# Upgrade & Downgrade

Move to a bigger plan the moment you need more credits or a higher employee cap, and the change takes effect immediately. Move to a smaller plan when you need less, and it takes effect at the end of your current billing period so you keep what you already paid for. Both happen from Settings, Subscription, no support ticket required.

Your plan sets your monthly credit allowance, how many employees you can hire, and which features are unlocked. As your work changes, that plan should be able to change with it, without losing what you already paid for or waiting on anyone to approve the switch.

Upgrading is immediate. Pick a bigger plan and your credit allowance, employee cap, and feature access update right away, the same billing session. If your workspace has been sitting near zero credits or blocked behind a feature gate, an upgrade clears that instantly instead of waiting for the next billing cycle.

Downgrading is scheduled, not instant, and that is deliberate rather than a limitation. You already paid for the current period at the current plan, so the platform lets you keep everything that plan includes until the period ends, then switches you over automatically when the next cycle starts. You never lose paid-for time, and you never have to remember to come back and finish a downgrade yourself.

The whole flow runs through Stripe, so a scheduled downgrade lands correctly even if you close the tab, and a plan change made anywhere, self-serve, through support, or during a promotional grant, is treated the same way and reflected consistently across your credit balance, employee cap, and feature access.

Upgrading mid-cycle does not punish you for the part of the month you already worked. The new plan's allowance is what you have from the moment the change lands; what you used on the old plan is not carried across and subtracted from it. That is the whole reason upgrading is worth doing on the day you run short rather than waiting for the cycle to turn over.

Cancelling is simply the far end of a downgrade, and it behaves the same way. Your current plan stays in force until the period you already paid for finishes, then the account moves to the free experience automatically. Nothing is deleted, archived, or paused when that happens, so your employees, tasks, files, and conversations are all still there if you come back.

One thing worth knowing in advance: a subscription only counts as active while it is actually paid. If a renewal payment fails, the workspace falls back to free-plan access rather than sitting in a grace period, and it returns to normal as soon as the payment goes through. Your data is untouched throughout; it is access that changes, not content.

## What Changes Immediately vs. At Period End

Upgrades affect your account the moment you confirm them: credit allowance, employee cap, and feature gates all update in that same request, so there is no waiting to use what you just paid for.

Downgrades are queued as a scheduled change on your Stripe subscription. Everything about your account, credits, employee cap, feature access, stays on the current plan until the billing period you already paid for finishes, then the new plan takes over automatically with no action needed from you.

## What a Downgrade Never Does

Moving to a smaller plan never deletes, archives, pauses, or reassigns anything you or your employees created. Tasks, schedules, files, and past conversations all stay exactly as they are.

If your usage is above what the smaller plan allows, for example more hired employees than the new cap permits, the platform reports that clearly so you can decide what to do. It never makes that decision for you by quietly removing something to make the numbers fit.

## Changing Your Mind, In Either Direction

A scheduled downgrade is not a commitment you are stuck with. Until the period ends it is a pending change, and picking a different plan replaces it. Choosing to upgrade instead cancels it outright, so a decision made in a quiet week does not have to survive contact with a busy one.

Cancelling works the same way, because it is the same mechanism. You keep everything your current plan includes until the period you paid for finishes, then the account moves to the free experience on its own. There is no final step to remember and no window where you have paid for access you can no longer use.

Coming back later is straightforward for the same reason: nothing was deleted on the way out. Your employees, tasks, files, and conversation history are where you left them, and picking a plan again restores the allowance and the caps that go with it.

## How It Works

**Upgrades apply now, downgrades apply at your next billing date**

From Settings, Subscription, pick any plan above or below your current one. An upgrade is applied immediately: your new credit allowance, employee cap, and any newly unlocked features are active in that same moment, and billing is adjusted for the switch.

A downgrade is scheduled instead of applied on the spot. You keep your current plan's credits, employee cap, and features for the rest of the billing period you already paid for. When that period ends, Stripe automatically moves your subscription to the lower plan and your new allowance starts from the next cycle.

