About plans
Billing
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. When you create your first plan, it will be automatically added to the default group. A plan group can only contain either user plans or organization plans. When you create your first plan, we automatically create a group based on the plan type you select.
Remember you can create one charge or feature that can be used and redefined across all plans. E.g. You can have one ‘Base price’ charge that is defined as 0.00 in a free plan, 10.00 in a Plus plan, and 25.00 in a Pro plan.
Go to Billing > Plans
Select Add plan, a window opens
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.
Give the plan a Name (e.g., Free), a Description. This is the name that will also appear in the pricing table (if you use one).
Give your plan a Key (e.g., free_plan) for referencing in your code. This cannot be changed after a plan is published.
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.
Select Save
After creating a plan, you can configure additional settings that control the subscription experience.
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.
| 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 |
Trial periods are a beta feature. Contact Kinde support at support@kinde.com to get it enabled and help us test it.
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 Trials section:
Enable Trial period.
Set the Trial length (days) (default: 30, minimum: 1). This is how many days the customer can use the plan for free.
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.
Select Save draft or Publish to apply your changes.
| 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 |
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.
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 re-usable items such as ‘Base price’, select the existing charge but change the line item description and price for each plan.
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.
Base subscription - Pro plan.Annual subscriptions are a beta feature. Contact Kinde support at support@kinde.com to get it enabled and help us test it.
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.
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.
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.
Select Add feature.
To add a new feature, select New unmetered or New metered, then select Next. The Add feature window opens.
Enter a Feature name. Be sure to use something generic if you plan to use this feature again, e.g. Included seats.
Enter a Description.
Enter a Key for referencing the feature.
If you selected a unmetered feature, select Save. You’re done. Repeat from step 1 to add more features.
If you selected a metered feature, complete the rest of the details:
Enter the Maximum units allowed on the plan. Leave blank if there is no limit.
Enter the Unit measurement name, e.g. license, MAU
If the item is separately chargeable, select a Pricing model.
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).
For a flat unit price, enter the price and select Save. You’re finished.
For tiered pricing, select Tiered - Graduated and define each tier with unit numbers and add the price per unit.
Select Add tier to add a different price for higher unit tiers. For example, a unit might be $10 each if you use 1-10, but is $9 per unit if you use 11 or more.
Ensure the tiered units amounts don’t overlap. E.g. make sure they follow a pattern like 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, etc. If you want to make it so an upper limit is limitless, E.g. 1-10, 11-(blank/limitless); use 1-10, 11-1,000,000 (or a very high number). Graduated unit fields can’t be left blank.
Select Save.
In the Plan window, select Save to commit your changes.
Repeat for each feature you want to add to the plan. Then repeat this procedure for each plan.
If you are successfully connected to Stripe and the plan/feature is part of a published plan, it will show as price synced. Otherwise the feature will show as price not synced.