Price Increase Email: How to Announce It (With Examples)

Short answer: a good price increase email tells each customer, well in advance, exactly what they pay now, what they'll pay, when it changes and why. Send a separate version to each plan so the numbers are theirs, offer a way to lock in the old price if you can, and send a reminder shortly before their first bill at the new price.

Raising prices is normal. What customers resent isn't usually the new number. It's the surprise: finding a bigger charge on their card, or an email so vague they can't tell whether it applies to them.

This guide covers timing, what to include, three example emails, per-plan versions, the reminder, and cancellations. It's written for subscription businesses billing through Stripe.

When to send a price increase email

Give advance notice, and more than feels necessary. A warning a day before the charge reads like an ambush.

Two practical rules:

Every customer should get at least one full billing cycle's warning before they're charged the new price. For monthly customers that's at least a month. For annual customers, it means telling them well before their renewal date.
Check your own commitments. Your terms of service, any contracts, and the rules where you and your customers are may set notice periods or require specific wording. Read them before you pick a date.

It also helps to know how Stripe handles the change itself. Prices in Stripe can't be edited in place, so you create new prices, and existing subscriptions keep their current price until you move them. That's why the effective date is usually each customer's first renewal after a set date, not the same day for everyone.

What to include in a price change announcement email

Every price change announcement email should answer five questions in the first few lines:

What's changing: the plan and the old and new price, in numbers.
When: the date the new price applies to them, ideally their renewal date.
Why: one or two honest sentences. Higher costs and a better product are both fine reasons. Don't apologize for running a business.
What they can do: lock in the current price with an annual plan, switch plans, or do nothing.
Who to talk to: a reply address that a person reads.

Put the numbers near the top and keep the subject line plain. A clever subject line on a price change looks like you're hiding something.

Example price increase emails

Three examples follow. Swap in your own brand, numbers and dates.

Example 1: the standard announcement

Subject: An update to your Company pricing

Hi {{first_name}},

On March 1, the Pro plan is going from $29 to $35 a month. For you, the new price starts with your first bill after that date.

We haven't changed our prices in three years. In that time we've added team workspaces, scheduled exports and twice as many integrations, and our hosting costs have gone up. The new price lets us keep building at the same pace.

Nothing changes before March 1. If you'd like to lock in today's price, you can switch to annual billing at the current rate until February 28.

Switch to annual →

Questions? Just reply. I'll answer personally.

Sam, founder

Example 2: grandfathered pricing or an annual offer

A grandfathered pricing email is for customers who keep their current price, either for good or for a set time. It's good news, so say so.

Subject: Our prices are changing. Yours isn't (yet).

Hi {{first_name}},

Next month, new customers will pay $35 a month for Pro. You've been with us since the early days, so your price stays at $29 until January 1, 2027.

After that you'll move to the new price. If you'd rather keep paying less for longer, our annual plan at today's rate works out to two months free.

Lock in the annual rate →

Thanks for sticking with us, Sam

Only grandfather what you can honor. "Your price is locked forever" is a promise future-you has to keep.

Example 3: the short reminder

Subject: Reminder: your new Company price starts next week

Hi {{first_name}},

A quick reminder: your Pro plan renews next week, and that bill will be at the new price of $35 a month.

If you'd like to change plans or switch to annual first, you can do it here.

Manage your plan →

Sam

Keep it short. Its only job is to prevent a surprise on the card statement.

Send each Stripe plan its own version

A SaaS pricing change email that says "prices are going up by between 10% and 25% depending on your plan" makes every reader do arithmetic. Send each plan a version with its own numbers instead.

With Stripe connected, each contact carries a Stripe Plan field. Build one audience per affected plan:

Starter customers: Stripe Plan is Starter AND Stripe Subscription Status is active
Pro customers: Stripe Plan is Pro AND Stripe Subscription Status is active
Pro annual customers: Stripe Plan is Pro Annual AND Stripe Subscription Status is active

Then duplicate the draft for each audience and change the numbers. Leave out plans that aren't changing, and decide whether trials need the email at all; for them, the new price may simply be the price at checkout.