If a downgrade would put you over the new plan's employee cap, nothing is archived, paused, or removed to make you fit. You keep every employee, task, and file you have; you just will not be able to hire past the new plan's limit until you free up a slot or upgrade again.

You can change your mind before a scheduled downgrade lands: picking a different plan again before the period ends simply replaces the pending change, and choosing to upgrade instead cancels the downgrade outright.

## Use Cases

### You are about to run out of credits mid-month

Upgrade from Settings, Subscription and your new credit allowance is available immediately, so your employees keep working without waiting for the next billing cycle.

### You hired for a busy season and things have quieted down

Schedule a downgrade once. You keep your current plan's employee cap and credits for the rest of the period you already paid for, and the smaller plan takes over automatically at your next billing date, no manual follow-up required.

### You are testing whether a bigger plan is worth it

Upgrade to try the higher tier's credit allowance and employee cap. If it turns out you do not need it, schedule a downgrade at any point and it lands at the end of the period you already paid for instead of cutting you off mid-cycle.

### You want to step away for a while

Cancel and you keep everything until the period you paid for runs out, then the account settles onto the free experience by itself. Your employees, tasks, and files stay where they are, so coming back later is picking a plan again rather than rebuilding a workspace.

## Comparison

| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Changing plan means emailing support and waiting for somebody to action it. | Both directions are self-serve from Settings, Subscription, and take effect on their own. |
| Moving to a smaller plan early throws away the rest of the period you already paid for. | A downgrade is scheduled for the end of the current period, so no paid time is lost. |
| Needing more capacity mid-month means waiting for the next billing cycle to start. | An upgrade applies in the same session: allowance, employee cap, and newly unlocked features. |
| Dropping to a smaller plan quietly archives or removes whatever no longer fits. | Nothing is archived, paused, or deleted; you are told where you are over the new limit and left to decide. |

## FAQ

### When does an upgrade take effect?

Immediately. Your new credit allowance, employee cap, and any features that plan unlocks are active as soon as you confirm the change, in the same billing session.

### When does a downgrade take effect?

At the end of your current billing period, not right away. You keep your current plan's credits, employee cap, and features for the time you already paid for, and the switch happens automatically when the next cycle starts.

### Do I lose employees or data if I downgrade below my current usage?

No. A downgrade never archives, pauses, or removes anything you have. If you are over the new plan's employee cap when it lands, you simply cannot hire additional employees past that cap until you free up a slot or upgrade again.

### Can I cancel a scheduled downgrade?

Yes. Choose a different plan again before the current period ends and it replaces the pending change; choosing to upgrade instead cancels the scheduled downgrade outright.

### Do my credits carry over when I change plans?

Monthly plan credits reset at the start of each billing period regardless of plan changes; they do not roll over. An upgrade gives you access to the new, larger allowance immediately rather than waiting for the next cycle.

### If I upgrade halfway through the month, does what I already used count against the new plan?

No. The new plan's allowance is what you have from the moment the upgrade lands, and the usage from earlier in the cycle is not subtracted from it. That is why upgrading on the day you run short is worth doing rather than waiting for the cycle to turn over.

### What happens to my AI employees and their work if I cancel?

Nothing is deleted, archived, or paused. Cancelling schedules the move for the end of the period you already paid for, and after that your employees, tasks, files, and conversation history are all still there. Picking a plan again later restores the allowance and the caps.

### What happens if my renewal payment fails?

The subscription stops counting as active until it is paid, so the workspace falls back to free-plan access rather than sitting in a grace period. Your data is untouched, and normal access returns as soon as the payment goes through.

## Where Upgrade & Downgrade fits

Upgrade & Downgrade is part of How you run the account itself.

Sign in the way your company already does, decide who can do what, and keep the money side legible. Credits, plans, invoices, referrals, and the controls that decide who reaches which part of the workspace.

- [How you run the account itself](/en/features/account): Your workspace, your money, your people.

