# Paid Trials FAQ

Paid Trials let you model a promotional offer with a discounted price for a limited time using Trial Offers. Trial Offers are an item-level approach that gives you more control over pricing and post-trial conversion than legacy free trials. This article covers how Paid Trials work, how to set them up, and how they interact with other Stripe products.
## Overview
### What is a Paid Trial?
Paid Trials let customers test a product or service for a limited time at a discounted trial price, with full flexibility to configure the subscription at conversion.
Trial Offers are an alternative way to add a trial-specific price to a subscription item, but they don't replace products or prices.
### What level does a trial operate on?
Paid Trials operate at the item level, so not all items within a trialing subscription need to share the same trial status.
### Are Paid Trials different from coupons?
Yes. Think of coupons as a price modification tool, and Paid Trials as a conversion and lifecycle design tool — one that triggers compliance emails and reminders and handles post-trial pricing conversion automatically.
Paid Trials also give customers the chance to explore different offers and experiment with strategy, while coupons are purely arithmetic price reductions.
Additionally, with Paid Trials the billing period starts at the end of the trial, while a discounted subscription's billing period starts at the point of subscription creation.
### Can Paid Trials and free trials be used together?
No. Paid Trials replace the legacy free-trial model on the Dashboard. While free trials are subscription-level, Trial Offers are item-level, and a subscription can only use one model at a time.
## Setup & configuration
### Are Free Trials still supported?
Yes. We're maintaining support for the legacy trial_end parameter to set free trials via the API. On the Dashboard, the experience depends on your subscription's billing mode:
* Classic mode: only the legacy free trial option is available.
* Flexible mode: you can choose between a free trial or a Trial Offer — but only one can be applied at a time.
To model a free trial using Trial Offers, set the Trial Offer price to $0.
### How does billing mode affect Dashboard trial options?
The trial options available in the subscription editor depend on your subscription's billing mode:
* **Classic mode:** Only legacy free trials are available.
* **Flexible mode:** You can add either a free trial or a Trial Offer — not both simultaneously.
When Trial Offers are unavailable (classic mode, or a free trial is already active on the subscription), the Trial Offer button is greyed out with a tooltip explaining why. If you switch a flexible subscription back to classic after configuring a Trial Offer, the billing mode toggle will be disabled until the Trial Offer is removed first.
### Can Trial Offers be archived or deleted?
Trial Offers cannot be deleted or archived.
## Trial behaviour
### How does the subscription status work during a Paid Trial?
It depends on the Trial Offer price:
* If all items have a Trial Offer price of $0 and are trialing → subscription status is trialing
* If any item's trial price is above $0 → status is active, incomplete, or past_due based on payment outcome, preserving all existing billing behaviors
* If a subscription has mixed items (some trialing, some not) → the top-level status is active
### Can a trial convert to a different product or price?
Yes. Trial Offers fully support transitioning to a different price or product when the trial ends — you can configure this as part of the Trial Offer setup.
### Can I extend or shorten a trial after it starts?
Not directly. To extend or reduce the duration of a paid trial, we recommend replacing the existing trial offer with a new one that has the desidered duration.
### How do Paid Trials interact with mixed billing intervals?
They work together. For example, a 14-day Trial Offer can be added to a monthly subscription item. When the trial ends, Billing prorates and realigns the item to the subscription's monthly cycle. The billing cycle must remain aligned, but the trial period itself doesn't break that alignment.
## Compatibility
### Does Paid Trial work with Stripe Checkout?
You can't attach a Trial Offer through Checkout at this time. Subscriptions created via Checkout can only use legacy free trials with the trial_end parameter.
### Do Subscription Schedules work with Paid Trials?
Yes. Paid Trials can be used with the Subscription Schedules API.
### Do Trial Offers work with Usage-Based Billing?
Yes. The trial applies only to the item using the Trial Offer; usage-based items are billed as usual.