Why does Stripe say "free trial"?

Nobody gets anything for free. Unless you run the "first month free" intro offer, your subscribers pay in full for their first mailing when they join.

What's happening

When someone subscribes, two things are created:

1. A payment for their first mailing (and its shipping), charged immediately. It shows as "First mailing" on the receipt.
2. Their subscription, which should only charge again at your next mailing's cut-off, so every member of your club renews on the same day.

Stripe's only way to say "don't charge the subscription until that date" is a trial. So Stripe's receipts, invoices and subscription pages can show a $0 "free trial" line and "trial ends [date]". In practice it means "next charge: [date]".

What your subscribers see

• Your checkout page says "Charged today · ships around [date]" and "Next charge on [date]".
• The welcome email gives the ship date of their first mailing.
• Only Stripe's own receipts and pages use the word "trial", and Stripe doesn't let us change that wording.

If a subscriber asks, you can simply tell them: "You paid for your first mailing when you joined. 'Trial ends' is just Stripe's way of showing your next charge date."

When it really is free

If you turned on Offer the first month free (in Subscription → Intro offer), or a subscriber used a 100% promo code, their first mailing really is free, and their first payment happens at the next cut-off.