Deliver a seamless upgrade experience for your customers with ThriveCart subscription pro-rating. This powerful feature ensures fair and accurate pro-rata billing adjustments, so customers only pay for what they actually use when changing their plan. With built-in subscription upgrade management, ThriveCart automatically handles the math, reducing support requests, preventing overpayments, and keeping your customers happy while you maintain steady recurring revenue.
Subscription pro-rating applies when you’re using the automatic subscription cancellation functionality. If a customer purchases a new subscription that cancels an existing one, the system will automatically apply a pro-rata credit to the initial payment of the new subscription based on the time remaining in the cancelled subscription.
This is a sub-feature of our Recurring Revenue Upgrades (automatic subscription cancellation) functionality. See our help desk article on this here.
Both Pro+ and Stripe Connect+ are required.
Please note that as a Pro+ user, you will not be able to take full advantage of the new features if you have not yet configured your existing products with Stripe Connect+.
Click here to learn how to configure Stripe Connect+ in less than 5 minutes.
Pro-rating amounts on subscriptions applies when you’re using the automatic subscription cancellation functionality. If a customer purchases a new subscription that cancels an existing one, the system will apply a pro-rata credit to the initial payment of the new subscription based on the time remaining in the cancelled subscription.
Who It’s For:
If you have recurring subscription products and sell upgraded subscriptions that would replace an already existing subscription.
For example: you sell course access to be billed monthly, but customers upgrade to a VIP version or annual billing midway through their existing billing cycle.
Why It Matters:
Helps prevent customers from being overcharged when switching subscriptions and provides a smoother upgrade experience.
How It Works:
When this feature is enabled, and only when a customer is;
- Buying a new subscription (unlimited rebills)
- Product set to cancel subscription (unlimited rebills) customer has
- New subscriptions cost more than the one being cancelled.
There’s a formula to how new charges are applied:
New product Price minus Coupon discount minus Pro-rata adjustment plus sales tax plus shipping = final price.
Our system calculates the pro-rata credit amount based on the subscription being cancelled and how much time has been used. The examples later in this article will show how the pro-rata calculation itself is made and the results.
Pro-rating Setup
In the Product’s Pricing tab, after setting up your subscription option, enable “Cancel another product’s subscription” on the new subscription. From here you will be able to search your products for the product that this purchase will replace. See more on setting up automatic cancellation in Recurring Revenue Upgrades (automatic subscription cancellation)
Considerations:
- Only the initial payment of the new order will be discounted by the credit amount. The future recurring payments will not be discounted.
- Pro-rata credit cannot go below zero. If the amount after credit is applied is below zero, the customer is simply charged zero. There is no further ‘carry over’ of credit into future payments.
- Pro-rata credit does not apply for any other purchase types, such as a one-time payment cancelling a subscription, or a split-pay/limited rebill subscription being cancelled/doing the cancelling. It only applies to an ongoing subscription purchase and cancellation.
Pro-Rata Calculations: Upgrades & downgrades
There are two scenarios for pro-rata adjustment, and it depends if it’s an upgrade or a downgrade.
Upgrades:
To count as an ‘upgrade’ the new subscription’s recurring payments need to cost more than the recurring payments of the subscription being cancelled.
For example
- $99 / month subscription being cancelled by a $999 / year subscription
- $99 / quarterly subscription being cancelled by a $199 / month subscription
In these scenarios, the pro-rata credit logic above applies and the initial payment is discounted by any pro-rata credit available, and new recurring payments begin based on the new subscriptions recurring schedule.
Downgrades:
To count as a ‘downgrade’ the new subscriptions recurring payment needs to cost less than the recurring payments of the subscription being cancelled or the new subscription has to have a more frequent billing schedule.
For example
- $999 / year subscription being canceled by a $99 / month subscription
- $99 / month subscription, being cancelled by a $49 / month subscription
- $199 / yearly subscription, being cancelled by a $399 / month subscription
In these scenarios, the new subscription will have a $0 initial payment and then future recurring payments will start when the subscription that’s being cancelled comes to the end of its billing period.
