Billing & Credits Overview

DocSpring uses a prepaid credit system. Every plan includes a monthly credit allowance, and generating documents consumes credits based on the work involved. This page explains the plans; see How Credits Work for the credit cost model.

Plans purchased before prepaid credits

Accounts on a subscription plan purchased before prepaid credits were introduced keep their existing pricing, monthly PDF allowance, and API rate limits. The credit rules described here apply to the current plans. To move to a current plan, contact [email protected].

Plans

Plans differ in monthly credits, API rate limits, support level, and a few features:

Feature	Developer	Starter	Growth	Scale
Templates	10	25	Unlimited	Unlimited
Users	2	10	Unlimited	Unlimited
Data requests and e-signatures	Test mode only	Yes	Yes	Yes
Embedded template editor	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Hosted forms	DocSpring branding	Unbranded	Unbranded	Unbranded
Embedded forms, HTML templates, test PDFs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
HIPAA Business Associate Agreement (BAA)	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Unused credits	Reset monthly	Roll over 12 months	Roll over 12 months	Roll over 12 months
Support	Documentation	Email & chat	Priority email & chat	Slack channel & priority

Pending invitations count toward the user limit.

If your account moves to a plan with lower limits (for example after a downgrade), your existing templates and users keep working; you can’t add more until you’re within the new limits. API requests for a feature your plan doesn’t include return 403 Forbidden with "code": "upgrade_required".

Plan	Monthly credits	Live API rate limit	Test API rate limit
Developer	200 (free)	10/min (burst 20)	5/min (burst 15)
Starter	10,000 or 20,000	60/min (burst 120)	5/min (burst 15)
Growth	50,000 or 100,000	120/min (burst 240)	5/min (burst 15)
Scale	200,000 – 10,000,000	300/min (burst 600)	5/min (burst 15)

See What each PDF costs for each plan’s and pack’s price per PDF. Each paid plan offers a choice of credit tiers, so you can pick the monthly allowance that matches your volume.

The free Developer plan is for building

Integrations can take weeks or months to build. On the Developer plan you can build and test data requests and e-signatures in test mode, then subscribe when you go live. Watermarked test submissions and preview PDFs don’t consume credits. Combining PDFs consumes credits even with a test API token or watermarked source PDFs; combined jobs have no test mode.

Starting out

You start on the free Developer plan with 200 credits per month, enough for 10 filled PDF forms. The plan has no time limit.

You can try a paid plan’s features (more templates and team members, live data requests and e-signatures, the embedded template editor and unbranded hosted forms) free for 14 days, without a card. A trial keeps the Developer plan’s credits. It starts when you choose a paid plan at signup, or from Choose a plan on the Billing page. Each account gets one trial, and an account that has had a paid plan can’t start one. When it ends, your account has the Developer plan’s features again: nothing is deleted, and templates or team members over its limits keep working, but you can’t add more until you subscribe.

When you’re ready for more credits, subscribe to a paid plan from the Billing page (only the account owner can subscribe): add a card, then select Choose a plan and pick your plan and credit tier. Your subscription starts once the first payment succeeds. If the payment needs card verification, complete it using the payment link; your free plan remains active until then. If you chose a paid plan at signup, the billing page shows a prompt to finish setting it up whenever you’re ready.

Your subscription renews monthly and can be changed or cancelled at any time. If you cancel, or if a renewal payment ultimately fails, your account moves back to the free Developer plan. Nothing is deleted and your account is never suspended.

Nonprofits

Registered nonprofits and charities get the Starter plan free, with no card. Email [email protected] from your account’s email address with proof of your status. See DocSpring for nonprofits for who qualifies and what to include.

Changing plans

You can change your plan or credit tier at any time with Change plan on the Billing page:

• Upgrades take effect once payment succeeds. You’re charged a prorated amount for the remainder of the billing period, and a matching prorated share of the credit difference between your old and new tier is added to your balance as soon as the payment succeeds. The new tier’s full allowance starts at your next renewal. A declined payment or pending card verification leaves your current plan active.
• Downgrades apply the lower plan’s limits and support immediately, with no partial refund. The lower price and monthly credit allowance take effect from your next billing cycle, and credits you’ve already received keep their original expiry.
• Cancelling (under Billing settings) keeps your paid plan active until the end of the current billing period, then moves your account to the free Developer plan. Your unexpired credits stay in your account. Automatic top-up is controlled separately and remains enabled if you have opted in.
• Choosing another plan removes a scheduled cancellation, even if the upgrade payment still needs verification. Use Keep subscription to undo cancellation without changing your plan.

Managing billing

The Billing page has four tabs:

• Overview: your credit balance and next expiry, your plan and its limits, automatic top-up and your payment method. Buy credit packs, change your plan or set up automatic top-ups from here.
• Usage: the monthly credit usage report, upcoming credit expiry dates and stored PDFs.
• Invoices: every payment, with links to view or download each invoice.
• Billing settings: payment methods, your business billing address and VAT / tax ID for invoices, your billing email (the address that receives invoices and billing emails; the account owner’s email unless you set another), cancelling your subscription, and deleting your account. To stop paying without losing anything, cancel your subscription: your account moves to the free Developer plan and keeps its templates, PDFs and unexpired credits. Deleting your account removes access and forfeits unused credits.

Problems that need attention, such as a failed payment, an unpaid purchase or work waiting for credits, appear at the top of every tab and on your dashboard. Team members can see the Overview and Usage tabs; only the account owner can make changes.

Stored PDFs

Every PDF includes 30 days of storage. After that, monthly storage costs the greater of 1 credit per 50 MiB-month or 1 credit per 50 PDF-months, prorated for time stored and rounded up once per account per UTC calendar month. These rates also apply on Developer. Storage uses your credit balance independently of subscription renewals.

Storage charges and payment grace period See the storage calculation, included retention, examples, and what happens when credits are due.

Credit usage reports

Open the Usage tab on the Billing page (also linked from your dashboard) to see monthly credit usage. Choose a month to view daily totals, generation/merge/data-request/storage breakdowns, usage by template, and individual charge history. Download the selected activity as CSV. Months and charge timestamps use UTC.

The account credit statement shows allowances, pack purchases, consumption, expiry, refunds and adjustments separately. It explains changes in credits; invoices remain your payment history. Reports update in the background and show when recent activity is still being added.

Storage details show the month the storage was used and any amount still due. A storage debit appears in credit activity when those credits are actually collected, which can be in the following month. An unpaid assessment is not counted as credits already spent.

Stored-PDF totals update daily. Credit activity updates in the background as credits are added or spent; recent activity can take a short time to appear.