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Yes, you can send an existing paid subscriber a special offer to move them to a different tier or billing cycle (for example, monthly to annual, or a standard tier to a premium one). Ghost can’t do this on its own; it works through Outpost Promotions rather than Ghost Offers.

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Why Ghost offers can’t do this

Ghost Offers only show to free or logged-out visitors. Someone who already has a paid plan will never see a Ghost offer. Ghost assumes anyone redeeming an offer is signing up for the first time. Outpost Promotions check out through Stripe instead of Ghost Portal, so an existing subscriber can use them. And when you attach an offer to a retention or upgrade email, Outpost picks the right kind for each reader on its own: existing subscribers get an Outpost Promotion, while free and logged-out readers get a Ghost offer. You don’t have to sort this out by hand. See Ghost Offers vs Outpost Promotions for the full comparison.

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How an upgrade checks out

When an existing subscriber clicks an upgrade offer, Outpost looks at their current subscription and decides whether the change can happen right away. The rule is simple: a plan change never results in credit or money back to the subscriber. A change goes through immediately only when the subscriber pays the difference today. Any change that would end up in credit back for the subscriber isn’t applied immediately. Instead it gets scheduled for their renewal date. This includes moving to a cheaper plan on the same billing cycle, moving to a shorter billing cycle (for example annual to monthly), or any change where a discount would leave the subscriber owed money for the time left on their current plan. Here are the two paths:

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Outcome 1: Switch right away, prorated

When the change costs money today, Outpost shows a confirmation page with:
  • Current Plan and its renewal date
  • New Plan (and the offer discount, if any)
  • The prorated amount they’ll be charged now using their existing subscription as credit for the new one
When the subscriber confirms, Outpost moves their existing subscription onto the new tier or billing cycle right away. They’re credited for the unused time on the old plan and charged the difference for the new one. There’s only ever one subscription, so nothing looks out of place in Ghost Portal. This path sends the autoresponder email “Thank a subscriber for using a retention offer (with proration)”.

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Outcome 2: Schedule the new plan to start when the current one ends

When the change must wait, the subscriber sees a Scheduled Plan Change screen instead of a charge. It shows the current plan and the date it runs until, the new plan and the date it starts, and the line “You will not be charged today. Your first charge of [amount] will be on [date].” When the subscriber confirms, the current plan stops renewing and the new plan begins the moment it ends. Outpost checks the numbers again at the moment of the change, so a stale checkout page cannot turn a scheduled change into an instant one. The subscriber is not double-charged: the new plan doesn’t bill until the old one ends. But between now and the current plan’s renewal date, they’ll have two subscriptions on file: one winding down, and one waiting to start. There is no limit on how much time can be left on the current plan. The new plan waits until the current one ends, whether that is a few days or most of a year away. If the current plan ends today or has already ended, the new subscription starts and bills right away. Only one plan change can be waiting at a time. While a scheduled change is waiting for the renewal date, the subscriber can’t make another change, immediate or scheduled: checkout tells them their change takes effect on their renewal date, and that they can make another change after that.
Subscribers billed by emailed invoice (typically institutions) can’t take this scheduled path. When their plan change would need to wait for renewal, checkout stops and asks them to write to you instead: a scheduled change works by starting a card-billed subscription when the current plan ends, and an invoice-billed subscriber has no card on file to charge. Handle those plan changes directly.
This path sends the autoresponder email “Thank a subscriber for using a retention offer where the new subscription starts after the existing one ends”. Turning it on is strongly recommended: see below.

