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Plan changes & renewals

Your plan renews every month on the date you subscribed, and every charge around it — the renewal itself, an upgrade, overage — flows through your organization's wallet. This page covers the timing rules: when a plan change actually takes effect, where the money comes from, and exactly what happens if a payment fails.
Everything here happens from Billing and payments. The plan card on the Overview page shows your renewal date and, if a change is scheduled, a note like "Switching to Free on August 3 — no charge at renewal" so there's never a question about what the next renewal will do.

Upgrades take effect immediately

When you upgrade (from the plan card, via Upgrade or Change plan), the new plan applies the moment the payment lands. You're charged the price difference between the two plans for the current period — not a time-prorated slice — and in exchange you get the new plan's full monthly allowance for the rest of the period. Upgrading mid-month because you're about to hit your allowance works exactly the way you'd hope: the headroom is there immediately, and your renewal date doesn't move.
The charge is taken from your wallet first. If the balance doesn't cover it, your saved card is charged for the difference; with no card on file, the dashboard walks you through a top-up before the upgrade completes. While a card charge is processing you'll see an "Upgrade processing" banner — the upgrade lands as soon as the payment confirms.
After an upgrade, downgrades are locked for the rest of the billing period (this prevents grabbing a big allowance for a day and stepping back down). The earliest a downgrade scheduled after an in-month upgrade can land is the end of the following period. Cancelling entirely is not blocked by this — see below.

Downgrades and cancellation land at period end

Moving to a cheaper plan never charges you anything now. The change is scheduled: you keep your current plan and allowance until the period ends, and the new plan starts at renewal. The plan card shows the scheduled switch, and the Settings page lists every subscription including scheduled ones, so you can verify what the next period looks like.
Cancelling works the same way. Cancel from the plan picker and your paid plan runs until the end of the current billing period — you've paid for it, so you keep it — then your organization moves to the Free plan, with its 1,000-per-month and 50-per-day limits. There's no charge at that renewal. If you change your mind before the period ends, you can resume the subscription and nothing happens at all.
There's no partial-period refund on cancellation, which is also why cancelling is never urgent: cancelling on day 2 and day 28 of your period cost the same and take effect at the same moment.

How renewals are funded

On your renewal date, Bird charges one amount from your wallet: the next period's plan price plus any overage you accrued in the period just ended.
  • If the wallet covers it, that's the whole story. The charge appears on the Spend page and on that month's invoice.
  • If the wallet is short, your saved card is charged for the shortfall — the wallet covers what it can, the card covers the rest. The Overview page warns you ahead of time ("Wallet won't cover your renewal — your card will be charged €41.20").
  • If there's no card on file, the Overview page asks you to add funds before the renewal date. Worth doing: without a card, a short wallet on renewal day starts the failed-payment clock below.
If you'd rather never think about this, set up auto top-up — see Payment methods & wallet.

When a renewal payment fails

A failed renewal doesn't cut you off. Here's the actual sequence:
  1. Your plan is marked past due, and sending continues. You keep your included allowance throughout. Your billing contacts get a payment-failed email immediately.
  2. Overage is suspended. While the renewal is unpaid, sends beyond your included allowance are rejected rather than billed. Bird won't extend more usage credit on top of an unpaid bill.
  3. Your card is retried daily for up to 7 days. Any successful payment — a retry going through, or you topping up the wallet manually — settles the balance and everything returns to normal immediately, overage included.
  4. After 7 days unpaid, the plan is cancelled. Any outstanding overage from the previous period is still charged to the wallet, the paid plan ends, and your organization moves to the Free plan. Your billing contacts are notified. Add-on subscriptions with failed payments (a dedicated IP, a phone number) are released rather than downgraded.
The fix at any point in the window is the same: pay — update the card, or top up the wallet from the Overview page.
A negative wallet balance stops sending entirely — not just overage — until the outstanding amount is paid. The Overview page shows exactly what's owed, and a top-up settles it immediately.
Failed-payment emails go to your billing contact (set on the Settings page). Make sure it points at a team alias rather than one person's inbox: seven days is plenty of time to fix a card, but only if someone sees the email.

Next steps