Payment plans
How to split a total into a fixed number of payments that stop on their own
What is a payment plan?
A payment plan splits a total into a fixed number of payments taken at regular intervals. Once the last payment is collected, the plan ends on its own — there's nothing for the customer to cancel.
Use it to spread the cost of a course, a program, or anything else sold for a set price. If you want charges to continue indefinitely, use a subscription instead.
How to create a checkout with a payment plan
- Go to Storefront → Checkout pages.
- Click Create checkout page.
- Enter a Product title.
- Under Billing, select Recurring billing.
- Under Recurring schedule, select Payment plan.
- Enter the amount of each payment in the Price field.
- Select a currency from the Currency dropdown.
- Select how often to charge from the Repeats dropdown.
- Enter how many payments to take in the Number of payments field.
- Click Create checkout.
Price is the amount of each payment, not the total. A price of $100 with 4 payments collects $400 in total. The customer is shown both: $400 as the subtotal, and $100 as the amount due today.
The checkout opens in the edit view, on the Product → Details tab. That's where you change the price later, add a highlight, or add more prices.
Repeats and number of payments
Repeats sets the gap between payments, and Number of payments sets how many there are. Together they decide how long the plan runs.
Repeats offers the same intervals as a subscription: daily, weekly, monthly, every 3 months, every 6 months, or yearly. Four monthly payments run for four months; four quarterly payments run for a year.
Payment plans always use a fixed price
Every payment is the amount you set. If you want the customer to name their own amount, use pay what you want on a subscription or a one-time price instead.
When the customer is charged
The first payment is taken as soon as the customer completes checkout, and the rest follow at each interval until the count is reached.
A trial or a start date delays the first payment. A setup fee doesn't — it's added to the first payment.
What you can add to a payment plan price
Every option available to a subscription is available here:
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Trial | Free or paid access before the first payment |
| Discounted from | Shows the original amount struck through next to each payment |
| Start date | Begins the plan on a future date |
| Billing anchor | Aligns payments to a chosen day of the month |
| Setup fee | A one-off charge added to the first payment — useful as a deposit |
| Use Stripe price | Reuses a price that already exists in your Stripe account |
| Label, description and highlight | Names the price and adds a badge above the product title |
Charging more than one price on the same page
A checkout can offer several prices — a payment plan alongside a one-time purchase, for example — and the customer picks one. Click Add price under Product → Details.