## Read the guide

- [Guide: Upgrade & Downgrade](/en/guide/billing/credits)

## More in Account & Billing

- [Monthly Credits](/en/features/account/monthly_credits): Every paid plan comes with a pool of credits that refills automatically at the start of each billing period. Credits are the single unit that pays for everything your AI employees do: thinking, tool calls, media generation, voice, and meetings. There is nothing to top up manually each month; your allowance is just there again when the new period starts.
- [Lifetime Credits (Free)](/en/features/account/lifetime_credits_free): Pick the Free plan and your workspace gets 2,000 credits in one grant, no card required. Those credits never reset and never expire; you spend them at your own pace across chat, tools, and media generation until they run out. It is a one-time bucket, not a monthly allowance, so it is meant for trying the platform before you commit to a paid plan.
- [Buy Credits](/en/features/account/credit_packs): Add credits to your workspace balance any time, on any plan, without changing your subscription. Pick from three one-time packs, pay by card through Stripe, and the credits land in your balance as soon as the payment clears.
- [Promo Codes](/en/features/account/promo_codes): Redeem a promotional code for a one-time, lifetime grant of bonus credits on top of your plan's monthly allowance. Enter a code at signup or any time afterward from Settings, Subscription, Get Free Credits. Each grant shows up in your Credit Grants history with its source, date, and amount, and one code can be redeemed once per workspace.
- [Referrals](/en/features/account/referral_program): Share your personal referral link or invite someone by email, and you both get 1,000 free credits the moment they sign up. Track every invite from a dedicated Earn Credits page, and keep earning until you hit the 10-referral cap.
- [Data Retention](/en/features/account/data_retention): Sistava deletes operational data on a fixed schedule instead of keeping it forever by default. A cleanup job runs every day and removes rows past their retention window: short-lived debug data within a week or two, working memory after 30 days of inactivity, and usage and activity history after two years. Chat messages, documents your employees write, and persistent notes are kept indefinitely unless you delete them yourself. There is no setting to change these windows; they apply the same way to every workspace.
- [Google Sign-In](/en/features/account/oauth_google): Sign in to Sistava with your Google account instead of creating a separate password. Choose Sign up with Google on the signup page and your workspace is ready after one approval, with your name and photo carried over automatically from Google. Because Google has already confirmed your email address, there is no verification email to chase before your AI employees can start working.
- [Microsoft Sign-In](/en/features/account/oauth_microsoft): Sign up or sign in with your Microsoft account instead of creating a password. Sistava reads your Microsoft account's name, email, and profile photo to set up your account, and your Profile page shows Microsoft as your connected sign-in method. Because Microsoft has already confirmed the address belongs to you, the account counts as verified from the start and your employees can begin working straight away. Google sign-in and an ordinary email and password are the other two ways in.
- [Workspace Roles](/en/features/account/tenant_roles): Every workspace you create has an Owner, Admin, and Collaborator role, each with a fixed set of permissions over billing, the collaborator roster, and resource access. Owners can grant a non-owner collaborator extra access, or take some away, without changing their overall role. A Roles page shows your own effective access and the full permission matrix so nobody has to guess what they can do.
- [User Profile Picture](/en/features/account/user_profile_avatar): Upload a photo for your account so your teammates and AI employees see a real picture of you instead of initials. It shows up in chat, comments, and the collaborator list across every workspace you belong to. If you signed up with Google or Microsoft, your picture is pulled in automatically the first time you sign in, and you can replace it any time.
- [Two-Factor Authentication](/en/features/account/two_factor_auth): Add a second sign-in step to your Sistava account using any TOTP authenticator app, like Google Authenticator or Authy. Once enabled, a code from your app is required in addition to your password, so a leaked or guessed password alone is not enough to get in. Turning it on immediately signs out every other active session, so a session created before you enabled it cannot be used to bypass it.
- [Feedback Board](/en/features/account/feedback_board): Submit bug reports, feature requests, improvements, and questions from inside the app, then vote on what other users have asked for. Every item lands on one Community Board visible to the whole platform, sorted by vote count, so the most-wanted ideas surface for the team automatically.

## Explore

- [Every feature](/en/features)
- [Hire an AI employee](/en/market)
- [Pricing](/en/pricing)