# Trial and billing

> Your first workspace starts with a 14-day free trial, and you need no card. This page covers what happens when the trial ends, and how to pay, change plan or cancel your subscription from Settings, then Billing.

sourcesignal documentation, Account and billing. Updated 2026-10-22. The page for people: https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/account-and-billing/trial-and-billing. Every article: https://www.sourcesignal.ai/llms.txt

Every sourcesignal workspace has one plan and one bill. Your first workspace starts with a 14-day free trial, and you need no card to start it. You choose a plan, pay, change plan or cancel in one place: open Settings, then Billing.

Come here when your trial is running out, when a payment needs attention, or when you want a different plan. Owners and admins make every billing change. Members see the same numbers, and the screen tells them who can act.

## The free trial

Your trial starts the moment you create your workspace and runs for 14 days. It has Growth's limits, plus two caps of its own:

- Up to 3 connected mailboxes.
- Up to 5 seats, counting members and pending invites.

The deep dive reads your site from its sitemap, up to your plan's page count, and suggests what to track. It comes with a paid plan that includes it: Growth, Agency or Enterprise. During a trial you get the homepage read.

Each person gets one trial, on the first workspace they create. Any later workspace starts with its trial already over. Its held screen names the workspace that had the trial when it can, and otherwise asks you to choose a plan to start this workspace.

You can check the days left in three places:

- The "Current plan" card in Billing counts down the days left in your trial.
- The account menu shows a line under your email, such as "Trial: 9 days left". On the last day it shows the end time.
- A banner runs across the app for the last 3 days: "Your trial ends in 3 days. Choose a plan to keep everything running." From the day before the trial ends, it gives the time.

Owners and admins get an email when the trial starts, another 3 days before it ends, and a third when it ends. The one 3 days before says what is waiting on your deck and what choosing a plan keeps.

In between, the trial writes only when there is something for you, at most one a day and never on a day you used the console: your first pitch once Autopilot has drafted it, a digest of your week on Mondays, and a decision that has waited two days. Replies to your pitches that went to a mailbox other than your own address are emailed when they arrive. [Notifications](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/account-and-billing/notifications.md) lists each email.

## When a trial or a plan ends

> **Note:** Nothing is deleted at any stage. Your data is kept, and choosing a plan (or paying the open invoice, after a failed payment) brings it all back.

| Stage | When | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Full access | For 7 days after a payment fails, a payment waits for your bank to confirm it, or a paid plan ends | Everything keeps working. A banner shows the date full access ends. |
| Hidden | For the next 7 days, or as soon as a trial ends | Your data is kept but not shown. Imports keep running. Outreach stops sending, and replies still arrive. |
| Paused | After the hidden week | Nothing runs. Everything you tracked is kept. |

A trial has no full-access stage: when it ends, the account goes straight to hidden. Owners and admins get an email at each stage, with the date and the one thing to do.

## The held screen

While your account is hidden or paused, every page shows the held screen instead. Settings, Support and your profile stay open, and you can still sign out.

- Hidden: "Your data is safe and imports kept running.", with the date to choose a plan by before the account pauses.
- Paused: "Everything you tracked is kept." and "Choose a plan and it all comes back."
- After a failed payment, it asks you to pay the open invoice instead of choosing a new plan.

Owners and admins get two buttons and a link:

- "Choose a plan" opens Settings, then Billing. After a failed payment, this button reads "Pay now".
- "Contact support" opens the support drawer.
- "Download your data" gives you a zip of spreadsheets: projects, prompts, opportunities, contacts, sequences and messages.

A member sees no buttons and reads "Only an owner or admin can choose a plan.", followed by the names of those people. Report share links show "This report is not available right now." until the account is back.

## How to choose a plan

You can choose a plan during the trial or after it ends.

1. Open Settings, then Billing. The "Choose a plan" or "See plans" link on the banner or the held screen also takes you there.
2. Under "Plans", pick "Monthly" or "Yearly", then your currency.
3. Press "Choose plan" on the plan you want. During a trial every plan offers this button, Growth included, and the line under the plans says "Your plan starts today and your trial ends now."
4. If the plan is smaller than what you track, the "What stays" picker opens first. Choose the projects and tracked prompts to keep, then press "Continue to checkout".
5. Pay at the Stripe checkout.

Back in Billing you see "You’re all set. Your plan is active." and the badge reads "Active". Owners and admins get an email with a link to the receipt and the next renewal date. If you leave the checkout without paying, Billing says "Checkout canceled. Nothing was charged."

If the account was hidden or paused, everything comes back at once, and imports and sending start again. An outreach email that was due more than 7 days ago is skipped, and its sequence carries on from the next step.

## Paying, invoices and the billing portal

After you pay for a plan, a "Manage billing" button appears on the "Current plan" card. It opens the Stripe billing portal, where you can:

- update the card on file
- change the billing email
- view and download every invoice

You change plans in sourcesignal, not in the portal. A link in the portal brings you back to Billing.

