Trial Period

A trial period is a window at the start of a subscription during which a customer has full access to a plan but has not yet been charged. When the trial ends, the first real billing cycle begins and the subscription converts to paid — unless it's canceled first.

How trials work

In Stripe you set a trial with trial_period_days or a trial_end date on the subscription. During the trial the subscription status is trialing; when the trial ends, Stripe generates the first invoice and attempts payment.

• Card upfront vs no card — you can require a payment method before the trial starts, or let customers try without one and collect a card later.
• Trial-end behavior — you choose what happens if no valid payment method exists at conversion: cancel the subscription, pause it, or create an unpaid invoice.
• Trial ending events — Stripe fires a warning event a few days before the trial ends so you can nudge the customer.

Why it matters

Trials are one of the most common ways SaaS products let customers experience value before committing. Two moments decide their success:

• Conversion — the share of trials that become paid subscriptions drives new MRR.
• The conversion charge — the first payment after a trial often fails on a stale or missing card, feeding involuntary churn that dunning can recover.

In ChargeBell

ChargeBell can alert your team in Slack when a trial is about to end (the trial-ending alert type, off by default) and again when the first payment succeeds or fails — so a promising trial doesn't quietly lapse at conversion because nobody was watching. Trials never generate revenue on their own, so the events around their end are the ones worth seeing.