Payments
Plan & billing
Understand and manage your OpenChair plan, upcoming charges, invoices, usage and prepaid balance at Settings → Plan & billing.
Last updated 17 July 2026
TL;DR
- OpenChair has two plans, Free ($0) and Pro (per active venue, with bookable-team pricing and a venue cap). Every new venue starts on a 14-day Pro trial with no credit card required.
- Pro starts from $34.95 AUD per active venue, includes the first bookable team member at that venue, and caps at $199 AUD per venue. Non-bookable owners, managers, front desk, and admin users are free.
- The owner-only web destination is Settings → Plan & billing. The mobile app shows the same label but remains a read-only plan, usage and prepaid-balance summary.
- If a Pro payment fails, Pro access stays active while Stripe retries the charge for up to 7 days.
Manage your OpenChair subscription at Settings → Plan & billing. Its Plan, Billing & invoices, and Usage & wallet groups show the current cadence and recurring commitment, next amount due, payment method, invoice grouping, prepaid balance and usage without duplicating those facts. Only venue Owners can access the web control centre.
Subscription Plans
OpenChair offers two plans, Free and Pro, so you can start without commitment and add advanced features when your venue is ready.
| Free | Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | $0 | From $34.95 AUD / $24.95 NZD / £19.95 GBP |
| Transaction fees | Regional rate | Lower regional rate |
| Included SMS | None | 50/bookable member to the regional price cap (AU/GB) |
| Included email | None | 1,000/bookable member (max 10,000) |
| Sparks credits | Pay-as-you-go | 500/bookable member per month (max 5,000) |
| Trial access | - | All new venues start on a 14-day Pro trial |
Note
Every new OpenChair venue begins with a 14-day Pro trial: no credit card required. Your wallet is pre-loaded with $5 in Sparks credit to cover pay-as-you-go AI usage during the trial. At the end of the trial, go to Settings → Plan & billing to subscribe to Pro or continue on Free.
For the full feature comparison, see Free and Pro Plans. For local transaction rates, see Fees and Processing. For billing rules around bookable people, access-only users, and shared staff, see Bookable Team Billing.
Pricing and Bookable Team
Pro is priced per active venue and billable bookable team member, with a cap per venue so your bill never grows beyond a set maximum for that location. Owners, managers, front desk, and admin users are free when they are not bookable.
| Region | Per active venue from | Per additional bookable member | Venue cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | $34.95 AUD | $20.00 AUD | $199 AUD |
| New Zealand | $24.95 NZD | $20.00 NZD | $199 NZD |
| United Kingdom | £19.95 GBP | £10.00 GBP | £99 GBP |
Tip
Annual billing saves approximately 17%, a Save ~17% badge appears when you toggle to Yearly on the Plans page. Annual subscribers also receive 2 bonus months of Sparks, SMS, and email allocations.
Keeping your bookable team count up to date
Your billable bookable team count is the number of people who can be booked at that venue for the billing period, after shared cross-venue providers are allocated once across the account. Increases use a reviewed Stripe proration. A decrease preserves the quantity already paid through the current period and schedules the lower live quantity for renewal without creating a current-cycle credit. Plan & billing shows both quantities and the effective date when a renewal change is scheduled.
Upgrading to Pro
To subscribe to Pro, go to Settings → Plan & billing and choose Compare plans or the upgrade action shown for your current state.
- Open an upgrade action. OpenChair preserves the entry source and takes you to the plan decision.
- On the plan decision, toggle between Monthly and Yearly billing.
- Review the estimated current and proposed billable units, pending billable invitations and their accepted effect, recurring plan subtotal and cadence, and annual monthly equivalent. Shared bookable team members are billed once across the account, and access-only users are free.
- Continue to the dedicated secure Stripe Checkout page. Stripe calculates the final amount from the latest billable units, tax, promotion codes, and the payment method you choose. Review that final commitment before confirming. Going back, cancelling, or encountering a load error keeps the selected source and cadence so you can recover without rebuilding the decision.
- Once Stripe confirms the subscription, you return to Plan & billing and see the active Pro confirmation.
Pro features (OpenChair Assistant, Intelligence analytics, Engage, recurring bookings, etc.) become available immediately after the subscription is confirmed. If you were on FREE (post-trial), all of your above-cap services, products, photos, and team members restore in the same instant - no re-config, no re-import.
