Developer preview

Let customers sign up for a trial without a payment method

Create cardless trials that let customers try your product without entering payment details, lowering the barrier to entry and increasing trial signups.

What's new?

We've released cardless trials in developer preview, letting customers sign up for a trial without entering payment details.

Cardless trials remove the biggest barrier to trial signups, requiring a credit card, making it easier for customers to try your product and increasing your trial conversion rates.

Access to Cardless trials is limited to users who are part of our early access program. If you're interested in being part of the program, fill out the form to join the waitlist. We'll reach out when space is available if you meet the program requirements.

Previously, trials always required customers to enter payment details when signing up. While customers weren't charged until the trial ended, requiring a payment method can be a barrier of entry for some customers.

With this update, you can now create trials that don't require customers to enter payment details when signing up (cardless trials). This lowers the barrier of entry and typically results in higher trial signup rates compared to card-required trials.

Trial details are stored against the price entity in Paddle. When creating a price with a trial period, you can now set requires_payment_method to false to set it as a cardless trial. To create a cardless trial, you can create a transaction using the API and mark it as billed. Because no payment method is required, Paddle automatically completes the transaction and creates a subscription for the customer.

To convert a cardless trial to a paying subscription, you can build a payment workflow using the API and Paddle.js. If customers don't enter payment details before the trial ends, Paddle automatically cancels the subscription.

Developer preview program guidelines

Why are we doing this?

Cardless trials are a proven way to increase trial signups by removing the friction of requiring a credit card upfront. Many SaaS and digital product businesses use cardless trials to let customers experience their product before committing to entering payment details.

What's included?

Cardless trials are a new trial type, along with card-required trials. You can:

Create prices with cardless trial periods using the API
Create transactions for cardless trials, which automatically create subscriptions
Build workflows to collect payment details to transition a trial to paying
Detect cardless trials using subscription fields

Are there any limitations?

While in developer preview, there are some limitations:

Customers can't sign up for a cardless trial using Paddle Checkout.
To create a cardless trial, you must create a transaction using the Paddle API. Cardless trials can't be created using Paddle Checkout.
Paddle doesn't send trial-related emails for cardless trials.
You need to build your own email workflows to remind customers to add payment details.
Customer portal doesn't support adding payment details for cardless trials.
You need to build your own payment workflow using the API and Paddle.js.
Only one-page checkout is supported for payment collection.
When collecting payment details for cardless trials, you must use one-page checkout. Multi-page checkout isn't supported.

What do we need from you?

If you join the early access program, we're keen to hear about your experience implementing cardless trials, including customer feedback, and any challenges you face.

To send us feedback, use the feedback button at the top-right or email us at sellers@paddle.com. We may contact you during the developer preview program to get your thoughts.

What's the timeline for release?

We're planning to release cardless trials in multiple stages:

Stage 1	Now	Cardless trials in developer preview.
Stage 2	2026	General availability, with customer portal support and trial-related emails.

All dates are estimates and may change depending on testing and feedback.

Summary of changes

Fields

This is a summary of the new fields in the Paddle API:

Field	Change	Notes
`price.trial_period.requires_payment_method`	New	Whether a payment method is required to sign up for a trial. Set to `false` to create a cardless trial.

Query parameters

When working with the list subscriptions operation, there are new query parameters that you can use to help identify cardless trials.

Query parameter	Value	Notes
`next_billed_at`	`null`	`null` for cardless trials, since it won't be billed until payment details are added.
`scheduled_change_action`	`none`	`none` for cardless trials.

Next steps

Cardless trials are available in developer preview. To get started, read the developer preview tutorial and join the waitlist. We'll reach out when space is available if you meet the program requirements.

It's a non-breaking change, meaning it doesn't impact existing integrations.

Learn more

Create a cardless trial

Trials