Billing and credits

Billing is workspace-based

Plans, credits, saved-idea limits, and subscription state are attached to the active workspace. A user can belong to a workspace as owner, admin, or member; billing-management actions are limited to owners and admins.

• Owners and admins can start checkout or open the billing portal.
• Members can view workspace usage where the app exposes it, but should not be able to change billing.
• If the wrong workspace appears, check the signed-in account email and workspace membership before changing plans.

Plans grant usage allowances

TrendRise uses a freemium subscription model. The billing page and plans endpoint are the source of truth for current plan details, but the current app model separates saved ideas, research scans, and AI credits.

• Free: no AI credits, limited saved ideas, and a small monthly research-scan allowance.
• Starter: a monthly credit allowance for light generation, more saved ideas, and a larger scan allowance.
• Pro: higher monthly credits, unlimited saved ideas, and broader launch/generation workflows.
• Agency: the largest included credit allowance, team/client usage, exports, and higher-touch support expectations.

Credits pay for generated work

Basic exploration should not feel metered. Opening pages, viewing cached Trend Radar data, filtering, opening saved evidence, comparing product paths, and reopening saved outputs should not spend credits. Credits are for actions that ask TrendRise to generate or perform expensive work.

• Examples: product briefs, pain-language summaries, Product Studio reports, builder outlines, drafts, marketing copy, spreadsheet schemas, asset plans, export manifests, UGC scripts, creator-fit reports, outreach drafts, and full product drafts.
• Fresh source checks can use scan allowance or plan gates before they use paid/provider sources.
• Credit-consuming actions should show a clear cost or confirmation before they run.

Monthly grants and expiration

Paid active or trialing subscriptions can receive a monthly credit grant. Monthly credits are period-based: unused monthly credits can expire before the next grant, and the next period receives a new allowance based on the workspace plan.

• Monthly subscriptions use their subscription billing period when available.
• Other eligible billing intervals can use the UTC calendar-month grant window.
• Credit ledger entries record grants, usage deductions, refunds, and expirations.

Usage should be idempotent

Generation and usage endpoints should avoid double-charging accidental retries. Credit spending uses an idempotency key so the same intended action can be recognized instead of blindly deducting credits again.

• Saved generated outputs should be reused when the same workspace reopens them.
• Regeneration or comparison should be a separate confirmed action when it may spend credits.
• If credits are insufficient, the app should return an out-of-credits state and point the user to billing.

Stripe is the payment system

Stripe Checkout handles paid subscription checkout. Stripe Customer Portal handles payment method, invoice, and plan-management flows after a Stripe customer exists. TrendRise stores provider references needed to connect a workspace to plan state, invoices, subscription status, and credit balances.

• Payment method details are handled by Stripe, not stored directly in TrendRise.
• Stripe webhooks are the billing source of truth for paid status and renewal events.
• Immediately after checkout, a billing page can briefly look stale until the webhook updates the workspace subscription.

Cancellation and refund review

Cancellation, refund, dispute, and chargeback questions should be reviewed with account email, workspace, plan state, invoice references, Stripe records, and usage history. Credit usage can represent delivered digital-service activity, so support should check what was consumed before promising a refund.

• Include the account email and invoice or payment reference when contacting billing support.
• Refunded or disputed billing events can affect partner attribution, commissions, account access, or future credit grants.
• Legal review may refine the final refund policy as the product and public launch mature.

Billing support information

For billing help, use billing@trendrise.io. Include the signed-in email, workspace name, plan, invoice/payment reference when available, and the specific action that looked wrong.