Plan & billing

Plan & billing, in the account menu, shows your plan, the stories and audio minutes you’ve used, and any payment problem. On Free, Upgrade starts a paid plan or a free trial. On a paid plan, Manage subscription opens Stripe, our payment provider, where you change your card, switch plans, add Premium Audio, see invoices, or cancel.

For what each plan includes and costs, see Plans and limits.

Open Plan & billing

1. Open the account menu (your avatar at the top of the app).
2. Choose Plan & billing.

At the top you see your plan’s name, such as Learner Plus, and its status if it needs saying, such as Free trial or Payment overdue.

Manage subscription opens Stripe, where you change your card or plan.

Upgrade from Free

1. Choose Upgrade at the top of the app, in the account menu, or at the bottom of Plan & billing.
2. On the plan you want, choose its button: Try free for … if a trial is offered, otherwise Choose ….
3. Choose Monthly or Yearly, and turn on Premium Audio if you want it. Due today shows what you pay now.
4. Choose Try free for … or Subscribe. Stripe opens to take your card.
5. When Stripe is done, you come back to Stichos on your new plan.

Starting a plan needs a confirmed email address. If yours isn't confirmed yet, a “Verify your email” box opens instead of Stripe. Type the 6-digit code from the email, or open the link in it. Stichos keeps the plan you chose for a day: once your email is verified, Continue to checkout? names it, for example “Learner Plus with Premium Audio, billed yearly”. Choose Continue to checkout to go to Stripe, or Not now to pick again later.

Example

Tom reads Korean on Free. He wants his course book’s words as key words, so he chooses Upgrade, then Try free for … on Learner Plus, pays nothing today, and can use key words straight away.

How free trials work

• A trial is for your first paid plan. It needs a card, but Due today is nothing.
• While it runs, Plan & billing says “Free trial until …” with the date.
• If you don’t cancel, your card is charged when the trial ends, and the plan carries on.
• Cancel any time before it ends, and you aren’t charged.
• Each card gets one trial. If your card already had a trial on another Stichos account, the trial ends at once and the first payment is taken.

During a trial, Premium Audio gives fewer minutes of new audio. See Plans and limits.

A trial also has a lower daily fair-use safety limit than the plan, until the first payment. If you reach it, new stories and lookups pause until 00:00 UTC; starting your plan from Plan & billing lifts it.

Start your plan early

You don’t have to wait for the trial to end.

1. In Plan & billing, choose Start plan now, under “Free trial until …”.
2. Choose Start plan to confirm, or Not now to keep your trial.

Your trial ends today and your card is charged for your plan straight away. It can take a moment for Plan & billing to show the plan as active. Once the payment goes through, the trial’s lower daily safety limit is gone and your plan’s full daily limits apply.

Change your card, switch plans, or add Premium Audio

1. In Plan & billing, choose Manage subscription. Stripe’s page opens.
2. Update your card, switch plans, add or remove Premium Audio, or see your invoices.
3. Choose Return to Stichos when you’re done. It brings you back to your own studio: Educator Studio on an Educator plan, Story Studio otherwise.

You can have one subscription at a time, so every change to a paid plan goes through Manage subscription, not Upgrade.

Cancel your plan

1. In Plan & billing, choose Manage subscription.
2. On Stripe’s page, cancel your plan.

Your plan keeps working until the end of the period you’ve paid for. Plan & billing says “Your plan ends on … and won’t renew.” Changed your mind? Turn renewal back on in Manage subscription before that date.

Payments aren’t refunded when you cancel, with one exception. If your plan started without a free trial (for example, because your card had a trial before), you can cancel within 14 days of that first payment for a full refund, wherever you live. Write to info@stichos.com.

If a payment didn’t go through

Plan & billing shows Payment overdue and “Your last payment didn’t go through. Update your card in Manage subscription to keep your plan.” We also email you.

• Your plan stays on meanwhile, and Stripe tries the payment again over the next few days.
• Choose Manage subscription and update your card. Once a payment goes through, the warning goes away.
• If the payment still hasn’t gone through after 21 days, your plan is canceled and your account goes back to Free. We email you when that happens.

A failed payment shows Payment overdue until the card is updated.

What happens when a paid plan ends

When a plan ends (you canceled, or a payment never went through), your account goes back to Free.

• Your saved stories and words stay. Free’s limits apply to what you add next.
• Audio you got while paying stays yours to replay. New audio needs a paid plan with Premium Audio.
• Learner Plus features, such as your own topics, key words, and exports, need the plan again.
• On Educator Studio, your students’ links keep working, and you keep a read-only Dashboard under My share links. Making and editing lesson stories needs the plan again. See What if my plan ends?

To come back, choose Upgrade.

Where are my old invoices?

After a plan ends, Plan & billing still shows Manage subscription next to Upgrade. Your past invoices and card details are there.

It says “Your plan was set up by Stichos”

Your plan was given to you by hand, so there’s nothing to manage in Stripe. To change it, write to info@stichos.com.

What happens to my plan if I delete my account?

It’s set not to renew. See Delete your account.

Related: Plans and limits · Audio · Delete your account · Settings and account