Stripe Subscriptions can be paused and resumed on demand
Introduced 2026-09-30 · score 0.95
HOW TO USE IT
When pausing or resuming a subscription, use flexible billing mode and handle its paused status and pause/resume events to update service access. Stripe’s versioned pause and resume API details, including the new fields, were not accessible in the documentation search.
curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/subscriptions/<SUBSCRIPTION_ID>/resume \
-u "<SECRET_KEY>:" \
-d billing_cycle_anchor=nowWHY THIS HELPS
When implementing subscription lifecycle handling, pause and resume a subscription and update service access based on subscription events.
REQUIREMENTS AND LIMITATIONS
- Version: 2026-09-30.endive
- billing_cycle_anchor: Resume-time billing cycle anchor: `now` or `unchanged`; defaults to `now`.
- status: Subscription status may be `paused`. The current object reference does not document `status_details`.
- customer.subscription.paused: Event emitted when a subscription enters `status=paused`; not when payment collection is paused.
- customer.subscription.resumed: Event emitted when a subscription is no longer paused; not when payment collection resumes.
- Prerequisite: Flexible billing mode requires Stripe API version `2025-06-30.basil` or later. API-created subscriptions use flexible mode by default on `2025-09-30.clover` or later; otherwise set the billing mode explicitly or migrate existing subscriptions.
- Prerequisite: The Subscription reference says a paused subscription does not generate invoices; pausing payment collection leaves status unchanged and still generates invoices.
- Flexible billing mode must be enabled to pause a subscription.
- Pausing a subscription stops invoice generation; pausing payment collection instead continues invoice generation but pauses payment collection.
- Docs conflict: Current subscription object reference says a subscription can only enter `paused` when a trial ends without a payment method. The release note describes on-demand pausing; this reference may predate the stated release version, so it does not establish the new behavior.
FIRST-PARTY EVIDENCE
- https://docs.stripe.com/changelog/endive/2026-09-30/pause-subscription
- https://docs.stripe.com/api/subscriptions/resume?lang=java
- https://docs.stripe.com/api/subscriptions?lang=go&lang%29=
- https://docs.stripe.com/api/events/types?event_types-invoice.payment_succeeded=
- https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/billing-mode
Check the installed version and the source before using it. Entry JSON