> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://acoservice.gitbook.io/acoservice-documentation/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://acoservice.gitbook.io/acoservice-documentation/running-your-aco/subscription.md).

# Subscription

Pay whenever you like. The only thing it buys is the ability to publish.

## Money never gates progress

You can do all of this without paying anything:

* Create an ACO
* Brand it — colours, logo, wording
* Connect Discord and set up your bot
* Write your content
* Preview the whole site on its real address

The **only** thing a subscription buys is making that site **public**.

There is no trial countdown, no locked step, and no prompt in the way of anything. Subscribe on your first visit or your fiftieth.

## What it costs

| Plan         | Price            | Published ACOs |
| ------------ | ---------------- | -------------- |
| **Standard** | **$100 / month** | Unlimited      |

One plan, billed monthly in USD. Everything in the platform is included — there is no feature held back for a higher tier, and no per-member or per-checkout fee on top.

Unlimited means what it says: run one ACO or ten on the same subscription. What you pay does not change with how many you publish, how many members you have, or how much they spend.

{% hint style="info" %}
**Your members' payments are not part of this.** Their money goes to your own Stripe account, and ACO Service takes no cut of it. See [Two different Stripes](#two-different-stripes) at the bottom of this page.
{% endhint %}

## Discount codes

If you were given a code, enter it at checkout — there is a **Add promotion code** link on the Stripe payment page, under the order summary.

Apply it when you first subscribe. A code cannot be added to a subscription that is already running, so if you have one, use it on the way in rather than paying full price and asking afterwards.

The discount then applies for as long as the code says — some are one month, some are for the life of the subscription. The checkout page tells you which before you confirm.

## Subscribing

**Subscription** on the console home page. Pick a plan, and you are taken to Stripe to pay. You come back to the console and it becomes active as soon as Stripe confirms it — not when the browser returns, which is why it still works if you close the tab.

## Managing it

**Manage subscription** opens the Stripe billing portal, where you can:

* Change your card
* Update billing details and address
* Download invoices and receipts
* Change plan
* Cancel

That is Stripe's own portal rather than screens we built — it is the same place your card details already live, and it handles tax and receipts correctly.

## How many ACOs you can run

The Standard plan does not cap this — publish as many as you like.

The platform *supports* per-plan limits, and the console will tell you if you ever hit one, but nothing on sale today has a limit to hit. Building is unlimited on any plan and always has been, including with no plan at all.

## What happens when payment fails

Your site **stays up** while Stripe retries.

You will see a warning in the console — *"a payment didn't go through"* — and should update your card. But a bounced card does not take your members' site down on the first failure. If the retries are exhausted, service ends and publishing stops; a site that is already live is not pulled down automatically.

## What happens when you cancel

You keep everything until the end of the period you have paid for.

Cancel on the 2nd of a month you have already paid for and you have the rest of that month. Cancelling does not take back time you have bought, and it does not delete anything.

After it ends:

* Existing live sites stay live
* You cannot publish anything new
* Your data, members, tabs and history are untouched

## Two different Stripes

This trips people up, so it is worth being explicit.

|                            | Whose Stripe  | Who pays whom                              |
| -------------------------- | ------------- | ------------------------------------------ |
| **Your subscription**      | ACO Service's | You pay ACO Service to run on the platform |
| **Your members' invoices** | **Yours**     | Your members pay **you**                   |

They are completely separate. The Stripe key you add in your own [setup](/acoservice-documentation/setting-up-your-tenant/stripe.md) is for billing **your** members, and that money goes to **you**. ACO Service never touches it. Your subscription is billed on our account and has nothing to do with yours.


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