Billing Cycle

A billing cycle is the repeating period on which a subscription is invoiced and charged, such as monthly, yearly, or weekly. The subscription's price sets the interval. Each cycle produces one invoice and one payment attempt, and cycles repeat until the subscription is canceled.

How a billing cycle works

Two settings define the cycle. The interval comes from the price, for example month or year. The billing anchor is the date Stripe lines every future period up to. A customer who subscribes on the 5th has an anchor on the 5th and is billed on the 5th of each month.

• Stripe records each period's start and end in current_period_start and current_period_end. For licensed (non-metered) prices, the invoice is created at the start of the period.
• You can set a fixed anchor, so every customer is billed on the 1st no matter when they signed up.
• A trial period pushes the first paid period back until the trial ends.

What resets each cycle

• The plan price is billed again at the start of each period.
• Usage-based billing totals for the period that just ended are invoiced, and the count starts over.
• Per-period allowances refresh.

Why it matters

The billing cycle sets when cash arrives and when a failed charge shows up. Changing a plan in the middle of a cycle triggers proration, so the customer pays only for what they used. Putting all customers on the same anchor date makes MRR easier to forecast and reconcile.