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The “Active Subscription Found” prompt

When the subscriber confirms the scheduled option, Outpost creates the new subscription and sets the current one to stop renewing, both in the same step. Usually that is the whole story and the subscriber never sees an extra screen. But when Outpost can’t cancel the current subscription itself (usually because it was created outside Outpost), the subscriber sees this message after the new subscription is created:
Active Subscription Found You have an active subscription. To avoid being charged for two subscriptions, we recommend canceling your current subscription before proceeding.
It shows their current plan and next renewal date, with two buttons:
“Proceed Without Canceling” is the path that can leave a member temporarily paying for two subscriptions. Pairing your upgrade offers with the confirmation email (below) helps members understand what just happened.
If the subscriber’s current subscription is already canceled and just running out the time they’ve paid for, the cancellation prompt is skipped: there’s nothing to cancel.

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If the old subscription was created outside Outpost

Some subscribers have a subscription Outpost cannot manage, for example one created through Ghost Portal’s own checkout, one created directly in Stripe, or one carried over from a previous platform. They can still make the change. The new subscription is created as normal, and it doesn’t bill until the old plan’s term ends. Because Outpost can’t cancel the old subscription itself, choosing Cancel Current & Proceed instead brings up an Open Billing Portal button. It opens the Stripe billing portal in a new tab, already pointed at the old subscription, so the subscriber can cancel it themselves. The checkout page watches for the cancellation and confirms once it goes through. Choosing Proceed Without Canceling works as usual: the subscriber can cancel later, and Outpost warns them the old subscription keeps billing until they do.

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Planned improvements

Today, a subscription created outside Outpost always gets scheduled, even when the subscriber is moving up, because Outpost cannot change that subscription in place. A planned improvement will let these subscribers, including everyone who signed up through Ghost Portal, switch immediately and pay the difference today, the same way subscribers billed through Outpost already do, without needing to cancel the old subscription themselves. There is no ETA for this yet.

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Scenarios

The rules above cover every case, but they are easier to feel through examples. The tier names and prices below are made up; the behavior is exact.

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The moves at a glance

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Straight upgrades: the subscriber pays the difference today

Maya pays 8/monthforSupporterandclicksanewsletterofferforPatronmonthlyat8/month for Supporter and clicks a newsletter offer for Patron monthly at 15/month. Same billing cycle, higher price. Maya sees her current plan, her renewal date, the new plan, and one number: the amount to be charged now, which is the price difference for the rest of her current month. One click confirms. She is on Patron immediately, her card is charged the difference today, and her billing anniversary resets to today. Sam pays 8/monthforSupporterandtakesanannualofferat8/month for Supporter and takes an annual offer at 80/year. The annual plan works out cheaper per day, but moving to a longer billing cycle is never a downgrade. Sam switches today, pays the annual price minus the unused slice of the month already paid, and the next renewal is one year from today. This is the move upgrade-to-annual campaigns produce. Priya canceled last month, and her plan still runs to the 28th. Today she clicks an offer for the same plan. Taking the offer quietly revives her: the scheduled cancellation is lifted, she switches (or stays) immediately, and her subscription renews normally again. This is what makes retention offers to canceled members work.

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Downgrades and shorter billing cycles: the subscriber keeps what they paid for

Jordan pays 15/monthforPatronandtakesaSupporterofferat15/month for Patron and takes a Supporter offer at 8/month. Same billing cycle, lower price: a downgrade. Jordan sees the Scheduled Plan Change screen: current plan until the renewal date, new plan starting on it, and the line “You will not be charged today. Your first charge of $8.00 will be on September 12.” Jordan keeps Patron, already paid for, until the term ends, then moves to Supporter. No refund, no credit, no lost access. Alex pays 80/yearandwantstoswitchtomonthlyat80/year and wants to switch to monthly at 8/month. The monthly plan costs more per day, but a move to a shorter billing cycle always waits for renewal. Switching an annual member to monthly mid-year would leave months of unused annual value with no fair way to settle it on the spot, so Alex gets the Scheduled Plan Change screen and starts paying monthly when the annual year ends. Rosa has an annual plan and clicks a deep-sale offer: a higher tier, 60% off for the first year. The sale price means the change would work out in Rosa’s favor mid-term, so it is scheduled for her renewal date: a plan change never results in credit back. The sale terms lock in when Rosa confirms and are honored when the change happens. One nuance: a Multiple Months discount runs on calendar time from the day she confirms, so a long wait can outlive it, and the confirmation screen shows the price that will actually be charged. Jordan, a week later, tries a second offer while the first change is still pending. Checkout refuses: they already have a plan change scheduled, it takes effect on their renewal date, and they can make another change after that. There is no member-facing way for a subscriber to undo a scheduled change; handle those by support request.

