Subscription Lifecycle

Understanding the subscription lifecycle

Overview

Understanding the subscription lifecycle is crucial for managing recurring payments effectively. This guide outlines the recommended subscription flow, focusing on payment behavior and status transitions.

Subscription Flow

1. You create the subscription (When user complete first checkout session of subscription mode) . The status of the subscription is incomplete .

2. An invoice is created for the subscription. The status of the invoice is open.

3. User is auto charged for first payment successfully,

4. When the payment succeeds:

   • The subscription status moves to active

   • The invoice status is set to paid

   • Stripe sends an invoice.paid event webhook event.

5. You provision access to your product. You can confirm whether the invoice has been paid by:

   • Setting up a webhook endpoint and listening for the invoice.paid event.

   • Manually checking the subscription object and looking for subscription.status=active. The status becomes active when the invoice has been paid either through an automatic charge or having the customer pay manually.