Introducing Optional Monthly Subscriptions
PodPDF now offers two monthly plans alongside one-off credit packs. How the monthly allowance works, how it combines with your credits, and which option suits you.
Until now, the only way to pay for PodPDF was a one-off credit pack. That works well if your usage comes in bursts, but many of you generate a similar number of PDFs every month — invoices, statements, receipts — and would rather not keep an eye on a balance and top it up by hand.
So we’ve added two optional monthly subscriptions. Credit packs aren’t going anywhere.
Update, October 2026: plans now include twice as many PDFs for the same price, so they work out at half the credit-pack price per PDF. The table below shows the current plans.
The Plans
| Plan | Price | PDFs each month | Per PDF |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $20 / month | 4,000 | $0.005 |
| Business | $100 / month | 20,000 | $0.005 |
One-off packs are still available from $10 (1,000 PDFs) upwards, at $0.01 per PDF, and their credits never expire.
Everything else is identical on both: the web app, the full API, bulk conversion, templates, merge and split, webhooks, and no per-account rate limit.
How the Monthly Allowance Works
When you subscribe, your account gets the plan’s PDF allowance for the current billing period. A few rules follow from that:
- It resets on each renewal. Every month your allowance goes back to the plan amount.
- Unused PDFs don’t roll over. If you use 1,500 of your 4,000 PDFs, the remaining 2,500 don’t carry into next month.
- It’s used first. Each PDF comes out of your subscription allowance, then any free credits, then one-off credits.
- It’s charged in the same unit as credits. Merge, split and every other operation deduct exactly what they cost today — they just come from the allowance while it lasts.
Subscriptions and One-Off Credits Together
The subscription allowance and your one-off credits are two separate buckets. You can have both, and they’re designed to work together.
Here’s a worked example. You’re on Starter (4,000 PDFs a month) and you also bought a $10 pack (1,000 PDFs) some time ago. This month is busy and you generate 4,600 PDFs:
- The first 4,000 PDFs use up your monthly allowance.
- The next 600 come from your one-off credits, with no interruption and no error.
- You finish the month with 400 one-off PDFs left.
- On renewal, your allowance goes back to 4,000. The 400 one-off PDFs are still there for the next busy month.
This makes a small credit pack a useful safety net on top of a subscription: requests keep working when a month runs over, and you’re never charged more than $0.01 per PDF.
If you have neither allowance nor credits left, requests are rejected with INSUFFICIENT_CREDITS, exactly as before. The error details now also include subscription_credits_remaining, so you can see both buckets at once.
If You Cancel
Cancelling takes effect at the end of your current billing period, so you keep using the allowance you’ve already paid for until then. After that, the subscription ends and your allowance is gone.
Your one-off credits are not affected. They stay in your account and keep working, whether you cancel, a payment fails, or the subscription ends for any other reason. Your API keys, templates and integrations carry on as before.
Which Should You Choose?
- Choose a one-off pack if your usage is irregular, you’re still testing, or you generate fewer PDFs than a plan includes. Credits never expire, so there’s nothing to lose by buying ahead.
- Choose Starter if you reliably generate around 4,000 PDFs a month and want your account topped up automatically.
- Choose Business if you generate several thousand PDFs a month or more — typically recurring invoice runs, statement bursting or bulk jobs.
The price per PDF is the same in every case, so the question is only which fits your usage pattern. If you’re unsure, start with a pack: you can subscribe later and the credits you have left will still be used after your allowance.
For volumes well beyond 20,000 PDFs a month, contact us about volume pricing and invoice billing.
Managing Your Subscription
Everything happens in the dashboard under Plans & Credits:
- Upgrade (Starter to Business): takes effect immediately. You pay a prorated charge for the rest of the billing period, and your allowance increases by the difference between the plans.
- Downgrade (Business to Starter): takes effect at your next renewal. Your current allowance is untouched until then.
- Cancel: takes effect at the end of the billing period. You can resume before then if you change your mind.
- Payment method and invoices: open the customer portal from the same page.
For API Users
Nothing changes in how you generate PDFs. Your API keys, requests and error codes stay the same.
GET /accounts/me/billing now also returns subscription_credits_remaining, subscription_pdfs_remaining and a subscription object with the plan, its status, the current period and any scheduled change. The new Plans & Billing guide covers the response and the new subscription endpoints.
FAQ
Do I have to subscribe?
No. Subscriptions are optional. One-off credit packs work exactly as they did.
Do unused PDFs roll over?
No. The monthly allowance resets on each renewal. One-off credits never expire.
Which is used first?
Your subscription allowance, then free credits, then one-off credits.
What happens to my credits if I cancel?
One-off credits stay in your account and keep working. Only the monthly allowance ends, at the end of the billing period.
Can I switch plans?
Yes. Upgrades apply immediately with a prorated charge; downgrades apply at your next renewal.
See the full details on the pricing page.