Subscription Schedule

A subscription schedule is a Stripe object that defines a sequence of billing phases for a subscription, letting it change plans, prices, quantities, or discounts automatically at set points in time. Instead of manually editing a subscription on renewal day, you describe the whole journey up front and Stripe executes it.

How phases work

Each schedule is an ordered list of phases, and every phase specifies its own line items, duration, and settings. When one phase ends, Stripe transitions the subscription into the next one — no API call required in the moment.

Common uses:

• Introductory pricing — phase one at a discounted price, phase two at the standard rate.
• Contracted step-ups — a negotiated increase after year one, encoded so it can't be forgotten.
• Planned quantity changes — seat counts that ramp on a known timeline.

You control what happens at the boundary between phases, including whether changes are prorated. Reading proration alongside schedules matters, because a mid-cycle transition can generate a credit or an extra charge.

Why schedules matter

Subscription schedules make future revenue deterministic. Because the price changes are already committed, you can forecast the exact month MRR will step up or a promotional rate will end — the same certainty that powers committed-MRR reporting.

They also reduce operational risk. Manually raising a customer's price on the right day is error-prone at scale; a schedule turns "remember to bump this account in March" into a rule the billing system enforces. Sales-led deals often generate schedules automatically from an accepted quote, so the signed terms and the billing behavior never drift apart.