The short version: The clean way to raise prices is to schedule the change for each subscriber's next renewal, so nobody is charged mid-cycle. In Stripe this is a subscription schedule: the customer stays on their current price until their renewal date, then switches to the new one automatically. The catch is doing it across hundreds of subscribers, which is where a bulk tool saves you from a very long afternoon.
The step-up version: People also ask whether Stripe can bill a discounted price for the first few months and then switch to the full price on its own, for example $19 a month for the first 3 months and $39 a month after that, set up in the Dashboard without code. Yes to both. A subscription schedule is built from phases, and each phase carries its own price and its own length. Set the first phase to 3 months at the $19 price, add a second phase at the $39 price with no end date, and Stripe moves the subscriber from the first phase to the second automatically when the first one ends. In the Dashboard you build it in the subscription editor with Add phase. What the Dashboard does not do is apply a change like this across hundreds of existing subscribers at once. That part is one subscription at a time by hand, or a bulk tool, and scheduling a price change across a whole subscriber base is the job PricePilot was built for.
What "schedule the increase" actually means
You are not editing the price they pay today. You are creating a new price and queuing each existing subscription to switch to it on its own renewal date. Until then, the customer keeps paying their current amount. On renewal, Stripe bills the new price as if it had always been there. No proration, no mid-cycle charge, no disruption. This is the lowest-drama way to roll out an increase, and it is what most subscribers will barely notice beyond the line on their next invoice.
Scheduled vs. immediate
When you change a subscription's price you pick the timing:
- Next billing cycle (scheduled). Uses a Stripe subscription schedule. The change takes effect at renewal, no charge now. Best for a standard increase.
- Immediately, no proration. The price becomes active right away but still bills the new amount only at the next renewal. Useful if a downstream system (like a membership plugin) needs to reflect the new price now.
- Immediately, with proration. Applies now and bills the prorated difference for the rest of the current period. Reserve this for genuine upgrades the customer asked for, not blanket increases.
Doing it one subscription at a time
For a handful of subscribers you can do this by hand in the Stripe Dashboard: create the new price, open each subscription, and set the change to take effect at the period end. It works, but it is slow, and at scale it is easy to misclick the proration setting or miss a subscriber. There is also no single "schedule this for everyone on the old price" button in Stripe.
Scheduling it for everyone at once
PricePilot Migrate Pro queues the next-cycle change across every matching subscription in one pass. You preview exactly who is affected and the MRR impact for free, exclude anyone you want to grandfather or who renews before a chosen date, pick next-cycle timing, and run it. Each subscriber gets a Stripe subscription schedule that fires on their own renewal, and if you need to back out, one click releases the scheduled changes that have not run yet. It works with plain Stripe subscriptions and those created by Paid Memberships Pro and MemberPress.
Schedule your increase in minutes, not an afternoon
Preview the affected subscribers and your MRR change for free, then schedule the new price for everyone's next renewal. Test mode is free end to end.
Open Migrate Pro →Frequently asked questions
Will subscribers be charged when I schedule the increase?
No. A scheduled next-cycle change bills nothing now. Each subscriber pays the new amount on their normal renewal date.
Can I cancel a scheduled increase before it runs?
Yes. Scheduled changes that have not fired yet can be released, which removes the pending change and leaves the subscription on its current price.
How do I schedule it for hundreds of subscribers?
A bulk tool queues the next-cycle change across all matching subscriptions at once, with a preview first and a one-click release if you change your mind.