Skip to main content
A subscription ends on a fixed date when it has an ExpirationDate. Outseta doesn’t bill it past that date, and when the date arrives it ends the subscription and sets its EndDate to the ExpirationDate.
Send ExpirationDate, not EndDate. Outseta sets EndDate itself when a subscription ends, and calculates RenewalDate itself. A subscription request that includes EndDate is rejected with “The renewal date has to be null if the end date is set.”
This applies to subscriptions billed by Outseta. With Stripe Billing, Outseta does not run the renewals that end the subscription: set a cancellation date on the subscription in Stripe instead.

​
New subscription

Add the subscription with Add a subscription to an account for the first time and include ExpirationDate. Leave out EndDate and RenewalDate.
Outseta keeps the ExpirationDate as sent. The subscription renews every billing term until then, and its first RenewalDate is never later than the ExpirationDate. On a free plan with BillingRenewalTerm 1 (monthly), that means a monthly renewal at no charge until the end date. Without an ExpirationDate, the plan decides:
  • if the plan has an ExpirationDate, the subscription gets that date;
  • otherwise Plan.ExpiresAfterMonths applies: 0 means the plan never expires subscriptions, and a value N above 0 gives an ExpirationDate of the start date plus the plan’s trial days plus N months.

​
Existing subscription

Use Set the renewal date or expiration date of the current subscription on the account and send the new ExpirationDate.
  • It acts on the account’s current subscription. The account must be in the Subscribing, Cancelling, Trialing, CancellingTrial or PastDue stage, and it can’t have a plan change scheduled to start later.
  • If the new ExpirationDate is before the current renewal date, the renewal date moves to the ExpirationDate.
  • Every request sets the expiration date. Without ExpirationDate, the existing expiration date is removed, except when ToDate is later than it: then the expiration date moves to ToDate. To remove the expiration date, send an empty body ({}). To change the renewal date (ToDate) and keep an expiration date, send both.
  • ToDate is checked with the time of day you send, while ExpirationDate is first set to the time of day of the subscription’s start. Send ToDate with the time of day of the current RenewalDate, or a ToDate on the same day as the ExpirationDate may be rejected as later than it.
Changing the subscription doesn’t set its end date. Change a subscription on an account with the same plan, BillingRenewalTerm and quantity only changes add-ons. A change to another plan creates a new subscription record. An upgrade, or any change while the account is in a trial, starts immediately. Any other change is scheduled for the current renewal date; pass startImmediately=true to start it now. A free subscription added with firsttimesubscription puts the account in the Trialing stage, so a change from it starts immediately.