#atlastdb-metered-subs
worthy egret
Hello! Do you have a specific request ID that's failing that I can take a look at?
wooden vapor
Hi @worthy egret pleasure to get in touch with you
So The Specific scenario is im trying to upgrade a free Subscription to a pain one, with proration. Specifically im trying to retreive a future invoice, with the new subscription so i can calculate proration. But one of two things happens:
1 If it succeeds, I get back the new subscription, but its either giving me the full price, or ammount_due is 000.
Would it be recommended/safe to post the subscription ID of the subscription im trying to update? Its all in test mode anyway
worthy egret
Yup you can post the subscription ID here
wooden vapor
Okay here is the subscription ID: sub_1OUMRJKbZEfvkbKuGvnGekHf
Previously i had 4 different products set up (free, standard, business, and enterprise)
While trouble shooting last night, I ran into a quote in the docs that said in order to update subscription with proration I cannot change to a new Product with a different billing pattern. So I archived the 4 products and created one product "Z'Search Monlthy Usage based billing" which includes the 4 price tiers (free, standard, business, and enterprise). But eve after trying that out, retreiveInvoice still give me the error of "Cannot upgrade subscription to new price with different billing patterns
worthy egret
The Subscription you shared doesn't have an update request tied to it - was that intentional? I was hoping to see an example subscription that's showing the behavior you don't want
Also quick question - you mentioned you were doing usage-based billing
Do you want payment to be charged at the start of the month, or at the end of the month?
wooden vapor
Okay heres the actual payload im sending to retreiveInvoice and the error
Invoice Params: { customer: 'cus_PId4gXFiNa9OcM', subscription: 'sub_1OU1oiKbZEfvkbKuEKGtboKX', subscription_items: [ { id: 'si_PIyOVbyCZ48wl2', price: 'price_1OULapKbZEfvkbKu4ZQbCCiO', quantity: 1 } ], subscription_proration_date: 1704230312 }
Error Message: Cannot update plans with different usage types. The plan for the subscription item with the ID si_PIyOVbyCZ48wl2 is of usage type licensed, and you are trying to update to metered.
wooden vapor
Do you want payment to be charged at the start of the month, or at the end of th...
Okay so what im trying to setup, is a Monthly Subscription with a flat fee and a fee for any request over the subscription limit. I would like for them all to be charged on the first of each month.
For some context, when a user signs up to my site, we automatically subscribe them to the free monthly plan. And later they can add a payment method and upgrade their subscription/.
I guess part of my question is If I'm even thinking on the same page as what stripe is asking for, If I'm completely off the course please let me know, and some guidance as to how to properly set up a Stipe Subscription pipeline would be great
worthy egret
Okay let's back up here - there are a couple of issues that I'm seeing:
- You're creating your subscription with a $0
licensedprice. This is creating issues when you update the Subscription because you can't update an exisitng subscription item from licensed - > metered. Instead, you should just create a $0 graduated price - When a Subscription is updated from a $0 price to a non-$0 price, we immediately reset the billing cycle anchor. There isn't any way around this
wooden vapor
Sounds good, Okay so maybe it was my confusion that I did not set up the Free Price as Metered - That can be fixed.
And on point two, so theoretically there is no way to have all my customers be billed on the first of each month? (Which is not a problem, if that means quicker integration times)
Ohhh I see, i set it up as graduated, but i never ticked of metered on the free price
worthy egret
You could still get your customers to be billed on the first of the month if you do some extra steps - your best option would be to use a subscription schedule (https://stripe.com/docs/billing/subscriptions/subscription-schedules/use-cases#resetting-anchor)
zenith folioBOT
atlastdb-metered-subs
wooden vapor
Okay so to keep it simple, there are two thing I'm looking for 1) Billing Cycle to be billed on the 1st of each month and 2) Upgrade and Downgrade Pricing plans with Metered Usage
wooden vapor
You could still get your customers to be billed on the first of the month if you...
Okay Cool, I will look into this, but if its too much work I dont mind having billing cycles based on the user
Having the subs billed on the 1st of the month was a personal preference anyways and not business impacting
worthy egret
Yeah I think it's doable, just a bit finicky to get to work since you're going from a free -> to a non-free price mid-cycle
Definitely try our subscription schedules and see if that does the trick
zenith folioBOT
wooden vapor
So just to be Sure, can you create schedule from the dashboard? or is it done only through the Stripe API?
oh hello @autumn bluff, pleasure to speak with yuou
autumn bluff
Hi @wooden vapor I'm taking over this thread.
Are you asking if you can create a subscription schedule through Stripe Dashboard?
wooden vapor
Yes, that is correct
autumn bluff
Yes you can. When you create a subscription in Dashboard, you can choose a future date as the start day, and Dashboard will automatically create a schedule behind the scene.
wooden vapor
Okay, yeah that was my confusion, So would this statement be true: Schedules are created after or along with a new subscription?
I ask because right now, when a user is registered to my App we subscribe them to a free plan, with a billing anchor of the ffirst of next month
Is this the same as setting a schedule?
Okay well before we dive further on to that topic, I want to confirm If I create a product, with 4 prices (free - $0/m, standard - $20/m, business - $45/m, and enterprise - $150/m) all graduated with monitoring checked, I should be able to avoid the error i was receiving: Cannot update plans with different usage types. The plan for the subscription item with the ID si_PIyOVbyCZ48wl2 is of usage type licensed, and you are trying to update to metered.
autumn bluff
"when a user is registered to my App we subscribe them to a free plan," -> did you use subscription API or subscription schedule API? Is there a creation request ID that you can share with me?
wooden vapor
The Subscriptions API
I will paste the code bellow
Create Customer
public set_customer(): Promise<any> {
if (!this._ID) throw "No User data was found";
if (!this.EMAIL) throw "No User data was found";
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
stripe.customers.create({ name: this.name, email: this.EMAIL, phone: this.phone_number })
.then((response: any) => { this.customer_id = response.id; resolve(response); })
.catch((error: any) => { console.log(error); reject(error) });
})
}
Then it would just create a subscription, not schedule.
wooden vapor
Create Subscription
public set_subscription(subscription: 'free' | 'standard' | 'business' | 'enterprise'): Promise<any> {
if (!this._ID) throw "No User data was found";
if (!this.EMAIL) throw "No User data was found";
if (!this.customer_id) throw "No User data was found";
return new Promise(async (resolve, reject) => {
const { plans } = await this.zSubs.getOne(subscription);
stripe.subscriptions.create({
customer: this.customer_id,
items: [{ price: plans.monthly.price_id },],
billing_cycle_anchor: Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) + (30 * 24 * 60 * 60),
proration_behavior: 'create_prorations',
})
.then((response: any) => { this.subscription_id = response.id; resolve(response); })
.catch((error: any) => { console.log(error); reject(error) });
});
}
Okay makes sense, So what would be the order of operations to set up a subscription on a schedule?
autumn bluff
You just need to create a schedule, and schedule will automatically create a subscription based on schedule's start_date.
wooden vapor
Okay wow this makes a lot more sense now
Okay looking at the api reference, I see how we can set it up monthly forever and to be set on the first of each month, this is great
wooden vapor
So I created a new product prod_PJIX3EV559W0d1
All four prices are Graduated and metered.