#dotan
mint arch
tender quail
Hi 👋
What do you mean by "metered and scheduled with a future start date baked into the url"?
faint escarp
Hey!
Thanks for replying so fast!
So I'm using Postman to create a checkout session
Successfully worked for regular sub.
But I'm trying to figure out how can I set it to be a metered subscription
(and how to update quantity used)
faint escarp
And as for schedule - let's say I want to send at the beginning of the month a checkout link, but that the start date will be for only after 2 weeks
faint escarp
that is determined by the price
so let's say I have a session that costs $100
tender quail
You are talking about doing this in a Checkout session create call, correct?
faint escarp
Correct
tender quail
We don't have those options to create a Subscription Schedule via the Checkout Session. The options for a subscription are shown here: https://stripe.com/docs/api/checkout/sessions/create#create_checkout_session-subscription_data
If you want to defer the start of the subscription you could use the subscription_data.trial_period_days parameter to create a 2 week free trial period
faint escarp
So what would you suggest to do if I want to send a customer a link but not charge them immediately?
oh
tender quail
Yeah that's the description of this parameter:
Integer representing the number of trial period days before the customer is charged for the first time. Has to be at least 1.
faint escarp
Is it visible to customers or it's just a hack?
tender quail
I can try to test it out but I think it will be visible in the summary of the charges in the Checkout interface
tender quail
In that case a Subscription Schedule does fit your use case better but unfortunately that isn't something you can set through the Checkout interface
faint escarp
Is there a way to not charge immediately when creating a subscription and send a payment link?
Well I see there's sending an email, but can I generate a url via API instead?
tender quail
What is the overall goal here?
faint escarp
Once customers get an invite to schedule a recurring meeting, to redirect them to complete payment based on the freq. and rate they picked
tender quail
Okay but you don't want to charge them right away?
Do you want to collect payment information?
faint escarp
correct, cause they may subscribe today, but the next opening is only in 2 weeks
And yes, we'd need to collect payment info
you mean instead of Stripe?
tender quail
No, using Stripe
faint escarp
Yes
tender quail
But the Payment Link or Checkout Session may not be the best solution here. That's what I'm trying to figure out
faint escarp
Got it
tender quail
Since this is one of the use cases for Subscription Schedules:< https://stripe.com/docs/billing/subscriptions/subscription-schedules/use-cases#start-subscription-future>
But that won't work for you since that approach does not even create the Subscription until the start date
So there's no Hosted Invoice Page
faint escarp
exactly...
tender quail
But you can create a Subscription with a forward dated billing_cycle_anchor
faint escarp
And what about the payment page for that?
tender quail
That will create an invoice with a hosted invoice URL. I just tested it myself
faint escarp
So I can redirect to it instead of using the checkout session then?
tender quail
As a means of collecting payment method information, yes
faint escarp
ok, sounds great, what's the difference then between this and a checkout session?
tender quail
They are different interfaces with different capabilities. This approach requires you to create a Subscription and retrieve the latest_invoice.hosted_invoice_url to redirect your customer to, rather than creating a Checkout Session and only creating a Subscription after they provide their payment information
faint escarp
got it, but assuming we're generating both in RT, and I'd use their start date as their first session, in terms of UX it would be the same for them?
But it would mean that a subscription will be created regardless of if they complete payment or not...
tender quail
Not exactly. You can review the hosted invoice page here: https://stripe.com/docs/invoicing/hosted-invoice-page
tender quail
They provide their payment method up front, you bill at the end of the cycle. You will track their usage by creating usage records, as we outline here: https://stripe.com/docs/products-prices/pricing-models#reporting-usage
faint escarp
Awesome, so sounds like we can achieve everything we need this way?
Trying to figure out if I'm missing out on something, devil is in the details...
tender quail
I would read the docs carefully in that case.