Subscription Lifecycle

Understand subscription statuses and how they transition

Subscription Lifecycle

Every PayRequest subscription moves through a series of statuses during its lifetime. Understanding these statuses helps you manage billing, handle edge cases, and communicate clearly with your customers.

Subscription Statuses

Status	Color	Description
Pending Mandate	Amber	Waiting for customer to set up a payment method
Trial	Purple	Free trial period active, no billing yet
Active	Green	Subscription is live and billing normally
Paused	Blue	Temporarily on hold (voluntary), billing stopped
Suspended	Orange	Service halted by admin due to non-payment
Failed	Red	Payment failed, may be retrying automatically
Completed	Emerald	Fixed-term subscription finished all payments
Canceled	Red	Permanently ended, no further billing
Archived	Zinc	Removed from view, hidden from customer portal

Status Flow

┌──────────────────┐
│ Pending Mandate  │──→ Active ──→ Paused ──→ Active
└──────────────────┘      │                      ▲
         │                │                      │
         ▼                ├──→ Suspended ─────────┤
       Trial ──→ Active   │    (auto on payment)  │
                          │                        │
                          ├──→ Failed ─────────────┘
                          │    (auto retry / manual)
                          │
                          ├──→ Completed
                          │
                          └──→ Canceled

Status Details

Pending Mandate

The subscription has been created but the customer hasn’t set up their payment method yet. You can send a mandate activation email from the subscription detail page.

Transitions to: Active, Trial, Canceled, Failed

Trial

The customer is in a free trial period. No payments are collected during the trial. When the trial ends, the subscription automatically transitions to Active and billing begins.

Transitions to: Active, Canceled, Expired

Active

The subscription is live. Payments are collected automatically on the billing schedule using the customer’s payment mandate.

Transitions to: Paused, Suspended, Failed, Completed, Canceled, Archived

Paused

A voluntary hold — either requested by the customer or set by the admin. Billing stops while paused. You can optionally set a resume date for automatic reactivation.

Transitions to: Active, Canceled

Learn more: Pausing & Resuming

Suspended

An admin-initiated hold for customers who aren’t paying. Unlike pausing, suspension:

• Sends the customer an email notification
• Shows an orange badge (distinct from blue “paused”)
• Auto-reactivates when the overdue invoice is paid via Mollie
• Appears in the Insights dashboard Action Required section

Transitions to: Active (manual or auto on payment), Canceled

Learn more: Suspending Subscriptions

Failed

A payment attempt failed (insufficient funds, expired card, chargeback). PayRequest can automatically retry payments based on your retry settings.

Transitions to: Active (after successful retry), Suspended, Canceled

Learn more: Failed Payment Handling

Completed

For fixed-term subscriptions (payment plans) that have reached their total number of payments. This is a terminal state.

Canceled

The subscription has been permanently ended. No further billing occurs. Canceled subscriptions can be reactivated by an admin if needed.

Transitions to: Archived

Archived

The subscription has been shelved and is hidden from the customer portal. Used for cleaning up ghost or duplicate subscriptions without deleting data. All linked invoices and transactions are preserved.

Transitions to: Active (reactivation only)

Learn more: Archiving Subscriptions

Automatic Transitions

Several status changes happen automatically:

Trigger	From	To
Trial period ends	Trial	Active
Payment fails	Active	Failed
Retry payment succeeds	Failed	Active
Overdue invoice paid	Suspended	Active
Resume date reached	Paused	Active
All payments completed	Active	Completed

Billing Behavior by Status

Status	Bills automatically?	Included in MRR?
Active	Yes	Yes
Trial	No (until trial ends)	No
Paused	No	No
Suspended	No	No
Failed	Retry attempts only	Yes (until canceled)
Completed	No	No
Canceled	No	No
Archived	No	No

Related Articles

• Creating Subscriptions
• Suspending Subscriptions
• Pausing & Resuming
• Failed Payment Handling
• Archiving Subscriptions
• Billing Cycles