Let customers pause their own subscriptions

Give customers a self-serve way to pause their subscription instead of cancelling.

Customer self-pause is rolling out gradually. If Enable customers to pause their subscriptions doesn’t appear in your Customer Payments settings, the feature hasn’t reached your site yet.

Customers who need to step away from a subscription usually have one option, which is to cancel. Most of them don’t come back. Customer self-pause gives them a way to take a temporary break instead, without emailing you first.

Note: Customer self-pause is available for subscriptions paid through Kajabi Payments and Stripe. Subscriptions paid through PayPal cannot be paused by the customer. Customer self-pause also applies to subscriptions only, not to payment plans.

What a pause looks like

When customer self-pause is enabled, a customer opens their Billing page, chooses Pause subscription, and picks how long to pause for.

A customer’s pause does not start on the spot. Because the customer has already paid for the billing period they’re in, they keep full access until that period ends. The subscription shows Pausing on [Date] until then. On that date, access stops and billing stops with it. When the pause ends, both start again.

What pausing means for your revenue and your customers’ access

Payments scheduled during a pause are skipped. During a pause a customer is not billed and does not make up missed payments when they return. Pausing reduces the revenue you collect from that subscription for the length of the pause.

Access stops when billing stops. A paused customer cannot access the products in that subscription while the pause is active. Access returns when the subscription resumes.

Pause length is counted in billing intervals. A customer on a monthly subscription pauses in months, a weekly subscription in weeks, an annual subscription in years. If you allow a maximum pause of 2, that means two months for a monthly subscriber and two years for an annual subscriber.

Pause settings apply to your entire site. You cannot enable pausing for some offers and not others, and the limits you set apply to every eligible subscription you sell. If you sell subscriptions on more than one billing interval, choose your limits with the longest interval in mind.

Enable customer self-pause

1. Open the Settings tab from your Dashboard.
2. Click Customer Payments under the Site Settings header.
3. Check the box labeled Enable customers to pause their subscriptions.
4. Optional step: check Set maximum pause duration and enter the longest single pause you’ll allow, counted in billing intervals.
5. Optional step: check Limit the number of times a customer can pause their subscription and enter how many pauses a customer can start in a year.
6. Click Save to keep and apply your changes:

Tip: Customer self-pause does not require self-cancellation. See Enable and disable subscription self-cancellations.

Where your customers pause

Once customer self-pause is enabled, customers can pause from two places:

• Their Billing page. The subscription’s 3 dots […] menu includes Pause subscription.
  
• The cancellation flow. If you also allow customers to self-cancel, Pause instead appears before the cancellation completes, so a customer who came to cancel is offered a break first. If you set a maximum pause duration, the customer chooses a length from a dropdown running from one interval up to your maximum.
  
  

What happens after a customer pauses

1. The subscription shows Pausing on [Date]. The customer keeps full access until that date, and the payment that would have been due is skipped rather than charged.
2. On that date the pause begins. Access ends, billing stops, and the subscription shows Paused, along with the resume date if the pause has one.
3. Any payments scheduled during the pause are skipped.

Cancel a pause before it starts

A customer whose subscription still shows Pausing on [Date] can cancel the pending pause from their Billing page. The subscription returns to active, billing continues unchanged, and the customer is not charged at that moment.

Resume a paused subscription

How a paused subscription comes back depends on how it was paused:

• A pause with an end date resumes on its own. Access returns and billing continues on the customer’s original schedule.
• An open-ended pause stays paused until the customer resumes it from their Billing page. A customer can also resume early, before a scheduled pause has ended. Resuming early charges the customer immediately, restores access right away, and moves their billing date to the day they resumed. A pause that resumes on its own does not change the customer’s billing date.

Decide how much pausing to allow

Two optional limits shape how customers use pause. You can set both, one, or neither.

If you want to…	Use
Cap how long a single pause lasts	Set maximum pause duration
Cap how many times a customer pauses per year	Limit the number of times a customer can pause their subscription
Let customers pause open-ended and return when they’re ready	Leave maximum pause duration off

If you set a maximum pause duration, every customer pause has an end date and resumes on its own. If you leave maximum pause duration off, customer pauses are open-ended and stay paused until the customer resumes them.

If you limit how many times a customer can pause per year, a customer who reaches that limit no longer sees the pause option until the limit resets. Capping how long a pause lasts does not cap how often a customer pauses, so consider setting both.

How customer pauses differ from pauses you start

You can still pause a customer’s subscription yourself, and nothing about that has changed. The two work differently in one important way:

• A pause you start as the site owner takes effect immediately.
• A pause your customer starts takes effect at the end of their current billing cycle. See Pause a customer’s subscription or payment plan for pausing a subscription yourself.

Emails and notifications

• A customer receives a confirmation email when they schedule a pause, including the pause date and the resume date if the pause has one.
• A customer receives a confirmation email if they cancel a pause before it starts.
• You can be notified when a customer pauses. Look for Notify me when a customer initiates a pause on their subscription in your Customer Subscription & Payments notification settings. Learn more.
  
  

Frequently asked questions

Why don’t my customers see the pause option?

Check that Enable customers to pause their subscriptions is on in Settings > Customer Payments and that the subscription is active. Customers who pay through PayPal never see the pause option. Customers who have reached the yearly pause limit you set won’t see it again until the limit resets.

Can customers pause a payment plan?

No. Customer self-pause applies to subscriptions only. You can still pause a payment plan yourself as the site owner.

Can I allow a different pause length for different offers?

No. Pause limits apply site-wide and cannot be set per offer. If your offers use different billing intervals, set your limits with the longest interval in mind.

When is a paused customer charged again?

A pause with an end date resumes on the customer’s original billing schedule. A customer who resumes early is charged immediately on the day they resume.

Why did my subscription pause later than I asked?

A pause a customer requests starts at the end of the billing period they have already paid for, not immediately. Until then the subscription shows Pausing on followed by that date, and the customer keeps full access.