting Year already bills annually. See Offer annual pricing below for details.

     

3. Select Save or Save draft.

Repeat for each fixed charge you want to add, or start adding features.

Offer annual pricing

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To give customers a yearly option at a fixed annual price:

1. Set a Price (e.g., 10).

2. Select a non-yearly Billing interval (Day, Week, or Month).

3. Turn on Offer as annual.

4. Set the Annual price (e.g., 100).

5. Select Save.

   

If you have multiple fixed charges on the plan, only one fixed charge can use Offer as annual. Other fixed charges on the same plan keep the billing interval you set for them (for example, monthly).

When a customer turns on Pay annually during sign-up or a self-serve plan change:

• The charge with Offer as annual bills at the annual price once per year.
• Any other fixed charges continue on their own interval.

Mixed-interval pricing

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You can add more than one fixed charge on a plan with different intervals. For example, a license fee of $100/year, a platform fee of $10/month, and a support fee of $3/week. The combination is a mixed-interval plan. Each charge is billed and displayed with its own interval — for example $100 AUD / year + $10 AUD / month + $3 AUD / week—instead of a single collapsed total.

Preview annual pricing on the plan

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On the plan details page, the Pricing sidebar shows how the plan will look to customers.

1. Open the plan.

2. In the Pricing sidebar, if at least one fixed charge offers annual pricing, turn on Preview annual pricing. The toggle is off by default.

3. Review the standard total versus the annual total (including any monthly remainder for mixed plans).

   

This toggle is preview-only. It does not change the draft, and it does not affect Save draft or Publish.

Fixed charge cards also show:

• The standard amount with its interval (for example $10 AUD / month).
• An Annual option line when Offer as annual is set (for example $100 AUD / year).

Recurring metered feature rates show the interval after the unit label (for example $5 AUD per unit / month). Period-to-date usage totals on subscription views do not include an interval. They are amounts so far in the cycle, not rates.

Create a free plan

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To create a free plan, add a fixed charge with a Price of 0. Do not add any positive-price fixed charges or chargeable metered features.

The 0 price ensures the plan is added to Stripe and included on the pricing table as a free plan. It does not require card collection: disable Ask for credit card if you want users to subscribe without payment details. See Ask for credit card.

Priced one-time charges on a plan do not by themselves require customers to enter payment details when they subscribe. Payment collection for signup still follows your fixed charges and chargeable recurring metered features, plus the Ask for credit card setting in Plan settings.

Add features (entitlements) to a plan

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Features describe the individual functions or entitlements that users get with their plan. These can be of the type metered (chargeable) or unmetered (included).

You cannot change the Name, the Key or the Type of feature once you have created it. If you make an error, delete the feature and add a new one.

1. Select Add feature.

   

2. To add a new feature, select New unmetered or New metered, then select Next. The Add feature window opens.

3. Enter a Feature name. Be sure to use something generic if you plan to use this feature again, e.g. Included seats.

4. Enter a Description.

5. Enter a Key for referencing the feature.

6. If you selected an unmetered feature, select Save. You’re done. Repeat from step 1 to add more features.

7. If you selected a metered feature, complete the rest of the details:

   

8. Enter the Maximum units allowed on the plan. Leave blank if there is no limit.

9. Enter the Unit measurement name, e.g. license, MAU

10. If the item is separately chargeable, select a Pricing model.

    

11. Add a Line item description. This appears on the customer invoice, so might be more specific than the name, e.g. Additional licenses for Pro (5).

12. For a flat unit price, enter the price and select Save. You’re finished.

13. For tiered pricing, select Tiered - Graduated and define each tier with unit numbers and add the price per unit.

14. Select Add tier to add a different price for higher unit tiers. For example, units might cost $10 each for quantities 1–10, and $9 per unit for 11 or more.

    Ensure the tiered unit amounts don’t overlap—for example, 1–10, 11–20, 21–30. To set a limitless upper tier (e.g., 11+), use a very high number such as 1–10, 11–1,000,000. Graduated unit fields can’t be left blank.

15. Select Save.

16. In the Plan window, select Save to commit your changes.

17. Repeat for each feature you want to add to the plan. Then repeat this procedure for each plan.

Add one-time charges to a plan

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One-time charges are rolling out

You can create one-time charges and add them to plans now but subscribers can’t buy them yet and they can’t be applied to existing subscriptions.

One-time charges are single-purchase items on a plan—for example credit top-ups or add-on unlocks. They appear in their own One-time charges section on the plan, separate from Fixed charges and Features. See One-time (flat or package) pricing for pricing-model examples.

Add a one-time charge

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1. Open the plan you want to edit.

2. In One-time charges, select Add one-time charge.

   

3. If you have previously created a one-time charge, you will see an extra option: Use an existing one-time charge:

   

   1. Turn this option on to reuse a charge already defined for another plan.

      Catalog details (name, description, key, line item, metering, unit of measurement) cannot be changed when using this option; you can still set plan-specific limits, pricing, and expiry.

   2. Leave this option off to create a new charge.

4. For a new charge, complete Details:

   • Name — use a reusable name if you’ll share the charge across plans.
   • Description (optional) — what’s included and when to use it.
   • Key — for referencing in your application’s code.
   • Line item description — appears on the customer invoice.

   

5. Under Usage select one of the following:

   • Unmetered — When you don’t track usage for this charge
   • Metered — Track the usage for this charge

6. Set Unit of measurement (optional): for example credits and Maximum units.

   You can leave the Maximum units field blank if there is no limit.

7. Under Pricing, select a Pricing model:

   • Flat — set the Amount for each purchase.
   • Package — set the Amount and Number of units

8. Under Expiry, select:

   • Never expires (default) — Remains available across billing cycles
   • Expires with the billing cycle — Ends with the current billing cycle
   Access starts as soon as the subscriber pays. Choose when it ends.

9. Select Save.

The charge appears on the plan under One-time charges. Cards show metering, pricing model, limits, expiry, and price sync status when connected to Stripe.

Edit or remove a one-time charge

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Use the actions on the one-time charge card to edit or remove it from the plan.

• Edit updates the charge for this plan (and shared catalog fields when they are still editable). If the charge is used on other plans, Kinde shows which plans share it—same pattern as shared features.
• Remove detaches the charge from this plan. It does not delete a shared catalog charge that other plans still use.

You need permission to update plans to add or edit one-time charges, and permission to delete plans to remove them.

One-time charges vs features and fixed charges

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Plan item	Purpose
Fixed charges	Recurring subscription fees billed in advance
Features	Entitlements included with the subscription (metered or unmetered)
One-time charges	Optional single purchases subscribers can buy (when purchase is live)

Do not add one-time items through Add feature or Add charge under Fixed charges. Use One-time charges only.

Price sync status

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If you are connected to Stripe and the plan or feature is part of a published plan, it will show as price synced. Otherwise, it will show as price not synced.