Currency Conversion:
Currencies are not normalized if orders use different currencies.
For example, if the customer purchases a USD subscription for $30 / mo and this is set to cancel a €29 / mo subscription, then pro-rata credit will apply (the EUR isn’t converted to USD to calculate, and pro-rata is attempted as the base price of 30 is more than 29.)
Stats:
Stats will currently treat cancellations and new subscriptions as normal. So an existing order that’s cancelled will track as churn/cancellation and the new purchase will be a new subscription.
Funnels:
This functionality also works within funnels.
The upsell product needs to have the ‘cancel subscription’ feature enabled in its settings and then have selected the main product it’s attached to.
Technically, as there has been no period of time between purchases, the upsell’s initial amount is discounted by the full amount of the first purchased subscription (in this scenario, if the vendor has enabled the pricing breakdown on the upsell page it’ll show the discounted initial amount there too).
Example Scenarios:
| Monthly to Monthly (more expensive subscription) |
| Original subscription $29/mo (bills 7th of the month) New subscription $99/mo (purchased 20th of May) The customer was already charged $29 on the 7th May, then 13-days later they purchased a new subscription. This means they’ve used 13-days worth of the $29 payment. The system will need to check how many days between monthly payments, so this would be the 7th of June. Which is 31 days (this can vary based on the month). $29 / 31 days = 0.935 or $0.94 per day. 13 days = $12.22 (used) $29 – $12.22 = $16.78 credit. Customer’s initial payment would be $99 – $16.78 = $82.22 The customer’s recurring payments will continue at $99 on 20th June |
| Monthly to Monthly (less expensive subscription) |
| Original subscription $99/mo (bills 7th of the month) New subscription $29/mo (purchased 20th of May) The customer was already charged $99 on the 7th May, then 13-days later they purchased a new subscription. This means they’ve used 13-days worth of the $99 payment. The system would check how many days between monthly payments, so this would be the 7th of June. Which is 31 days (this can vary based on the month). $99 / 31 days = 3.193 or $3.19 per day. 13 days = $41.47 (used) $99 – $41.47 = $57.53 credit. Customer’s initial payment would be $29 – $57.53 = -$28.53 We can’t go below zero, and we don’t issue a refund. So the customer’s initial payment will be $0. The customers new $29/mo payments will start on the 7th June (when the current billing period ends). However, just because the new subscription is less expensive, does not mean it will always return a value below zero. If in the above example the customer purchased the $29/mo subscription on the 5th of June, the customer would technically have $6.49 of credit, making their initial payment $22.51. But to keep things simple, in all cases where a customer is going from a higher payment, the customer’s new payments will start from the end of the old billing cycle. |
| Monthly to Quarterly (more expensive subscription) |
| Original subscription $29/mo (bills 7th of the month) New subscription $99/qtr (purchased 20th of May) The customer was already charged $29 on the 7th May, then 13-days later they purchased a new subscription. This means they’ve used 13-days worth of the $29 payment. The system will need to check how many days between monthly payments, so this would be the 7th of June. Which is 31 days (this can vary based on the month). $29 / 31 days = 0.935 or $0.94 per day. 13 days = $12.22 (used) $29 – $12.22 = $16.78 credit. The customer’s initial payment would be $99 – $16.78 = $82.22The customer’s recurring payments will continue at $99 3 months later on 20th August (next quarter). |
| Monthly to Quarterly (less expensive subscription) |
| Original subscription $199/mo (bills 7th of the month) New subscription $99/qtr (purchased 20th of May) The customer was already charged $199 on the 7th May, then 13-days later they purchased a new subscription. This means they’ve used 13-days worth of the $199 payment. The system will need to check how many days between monthly payments, so this would be the 7th of June. Which is 31 days (this can vary based on the month). $199 / 31 days = 6.419 or $6.42 per day. 13 days = $83.46 (used) $199 – $83.46 = $115.54 credit. The customer’s initial payment would be $99 – $115.54 = -$16.54Again, because this is technically a cheaper option, the customers new recurring payments of $99/qtr will start at the end of the current billing cycle – 7th of June (and the initial payment would be $0) |
