Billing
Plans: Starter ✓ · Growth ✓ · Pro ✓ · Agency ✓ (all plans can access Billing; Agency uses direct invoicing)
The Billing page is where you change plans, buy add-ons, see your live usage, and manage payment method + invoices. Sidebar → Billing.
Only owners and admins can change plans or buy add-ons. Members see a read-only view.
Billing is org-level, not per-store. The plan applies across all your connected stores regardless of platform (BigCommerce, Shopify, or future platforms).
What the page shows
- Current plan card — your plan tier, monthly price, renewal date, trial status (if applicable).
- Usage card — live counters for the current month: enrichments used, products synced, seats used, connected stores. Each one is shown as a fraction of your plan's limit.
- Plan grid — all four plans (Starter, Growth, Pro, Agency) with a CTA per card. The CTA reads Current, Upgrade, Downgrade, or Contact depending on your current tier and the plan's sort order.
- Add-ons shop — extra enrichments, seats, stores, and any other add-ons available to your plan.
- Payment method section — opens the Paddle billing portal where you can update card, view invoices, change billing email, and download receipts.
Changing plans
Upgrade
- Find the higher-tier card → click Upgrade.
- Clione opens a new tab to Paddle Checkout pre-filled with the new plan.
- Complete payment (Paddle handles card / PayPal / Apple Pay).
- The window closes when the upgrade is confirmed.
- The dashboard refreshes within ~30 seconds and your new entitlements activate immediately. The unused portion of your current plan is pro-rated and credited.
Downgrade
- Find the lower-tier card → click Downgrade.
- Clione opens the Paddle portal with the new plan selected.
- The downgrade takes effect at the end of your current billing cycle (so you keep the higher tier until then).
- If your current usage exceeds the lower plan's limits (e.g. you have 5 stores and you're downgrading to Starter which allows 1), Clione warns you on the click. You'll need to disconnect stores or remove seats before the downgrade activates.
Agency plan
Agency is sold via direct contract. The card shows Contact instead of a checkout link — click it to email the sales team. Switching to Agency happens manually after the contract is signed.
Buying add-ons
- Find the add-on in the Add-ons section.
- Click Buy (the button shows the per-unit price, e.g. "Buy +500 enrichments — €25").
- Paddle Checkout opens. Complete payment.
- The add-on is granted immediately on payment confirmation. Your usage limits go up correspondingly.
Add-ons renew monthly along with your plan. To cancel an add-on, open the Paddle portal and cancel the line item — it lapses at the end of the cycle.
Usage tracking
- Enrichments / month — counts every enrichment job, including re-enrichments and rollbacks-followed-by-re-enrich. Resets on the 1st of each calendar month (UTC).
- Products synced — total products in your DB across all stores. Doesn't reset — this is a steady-state count.
- Seats used — number of human team members in the org. Doesn't reset.
- Connected stores — active store connections. Doesn't reset.
Hover any usage bar for the exact numbers. If a counter is near or over the limit, the bar turns yellow (90%+) or red (100%+).
Invoices and payment method
Click Manage payment method to open the Paddle portal. From there you can:
- Update your card.
- Switch payment method (card / PayPal).
- Change your billing email.
- Download all past invoices (PDF) and receipts.
- Update your VAT ID / tax number.
- View upcoming charges.
The portal opens in a new tab. When you're done, close the tab and return to Clione — entitlements re-sync automatically.
Plan-related notifications
You'll get email when:
- Your trial is ending (7 days, 3 days, last day).
- An upcoming auto-renewal will charge your card (3 days before).
- A payment failed (Paddle retries automatically over 7 days before suspension).
- Your plan was upgraded or downgraded successfully.
- You're approaching enrichment quota (80% and 100%).
These emails go to your account email. To change it, update via Account → Profile, OR update the billing email separately in the Paddle portal.
Plan-by-plan limits at a glance
| Resource | Starter | Growth | Pro | Agency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Connected stores | 1 | 3 | 10 | Unlimited |
| Enrichment credits / month | 250 | 2,500 | 25,000 | 100,000 (pooled) |
| Seats | 1 | 5 | 20 | Unlimited |
| Products synced cap | 500 | 5,000 | 50,000 | Unlimited |
| Schema Injector | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| FAQ widget | Yes (badge forced) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Branded reports | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Custom domain (reports) | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Promotions (AI coupons) | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Pulse Chrome extension | Yes (view only) | Yes (write) | Yes (write) | Yes (write) |
| API access | Read-only | Read + write | Read + write + bulk | Full |
See Plans for the full per-feature breakdown.
