# Choose a plan and buy volume

> The plan sells features, volume is bought in prepaid packs, and increasing your capacity never changes your subscription.
> https://facteur.eu/en/help/facturation

You buy two things separately.

| What you buy | What it gives you | How it is paid |
|---|---|---|
| **A plan** | Features, seats and how long messages are kept | Charged monthly, with or without a commitment |
| **Volume** | Operations on top of the ones your plan includes | Prepaid packs, valid twelve months, cumulative |

The consequence is the point of this model: **increasing your capacity never changes
your subscription.** You do not move up a tier to receive more messages.

Prices and a simulator are on the [Pricing page](/en/pricing). They are not copied here,
so that a stale price list cannot sit around in an article.


## The twelve-month commitment

You pay **20 % less**, and you are charged every month exactly as without a commitment:
you never pay twelve months up front.

In exchange you cannot move down a plan before the twelve months are up. Moving up stays
possible at any time, and the discount follows the new plan.

## When your period renews

Your capacity resets **on the anniversary of the day you subscribed**, not on the first of
the month. An account opened on the 17th sees its included volume start again on the 17th.

That date is shown on [**Settings → Billing**](https://app.facteur.eu/settings/billing),
next to what you have left. If you subscribed on a 29th, 30th or 31st, your date is the
28th.

## What that changes for you

A test suite does not have a steady throughput: it sleeps for a week and saturates on
a Tuesday evening release. Three practical consequences:

- **You size for what you use**, not for your peak. A pack is bought the day it is
  useful.
- **A purchase does not commit you for the month.** Your packs are not reset at the
  next cycle: they run for twelve months.
- **Moving down a plan destroys nothing.** Packs you have already bought stay usable,
  whatever plan you land on.
- **Stopping your subscription destroys nothing either.** Your packs are set aside until
  their twelve months are up: they cannot be used without an active subscription, and they
  become usable again if you subscribe again within that time.

## Pay-as-you-go, as a safety net

It exists and it is priced above the cheapest pack. Set a **spend cap**: past it, it
stops.

It is there so that a runaway suite on a Friday evening does not block your tests on
Monday, not to be your normal mode. If you use it every month, a pack will cost you
less.

## Track the capacity you have left

[**Settings → Billing**](https://app.facteur.eu/settings/billing) shows what you have
left and where it came from: included with the plan, a pack you bought, pay-as-you-go,
or an adjustment from us. Every line carries its expiry date.

That count is the authority, not whatever a payment provider says. It is what lets a
pack survive a plan change, and a spend cap be honoured to the second.

## Known limits

- **Online payment is not active.** Write to us to choose a plan, buy a pack or change
  your subscription: we do it for you, and
  [**Settings → Billing**](https://app.facteur.eu/settings/billing) shows where your
  account stands in the meantime.
- **You see the open period, not the previous ones.** The count for the open period is
  accurate to the second; the history of closed periods is not shown yet. See
  [Quotas and retention](quotas-et-retention).