| Quarterly to Monthly (more expensive subscription) |
| Original subscription $49/qtr (bills 7th of the Feb, May, Aug, etc) New subscription $99/mo (purchased 20th of May) The customer was already charged $49 on the 7th May, then 13-days later they purchased a new subscription. This means they’ve used 13-days worth of the $49 payment. The system will need to check how many days between their quarterly payments, so the next payment would be the 7th of August. Which is 92 days (this can vary based on the month). $49 / 92 days = 0.532 or $0.53 per day. 13 days = $6.89 (used) $49 – $6.89 = $41.11 credit. Customer’s initial payment would be $99 – $41.11 = $57.89The customer’s recurring payment would be $99 starting 20th August (1 month later). |
| Quarterly to Monthly (less expensive subscription) |
| Original subscription $99/qtr (bills 7th of the Feb, May, Aug, etc) New subscription $49/mo (purchased 20th of May) The customer was already charged $99 on the 7th May, then 13-days later they purchased a new subscription. This means they’ve used 13-days worth of the $99 payment. The system will need to check how many days between their quarterly payments, so the next payment would be the 7th of August. Which is 92 days (this can vary based on the month). $99 / 92 days = 1.076 or $1.08 per day. 13 days = $14.04 (used) $99 – $14.04 = $84.96 credit. Customer’s initial payment would be $49 – $84.96 = -$35.96As this amount is 0 or less, the customers monthly payments will start from 7th August (end of the quarterly billing period). Again, there could be a scenario where the customer only has $28.08 worth of credit (purchases the monthly 2 days before the quarterly is due to rebill) meaning their initial payment is more than zero, but even in that scenario as the new amount is technically less, their monthly payments will start when the quarterly billing period end (2 days later). |
Final Notes
Checkout pages will not show the discounted amount (except for PayPal Enhanced and this will show in the PayPal modal window itself when completing payment).
A new message is shown below the Buy button alerting customers they may be charged less if switching subscriptions – but you can edit/remove this from the checkout editor if required.
In Transactions:
Orders with a pro-rata adjustment will show a [pro rata] tag beside the processor icon.
Settings Compatibility:
Works with Classic, Enhanced, and Legacy checkout editors
Automation rules are available to trigger upon auto-cancellation, but when setting the cancellation options on the product you can always opt for a “silent” cancellation to not trigger your autoresponder/webhook notifications on cancellation.
Limitations & Known Issues
- No pricing preview: Customers won’t see the adjusted price until receipt (except PayPal Enhanced users)
- No carry-over: If credit is more than the initial cost, the entire first payment is discounted but extra credit is not applied to future payments
- No credit if cancelling multiple subscriptions
- No credit on split-pay, limited rebill, or one-time purchases
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
- Q: Will customers see the discount at checkout?
- A: No (except for PayPal Enhanced).
- Q: Is future billing affected?
- A: No, only the initial payment is discounted.
- Q: Can credit apply to multiple future payments?
- A: No, credit is used once on the initial checkout amount.
- Q: Can this be used in funnels?
- A: Yes, it’s fully supported (ensure the upsell product has cancellation settings applied correctly).
- Q: Where can I confirm a pro-rata applied?
- A: Transactions → Look for the [pro rata] tag. (This will be validation that the order cancelled another product’s subscription for that customer).
- A: Transactions → Look for the [pro rata] tag. (This will be validation that the order cancelled another product’s subscription for that customer).
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Still Need Help?
If you’ve followed these steps and are still experiencing issues or have additional questions, please contact our support team here.