Per-platform notes
Billing is platform-agnostic. The plan applies to your org, and limits like stores/enrichments/seats apply across all your stores regardless of platform (BC, Shopify).
There are no per-platform billing differences.
Multi-store across platforms
If your tenant has both a BigCommerce and a Shopify store connected, both count toward the Connected stores limit. Enrichment credits are pooled — using 1000 credits on a BC store leaves 1500 for the Shopify store on a Growth plan.
Reseller (Agency) plan
Agency-plan organizations can resell Clione under their own brand to end-clients. Each end-client appears as a sub-tenant. Billing rolls up to the Agency account; the sub-tenants don't see Paddle.
See Members and roles for how sub-tenant management works and Settings — Branding for the white-label setup.
Tax handling
Paddle is a Merchant of Record (MoR) — they collect and remit VAT / GST / sales tax on your behalf. The applicable rate is determined by your billing country (which you set in the Paddle portal):
- EU billing addresses — VAT is added if you don't provide a valid VAT ID. Adding a valid VAT ID reverses the charge (reverse-charge mechanism for B2B).
- UK billing addresses — UK VAT is added regardless of business status (UK rules differ).
- US billing addresses — Sales tax based on the destination state.
- Other countries — local tax rules per Paddle's coverage.
You can update your VAT ID at any time from the Paddle portal. The next invoice picks up the change; past invoices are not retroactively adjusted.
Pro-ration and credits
When you upgrade mid-cycle, Paddle pro-rates:
- The remaining days of your current plan are credited.
- The new plan is charged for the remaining days at the new rate.
- The next full cycle bills at the new rate.
When you downgrade, no credit is given for the remaining days — the higher plan stays active until the cycle ends, then the lower plan begins.
Add-ons follow the same model — pro-rated on purchase, no refund on cancellation.
Failed payment workflow
If your auto-renewal payment fails:
- Paddle retries automatically: 1 day, 3 days, 5 days, 7 days after the initial failure.
- Each retry triggers an email notification.
- After 7 days of failed retries, the plan is suspended.
- Suspended accounts retain dashboard access (read-only) for 14 more days; enrichments, syncs, and propagations are paused.
- After 14 days of suspension, the account is downgraded to read-only Starter access until payment is restored.
To restore: update the payment method via the Paddle portal, then click Retry payment now on the Billing page.
Cancelling
Cancellation is self-serve from the Paddle portal:
- Open Manage payment method → opens Paddle.
- Pick the active subscription line item.
- Click Cancel subscription.
- The cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing cycle.
When the cycle ends, your account is downgraded to Starter (free tier — view-only). You can re-subscribe any time without losing your enriched data.
If you want all your data permanently deleted, schedule store deletions individually first (per Settings store), then schedule org deletion (Owner only, from Org → Danger Zone).
Notifications for owners
In addition to the plan-related notifications listed above, owners can opt into:
- Daily digest — summary of all org activity (enrichments run, stores synced, members added) for the past 24 hours.
- Weekly summary — same but weekly.
- Critical-only — only failed payments, plan-expiry-imminent, and security alerts. Default for new owners.
Configure under Account → Notifications → Org admin notifications.
Troubleshooting
"Plan card shows the technical name (e.g. 'small') instead of the display name" — This was a regression we fixed. Hard refresh; if it persists, file a bug.
Checkout window opens but stays blank — Pop-up blocker. Allow popups for app.clione.ai and try again.
Upgrade completed but dashboard still shows old plan — Cache. Wait 60 seconds, then hard-refresh. If it persists past 5 minutes, log out and back in to force a session re-fetch.
Add-on bought but limits didn't increase — Same cache issue. Usually refreshes within 60 seconds. If not, contact support with the Paddle order ID (visible in the confirmation email).
Can't find "Manage payment method" — You need to have bought at least one paid plan or add-on for Paddle to have a customer profile for you. Trial users won't see this section until they upgrade.