Billing, trials, and subscriptions

Every paid Hydra workspace is provisioned via Stripe Checkout when you sign up. After that, plan switches, payment-method updates, and cancellations all flow through the Customer Portal linked from Settings → Billing.

How the 14-day free trial works

When you click "Start 14-day free trial" on the marketing site:

1. Stripe Checkout collects your email and card.
2. Hydra provisions your workspace immediately — full access to your selected plan's features.
3. The card on file is not charged until day 15. If you cancel before then, no charge.
4. Around day 11–12 we email a heads-up so you have time to switch plans, update your card, or cancel before automatic conversion.

If your card silently fails on day 15, Stripe cancels the subscription instead of leaving you in a charge-loop. You'll see a "Subscription ended" banner in Settings → Billing and the workspace becomes read-only until you resubscribe.

Switching plans

Plan switches happen on Settings → Billing directly. Each plan card has a Switch to Starter / Growth / Scale button — clicking one moves your workspace to that plan in a single step. Stripe handles proration automatically; you'll see the credit or charge for the unused / new portion on your next invoice.

The metered overage line on your subscription updates to the new plan's rate at the same time, so a switch from Starter to Growth mid-period also moves your overage rate from $0.35 → $0.25 going forward.

Cancel, update card, see invoices

Settings → Billing → Manage subscription opens the Stripe-hosted Customer Portal in a new tab. From there:

• Update payment method — swap the card on file. Existing subscriptions keep running on the new card.
• Cancel — ends the subscription at the end of the current billing period. Your workspace becomes read-only after cancellation.
• Resubscribe — if you cancelled and want to come back, the same portal supports re-activating.
• See invoice history — every past invoice with line items and amounts.

Plan switching is intentionally not in the portal — it lives in Settings → Billing so the base price + overage rate move together. Going through the portal for cancel / card / invoices is the only path to those actions.

What happens at trial end

If a payment fails (expired card, declined charge), Settings → Billing shows a red banner explaining what happened. Stripe retries the charge over a few days; if it doesn't recover, the subscription cancels and the workspace becomes read-only.

Read-only state

When a subscription cancels (whether by you, by failed payment, or at trial end without conversion), the workspace flips to Subscription ended:

• Existing data is preserved indefinitely.
• Inbox, knowledge, and CRM are read-only — agents can read past conversations but can't reply.
• Bots stop replying to new widget conversations.
• A "Resubscribe" path through Stripe Checkout reactivates everything; nothing has to be re-imported.

Comp / legacy workspaces

A small number of workspaces were provisioned outside the paid flow (early-access invites, internal demos). They show "This workspace isn't on a paid subscription" on the billing page. To convert one of those into a paid workspace, email hydrausersupport@gmail.com and we'll get you set up.

Permissions

Only Owner and Admin roles can open the Customer Portal. Members can view the billing page (so they can see the current plan and usage) but cannot change subscription state.

Bot-conversation quotas and overage

Every plan includes a monthly allowance of bot conversations — widget chat sessions handled by your AI bot. If you stay under the included quota in a billing period, you pay nothing beyond your subscription. If you exceed it, each additional conversation is billed at your plan's overage rate on the same Stripe invoice as the base subscription.

A small number of long-time Scale and DFY workspaces were signed up under an earlier "unlimited bot conversations" offer and are grandfathered onto unlimited usage — they will not be billed for overage regardless of volume. If you're not sure whether your workspace falls into that group, check Settings → Billing (the usage panel will show your conversation count followed by ∞ instead of a quota number, e.g. 1,247 / ∞) or email hydrausersupport@gmail.com.

What counts as a conversation

A conversation is one widget chat session — the customer opens the widget, exchanges messages with your bot, and the session ends. The bot may send many individual replies inside that session as the conversation goes back and forth; the whole session counts as one conversation against your quota, no matter how many bot responses it contains.

Conversations counted toward the quota are bot-handled widget sessions. Inbox replies you send by hand to email or other channels do not count, and conversations created by your teammates testing the widget internally do count the same as a real visitor.

Where to see your usage

Settings → Billing shows your current period's usage in a panel near the top:

• Conversations used — running count for the current billing period (e.g. 342 / 500).
• Period reset date — the date your counter rolls back to zero.
• Estimated overage — once you cross the included quota, an estimate of overage dollars accrued so far this period (e.g. 42 conversations over · estimated $14.70 in overage).

The dollar figure is an estimate of what's accumulated to date — final overage is computed by Stripe at period end and appears as a metered line item on the same invoice as your base subscription. Trial workspaces and comp workspaces see the conversation count but not the dollar estimate, since they aren't being billed for overage.

Quota-warning email

The first time your workspace crosses its included quota in a calendar month, Hydra sends a one-time warning email to the workspace owner. The email tells you:

• How many conversations you've used so far this period
• Your overage rate per conversation
• A link back to Settings → Billing so you can review usage or upgrade

The warning fires once per calendar month. If you cross the quota, get the email, and then keep going further over for the rest of the month, you won't be re-notified — the email is a heads-up, not a running ping. The flag clears at the start of the next calendar month, so a workspace that goes over in two consecutive months will get one warning each month.

What happens when the billing period resets

At the start of each new billing period:

• The conversation counter resets to zero.
• Overage reporting resets — past-period overage has already been invoiced and won't be re-billed.
• The quota-warning flag clears, so you're eligible to be notified again if you cross the new period's quota.

The reset date is tied to your subscription's billing anchor — usually the same day of the month you originally subscribed. You can see the exact reset date on the usage panel in Settings → Billing.

Switching plans mid-period

When you change plans in the middle of a billing period:

• Base subscription — Stripe prorates the base price automatically. You'll see a credit for the unused portion of the old plan and a charge for the prorated portion of the new plan on your next invoice.
• Overage — your conversation counter keeps running for the rest of the period, and overage is billed against the new plan's quota and rate at period end. The usage you'd already accumulated before the switch counts toward the new plan's included quota — the counter doesn't reset on a plan change.

In practice that means upgrading mid-period with heavy usage will often eliminate or sharply reduce overage charges for that period, since the new plan's quota is larger.

Frequently asked questions

Why don't I see a usage panel on the billing page? The panel renders for any workspace where the billing system can compute usage. Trial workspaces show the conversation count but no overage dollar estimate; comp and grandfathered-unlimited workspaces show the count followed by ∞ instead of a quota number. If you're on a paid plan and the panel is missing entirely, email hydrausersupport@gmail.com.

Do conversations my team starts to test the widget count? Yes. Hydra counts every widget session that the bot handled, regardless of whether the visitor was a real customer or a teammate testing in another browser. If you want to stress-test the widget without burning quota, do it on a staging workspace.

What about conversations a bot handed off to a human — do those still count? Yes. The conversation is counted as a bot-handled session as soon as the bot replies. A later handoff to an agent doesn't refund the count.

Are messages sent through email channels or the inbox counted? No. Quota only covers bot-handled widget sessions. Replies you send by hand from the inbox to email, web forms, or other channels are not metered.

Can I set a hard cap so I never go into overage? Not in v1. The bot keeps replying to new conversations after the quota is hit and overage accrues. If you need a hard ceiling, the cleanest options today are to upgrade to a higher tier or to disable the widget on Settings → Channels until the period resets.

Will the warning email fire again if I cross the quota a second time in the same month? No. The warning is once per calendar month per workspace. The flag clears at the start of the next calendar month.

What happens to overage if I cancel mid-period? The final invoice when your subscription closes out includes any overage accumulated up to the cancellation date. After that the workspace flips to read-only and no further conversations are metered.