Charging for access to your AI
Your AI can be a paid subscription-based product, giving you a new passive revenue stream.
How to set up charging for access to your AI
You can use our in-built payment feature, operated through the trusted payment platform Stripe, to charge for access to your AI. Here's how:
Switch on charge for access
Head to your AI settings and toggle on 'Charge for access'.
Connect Stripe
Next, click 'Connect Stripe' and set up a Stripe account. This is free to create.
Note: Even if you already use Stripe for another aspect of your business, you'll need to create a new account specifically for your Coachvox sales. What you can do, however, is use the same email address as an existing Stripe account. This doesn't combine the two accounts - they stay completely separate, each with their own transactions and settings. However, it means one login gives you access to both, and you can switch between them by clicking your account name in the top-left of your Stripe dashboard and selecting the relevant account from the dropdown.
Very important! Once your Stripe account has any subscriptions, even test ones, you won't be able to switch to a different Stripe account without losing everything on your existing one, so make sure you set it up using the email address you will continue using. If you need to make future changes to your Stripe account settings, you can do this directly within Stripe.
Create your subscription product
Once you've connected Stripe, a new section will display within your 'Charge for access' settings titled 'Subscription Products'.
Click the + Add product button to set up your subscription product and price.
Then complete the form.
The details to add include:
- Product name: Name your product. This will be displayed on client invoices.
- Price: Set your price for a subscription to your AI.
- Currency: Select the currency you wish to charge in.
- Billing interval: Choose to charge daily, weekly, monthly or yearly.
- Trial days: Choose to let clients trial your AI for free for a set time. Leave this blank if you don't wish to offer a free trial.
Currency options include: $ USD, € EUR, £ GBP, A$ AUD, CA$ CAD, NZ$ NZD, CHF, HK$ HKD, S$ SGD, ¥ JPY, R$ BRL, $ MXN, ₹ INR, R ZAR, RM MYR, ₱ PHP, zł PLN, Kč CZK, Ft HUF, lei RON, лв BGN, kn HRK, kr SEK, kr NOK, kr DKK, ฿ THB
When you're happy with the product settings, click "Create" to save.
Clients will now be asked to subscribe when they begin a chat.
Note: You will receive the subscription amount less 2.9% Stripe fees and 10% Coachvox fees. Our fee covers the necessary management, admin and support for this system.
Offering multiple prices at once
If you want clients to see and choose between more than one price when they sign up (for example, a monthly and an annual option shown together), set up a separate product for each price.
Adding more than one price to the same product won't display them all as options - only that product's default price is shown on the sign-up screen.
Create a lifetime access product
You also have the option to add a lifetime access product for your AI.
This enables someone to make a one-off payment for permanent access instead of signing up for a recurring subscription.
Click the + Add lifetime product button to set this up.
Then complete the form.
The details to add include:
- Product name: Name your product. This will be displayed on client invoices.
- Price: Set your price for lifetime access to your AI.
- Currency: Select the currency you wish to charge in.
When you're happy with the product settings, click "Create" to save.
The lifetime access option will now be shown to new clients, alongside any subscription option(s), when they sign up to chat with your AI.
Offering coupons
You can offer your clients coupons for discounts on their AI coaching subscription or free access (by providing a 100% discount).
Once you've connected a Stripe account and created a subscription product, expand the product to see a button to add a coupon.
You can create multiple coupons and, for each, set the following:
- Code: This will be the text code you provide to users of your AI to type in when they sign up.
- Discount: The percentage discount to apply to their subscription.
- Duration - This can be set to:
- Once = Applies to just the first subscription payment for each customer
- Repeating = Applies regularly, and you can set the number of months
- Forever = Always applies
- Redemptions: The total number of different users who can use this coupon. Leave as 0 for unlimited.
Deleting a coupon
Should you want to stop a coupon from being redeemed again, delete it within your Coachvox account. Any current subscriptions using that coupon will keep their discounts.
Charging tax
To collect tax from subscribers, enable Stripe Tax in your connected Stripe account and add registrations for the jurisdictions where you operate.
Tax will then be calculated and added automatically at checkout based on your registrations and client locations, then shown on client invoices and receipts.
You can also choose within your Stripe settings whether tax is included in your displayed price or added on top at checkout.
See Stripe's guide on setting up Stripe Tax for further detail on the specific settings.
User subscription journey
Once you've enabled chargeable access, when someone begins a chat session with your AI, they will go through these steps:
Step 1: Provide their email, set a password and accept the T&Cs.
Step 2: Click 'subscribe to start chatting', then complete the Stripe checkout.
- They will first choose a subscription plan if you have multiple subscription products set up.
Step 3: Provide their name and accept the AI usage terms and privacy policy.
They'll be shown a link to both the Coachvox privacy policy and your privacy policy (if you've added this).
They'll also be asked here for any additional details you've selected to collect, such as their last name and company name.
Making changes
Changing your subscription price
To change what you charge for an existing product, add a new price to that product and set it as the default. Your new default price will be shown to new signups, while anyone already subscribed at the old price keeps paying that rate.
Changing your subscription product
If you wish to make changes to the details of an existing product other than adding a new price, such as the product name, you can do this directly in your Stripe account from the 'Product Catalogue' page.
Archiving products and prices
You can archive a product or price within Coachvox so it's no longer shown on your sign-up screen.
Archiving doesn't delete anything from your Stripe account, and any clients already subscribed are unaffected. It simply stops being offered to new signups.
Changes to Stripe coupons
If you wish to add a new Stripe coupon, or deactivate or delete an existing one, you can do this within your Coachvox account.
Changes to client subscriptions
Clients will have access to their own Stripe billing portal from your AI chat window, via the cog icon. Here, they can update their payment method, change their billing details, or cancel their subscription.
If you need to change or cancel a subscription for a client, you can do this within your Stripe account. Check out this guidance.
Changes to your connected Stripe account
If you need to make edits to your connected Stripe account, such as changes to your login email, business details, or bank account, you can do this within Stripe. Stripe support can always be contacted for help with this.
Very important! Consider any changes to your connected Stripe account carefully. Once it has any subscriptions, active or past, real or test, it can't be swapped for a different one without stopping existing subscriptions from working. Cancelling or deleting your Stripe account permanently loses everything on it, including your subscriptions and sales records, which can't be recovered.
If your account has never had any subscriptions at all, we may be able to reset the connection so you can connect a fresh one, though this rarely achieves much since you'll end up with a new Stripe account for Coachvox either way. It's usually better to edit your existing account's details directly in Stripe instead.
Further guidance
Take a look at our guidance on how to get paid for AI coaching.
Read our guide on managing client subscriptions in Stripe.
Check our FAQs about charging for access.