The short version: Grandfathering just means some customers keep their old price while you raise everyone else's. In Stripe there is no special "grandfather" setting, you simply migrate the subscriptions you want to raise and leave the others alone. The skill is choosing who to exclude and being able to exclude them cleanly when you run the increase across hundreds of subscribers.
What grandfathering is (and is not)
Grandfathering is letting an existing customer stay on the price they signed up at when you increase prices for new and other existing customers. It is a goodwill and retention tool, often used for an early cohort ("founding members keep this rate") or for a handful of strategic accounts. It is not a Stripe feature or a toggle. It is simply the result of not changing certain subscriptions when you change the rest.
Decide who to grandfather, and for how long
Common groups worth keeping on the old rate:
- Your earliest customers. The people who took a chance early. Cheap goodwill, strong loyalty.
- High-value or strategic accounts. Where the relationship matters more than the incremental revenue.
- Anyone on a discount or promo you do not want to disturb.
Also decide the duration up front: forever, or for a set period before they move to current pricing. Either is fine, but settle it before you tell anyone, so the promise is clear and you are not walking it back later.
How it works in Stripe
The mechanics are the inverse of a normal increase:
- Create the new price on your product.
- Migrate the subscriptions you want to raise onto it (at their next renewal, ideally).
- Leave the grandfathered subscriptions untouched. They stay on the old price indefinitely, billing exactly as before.
The hard part is step 2 at scale: making sure you move the right subscriptions and skip the right ones, without hand-checking a list of hundreds.
Excluding the right subscriptions when you run the increase
PricePilot Migrate Pro is built around exactly this. You preview every subscription on the old price for free, then exclude the ones you are grandfathering: pick individual subscribers, or exclude whole groups in one click (trialing, discounted, or everyone renewing before a date you choose). Everyone you did not exclude moves to the new price; the grandfathered subscriptions stay as they are. You see the MRR impact before running, and you can reverse the migration in one click. It works with plain Stripe subscriptions and those created by Paid Memberships Pro and MemberPress.
Raise prices, keep your loyal customers where they are
Preview your subscribers for free, exclude the ones you want to grandfather, and migrate the rest. Test mode is free end to end.
Open Migrate Pro →Frequently asked questions
Is there a grandfather setting in Stripe?
No. You grandfather a customer simply by not changing their subscription when you migrate the others to the new price.
How do I grandfather some but not all customers?
Create the new price and migrate only the subscriptions you want to raise, excluding the ones you are keeping on the old rate. A bulk tool lets you exclude individuals or whole groups before you run.
Do I have to grandfather forever?
No. Forever or for a fixed period both work. Decide before you communicate it so the commitment is clear.