At the close of each cycle, Polar advances the period and charges the saved card. If the charge fails, the subscription enters payment recovery before anything is revoked.
A subscription is created the moment a customer checks out a product with a recurring price. Polar issues the first order, collects the first payment, and grants every benefit attached to the product.
From that point on, the subscription advances itself. At the end of every cycle, Polar generates a new order with tax and any active discount applied, then charges the saved payment method without your code in the loop.
Benefits track the subscription's state throughout. While it's active or trialing, the customer keeps access; when it moves to canceled or unpaid, benefits are revoked, optionally after a grace period you control.
Fixed, pay-what-you-want, or free recurring prices on any cadence.
Upgrades and downgrades with prorated charges and credits.
Automatic retries on past_due with optional grace periods.
Subscribers update payment, change plans, and cancel from a hosted page.
Set a default at the organization level. Override per API call when a particular change deserves different handling.
The plan changes now and the prorated difference is invoiced and charged in the same call. For upgrades, when you want the revenue immediately.
The plan changes now, but the prorated difference rides along on the next renewal invoice. The default for routine plan changes.
The change is scheduled and only takes effect at the start of the next billing period. No proration is issued. Safer for downgrades.
When a renewal charge fails, the subscription moves to past_due and Polar runs a four-attempt retry schedule before revoking benefits.
Polar retries the charge after 2, 5, 7, and 7 days. A successful retry restores the subscription to active.
The customer is emailed at the first failure with a link to the Customer Portal so they can update their payment method.
Choose whether benefits are revoked immediately or after 2, 7, 14, or 21 days. Keeps paying customers from being locked out by a single declined card.
For subscriptions on cycles of six months or more, the customer is emailed 7 days before renewal.
Every Polar account includes a hosted Customer Portal where subscribers can update payment methods, download invoices, change plans, manage seats, and cancel. You can either link to it directly or embed it inside your product.
Cancellation comes in two flavors that work the same way from the dashboard, the API, and the portal. Cancel at period end keeps benefits live until the paid term runs out and is reversible until the end date. Revoke immediately ends access on the spot and isn't reversible.
Set a recurring price on a product and Polar runs the rest of the lifecycle.