Subscription: Discounted Trial (Overview)

Breeze’s Discounted Trial Subscription feature gives merchants the flexibility to offer paid trial periods before transitioning customers to full-price recurring billing. This allows merchants to curb free-trial abuse while still onboarding customers with a low-commitment entry price.

With this enhancement, merchants can:

Charge a reduced amount during the trial period (e.g., $0.99/day).
Configure custom paid trial cycle durations (days, weeks, etc.).
Automatically transition to standard recurring billing after the discounted trial ends.
(Optional) Combine discounted trials with scheduled subscription start dates.

These capabilities integrate seamlessly with Breeze’s subscription APIs. Breeze handles billing automation, invoice generation, retries, compliance, and transition logic end-to-end.

How It Works

During checkout, Breeze securely verifies the customer’s payment method and processes the discounted-trial charges based on merchant-provided configuration.

A discounted-trial subscription can follow one of two paths:

Scenario	Description	Billing Behaviour
Discounted Trial Only	Customer pays a discounted amount for a configurable number of cycles (e.g., $0.99/day for 2 days). Standard recurring billing begins afterward.	Breeze charges the discounted-trial price during the trial cycles, then charges the full subscription price.
Discounted Trial + Scheduled Subscription	Subscription is scheduled for a future start date. Discounted-trial charges begin at that scheduled start time.	Discounted-trial cycles are billed starting at the scheduled date; full billing begins afterward.

Sample Scenarios

🕐 Scenario 1: Discounted Trial Only

Today: 2025-05-01

Merchant: Creates a subscription with:

Discounted trial: $0.90/day × 2 days
Standard price: $9/month

Flow:

2025-05-01: Customer completes payment page → charged $0.90
2025-05-02: Breeze charged $0.90 (second discounted cycle)
2025-05-03: Breeze charged $9 (first monthly billing)
2025-06-03: Breeze charged $9 (second monthly billing)

Behavior

The subscription transitions automatically from DISCOUNTED_TRIALING → ACTIVE once discounted cycles end.

🕑 Scenario 2: Discounted Trial + Scheduled Subscription

Today: 2025-04-01

Merchant: Creates a subscription with:

Discounted trial: $0.90/day × 2 days
Standard price: $9/month
Scheduled start: 2025-05-01

Flow:

2025-04-01: Customer completes card verification
2025-05-01: Breeze charged $0.90 (first discounted cycle)
2025-05-02: Breeze charged $0.90 (second discounted cycle)
2025-05-03: Charged $9 (first monthly billing)
2025-06-03: Charged $9 (second monthly billing)
...

Behavior:

2025-04-01 → 2025-05-01: Subscription is SCHEDULED
2025-05-01 → 2025-05-03: Subscription is DISCOUNTED_TRIALING
2025-05-03 onward: Subscription is ACTIVE

Key Takeaways

Discounted trials allow merchants to charge customers reduced, non-free prices during an introductory trial period.
Breeze automatically generates invoices for discounted-trial charges.
The subscription transitions seamlessly from discounted → full price billing.
Works with scheduled starts for pre-launch, migration, or campaign-based activations.
Card verification and payment capture follow the same secure flow as all Breeze subscriptions.
No need for merchants to manage timing logic — Breeze handles billing, retries, invoicing, and state transitions.