# Upgrading & downgrading

What happens when you change plans, cancel, or miss a payment.

## Upgrading & downgrading

Switch plans whenever you need to. Your forms stay live, and your submissions and files are never deleted because of a plan change.

<h2 id="upgrading">Upgrading to Pro</h2>
<p>
  Open the <strong>Subscription</strong> page, click <strong>Upgrade</strong>, and pick monthly or annual. Pro features are on the moment
  checkout completes — there's nothing to wait for and no re-login.
</p>
<p>
  Your first monthly Pro subscription starts with a <a href="/subscription-billing/plans-pricing#pro-trial">14-day free trial</a>. The
  Subscription page shows when it ends. The first charge comes on that date, and plan or billing-cycle changes wait until then.
</p>
<p>
  Every workspace you own, and every member in those workspaces, gets Pro features at once. No one else needs their own subscription. Your
  AI credit balance stays as it is: plans include no AI credits, so you top up with credit packs on any plan.
</p>
<p>
  Picked a plan on the formbase website before signing up? That choice is carried through sign-in: you land on a screen offering exactly the
  plan and billing cycle you picked, with the option to continue on Free instead. Nothing is charged until you finish checkout.
</p>

<h2 id="upgrading-business">Upgrading to Business</h2>
<p>
  From Free, open the <strong>Subscription</strong> page, click <strong>Upgrade</strong>, and pick Business — monthly or annual.
</p>
<p>
  Already on Pro? Click <strong>Upgrade to Business</strong> on the same page and pick monthly or annual. Your existing subscription
  switches in place: the prorated difference is billed now, and there's no second checkout.
</p>

<h2 id="cancelling">Cancelling a paid plan</h2>
<p>
  Open <strong>Subscription</strong> and click <strong>Manage subscription</strong> to open the billing portal, then cancel there. Two
  things happen:
</p>
<ul>
  <li>You keep full access to your current plan until the end of your billing period — no immediate cutoff.</li>
  <li>After the period ends, your account enters the grace period (see below).</li>
</ul>
<p>
  Cancelling during the free trial works the same way, with no charge: Pro stays on until the trial ends, then the account moves straight to
  Free, with no grace period. Custom domains stop serving three days later. The same happens if the first payment at the end of the trial
  fails — unless the payment goes through on a retry within those three days, in which case nothing changes.
</p>
<p>
  Deleting your account entirely also cancels the subscription — formbase tells Polar to stop billing as part of account deletion, so
  there's no orphaned charge.
</p>

<h2 id="grace-period">Grace period — what happens after a paid plan ends</h2>
<p>
  When your paid subscription ends or a payment fails, formbase doesn't cut you off immediately. Instead, your account moves through three
  phases to give you time to decide what to do. The same schedule applies to Pro and Business.
</p>

> ✅ **Your content is safe**
> <p>
>     formbase never deletes your forms, submissions, or files because of a plan change. If you're over the Free limits after a downgrade, you
>     can't create new resources until you're within limits or upgrade again — but everything you've collected stays readable and exportable.
>   </p>

<h2 id="what-gets-deleted">What gets deleted — and when</h2>
<p>A downgrade itself deletes nothing. A few scheduled processes do run on their own clocks, so here's the honest list:</p>
<ul>
  <li>
    <strong>Custom domain serving — about day 60.</strong> Roughly 60 days after your subscription lapses, branded URLs stop working and the
    domain disconnects. Your share links revert to formbase.so URLs automatically, so forms keep collecting. Bookmarks and printed QR codes
    pointing at the branded URL stop working. The reminder emails name the exact cutoff date. Re-subscribe before that date and nothing
    happens; after it, add the domain again from the Domains page.
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>Analytics history — normal aging only.</strong> The analytics dashboard stops recording 7 days after a lapse (the Free plan
    doesn't store analytics; streaming to a connected destination keeps running). Your existing history is not wiped early — events from
    your paid period age out on the same 1-year clock they always had, and the full history is there when you re-upgrade within that window.
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>Your own retention schedules keep running.</strong> If you set a submission retention window on a form, formbase keeps honoring
    it after a downgrade — it's a privacy promise to your respondents. You can see and clear the schedule on any plan; only setting or
    changing one requires Business. See <a href="/submissions-analytics/submission-retention">submission retention</a>.
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>Older published versions — at the next publish.</strong> Below Business, each form keeps only its newest published version, plus
    any version a submission, an open request, or a live respondent link still points at. The older ones are removed the next time you
    publish that form, not at the downgrade itself. See <a href="/building-forms/version-history">version history</a>.
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>Inactive form archival — Free-plan rule, with warning.</strong> Once your account is effectively Free (from day 7 of a lapse),
    the Free-plan rule applies: a form untouched for over a year — no edits <em>and</em> no submissions — is moved to trash, but only after
    a warning email was actually delivered to you at least 30 days earlier. Trash holds it for another 30 days before permanent deletion,
    and restoring resets the clock. See <a href="/subscription-billing/limits-quotas#inactive-forms">limits &amp; quotas</a>.
  </li>
</ul>

<h2 id="what-changes">What changes on downgrade</h2>
<p>
  Downgrades never take effect mid-cycle. When you click <strong>Switch to Pro</strong> on the <strong>Subscription</strong> page as a
  Business subscriber — or switch from annual to monthly — the change is scheduled for the end of your current billing period. You keep
  everything you paid for until then, and nothing is refunded early. The <strong>Subscription</strong> page then shows{' '}
  <strong>Plan change scheduled for</strong> with the exact date. Changed your mind? Click <strong>Keep current plan</strong> any time
  before that date and the downgrade is cancelled. While a change is scheduled, the other plan controls stay hidden until you keep or
  complete it.
</p>

