🔍 Overview
If you were told during your onboarding session that you could upgrade your plan during the free trial without being charged immediately, this article explains how that process works, what to expect, and what to do if you see an unexpected charge.
📅 How Free Trial Billing Works
All new Search Atlas accounts include a 7-day free trial. During this period, you should not be charged for your base subscription. Here is what you need to know about upgrading during your trial:
- Upgrades initiated during the trial are designed to defer any additional charge until your free trial ends — you should not be billed immediately.
- Your billing date is set based on the day your free trial expires, not the day you upgrade.
- After your trial ends, your card on file will be charged for the plan you selected.
⚠️ Known Issues We Have Fixed
We are aware that some customers experienced unexpected charges when upgrading during their free trial. Our engineering team has resolved the following issues:
- Plan upgrade charges were being applied immediately instead of being deferred to the end of the 7-day trial.
- Stripe payment dates were not syncing correctly with the trial end date when a plan was upgraded mid-trial.
- In rare cases, customers were charged twice when a subscription upgrade did not apply correctly.
- Some new users encountered a billing block during onboarding that prevented the trial from starting properly.
These fixes are now live. If you upgraded your plan before these fixes were deployed, you may have been affected by one of these issues.
💡 What You Were Told During Onboarding
Our onboarding specialists communicate that upgrading during the free trial period should not result in an immediate charge — and that is the correct, intended behavior. If your experience did not match this, it was the result of a technical issue, not a miscommunication.
We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused.
🛠️ What to Do If You Were Charged Unexpectedly
If you believe you were charged before your free trial ended, or if you were charged twice, please take the following steps:
- Log in to your Search Atlas account and navigate to the top-right avatar menu → Billing (Invoices tab) to review your invoice history.
- Check the charge date against your trial start date to confirm whether the charge was applied early.
- If the charge appears incorrect, contact our support team right away using the live chat widget — we can review your account and process a correction if needed.
✅ How to Confirm Your Current Billing Date
To verify when your next billing date is scheduled:
- Click your avatar in the top-right of your Search Atlas dashboard.
- Select Billing (Plans & Top-ups tab).
- Your next renewal date and current plan details are displayed at the top of the page.
If the date shown does not align with what you expected based on your trial start date, reach out to support immediately so we can investigate.
🙋 Still Have Questions?
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.