Pricing fields explained
Every field in the Subscription tab of the product editor, what each one does, the recommended value for the most common cases and the gotchas. Read this once when you're about to ship your first product and you won't need to come back.
Where the fields live
Edit any product, change Product data to Simple subscription, Variable subscription or Multi-Product subscription. A Subscription tab appears next to General / Inventory / Shipping.
Price
The amount charged on every renewal. Standard WooCommerce price field — supports decimal places per your currency settings. Tax-included or tax-excluded behaves like any product (set in WooCommerce → Settings → Tax).
- Recommended value: whatever your pricing is. There is no minimum or maximum.
- Gotcha: changing the price on a published product does not retroactively reprice existing subscriptions. New subscriptions get the new price; existing ones keep theirs. To reprice in bulk see the plan switching page.
Billing interval
How often the customer is charged. Two parts: every N (a number) and unit (day / week / month / year). Common combinations:
Every 1 month— monthly subscription (the most common).Every 1 year— annual subscription.Every 3 months— quarterly box.Every 2 weeks— bi-weekly delivery (pet food, fresh produce).
Length
How many renewals total before the subscription expires.
Until cancelled(default) — evergreen. The renewal cycle continues until the customer cancels or the payment fails permanently.- A finite number (e.g. 12) — the subscription expires after that many billing periods. Useful for fixed-term contracts ("12-month minimum contract") and pre-paid courses ("6 lessons, weekly").
When length is reached, the subscription moves to expired. See Statuses.
Sign-up fee
An optional one-off amount charged on the initial order only. Useful for setup costs, materials, or a non-refundable booking fee.
- Recommended: leave at 0 unless you're sure. Sign-up fees increase first-time friction.
- When plans switch: the fee can be charged again or skipped on plan-switch. Controlled by the global Enable signup fee downgrade/upgrade toggle in the plugin settings.
Free trial
Free period before the first paid renewal. The customer enters card details at checkout but is not charged until the trial ends.
- Length: any number of days, weeks or months.
- If a sign-up fee is set, the sign-up fee is charged at the initial order even during the trial.
- If the customer cancels during the trial, no payment is ever taken.
Anchor day
The day of the month every renewal lands on. Two ways to set it:
- Per-product anchor — set in this field. Renewals for this product snap to that day.
- Store-wide anchor — set in WooCommerce → Settings → Advanced Subscriptions → Start dates → Start subscription from certain date of month. Applies to all subscriptions globally.
Leave both empty for "renew on the order anniversary" (vanilla WooCommerce subscription behaviour).
Full details on the prorate calculation for the first invoice: Anchor day.
Recommended starter values
If you're shipping your first subscription product and don't want to think about it:
| Field | Recommended starter value |
|---|---|
| Price | Your price |
| Billing interval | Every 1 month |
| Length | Until cancelled |
| Sign-up fee | 0 |
| Free trial | 0 days |
| Anchor day | (empty) |
Relevant hooks
aswc_subscription_price— filter the price returned for a subscription product.aswc_subscription_interval— filter the resolved billing interval.aswc_signup_fee— filter the sign-up fee on an order.