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 or feature 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 > 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:

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.

  

  This option can only be disabled for plans that have no charges. If your plan includes any pricing (fixed charges or metered/usage-based billing), credit card collection is always required.

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 a subscription fee or fixed charge to a plan

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A fixed charge is a recurring charge such as base price or subscription fee. You can set billing intervals (daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly) and optionally offer the charge as annual with a custom yearly price when customers choose yearly billing.

1. In Fixed charges, select Add charge.

   1. If the charge 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., Base subscription 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 might be more specific than the name, e.g. Base subscription - Pro plan.
3. Set the Price. (You may be asked to set a default currency if you haven’t already).

Set the billing interval

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

1. Use 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.
   • If you select Year as the billing interval, the separate Offer as annual toggle does not apply—yearly billing is already the interval. The Offer as annual toggle is only available for non-yearly intervals (Day, Week, Month), where you can add an optional yearly price on top of the base interval.

3. (Optional) To bill this charge yearly at a custom price, turn on Offer as annual. See Offer annual pricing below for details.

4. Select Save or Save draft to commit your changes.

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, turn on Offer as annual and set the Annual price.

Only one fixed charge per plan can be offered as annual.

Free plans

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To create a free plan, set the Price to 0.00. This ensures the plan is added to Stripe, and is included on the pricing table as a free plan.

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.

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.