Pause subscription

Discover how to pause, resume, and manage subscriptions, including handling renewals

In certain situations, customers may need to temporarily pause their subscription. This decision can be driven by various factors, such as:

inability to use the product for a specific period
temporary absence from their usual location

The subscription pause offers a flexible alternative to full cancellation, allowing precise management of customer subscriptions. It provides options to pause immediately or schedule it for a future date, and can set it to end on a specific date or leave without specifying the end date. Paused subscriptions can be easily identified by their paused status.

This level of control not only enhances customer satisfaction and retention but also provides strategic benefits for your business. This approach often leads to improved customer loyalty and can contribute to increased long-term revenue for your subscription-based service.

Manage subscription pause

You can efficiently manage subscriptions by creating, updating, or deleting pauses through the API or HUB interface. This ensures a smooth transition between active and paused statuses, giving customers the option to reactivate their subscription later or cancel it permanently.

The subscription pause details include essential fields such as start_point and stop_point, which can be of type specific_date, immediate, or infinite, accurately tracking the duration and nature of the pause period:

Start options:
- immediate - pause the subscription instantly without specifying an exact start date
- specific_date - schedule the pause to begin on a specific date and time
End options:
- infinite - leave the pause without specifying an exact end date
- specific_date - schedule the pause to end on a specific date and time

It is important to note that when an immediate pause is requested, the subscription is scheduled to pause with the date of the request as the start point and then gets paused asynchronously.

Create or update pause

Via API

Use the create subscription pause API request to pause the subscription, and modify the pause interval with the update subscription pause API request. If the pause has already started, only the stop_point can be modified. Otherwise, both the start_point and stop_point are available for changes.

Via HUB

To pause a subscription

Go to Subscriptions.
Find the needed active subscription and click on it.
On the subscription details page, click on Pause subscription.
In the appeared form, specify the pause duration period.
Click on Pause to confirm.

To modify the pause interval

Go to Subscriptions.
Find the paused subscription you need and click on it.
On the subscription details page, click on Change dates to set a new date range.
- If the pause is not activated, you can edit both the start and end dates of the pause.
- If the pause is already activated, you can only edit the end date of the pause.
Click on Save to confirm changes.

During the subscription pause, no renewals or charges occur, and about status changes are sent with the paused type.

Delete pause schedule

You can either delete the pause schedule for active subscriptions or resume subscriptions with the paused status.

Via API

Use the remove subscription pause API request to delete a pause schedule and manually resume subscription if it is paused, returning it to its active state.

Via HUB

To resume a subscription

Go to Subscriptions.
Find the needed paused subscription and click on it.
On the subscription details page, click on Resume subscription.
Click on Resume to confirm changes.

Subscription renewal flows

When a subscription is paused, it does not renew on its originally scheduled date. Instead, the renewal process and the calculation of the next charge date depend on the type of pause and how it ends, for example, on a specific date or resumed manually.

Flow Example

Flow	Example
Specific dates or infinite type pause updated with specific end date The next billing date equals the `expired_at` field in the field in subscription status Webhook + days of the pause period between the `from_date` and `to_date`. Formula: `next_charge_at` = `expired_at` + (`to_date` - `from_date`)	A subscription set to expire on August 15 is paused from August 1 to August 10, for 10 days. As a result, the next billing date is pushed back by 10 days from the original expiry date, making the new billing date August 25.
Specific dates with manual resume When a subscription with a specific end date is manually resumed, Solidgate recalculates the next billing date. This calculation uses the `expired_at` field in the subscription status Webhook and adds the number of days between the pause `from_date` and the manual renewal date. Formula: `next_charge_at` = `expired_at` + (resume date - `from_date`)	A subscription originally set to expire on August 15 is paused on August 1. Although the pause is initially planned to end on August 10, the subscription is manually resumed on August 5. The next billing date is calculated by adding 4 days of the actual pause duration to the original expiry date, resulting in a new billing date of August 19.
Infinite type pause with manual resume If the subscription is paused with the infinite type, the `next_charge_at` field is not set. Once the subscription is manually resumed, Solidgate recalculates the next billing date using the original `expired_at` field in the subscription status Webhook and adds the number of days between the `from_date` and the manual resume date. Formula: `next_charge_at` = `expired_at` + (resume date - `from_date`)	A subscription with an original expiry date of August 15 is paused from August 1. The pause with the infinite type remains in effect until the subscription is manually resumed on September 1. The next billing date is calculated by adding 31 days of the pause duration to the original expiry date, resulting in a new billing date of September 15.

Specific dates or infinite type pause updated with specific end date

The next billing date equals the expired_at field in the field in subscription status Webhook + days of the pause period between the from_date and to_date.

Formula:
next_charge_at = expired_at + (to_date - from_date)

A subscription set to expire on August 15 is paused from August 1 to August 10, for 10 days. As a result, the next billing date is pushed back by 10 days from the original expiry date, making the new billing date August 25.

Specific dates with manual resume

When a subscription with a specific end date is manually resumed, Solidgate recalculates the next billing date. This calculation uses the expired_at field in the subscription status Webhook and adds the number of days between the pause from_date and the manual renewal date.

Formula:
next_charge_at = expired_at + (resume date - from_date)

A subscription originally set to expire on August 15 is paused on August 1. Although the pause is initially planned to end on August 10, the subscription is manually resumed on August 5. The next billing date is calculated by adding 4 days of the actual pause duration to the original expiry date, resulting in a new billing date of August 19.

Infinite type pause with manual resume

If the subscription is paused with the infinite type, the next_charge_at field is not set. Once the subscription is manually resumed, Solidgate recalculates the next billing date using the original expired_at field in the subscription status Webhook and adds the number of days between the from_date and the manual resume date.

Formula:
next_charge_at = expired_at + (resume date - from_date)

A subscription with an original expiry date of August 15 is paused from August 1. The pause with the infinite type remains in effect until the subscription is manually resumed on September 1. The next billing date is calculated by adding 31 days of the pause duration to the original expiry date, resulting in a new billing date of September 15.

The next billing date is calculated with precision down to seconds in addition to days, ensuring a higher level of accuracy in the calculation.

Subscription cancellation

During a subscription pause, only the option to Guide
This cancellation type allows the subscriber to continue using the services until the end of the paid period while maintaining the subscription in an active status. hard cancel is available. The option for a Guide
This cancellation type involves an immediate change of the subscription status to cancel. soft cancel is not applicable.

The functionality to pause a subscription is not accessible if the subscription is in a soft cancel status.

Constraints and limitations

If the settings required for the subscription pause are incomplete or do not meet the pause conditions, an error occurs, and merchants receive a response with the Guide
Understand why the payment is declined and how you can resolve it. 2.01 error code. The error takes place when:

pause from/to date for the specific_date pause type is:
- absent in the request
- lower than the current date
pause period is lower than 1 day or higher than 60 years for the specific_date pause type
subscription:
- does not exist
- status is not equal to active
- is planned to be cancelled or paused
- pause from_date is greater than the subscription expired_at date
- pause schedule does not exist, start_point:date is null when the pause type is specific_date

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