Upcoming invoice & bookable team proration preview
Plan & billing shows what your next invoice will look like:
- The new billable bookable team count
- Any prorated charge for an increase during the current period
- For decreases, the paid-through quantity and the date the lower quantity takes effect
- The full next-period charge
Stripe calculates increase proration. Decreases do not create a mid-cycle credit: the lower recurring quantity takes effect at renewal.
One Settings destination
Settings → Plan & billing is the single owner for tier state, plan comparison, reviewed subscription changes, payment methods, invoices, usage and prepaid balance. The former Plan route redirects here while preserving trial, FREE and upgrade-source context. See Free and Pro Plans and When Your Trial Ends.
Managing Your Subscription
Subscription payment-method and cancellation actions open Stripe's secure management surfaces from Plan & billing.
Updating your payment method
- Go to Settings → Plan & billing.
- Choose the payment-method action for your subscription.
- In the Stripe Customer Portal, update your card details.
- Save and return to OpenChair.
Cancelling Pro
To cancel your Pro subscription:
- Go to Settings → Plan & billing.
- Click "Change Plan".
- A "Before you go…" confirmation lists the Pro features you will lose, including OpenChair Assistant, SMS campaigns, recurring bookings, Smart Waitlist, custom forms, resource scheduling, and the lower processing fee.
- Click "Continue to cancel" to proceed, or "Keep Pro" to stay on Pro.
- Your Pro access continues until the end of the current billing period.
Note
Cancelling Pro does not delete your data. Recurring series, forms, resources, and other Pro-only content become inactive but are preserved. If you resubscribe to Pro later, everything becomes active again immediately.
If the venue has a dedicated SMS number, cancellation or trial expiry can place the number into a grace-period lifecycle before release. See Dedicated SMS Number Lifecycle Warnings for the warning schedule and release rules.
Plan status badges
Plan & billing shows a status badge reflecting your current subscription state.
| Badge | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Free | No Pro subscription, on the Free plan |
| Trial | 14-day Pro trial is active |
| Active | Pro subscription is active and paid |
| Cancelling | Pro is active but set to cancel at period end |
| Past Due | A payment has failed. Stripe is retrying |
| Cancelled | Pro subscription has ended |
Past-due payments
If a Pro payment fails, OpenChair keeps your Pro access active while Stripe automatically retries the charge, typically over up to 7 days. Plan & billing shows a "Past Due" badge during this window. Update your payment method before the retry window closes to avoid any interruption.
Recovering a locked venue
If a venue is locked after an unpaid subscription or ended trial, OpenChair sends the Owner to a recovery page instead of the normal dashboard.
| Screen message | What it means | Primary action |
|---|---|---|
| Your payment method was declined | The venue has a Stripe customer and billing needs attention. | Click Update Payment Method to open billing management. |
| Your subscription has ended | The venue no longer has an active subscription to restore from. | Click Resubscribe to start a new Pro subscription. |
The recovery page also includes Need help? Contact support. If Update Payment Method or Resubscribe cannot open, OpenChair shows an inline error with a retry action.
Wallet and Sparks Credits
The Wallet is your balance for AI usage (Sparks) and overage charges. The Usage & wallet group in Plan & billing shows your current balance and recent usage.
Sparks
Sparks are the credits used by OpenChair's AI features. 1 Spark costs $0.01 (1 cent).
| Plan | Monthly Sparks allocation |
|---|---|
| Free | None, pay-as-you-go from wallet |
| Pro | 500 Sparks per billable bookable team member, up to a maximum pool of 5,000 |
Included Sparks reset at the start of each billing period. When your included Sparks run out, additional usage is billed from your wallet at the pay-as-you-go rate.
Topping up your wallet
The minimum top-up amount is $10. You can top up manually at any time from Plan & billing.
Auto top-up: Enable the auto top-up toggle to automatically top up your wallet by $10 whenever your balance falls below $5. This prevents AI features from pausing due to an empty wallet.