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Subscribers billed outside Outpost, including Ghost Portal

Chen subscribed years ago through Ghost Portal and clicks an upgrade offer. Outpost cannot change that subscription in place, and checkout says so: due to limitations with the payment processor, the switch cannot happen immediately. Chen can create the new subscription now; it costs nothing today and starts when the current term ends. The flow then helps Chen cancel the old subscription through the billing portal, already pointed at the right subscription, and confirms once the cancellation goes through. Choosing Proceed Without Canceling keeps the old subscription billing until someone cancels it, and the screen says so. Chen’s neighbor, also billed through Ghost Portal, takes a cheaper offer instead. Downgrades are decided before Outpost ever touches the subscription, so this subscriber sees the normal Scheduled Plan Change screen first, and the billing-portal step to cancel the old subscription comes after. The end state matches a normal downgrade: old plan until term end, new plan after, nothing charged today.

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Subscribers who are not billed at all: treated as new

Nia has a one-year gift subscription. Six months in, she clicks a paid offer because she wants to support the site herself. Nia is complimentary, not billed, so checkout treats her as a new signup: full offer terms, charged today. Her new paid subscription and her gift access run in parallel until the gift ends. The same applies to complimentary members, members covered by a group subscription, and members whose payment is past due.

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Two edge cases worth knowing

Tomás is mid-way through a 30-day free trial and clicks a different offer. A subscription still in its trial cannot be switched in place, so trial members take the scheduled route: the new subscription is created and starts when the trial ends, and the trial stops on its own. A trial member has paid nothing, so there is nothing to credit or lose. A university library pays by invoice, and the librarian clicks an offer. An invoice-billed subscriber has no card on file, so any change that would need to be scheduled is refused with its own message, and the subscriber is asked to contact you instead (see the note above). A change that costs money today still works normally.

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Turn on the upgrade confirmation email

If you plan to offer upgrades to existing subscribers, turn on the autoresponder email “Thank a subscriber for using a retention offer where the new subscription starts after the existing one ends”. You’ll find it in Autoresponder → Basic, on the Retention and Renewal tab under Handling Cancellations with Retention Offers; it’s the companion to the prorate thank-you just above it. Why it matters: when an upgrade schedules a second subscription, the member briefly has two subscriptions at once, and Ghost Portal may not show the one that’s waiting to start. A member who checks their account might not see the change they just made. This email tells them, in plain language, that their new plan starts when the current one ends, which heads off confusion, support tickets, and chargebacks. The immediate-switch path has a companion email too: “Thank a subscriber for using a retention offer (with proration)”. Turn on both, and every kind of upgrade ends with a clear confirmation.