Plan names come from your Stripe prices: the nickname if you've set one, otherwise the product name. If monthly and annual prices show the same name, add nicknames in Stripe first. More on building these in how to segment Stripe customers.

Remind customers before the new price takes effect

The announcement goes out weeks ahead. The reminder should arrive a few days before each customer's first charge at the new price, and that date is different for everyone.

That's what a date trigger on Stripe Renews On is for. It fires a set number of days before the date stored on each contact:

Create an automation with a Date trigger on the Stripe Renews On field, 7 days before, recurring once.
Limit it to your affected-plan audiences.
Add the reminder email, one version per plan or a conditional branch on Stripe Plan.
Switch it on about a week before the new price starts, so the first reminders go to customers renewing on that date.
Pause it once a full billing cycle has passed, so it doesn't keep reminding people about a change that's already happened.

Stripe can also send its own upcoming renewal reminders for subscriptions that charge automatically. Yours can explain why the price changed and what the options are.

Handle replies and cancellations

Expect replies, and answer them quickly. Most are questions, not complaints: does this apply to me, can I switch to annual? Make sure replies reach an inbox you watch; a no-reply address turns questions into cancellations.

Some customers will cancel. Catch them at the right moment with an automation on Subscription scheduled to cancel. The customer has clicked cancel, but their access runs until the end of the period, so there's still time.

Limit the trigger to the affected Stripe products, so it only catches plans whose price changed.
Send a short, personal email: "I saw you cancelled. Was it the price change?" Offer the annual rate, a cheaper plan, or a pause.
Add a tag such as price-change-cancel, so you can count them and follow up later.

Customers whose subscription actually ends move on to your win-back flow on Subscription canceled. The Stripe email automation guide covers both events and why the difference matters.

We've covered other companies' price increases from the customer's side, such as Kit raising prices for existing customers and AWeber ending grandfathered pricing. The lesson from both: surprise and lost grandfathering send people shopping.

Measure how it went

A few numbers tell you whether the announcement worked:

Replies and unsubscribes on the announcement, by plan. A spike on one plan tells you where the change landed hardest.
Scheduled cancellations in the weeks after. Your tag and the automation's entry count make this easy to track.
Annual switches, if you offered one. Watch the size of an audience like Stripe Plan includes Annual, and the revenue attributed to the announcement. Here's how to measure email revenue from Stripe.

Then compare recurring revenue in Stripe before and after. That's the number the change was for.

How to do it in Audienceful

Connect Stripe and run the historical import so every current customer has a plan and status.
Build one audience per affected plan from Stripe Plan and Stripe Subscription Status.
Write the announcement once, then duplicate it for each plan and change the numbers.
Send each version to its audience, with a reply-to address you watch.
Set up the reminder as a date trigger on Stripe Renews On, 7 days before, limited to those audiences.
Add the save flow on Subscription scheduled to cancel, scoped to the affected products.

Both automations are created paused, so you can review them before anything goes out. Everything else you can build from Stripe data is on the Stripe integration page.

Audienceful is free up to 1,000 contacts, then paid plans start at $29/month billed yearly ($37.50 monthly) for 3,000 contacts. Start free and connect Stripe in a few clicks.

FAQs

How much notice should I give for a price increase?

At least one full billing cycle before a customer is charged the new price, and more for annual plans. Check your terms of service and the rules where you operate, since they may set a minimum.

Should I grandfather existing customers?

It depends on your margins. Grandfathering for a set period, or an annual plan at the old rate, rewards loyal customers without locking in the old price forever.

How do I send different price increase emails to different plans?

Build an audience for each plan from the synced Stripe Plan field, combined with an active status. Duplicate the email for each audience and change the numbers, so every customer sees their own old and new price.

How do I remind customers right before the new price applies?

Use a date trigger on the Stripe Renews On field, set a few days before, and limit it to the affected audiences. Each customer gets the reminder before their own renewal.

Price Increase Email: How to Announce a Price Increase to Your Subscribers (With Examples)