🔍 Why Was I Charged Immediately?
Search Atlas subscription plans are billed at the start of each billing cycle. If you were charged immediately upon signing up or upgrading, this is expected behavior — your plan activates right away and billing begins from that date.
Important: Search Atlas does not offer an automatic 30-day free trial on all plans. Promotional trial offers, when available, are applied only through specific sign-up links or coupon codes. If you did not use a valid trial promotion at checkout, a charge will be applied immediately.
⚠️ Common Reasons for Unexpected Charges
- No trial code applied at checkout: If a promotional trial link or code was not used, your subscription is charged immediately upon confirmation.
- Plan upgrade mid-cycle: Upgrading your plan can trigger a prorated or immediate charge for the difference in plan cost.
- Add-on activation: Activating features such as OTTO SEO or other add-ons may generate a separate charge outside your base subscription.
- Duplicate subscription after cancellation: In rare cases, a billing error may create a duplicate subscription. If you believe this has happened, contact our team immediately.
- Top-ups bundled into billing: Credit top-ups purchased during a billing cycle may appear alongside your subscription renewal as a combined charge.
📋 Before Disputing With Your Bank
We strongly encourage you to contact our support team before filing a dispute with your credit card company. Chargebacks can delay your refund, freeze your account access, and complicate the resolution process. Our team can typically resolve billing issues much faster through direct communication.
- Check your email inbox for a receipt from Search Atlas or Stripe confirming the charge amount and date.
- Log in to your Search Atlas account and review your billing history to confirm what was charged and when.
- Note the exact charge amount, date, and any relevant context (e.g., you upgraded a plan or activated an add-on).
- Contact our support team via the live chat widget with this information ready.
💡 How to Check Your Billing History
- Log in to your Search Atlas account.
- Click your avatar in the top-right corner.
- Select Billing to open the Billing page.
- Review the Plans & Top-ups, Services, Invoices, and Activity Log tabs for a record of recent charges and plan details.
If you notice a charge that does not match your plan, an add-on you did not activate, or a duplicate subscription, document the details and reach out to our team right away.
✅ Refund Eligibility
Refund decisions are handled on a case-by-case basis by our billing team. Situations that are commonly reviewed for refunds include:
- A charge was applied despite a valid promotional trial offer being used at signup.
- A technical error caused a duplicate subscription or double charge.
- An add-on was charged but never successfully provisioned or activated.
- An upgrade was processed but the new plan features were not applied to your account.
Refunds are not automatically issued for charges that result from standard billing terms, including immediate billing at signup without a trial code.
🛠️ How to Request a Refund
- Gather your charge details: amount, date, and a brief description of the issue.
- Open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform.
- Type human teammate to be connected with a billing specialist.
- Share your charge details and explain the situation clearly.
- Our team will investigate and confirm next steps, including any applicable refund timeline.
If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.