Monthly AI Allocations
Pro includes monthly SMS, email, and Sparks allocations that reset each billing period. Overages are billed from your wallet.
| Allocation | Free | Pro AU/GB | Pro NZ |
|---|---|---|---|
| SMS | 0 | 50/bookable member (max 500 AU / 450 GB) | 0 (email only) |
| 0 | 1,000/bookable member (max 10,000) | 1,000/bookable member (max 10,000) | |
| Sparks | 0 | 500/bookable member (max 5,000) | 500/bookable member (max 5,000) |
For SMS overage rates and per-message pricing, see SMS Allocation and Limits.
Invoices and Receipts
The Invoices page (accessed from Billing & invoices in Plan & billing) shows two separate tables:
- Subscription Invoices: monthly or annual Pro subscription charges
- Wallet Top-Up Receipts: individual wallet top-up payments
Each entry links to a Stripe-hosted document. You can download any invoice or receipt as a PDF.
Billing on Mobile
The mobile app has a read-only Plan & billing screen accessible from Settings. It shows:
- Your current plan badge (Free or Pro)
- Wallet balance and recent Sparks usage
- Usage allocation and Sparks pricing reference
- Read-only bookable-team allocation where available
Subscription prices, upgrades, cancellation, payment-method management and web billing links are not available in the mobile app. Those actions remain owner-only in Settings → Plan & billing on the web app.
Note
Billing management is web-only by design. Apple and Google require that digital subscriptions purchased inside an app use their own in-app payment systems. OpenChair manages all subscriptions through Stripe on the web to keep pricing transparent and fair.
Role Access
Only venue Owners can access and manage billing on the web. Native Plan & billing is informational and does not add a purchase or management channel.
| Action | Owner | Manager | Stylist |
|---|---|---|---|
| View plan status and wallet balance | Yes | No | No |
| Upgrade or subscribe to Pro | Yes | No | No |
| Manage Billing (Stripe portal) | Yes | No | No |
| Review bookable team billing | Yes | No | No |
| View invoices and receipts | Yes | No | No |
| Cancel subscription | Yes | No | No |
| Top up wallet | Yes | No | No |
Troubleshooting
| Issue | Solution |
|---|---|
| Plan & billing shows "Past Due" | A Pro payment has failed. Use the payment-method action to open Stripe and update your payment method before the retry window closes. |
| Pro features are locked after trial ended | Your 14-day trial has ended and no Pro subscription is active. Go to Settings → Plan & billing and choose the upgrade action. All your trial data remains intact. |
| "Bookable team changed" notice | Review the current and proposed quantities before confirming. Increases may include proration; decreases do not create a current-cycle credit. |
| Upgrade to Pro button is not visible | The web control centre is only accessible to venue Owners. Ask your venue Owner to complete the upgrade. |
| Can't find billing management on mobile | Mobile is informational only. Open the web app and go to Settings → Plan & billing. |
| Invoice not received by email | Stripe sends invoices to your account email address. Check spam, or open Billing & invoices in Settings → Plan & billing to download it. |
| Wallet balance not updating after top-up | Refresh the page. If the balance still hasn't updated after a few minutes, the payment may not have processed, contact support. |
FAQ
How do I upgrade to Pro?
Go to Settings → Plan & billing, choose Monthly or Yearly, review the OpenChair estimate, then review the final commitment in secure Stripe Checkout. Pro features become available once the subscription is confirmed.
How much does Pro cost?
Pro starts at $34.95 AUD / $24.95 NZD / £19.95 GBP per active venue, including the first bookable team member at that venue. Additional bookable team members are $20 AUD / $20 NZD / £10 GBP each, with a cap of $199 AUD / $199 NZD / £99 GBP per venue. Annual billing saves approximately 17%.
What happens if my subscription payment fails?
If a Pro payment fails, OpenChair keeps your Pro access active while Stripe retries the charge for up to 7 days. Plan & billing shows a "Past Due" state during this period. Update your payment method there before the retry window closes.
How do I update my payment method?
Go to Settings → Plan & billing and choose the payment-method action. Stripe securely handles card details and subscription management; confirmed changes take effect immediately.
What happens to my data if I cancel Pro?
Your data is preserved indefinitely. Recurring series, custom forms, resources, and other Pro-only content become inactive when Pro ends, but nothing is deleted. If you resubscribe to Pro at any point, all Pro-only content becomes active again immediately.