How to choose your upgrade preference
You must:
- Be an Owner or Admin.
- Have Billing Permissions in your user role.
- Have a paid Profiles & Email, Mobile Messaging, Helpdesk, or Customer Agent plan that is not billed through a contract.
- If your account belongs to an account family, change these preferences from the parent account.
You will learn
Learn how to change your billing upgrade preference: automatically upgrade, use flexible overages, or choose None to upgrade manually. The available options depend on your plan.
About the billing upgrade preferences
Your billing upgrade preferences decide what happens when you reach your plan’s usage limits: email sends, Mobile Messaging usage, Helpdesk tickets, or Customer Agent conversations. These preferences:
- Don’t upgrade based on your profile count, as Klaviyo does that automatically when your billing cycle renews.
- Aren’t available for Reviews.
Depending on your plan, you can choose from the following options when you reach its usage limit:
- Use flexible overages
Provides additional usage for the current billing cycle for a 1-time fee. This option keeps you at your current plan tier.- When you purchase a subscription for the Helpdesk plan or Customer Agent plan, flexible overages are toggled on by default.
- Automatically upgrade (also called auto-upgrade)
Upgrades you to the next plan tier when you reach your plan’s email, mobile message, helpdesk ticket or customer agent conversation limit.- When you first purchase a subscription for the Profile & Email plan or the Mobile Messaging plan, auto-upgrade is toggled on by default.
- None
Available for Email and Mobile Messaging. When the selected plan reaches its limit, sending for that plan stops until you upgrade, use flexible overages, or the billing cycle renews. None is not available for Helpdesk or Customer Agent.
Regardless of which option you choose, Klaviyo sends several notifications to the Owner when an account approaches the limits of a plan (e.g., when they reach the 75% and 90% marks). That way, you are not surprised when your account stops sending, flexes, or upgrades automatically.
Flexible overages vs. auto-upgrade
Flexible overages and auto-upgrade let you continue using a plan after reaching its usage limit. With flexible overages, you stay on your current plan. With auto-upgrade, you move to a higher tier.
For plans billed in usage units, flexing charges a 1-time fee for the additional usage needed to reach a higher tier, at your current plan’s unit rate (for example, the cost per email send). If your limit increases from 50,000 to 60,000 emails, you pay for 10,000 additional sends. You can flex multiple times in a single billing cycle (e.g., 1, 2, or 3 times), but your subscription plan does not change. You can also auto-downgrade based on profiles when using flexible overages.
For Mobile Messaging plans with dollar-based pricing, flexing adds spend for the current billing cycle. The fee is the price difference between your current tier and the higher tier, or between your most recent flex tier and the next tier if you have already flexed. Review the cost shown in your billing preferences before saving.
On the other hand, auto-upgrade moves you up a tier to a new plan, which you stay on until you downgrade. When you auto-upgrade, you are charged the difference between your current plan and the new plan.
Who is flexible overage best for?
Flexible overages suit you if you occasionally need extra usage during the year and want to stay on your original subscription plan. If you consistently need more emails, mobile messages, tickets, or conversations, consider upgrading instead.
When to upgrade vs. flex plans
Flexing can be more expensive than upgrading. For plans billed in usage units, you pay for the added usage at your current plan’s unit rate. Compare the flex and upgrade costs shown in your billing preferences. If you frequently exceed your plan’s limits, upgrading can be more cost effective.
Flexing is better if you don’t consistently exceed your plan’s limits. It’s also good for anyone who doesn’t want to worry about remembering to downgrade.
Will I be auto-downgraded?
For Profiles & Email, you can be auto-downgraded if you turn on auto-downgrade based on active profile count. Klaviyo selects a lower tier that can cover your active profiles.
Klaviyo checks your active profile count shortly before your billing cycle renews. An eligible downgrade takes effect for the next billing cycle. Enable auto-downgrade and reduce your active profile count before that check.
You will not be auto-downgraded if using auto-upgrade or based on the number of messages you send.
Downgrading always takes effect the following billing cycle. You will finish out your current month's plan before your plan changes. Thus, we do not refund downgrades, as stated in our terms of service.
What happens if a credit card payment fails?
A failed subscription payment disables auto-upgrade and flexible overages. A failed auto-upgrade or flexible-overage payment disables the affected option. Update your credit card information and resolve any overdue payment. Then return to Billing > Preferences to re-enable your preferred option and click Update. If the option is unavailable, contact support for help re-enabling it.
Auto-downgrade based on profiles
With auto-downgrade enabled, Klaviyo checks whether your active profile count qualifies for a lower plan shortly before your billing cycle renews. An eligible downgrade takes effect for the next billing cycle. Enable this option and reduce your active profile count before that check.
Auto-downgrade is only available for the Profiles & Email plan and is based on active profile count, not message sends. You can use it with flexible overages or None, but not with auto-upgrade.
To turn on auto-downgrade for your Profiles & Email plan:
- Select your account name in the lower left, then go to Billing > Preferences.
- If your Email upgrade preference is Automatically upgrade, select Flexible overages or None and click Update to save that change first.
- In the Profiles auto-downgrade section, select Auto-downgrade profiles and click that section’s Update button.
Change your billing upgrade preferences
There are several ways you can change your billing upgrade preferences, including at checkout in Klaviyo or from within an email and in-app notifications.
To change your preference from the Billing > Preferences page:
- Select your account name in the lower left.
- Go to Billing > Preferences.
- Find the plan you want to change options for (e.g., Email or Mobile Messaging).
- Open the upgrade preference dropdown for that plan.
- Select an available option to change what happens when that plan reaches its usage limit:
- None to stop sending for Email or Mobile Messaging when that plan reaches its limit, until you upgrade, use flexible overages, or the billing cycle renews.
- Automatically upgrade to enable auto-upgrade.
- Flexible overages to add usage for the current billing cycle while keeping your subscription plan.
- Review the additional usage and cost shown for your selected option.
- Click Update to save.
Once you save this setting, it takes effect immediately. For instance, if you choose flexible overages and 1 day later reach your plan’s limit, Klaviyo applies your flexible-overage preference at that time.
Additional resources
- How to add or change a plan in Klaviyo
Learn how to manually upgrade or downgrade your Klaviyo billing plan.
- How Klaviyo billing works
Learn how Klaviyo bills customers for Profiles and Emails, Mobile Messaging, Reviews, Advanced Klaviyo Data Platform (formerly “CDP”), Marketing Analytics, Customer Hub, Helpdesk, and Customer Agent.
- How to update your credit card information
Learn how to update the credit card information associated with your account. Note that Klaviyo does not support multiple credit cards in a single account.