Adding a payment method and reviewing your plan
The space to manage your payment method is at the bottom of your billing screen:
Here you can register either a credit card or a working PayPal account. In case of credit cards, we accept Visa, Mastercard and American Express.
After registering a payment method, it will remain on your account until you decide to disconnect it yourself.
This main Billing screen also contains the summary of your pricing plan and it's cost. When you're already on a paid plan, it allows you to upgrade instantly.
Automatic renewal and recurring payments
Paid plans renew automatically. On each renewal date, the payment method saved on your account is charged for the next billing period, so there is no recurring payment for you to set up and no manual payment to make. Your renewal date is shown in the plan details on the Billing screen.
This article covers billing of your own Elastic Email plan. If you want to charge your own customers on a recurring basis, for example for a subscription newsletter, that is a separate feature. See the article Paid Newsletters.
Stopping automatic renewal
There are two ways to stop your plan from renewing:
Click "Cancel plan" on the Billing screen. This also disconnects your payment method automatically.
Disconnect your payment method yourself, without cancelling the plan.
In both cases your plan stays active until the end of the period you have already paid for. After that date, your account moves to the Free plan.
Cancelling your subscription
To cancel your subscription, go to Account > Billing and click "Cancel plan". The same action is sometimes called cancelling your plan, cancelling your account subscription, or turning off automatic renewal.
There are two ways to stop your plan from renewing:
Click "Cancel plan" on the Billing screen. This also disconnects your payment method automatically.
Disconnect your payment method yourself, without cancelling the plan.
In both cases your plan stays active until the end of the period you have already paid for, so you keep full access to your paid features until that date. After that date, your account moves to the Free plan.
Purchasing a plan
As soon as you have your billing method registered, you will be able to purchase one of our paid plans. If you are not decided yet on which one to choose, please consult our pricing pages or the Pricing Plans Comparison Article. You can choose between Email Marketing and Email API, and within each, between Starter and PRO versions.
In order to purchase, click your account name and choose "Upgrade" in the resulting item list. This will bring you directly to your Billing screen. To go ahead with the purchase, choose "Change plan".
This will bring you directly to your Billing screen. On this screen all of your plan details can be found, so be sure to revisit it after the purchase if you ever need to review your new plan in detail. To go ahead with the purchase, choose "Change plan".
On this screen, you will be able to choose your preferred plan type and version. You’ll also see a feature breakdown, along with a slider that adjusts your contact volume. As the contact volume increases, the available email volume increases accordingly.
For API plans, selection is based only on email volume, with no contact volume component.
Plan details
This screen summarizes your pricing plan. It contains the following:
Plan price and renewal date.
Plan Type: Email Marketing or Email API.
Plan Version: Starter or PRO.
Email/Contact limit: The core limit of your plan.
Auto increase limit option: If enabled, Elastic Email will automatically upgrade your plan's volume limit if you exceed the current limit.
Verification limit: The limit your plan allows for usage of our Email Verification Service.
Upgrading your plan
In order to upgrade your plan, you should once again navigate to the "Change plan" button. In the next screen, you can increase your volume limit by moving the slider or upgrade from Starter to PRO to unlock advanced features.
Reaching your plan limit
If you use up your plan's email or contact limit before the end of your billing period,
what happens next depends on the "Auto increase limit" setting shown in your plan details:
With "Auto increase limit" enabled, your plan moves up to the next volume tier as soon as you pass the current limit, and sending continues without interruption.
With the setting disabled, sending stops once you reach the limit. You can upgrade manually at any time using "Change plan".
The charge works the same way in both cases. You are not charged the full price of the new tier right away. We charge the difference between the two tiers, prorated for the days left in your current billing period. For example, if you move up halfway through your billing period, you are charged half of the difference for the remainder of that period.
From your next renewal date onwards, you are billed the full price of the new tier. Your plan stays on that tier until you change it yourself, so it does not drop back to the previous one automatically. If you want to return to a lower tier later, see the "Downgrading your plan" section below.
To check or change this setting, go to Account > Billing and review your plan details.
Downgrading your plan
The same screen allows you to downgrade your plan if applicable. You can move the volume limit slider left or switch from PRO to Starter. Please note that in order to do so, you will have to make sure that your current usage does not exceed the newly chosen lower limit.
Note: The ability to downgrade your Email Marketing and Email API plan is available only during the last two days of your subscription period.
Changing your plan type
It's possible to change your plan type between Email Marketing and Email API, but only as long as you are still on the non-purchased version of the plan. In order to switch between plans:
1) Navigate to your "Account" section.
2) Choose "Profile".
3) At the bottom of the Profile screen you will see the name of your current plan and the button allowing you to change it. Click "Change product".
4) You will be immediately switched from Email Marketing to Email API or the other way around - depending on your current plan version..
Add-ons
As long as you are on a paid plan, you can review, manage and purchase new add-ons depending on your needs.
Our add-ons include:
Priority Support.
Premium Support.
Private IPs.