# Formstep Docs — Subscription & Billing

# Subscription & Billing overview

Formstep has a Free, a Pro and a Business plan. What sets them apart, whose plan a workspace uses, and how AI credits fit in.

## The plans

Free is the whole product at a smaller scale, with no credit card. Pro is for working under your own name, with your own domains and emails to your recipients. Business is for teams with compliance needs, with extras such as respondent email verification and data retention. The plan that counts is the workspace owner’s, so members never pay for a seat.

## Limits and credits

Each plan sets a monthly allowance of submissions and requests, and a storage limit. AI is separate: it runs on credits you buy in packs, on any plan.

## Pages in this section

- [Plans & pricing](https://formstep.io/docs/subscription-billing/plans-pricing/) — Start free with no credit card, and move to Pro or Business when you need more.

- [Limits & quotas](https://formstep.io/docs/subscription-billing/limits-quotas/) — Every limit on the Free, Pro and Business plans: the monthly allowance, storage, domains, free invitations, idle forms, and what happens when you reach one.

- [Billing & invoices](https://formstep.io/docs/subscription-billing/billing-invoices/) — Update your payment method, download invoices and cancel in the Polar billing portal, and see what a failed payment means.

- [Upgrading & downgrading](https://formstep.io/docs/subscription-billing/upgrading-downgrading/) — What happens when you upgrade, move down a plan, cancel, or miss a payment: the grace period, what changes on Free, and what ends on a schedule.

# Plans & pricing

Start free with no credit card, and move to Pro or Business when you need more. What each plan is for, and how AI credits are paid for.

## What each plan is for

- Free is the whole product at a smaller scale, on Formstep links with Formstep branding.

- Pro is for collecting at volume under your own name: your own domains, no Formstep branding, and invitation and reminder emails for requests.

- Business is for teams with compliance needs: more storage, respondent email verification, data retention and going back to an earlier version of a form.

Current prices in your currency, the annual discount and every feature plan by plan are on the [pricing page](https://formstep.io/pricing/). The numbers behind each plan are in [Limits & quotas](https://formstep.io/docs/subscription-billing/limits-quotas/#plan-limits).

A paid plan covers the whole team: when the workspace owner is on Pro or Business, every member gets its features. See [the owner’s plan covers everyone](https://formstep.io/docs/workspaces-teams/overview/#plans).

## AI credits

AI chat, translating a submission and AI Validation run on credits. No plan includes credits: on every plan you buy packs, at the same price, and they never expire. Buy them on the **AI Usage** page, from the credits row at the bottom of the sidebar. See [AI credits & usage](https://formstep.io/docs/ai/ai-credits-usage/).

## Paying

Start a plan from the **Subscription** page. Formstep bills through Polar, and you manage your payment method and invoices there. See [Billing & invoices](https://formstep.io/docs/subscription-billing/billing-invoices/) and [Upgrading & downgrading](https://formstep.io/docs/subscription-billing/upgrading-downgrading/).

## Next steps

[Limits & quotas](https://formstep.io/docs/subscription-billing/limits-quotas/) — Every number, plan by plan

[Upgrading & downgrading](https://formstep.io/docs/subscription-billing/upgrading-downgrading/) — Switch plan, change cycle or cancel

# Limits & quotas

Every limit on the Free, Pro and Business plans: the monthly allowance, storage, domains, free invitations, idle forms, and what happens when you reach one.

## Plan limits

Prices, and the features each plan includes, are on the [pricing page](https://formstep.io/pricing/).

| Limit | Free | Pro | Business |
| - | - | - | - |
| Monthly allowance (submissions & requests) | 1,000 | 50,000 | 50,000 |
| Storage | 100 MB | 100 GB | 500 GB |
| Forms, workspaces and members | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Your own domains (form and email domains together) | None | Up to 5 | Up to 20 |
| Form emails per workspace per day | 500 | 10,000 | 25,000 |
| Analytics history | Not collected | 1 year | 1 year |
| Request invitation emails | 10 free, to your own address | Included | Included |
| Sending one form to a list of people | None | Up to 500 people per send | Up to 500 people per send |
| Versions you can go back to | None | None | Last 50 per form |
| Idle forms | Moved to Trash after a year | Never moved | Never moved |

> **Going above Business**
>
> On Business, storage and the monthly allowance can be raised as a paid add-on. Email [support](mailto:support@formstep.io) with how much you need, and we agree a price and add it to your account.

