Renewals, proration, dunning, and benefits.
A subscription is created the moment a customer checks out a product with a recurring price. Polar issues the first order, collects the first payment, and grants every benefit attached to the product.
From that point on, the subscription advances itself. At the end of every cycle, Polar generates a new order with tax and any active discount applied, then charges the saved payment method without your code in the loop.
Benefits track the subscription's state throughout. While it's active or trialing, the customer keeps access; when it moves to canceled or unpaid, benefits are revoked, optionally after a grace period you control.
Fixed, pay-what-you-want, or free recurring prices on any cadence.
Upgrades and downgrades with prorated charges and credits.
Automatic retries on past_due with optional grace periods.
Subscribers update payment, change plans, and cancel from a hosted page.
Set a default at the organization level. Override per API call when a particular change deserves different handling.
When a renewal charge fails, the subscription moves to past_due and Polar runs a four-attempt retry schedule before revoking benefits.
Every Polar account includes a hosted Customer Portal where subscribers can update payment methods, download invoices, change plans, manage seats, and cancel. You can either link to it directly or embed it inside your product.
Cancellation comes in two flavors that work the same way from the dashboard, the API, and the portal. Cancel at period end keeps benefits live until the paid term runs out and is reversible until the end date. Revoke immediatelyends access on the spot and isn't reversible.
Set a recurring price on a product and Polar runs the rest of the lifecycle.