Upgrading and downgrading

Summary#

Upgrading is a checkout for the higher plan, started either from the pricing page or from the Subscription card in the app. The new tier applies as soon as Stripe confirms the subscription. There is no in-place downgrade: to move to a lower plan you cancel the current subscription and subscribe to the lower one. Metric Vault does not cancel an old subscription for you when you buy a new one, so check that step carefully.

Purpose#

Your plan follows your subscription, which keeps entitlement and billing in one place and means an upgrade never needs a support ticket or a waiting period. The trade-off is that plan changes are subscription changes, so a move down the tier list is deliberate rather than a one-click toggle. This page tells you exactly what each direction costs you in effort and what carries over.

Requirements#

• An account with an active subscription for a downgrade, or any account for an upgrade.
• Access to the email address the subscription is billed to, so you can reach the billing portal.
• A payment method for the new plan.

Permissions#

Only the person who holds the subscription can change it. In a team workspace that is the owner. Invited members can see the plan on the Account page but the upgrade path applies to their own account, not to the workspace they were invited to. See Team and workspace billing.

Navigation Path#

To upgrade:

Dashboard → your avatar, top right → Account → Subscription → Upgrade to <plan>

or

Pricing → Monthly or Annual → Start free 14-day trial

To cancel before moving down:

Dashboard → your avatar, top right → Account → Manage Billing

Step-by-Step Guide#

Upgrading to the next tier#

1. Open Account → Subscription. The upgrade button names your next tier, for example Upgrade to Agency.
2. Click it and read the confirmation dialog. It states the new credit allowance and seat count next to your current ones, and the monthly price.
3. Click Continue to secure checkout.
4. Complete payment. The new tier applies as soon as the subscription is confirmed, normally within seconds.

The in-app button only ever offers the next tier up. On Enterprise it becomes Talk to sales.

Upgrading by more than one tier, or switching to annual billing#

1. Open the pricing page.
2. Set the toggle to Monthly or Annual.
3. Click the button on the plan you want. If you are signed in, checkout opens directly.
4. Complete payment.
5. Cancel your previous subscription if it is still active. See below.

Moving to a lower plan#

There is no downgrade button, and the billing portal does not offer plan switching. Two routes work:

Route A, cleanest. Cancel the current subscription in the billing portal. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the period you have already paid for, so you keep the higher plan until then. Once the account has returned to Free, subscribe to the lower plan. See Cancelling your subscription and Subscribing and checkout.

Route B, no gap. Subscribe to the lower plan first, then immediately cancel the higher one in the billing portal. While both subscriptions are active your account uses the higher tier, and you will be billed for both, so do not leave them overlapping.

If neither route suits your renewal date, contact us before your next renewal and we will help you time it. See Contacting support.

What happens to your account#

Billing and proration#

Metric Vault does not apply its own proration rules. The amount you pay is calculated by Stripe when you check out, and the exact figure is shown on the checkout page before you confirm. Read it there rather than estimating.

Two things to check before you confirm an upgrade:

• Your existing subscription is not cancelled automatically. Nothing in the product ends it when you buy another plan. If you leave both running, Stripe will bill both. Your account uses the higher of the two tiers, so the symptom is a correct plan and a duplicated charge.
• A returning customer gets no trial. The upgrade dialog always shows the "14-day free trial" line, but the trial is only for first-time customers, so an existing subscriber is charged straight away. See The 14-day free trial.

Screenshots#

Tips#

• Time a downgrade to your renewal date. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the period you have paid for, so there is no benefit to cancelling early.
• Before downgrading, check which capabilities you are giving up in Full plan comparison, especially white-label branding, team seats and API access.
• If you are downgrading because of cost rather than fit, look at annual billing on your current tier first. It is 20 percent lower per month.

Limitations#

• No in-place plan switch. Every change is a checkout, a cancellation, or both.
• The in-app upgrade path offers the next tier only, and bills monthly.
• The billing portal does not offer plan changes or subscription pausing.
• Existing team members are not removed automatically when you drop below their seat count.

Troubleshooting#

FAQs#

Does upgrading charge me straight away? Yes, unless you are a first-time customer and a trial is applied. The exact amount is shown on the checkout page before you confirm.

Do I lose my saved reports if I downgrade? No. Saved work stays in the library and can be reopened at no cost. Retention is 90 days from the run, on every plan. See Saved Work.

Can I add just one more seat? No. Seats come with the tier. Pro is 5, Agency is 15. See Plans and pricing.

Will my monitoring keep running on a lower plan? Anything that requires a plan above your new one stops. Published per-plan allowances such as monitored URLs and tracked prompts are not applied by an automatic check today, so review what you have set up rather than assuming it will be trimmed for you.

Can support move me between plans without a new payment? Support can set a plan on an account, for example while a billing issue is being resolved. It does not change what Stripe charges, so it is a stopgap and not a substitute for the right subscription.

What happens if I upgrade during a trial? The trial subscription is separate from the new one. Cancel the trial in the billing portal so it does not convert alongside the plan you actually want.