## The monthly allowance

One allowance covers both ways of collecting answers. One unit is spent when:

- someone completes a submission through a share link, or
- you create a request, answered or not, because the unit pays for its invitation and reminders.

The submission a request collects is already paid for, so it spends nothing. Test requests, unfinished drafts and abandoned forms spend nothing either.

The allowance belongs to the workspace owner and resets on the 1st of each month (UTC). Follow it on the **Subscription** page, under **Plan usage**.

## Free invitations

On Free, Formstep emails 10 request invitations for you, to your own address only, so you can see what your recipients would get. They belong to the workspace owner’s email address, never come back, and cover the invitation only, with no reminders. An invitation that bounces still counts. The New request sheet shows how many are left. After that, you can still create requests and send each link yourself, to anyone.

## Idle forms on Free

On Free, a form with no edits and no submissions for more than a year moves to Trash, at least 30 days after a warning email to the owner. If that email cannot be delivered, the form stays. In Trash you have 30 days to restore it before it is deleted with its submissions and files. An edit, a submission or a restore starts the year again. Pro and Business forms are never moved.

## Limits in a workspace

Storage and the monthly allowance belong to the workspace owner’s plan. See [the owner’s plan covers everyone](https://formstep.io/docs/workspaces-teams/overview/#plans).

## When you reach a limit

Nothing you have collected is deleted, and your forms stay published. Only new activity on that limit pauses, and it starts again as soon as you free space, the month resets, or you upgrade.

- Monthly allowance: a share link shows _This form is closed_ as soon as someone opens it, before they fill anything in. If the allowance runs out while someone is answering, their submit is refused with _This form can’t accept responses right now_, and their answers are not saved. You cannot create new requests, but requests you already created can still be answered.

- Storage: new file uploads fail, and a form that keeps a PDF of each submission, such as one with a signature, shows as closed. Existing files stay downloadable. Delete old submissions or files, or upgrade.

- Domains: the domains you have keep working. To add another, remove one or upgrade.

Formstep emails the workspace owner at 90% and again at 100% of storage or the monthly allowance, at most once a month for each.

## Next steps

[Plans & pricing](https://formstep.io/docs/subscription-billing/plans-pricing/) — What each plan is for

[Upgrading & downgrading](https://formstep.io/docs/subscription-billing/upgrading-downgrading/) — What changes when you switch plan or a payment fails

[Billing & invoices](https://formstep.io/docs/subscription-billing/billing-invoices/) — Payments and invoices

[AI credits & usage](https://formstep.io/docs/ai/ai-credits-usage/) — How AI use is paid for

# Billing & invoices

Update your payment method, download invoices and cancel in the Polar billing portal, and see what a failed payment means.

## The billing portal

Open the **Subscription** page and click **Manage subscription**. The Polar billing portal opens, where you can download invoices, update your payment method, and cancel or reactivate your subscription. Polar keeps your card details; Formstep never sees your card number.

The **Subscription** page itself is where you start a plan, move between Pro and Business, switch between monthly and annual, and follow your usage under **Plan usage**. See [switching billing cycle](https://formstep.io/docs/subscription-billing/upgrading-downgrading/#switching-billing).

## Invoices

Polar makes an invoice for every payment: a new plan, a renewal, a plan change and each AI credit pack. Download them from the billing portal. Prices exclude tax, and you pay in your local currency where Formstep offers one.

## AI credit packs

Credit packs are one-time purchases on the **AI Usage** page, and each shows as its own invoice. See [AI credits & usage](https://formstep.io/docs/ai/ai-credits-usage/).

## Failed payments

If a payment fails, Polar tries again, and your plan keeps working for a [grace period](https://formstep.io/docs/subscription-billing/upgrading-downgrading/#grace-period). Update your payment method in the billing portal and everything is back at once.

## Cancelling

Cancel in the billing portal. You keep your plan until the end of the period you paid for. See [what happens after you cancel](https://formstep.io/docs/subscription-billing/upgrading-downgrading/#cancelling).

## Next steps

[Upgrading & downgrading](https://formstep.io/docs/subscription-billing/upgrading-downgrading/) — What changes when you switch plan

[Legal overview](https://formstep.io/docs/legal/overview/) — Terms, privacy policy and data processing agreement

# Upgrading & downgrading

What happens when you upgrade, move down a plan, cancel, or miss a payment: the grace period, what changes on Free, and what ends on a schedule.

