Entitlements

Entitlements are the features and limits a customer gets from their plan. A subscription says what the customer pays for. Entitlements say what they can do in your product, such as which features are on and how many seats or API calls they get.

How entitlements work in Stripe

You attach features to a Product. Any customer subscribed to a Price for that product gets those features. Stripe's Entitlements API returns a list of active entitlements for each customer, and your app checks that list to allow or block access.

• A feature can be a simple on or off capability, such as priority support or SSO.
• You can model limits like "10,000 API calls" or "3 projects", often alongside usage-based billing.
• When a subscription changes, the customer's entitlements change with it. A downgrade removes features and an upgrade adds them.

Why entitlements matter

Without them, teams scatter plan checks like if plan == "pro" across the codebase, and every pricing change means hunting those checks down. With entitlements, you define each plan's features in one place and check access the same way everywhere.

They also tie access to billing. A customer whose payment lapses can lose access when the subscription ends. A trial period can grant full features that drop away if the trial doesn't convert.

Things to decide

• Decide whether access ends at the first failed payment or after a grace period.
• Your app checks entitlements often, so cache the result and clear the cache when a subscription changes.