Missed payments
Plans do not expire. They end only when a renewal goes unpaid, and even then nothing is deleted straight away.
The pause
Section titled “The pause”A day after an unpaid renewal date, the account moves to Free and anything over Free’s limits is paused for 21 days:
| What | While paused |
|---|---|
| Email addresses | The oldest ones Free allows stay live. The rest are paused: mail sent to them is accepted and held out of sight, and they cannot send. Mail they already had stays readable. Addresses on your own domains are paused too. |
| Devices | The most recently active one stays live. The rest are refused with 403 device_paused. |
| API keys | Refused with 403 payment_required. |
GET /subscription returns a pause object with the plan to pay for, when paused items will be deleted, and how many there are. Paused addresses and devices carry pausedAt.
Held mail counts against the monthly allowance of the plan that lapsed, not Free’s.
Paying
Section titled “Paying”Paying for the plan within the 21 days, by card, crypto or account balance, puts everything back: the plan returns, addresses and devices unpause, API keys work again, and held mail arrives. Its retention window starts when it arrives.
If the card on a subscription failed, update it in Polar’s portal. A second card checkout is refused with 409 card_retrying while Polar is still retrying the first card.
After 21 days
Section titled “After 21 days”If the plan is still unpaid, whatever is paused is deleted, with the mail held for it. Deleted addresses are retired and never reissued, API keys are deleted, and domains you brought are removed. The account stays on Free and can upgrade at any time.
Enterprise plans are invoiced by arrangement and are not paused this way.