## Upgrading

Open the **Subscription** page, click **Upgrade**, and pick Pro or Business, monthly or annual. The plan starts when checkout completes, for every workspace you own and every member in them. If you picked a plan on the Formstep website before you had an account, you land on it after signing in. On Pro, **Upgrade to Business** changes your subscription in place for the prorated difference. Upgrading again after a lapse, even months later, brings back your settings and lifts every restriction at once.

## Cancelling

On the **Subscription** page, click **Manage subscription** and cancel in the billing portal. You keep your plan until the end of the period you paid for, and then Free limits apply at once. Deleting your account also cancels the subscription.

## Grace period after a failed payment

When a payment fails, you get time to fix the card. Emails along the way tell you the dates.

| When | What happens |
| - | - |
| Days 0 to 6 | Everything works as before, and a banner asks you to update your payment method. |
| From day 7 | Paid extras such as removing Formstep branding pause, and you cannot add anything that needs a paid plan. Your forms keep collecting answers and files at your paid limits. |
| From day 30 | Free limits apply everywhere. |
| Around day 60 | Your own domains stop serving forms. |

Update your payment method in the billing portal and the plan is back at once. The grace period is only for failed payments. A cancelled plan moves to Free when its paid period ends. A refund ends paid access on the day of the refund, and your own domains stop about three days later.

## What changes on Free

- The monthly allowance and storage drop to the [Free limits](https://formstep.io/docs/subscription-billing/limits-quotas/#plan-limits). Once the allowance is spent, a share link shows _This form is closed_ as soon as someone opens it, and requests you already sent stay open. See [when you reach a limit](https://formstep.io/docs/subscription-billing/limits-quotas/#hitting-limits).

- Forms show Formstep branding again.

- The owner still gets an email for each submission. Confirmations to respondents, extra recipients, the PDF attachment, custom templates and your own email domain pause.

- Unfinished drafts, request reminders and [sending to a list](https://formstep.io/docs/requests/bulk-send/) stop. Saved drafts come back when you upgrade.

- The Analytics tab locks, and going back to an earlier version needs Business.

- Forms keep their themes, but editing colors and fonts, and saving workspace themes, waits until you upgrade.

- Bot protection is always on. On your own domain without your own Turnstile keys, that blocks submissions there; the formstep.io link keeps working. See [bot protection](https://formstep.io/docs/sharing-publishing/captcha-bot-protection/).

- Your AI credits stay and keep working.

## Moving from Business to Pro

Click **Switch to Pro** on the **Subscription** page. The change waits until the end of your billing period, and **Keep current plan** cancels it before then. When it applies, storage drops to the [Pro limit](https://formstep.io/docs/subscription-billing/limits-quotas/#plan-limits) and any extra allowance ends, so check **Plan usage** first. Respondents are no longer asked to verify their email, shared AI credits stop, and you cannot go back to an earlier version or set a new retention schedule. Domains you already have keep working.

## What ends on its own schedule

- When your own domains stop serving, share links move back to formstep.io addresses, and printed QR codes with your domain stop working. Upgrade before the date in your emails and nothing stops.

- Analytics stop recording on Free. History from your paid time stays for its usual year.

- Below Business, older published versions that nothing uses any more go the next time you publish the form. See [version history](https://formstep.io/docs/building-forms/version-history/).

- On Free, [idle forms](https://formstep.io/docs/subscription-billing/limits-quotas/#inactive-forms) move to Trash after a warning email.

- A [retention schedule](https://formstep.io/docs/submissions-analytics/submission-retention/) you set keeps deleting old submissions, because it is a promise to your respondents.

## Switching between monthly and annual

**Switch to annual**, on the **Subscription** page, applies at once: the unused part of your month counts toward the annual price, which is ten months’ price for twelve. **Switch to monthly** starts when the paid year ends, and **Keep current plan** cancels it before then. Neither works on a cancelled subscription.

## Next steps

[Limits & quotas](https://formstep.io/docs/subscription-billing/limits-quotas/) — Every number, plan by plan

[Billing & invoices](https://formstep.io/docs/subscription-billing/billing-invoices/) — Payment method and invoices