Strict - Plinth

Use Strict when access to your service carries real value or risk — content platforms, API services with per-call costs, or anything where giving free access during a payment dispute costs you money.

Who should use this

API-first products where unpaid usage has a real cost
Content or media platforms (access = direct revenue lost)
Services with tight margins where grace periods hurt
Products with high fraud or chargebacks where you want fast cutoffs

Settings

Policy knob	Value	Why
Upgrade strategy	Immediate, prorated	Charge now, upgrade now
Downgrade strategy	Immediate credit	Credit the unused amount to customer balance immediately
Grace period	3 days	Short window — clear payment issues fast or lose access
Dunning retries	4 (days +1, +3, +7, +14)	Standard schedule, but grace kicks in sooner after final retry
Plan changes while `past_due`	Block all changes	No plan adjustments while an invoice is outstanding
Billing mode	Advance	Invoice at start of period
Max debt	0	No outstanding balance tolerated beyond grace

Apply

curl -X POST https://api.useplinth.com/v1/tenant/apply-preset \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_test_DOCS_SHARED_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"preset": "strict"}'

await client.tenant.applyPreset('strict');

Strict’s 3-day grace period is short. Make sure your subscription.past_due webhook handler sends an immediate, actionable notification to the customer — they need to know fast. If your notification system is unreliable, consider Lenient or SaaS-Standard instead.

Immediate downgrades issue a credit to the customer’s balance (not a refund to their card). The credit offsets their next invoice automatically.