<h3 id="business-to-pro">Business → Pro</h3>
<p>When your scheduled switch from Business to Pro applies, here's what changes:</p>
<ul>
  <li>
    <strong>Custom domains</strong> — connected domains keep working, even if you have more than 5. The lower cap only blocks adding new
    domains while you're over it.
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>Respondent email verification</strong> — stops being enforced. Your forms keep accepting submissions; respondents are simply not
    asked to verify. You can turn the toggle off on any plan — turning it on again requires Business.
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>Shared AI credits</strong> — sharing stops and each member goes back to their own balance. Your purchased credits stay with you.
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>Data retention</strong> — schedules you already set keep running, and you can view or clear them any time. Setting or changing a
    schedule needs Business.
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>Version history</strong> — you can still open publish history, but you can't revert. The next publish of each form removes its
    older versions; see <a href="#what-gets-deleted">what gets deleted</a>.
  </li>
</ul>

<h3 id="pro-to-free">Pro or Business → Free</h3>
<p>After the grace period ends (day 7 onward), here's what changes:</p>
<ul>
  <li>
    <strong>Submissions & requests</strong> — your forms keep accepting submissions and requests at paid limits (50,000/month) until day 30,
    then the cap drops to 1,000 per month. Existing submissions stay. Once you hit the cap, your share links show as closed as soon as a
    respondent opens them, before anything is filled in. Requests you already sent stay open.
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>Storage</strong> — file uploads keep working at paid limits until day 30, then the cap drops to 100 MB. Existing files stay
    accessible and downloadable forever. New uploads are blocked only while you're over the Free limit, and a form that keeps a PDF of each
    submission, such as one with a signature, shows as closed until you're back under it.
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>Custom domains</strong> — keep serving for about 60 days, then share links fall back to formbase.so URLs. You can't add new
    domains or branded slugs in the meantime.
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>Branding</strong> — forms show formbase branding again. Your branding settings are kept and come back when you re-upgrade.
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>Email notifications</strong> — custom templates, custom sender domains, extra recipients, and the PDF attachment pause. The
    workspace owner still gets submission notifications, sent from the default formbase sender. Respondent confirmation emails stop.
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>Partial submissions & reminders</strong> — partial-response capture, cross-device resume, and abandoned-response reminders stop.
    Drafts already saved stay stored but drop out of the submissions list, the API, and MCP until you re-upgrade.
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>Analytics & version history</strong> — the Analytics tab locks, and reverting to an earlier version needs Business. You can
    still open publish history. Analytics history is not wiped, and older published versions go at the next publish — see
    <a href="#what-gets-deleted"> what gets deleted</a>.
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>Themes</strong> — forms keep showing their custom themes, and presets stay available. Editing colors and fonts by hand, and
    saving or renaming workspace themes, is locked until you re-upgrade. You can still delete a workspace theme.
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>Bot protection</strong> — from day 30, Turnstile is always on (the Free-plan default). On a custom domain without your own
    Turnstile keys this blocks submits on the branded URL — the formbase.so link keeps working. See{' '}
    <a href="/building-forms/captcha-bot-protection">bot protection</a>.
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>AI credits</strong> — your balance stays. Purchased credits never expire and keep working on Free.
  </li>
</ul>

<h2 id="reactivating">Reactivating a paid plan</h2>
<p>
  Upgrade again from the <strong>Subscription</strong> page at any point — even months later. Pick Pro or Business. All your data,
  workspaces, themes, and settings come back exactly as you left them. Reactivation clears all restrictions immediately. The one thing with
  a deadline: re-subscribe within ~60 days of the lapse and your custom domains never stop serving; after that, re-add them from the Domains
  page.
</p>

<h2 id="email-notifications">Email notifications</h2>
<p>formbase emails you throughout the grace period so nothing catches you off guard:</p>
<ul>
  <li>
    <strong>Day 0</strong> — your subscription has lapsed; 7 days until restrictions
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>Day 6</strong> — 1 day of full access left
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>Day 7</strong> — creation restrictions are now active
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>Day 25</strong> — 5 days until data restrictions
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>Day 28</strong> — 3 days until data restrictions
  </li>
  <li>
    <strong>Day 31</strong> — data restrictions are now active
  </li>
</ul>
<p>If you have a custom domain connected, these emails also name the exact date your branded URLs stop working.</p>

<h2 id="switching-billing">Switching billing cycle</h2>
<p>
  The <strong>Subscription</strong> page shows which cycle you're on and offers the other one. <strong>Switch to annual</strong> applies at
  once: you confirm the annual price, the unused part of your current month counts toward it, and the difference is charged to your card on
  file. <strong>Switch to monthly</strong> takes effect at the end of the year you've paid for: you keep what you paid for, nothing is
  refunded early, and the page shows the scheduled date with a <strong>Keep current plan</strong> button to cancel it before then. Annual
  billing costs ten months' price for twelve months, so switching to monthly gives that discount up when the year ends. Both switches wait
  for a running trial to end, and need a subscription that isn't cancelled.
</p>

<h2 id="next-steps">Next steps</h2>
<div class="not-prose grid gap-3 sm:grid-cols-2">
  - [Limits & quotas](/subscription-billing/limits-quotas) — Every number in one place
  - [Custom domains](/branding-domains/custom-domains) — Connect your own domain — available on Pro and Business
  - [Submission retention](/submissions-analytics/submission-retention) — Auto-delete on your own schedule
  - [Billing & invoices](/subscription-billing/billing-invoices) — View, download, and manage your invoices
</div>