Manage Your Subscription

Upgrades, downgrades, and cancellations are all self-serve from ChatCut’s billing dialog; refunds are not self-serve — you have to contact support, since ChatCut never issues them automatically.

How do I start a paid subscription from the free plan?

1. Pick a plan in the billing dialog.
2. For a monthly plan, ChatCut opens a Stripe Checkout session and redirects your browser to Stripe’s hosted checkout page. For a yearly plan, Alipay and WeChat Pay are excluded from that checkout session, so a recurring yearly subscription can only be paid with a non-wallet method.
3. On a yearly plan, choose a checkout method first: “Card subscription” (“Renews automatically.”), or a one-time payment with “Alipay” or “WeChat Pay” (both labeled “One billing period. No auto-renewal.”). Dialog subtitle: “Cards renew automatically. Wallets pay once.” Monthly plans skip this dialog and go straight to card checkout.
4. Complete payment on Stripe’s page; your plan and credits activate once checkout completes.

If you already have an active subscription, opening a new checkout is blocked with “You already have an active subscription. Use plan change instead.” — use the upgrade/downgrade flow below instead.

How do I upgrade an existing plan?

1. Open the billing dialog and pick a higher-priced plan in the same billing interval (monthly-to-monthly or yearly-to-yearly counts as a same-interval upgrade).
2. Confirm in the “Confirm Upgrade” dialog, which shows the amount due, your bonus credits, and either “This will be charged to your payment method on file.” (card) or “You will be redirected to complete payment.” (Alipay).
3. With a card on file, ChatCut charges the full price difference between the two plans immediately (not prorated by days remaining in the period) and switches your plan right away, without moving your billing date.
4. If you’re on Alipay, ChatCut opens a separate one-time Stripe Checkout session for the price difference instead; your plan switches once that payment completes.
5. You get bonus credits immediately, equal to the new plan’s credit allowance minus the credits already granted this billing period (floored at 0) — credits you already hold are kept, not reset.

If there’s no payment method on file, the upgrade is blocked with “No payment method on file. Please update your payment method first.” — add one first. If the charge succeeds but the plan switch itself fails, you’ll see “Payment succeeded but plan switch failed. Please contact support for assistance.” — contact support in that case.

How do I downgrade to a cheaper plan?

1. Open the billing dialog and pick a lower-priced (or equally priced) plan in the same billing interval.
2. Confirm the change — a downgrade costs $0 right now.
3. Your current plan and its credits stay active until the end of the current billing period; the new plan and its credit amount apply starting the next renewal. In-app copy: “Your current plan stays active until the end of this billing period. The new plan and credit amount will apply on the next cycle.”
4. Downgrading never removes credits you’ve already been granted this period.

How do I switch between monthly and yearly billing?

Switching interval in either direction (monthly to yearly or yearly to monthly) never happens mid-cycle: your current subscription is set to end at period end with the new plan pending, and the new plan starts automatically — with its full credit allowance — the moment the old billing period finishes. If you pay by Alipay, interval switches are blocked entirely; the in-app message reads “Switching billing cycle is not supported with your current payment method (Alipay).” and “To switch, please cancel your current subscription and re-subscribe after it expires.”

You can change your mind before a pending downgrade or interval switch takes effect: picking a new plan always replaces whatever change was pending.

How do I cancel my plan?

1. Open the billing dialog and click “Cancel Subscription”.
2. ChatCut sets your subscription to end at the close of the current billing period — there’s no immediate-cancellation option, so your plan features stay active until then.
3. The billing dialog now shows a “Canceling” status badge and “Cancels on {date}. Features remain active until then.”
4. To undo it before the period ends, click “Resume Subscription” to restore your subscription (this also reverts any pending downgrade).

Canceling doesn’t delete credits you already have. Credits keep expiring on their normal schedule regardless of subscription status: subscription-granted credits expire 60 days after being granted, credit-pack/initial/admin-grant credits expire after 365 days, and referral credits expire after 7 days.

Can I update my payment method without canceling?

Yes — click “Manage Payment” to open the Stripe Billing Portal, where you can update your payment method, update your billing email, and view invoice history. Canceling and plan changes are deliberately not available there; do those from ChatCut’s own billing dialog instead.

Can I get a refund?

Not self-serve: there’s no in-app or API refund button anywhere in ChatCut — refunds are issued manually by the ChatCut team through Stripe, so you need to contact support to request one. When a refund is processed, ChatCut deducts the full credit allowance that was granted for the refunded plan from your balance.

See also: Do ChatCut credits expire.

What do I get on the ChatCut free plan?

The free plan includes a one-time gift of 20 credits to try AI editing, plus the full editor. You can edit, use basic video analysis, and export in MP4 (H.264) or WebM at no cost. Two things require a Pro plan: premium AI video generation (Seedance 2.0) and ProRes 4444 export.

See also: How much does ChatCut cost.

Which ChatCut features require a paid plan?

ChatCut gates exactly two features behind a paid plan: Seedance 2.0 video generation and ProRes 4444 export. Every other feature — including AI agent editing and multiplayer collaboration — works on the Free plan, which carries no feature restrictions (gatedFeatures = []) beyond its one-time 20-credit gift. Multiplayer collaboration is defined internally as a gate-able key but isn’t attached to any paid plan, so it stays free for everyone. If you try to use either one without a paid plan, ChatCut blocks the action and shows a message: “Seedance 2.0 video generation requires ChatCut Pro. Please upgrade to ChatCut Pro to continue.” for video generation, or “ProRes export requires ChatCut Pro. Please upgrade to ChatCut Pro to continue.” for export.

Is there a discount for paying yearly?

Yes. The 100-credit Pro tier gets 16% off when billed yearly ($252/year instead of $300). Every larger yearly tier currently gets 50% off under a limited-time promotion — for example, the 200-credit tier is $300/year instead of $600. The discount is applied at checkout; monthly billing has no discount.

Do ChatCut credits expire?

Yes — how long credits last depends on how you got them. Monthly subscription credits expire 60 days after they’re granted. Purchased credit packs and the new-user welcome credits last 365 days. Referral credits expire after 7 days.