### When a payment fails

Your plan is still on. The badge reads "Payment failed", and the banner gives the date full access lasts until, with "Pay the open invoice to keep it."

1. Press "Pay the open invoice" in Billing, "Pay now" on the banner or the held screen, or "Pay the invoice" in the email.
2. Stripe's invoice page takes the payment, plus any confirmation your bank asks for.

If the account was already hidden or paused, it comes back at once, and owners and admins get an email saying that everything is back.

> **Heads up:** Changing the card in "Manage billing" does not pay the open invoice. Pay the invoice as well.

If your bank wants to confirm a payment, the badge reads "Payment to confirm" and the banner link says "Confirm the payment".

## How to change plan

On a live plan, every plan in Billing except the one you are on shows a "Change plan" button. Switch between "Monthly" and "Yearly", and your own plan shows one too, for the other interval.

To upgrade (a higher plan, or the same plan billed yearly instead of monthly):

1. Press "Change plan" on the plan you want.
2. The "Move to [plan]?" dialog checks the price. It then tells you what you pay today for the rest of this period. The new limits apply straight away.
3. Press "Pay [amount] and move". If your bank asks you to confirm, your plan changes once you do.

Moving from monthly to yearly charges a full year of the plan, minus what is left of this month, and the plan renews a year later. If the price changes after you open the dialog, it asks you to open the plan again for a new quote.

To downgrade (a lower plan, or yearly to monthly billing, even onto a bigger plan):

1. Press "Change plan" on the plan you want.
2. "What stays" opens. It has up to three steps: choose the projects to keep, choose the tracked prompts to keep, then confirm. The first two appear only when you hold more than the new plan allows, and your most cited prompts stay unless you pick others.
3. Press the confirm button, for example "Move to Brand".

The change takes effect at the end of your current period. Until then nothing changes, and Billing shows the new plan's name and the date it starts. To undo the change, press the button with your current plan's name, such as "Keep Growth". Only one change can wait at a time. What you do not keep is paused, never deleted, and replies still arrive. [Plans and limits](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/account-and-billing/plans-and-limits.md) explains each limit.

## How to cancel

1. In Settings, then Billing, press "Cancel plan" on the "Current plan" card.
2. The dialog explains that your plan stays on until the end of the period, and that you can resume it any time before then.
3. Press "Cancel plan" to confirm, or "Keep my plan" to close the dialog without canceling.

Billing then shows "Cancels on" with the date and a "Resume" button. The banner reads "Full access until [date], when your plan cancels." Press "Resume" before that date and the plan carries on as it was.

After that date you keep full access for 7 more days. Then your data is hidden for 7 days while imports keep running, and then the account pauses. Nothing is deleted. To delete the whole workspace, cancel the plan first, then follow [Organization settings](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/account-and-billing/organization-settings.md).

## Currencies and billing interval

- Plans are priced in USD, EUR and GBP. Before your first payment, the [pricing page](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/pricing) and the "Plans" section both have a currency switch. The pricing page guesses your currency from your timezone until you pick one.
- Your first plan sets the currency for good. Billing then reads "Billed in USD" (or EUR, or GBP), and every later change uses the same currency. To switch currency, contact support.
- Yearly billing gives you 2 months free. Yearly prices are shown per month. The pricing page puts the year's total under them, and once you pay yearly, the "Current plan" card shows what a year costs. Before a yearly plan renews, you get a notice in the app and by email, 30 days ahead.

## Good to know

- Owners and admins handle every billing action: choosing, changing, canceling, resuming and paying. Members see "See plan" where owners and admins see "Manage plan", and the screen tells them who can act. [Members and roles](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/account-and-billing/members-and-roles.md) covers who can do what.
- "Your plan is managed by us. Contact support to change it." means the sourcesignal team runs your plan directly. You cannot check out, change plan or cancel in the app.
- Nothing is charged until you choose a plan.

## Related

- [Plans and limits](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/account-and-billing/plans-and-limits.md): What Brand, Growth, Agency and Enterprise include, how each limit counts and what happens when you reach one. When a plan is smaller than what you track, nothing is deleted: you choose what stays and the rest is paused.
- [Usage](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/account-and-billing/usage.md): See how much of your plan your workspace has used, what counts against each limit and when each number resets.
- [Members and roles](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/account-and-billing/members-and-roles.md): Owners, admins and members can each do different things in a workspace. This page covers inviting a teammate or another user, choosing their role and projects, sharing ownership, leaving and how seats count.
- [Organization settings](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/account-and-billing/organization-settings.md): The Organization tab in Settings holds your workspace's name, an optional Ahrefs Brand Radar token, a download of your data and the way to delete the workspace. This article also covers switching workspaces, starting another one, the Projects list and each project's details.
- [Your data](https://www.sourcesignal.ai/docs/trust/your-data.md): You keep ownership of everything you put into sourcesignal. This page covers who on your team sees what, how to download a copy or delete it, and how long it is kept.