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Frequently asked questions

Yes. Use an Outpost Promotion (Outpost’s own offer system) or attach an offer to a retention/upgrade autoresponder email. Outpost sends existing subscribers through a Stripe checkout that can change their tier or billing cycle. Ghost Offers can’t do this: they only show to free or logged-out visitors.
When an existing subscriber redeems the offer, Outpost either (1) switches their current subscription to the new plan right away, prorated, or (2) schedules the new plan to begin when the current one ends. Which one happens depends on the direction of the change: a move up, to a pricier plan or a longer billing cycle, switches right away, while a move to a cheaper plan or a shorter billing cycle waits for the renewal date. Any change that would otherwise leave the subscriber owed money back also waits, so a plan change never results in credit back. See How an upgrade checks out.
By design. Ghost Offers are built for free-to-paid signups and only show in Ghost Portal to visitors who don’t already have a subscription. To reach existing paid or complimentary subscribers, use an Outpost Promotion, which checks out through Stripe. Outpost picks the right offer type for you when you attach an offer to an email.
Not on the prorated path (one subscription throughout) and not on the scheduled-second-subscription path (the new plan doesn’t bill until the old one ends). Outpost handles the old subscription automatically: the prorated path changes the existing subscription in place, and the scheduled path cancels the old one so it stops renewing on its own. The one exception is a subscription that was created outside Outpost, which Outpost cannot cancel for the member. In that case they’re asked to cancel it themselves through the Stripe billing portal, and skipping that step, including choosing “Proceed Without Canceling”, leaves the old subscription billing alongside the new one until they cancel it.
Because that upgrade path briefly leaves the member with two subscriptions, and Ghost Portal may not show the one that’s waiting to start. The member could log in and not see the change they just made. The email tells them, in plain language, that their new plan starts when the current one ends, heading off confusion, support tickets, and chargebacks. See Turn on the upgrade confirmation email.
There’s no time limit. Outpost schedules the new plan however far off the current plan’s end date is, and the confirmation screen shows the date and amount of the first charge before the subscriber confirms. The amount shown is what the subscriber will pay: if the offer uses a Multiple Months discount that would run out before the new plan starts, the screen already reflects the full price.
Mostly yes. A One Time Discount or a Recurring Discount is applied on both the prorated switch and the scheduled second subscription. A Multiple Months discount runs on calendar time from the day the subscriber confirms, not from the day the new plan starts, so if the scheduled subscription begins after those months have passed, its first charge is at full price. Either way, the checkout screen shows the exact amount of the first charge before the subscriber confirms.
No, that’s the correct behavior, and it’s the same screen described in How an upgrade checks out. A member who “cancelled” has really only turned off auto-renew; they’re still a paid subscriber until their time runs out. You can’t send them to a plain new-signup checkout, because that would start a second subscription. Instead, %OFFER_URL% takes them to an Outpost Promotion page that shows their current plan, the new plan, and the prorated amount, then completes the change through Stripe when they confirm. The Stripe charge still happens; the Outpost page is the step that switches their existing subscription cleanly instead of duplicating it.This also means a member who has already canceled stays a subscriber when they take the offer. On the immediate prorated switch, paying lifts the pending cancellation, and the subscription renews normally on the new plan. On a scheduled change, the confirmation screen tells them their current subscription is already canceled and runs until its end date, and the new plan starts right after that, so their access never lapses.
It’s locked on purpose. Cancellation and retention emails are sent to existing paid subscribers, and Ghost Offers never render for them (Ghost only shows offers to free or unknown visitors). If you could paste a Ghost offer link here, the button would lead those subscribers to a dead end, or risk creating a duplicate subscription. Keeping the button on %OFFER_URL% lets Outpost generate the right personalized link for each recipient and route existing subscribers through the proration/switch checkout. To change where the button goes, change the offer attached in the action’s Offer dropdown; you don’t edit the link itself.
No. You can attach either a Ghost Offer or an Outpost Promotion to a retention or cancellation action. When the recipient is an existing subscriber, Outpost translates a Ghost Offer into an equivalent Outpost Promotion automatically, so the discount works, even though the original Ghost Offer is never actually used in a retention checkout (Ghost Offers can’t be redeemed by existing paid subscribers). Building the offer as an Outpost Promotion from the start is a little cleaner, but attaching an existing Ghost Offer is perfectly fine.

Promotions

Outpost’s own offer system, the tool that powers upgrade offers for existing subscribers

Offers & Discounts

Ghost Offers vs Outpost Promotions, and when each one applies

Autoresponder

Attach upgrade offers to retention emails and enable the confirmation emails

Subscription Schedules

Intro pricing that transitions to a standard renewal rate