A pause offer lets a customer temporarily put their subscription on hold instead of cancelling it. While the subscription is paused, billing is suspended and then resumes automatically on the date you (or your customer) choose — so you keep the customer without losing them to a full cancellation. This article shows you how to add a pause offer to a cancel flow and configure how the pause behaves.
💡 Connect Stripe first
Pause offers act on the customer's real subscription, so your billing platform must be connected before the offer can take effect at runtime. Set this up under Integrations before taking a flow live.
Where pause offers live
Pause is one of the offer types you can add to a flow's offers step. When you open a flow in the flow builder and reach the offers section, you'll see two tabs:
Default offers — offers everyone sees, shown in order. If a customer declines the first, they're shown the next.
Survey offers — optional offers attached to a specific cancellation reason, so the offer matches why the customer is leaving.
A pause offer can be added in either place. Pausing works especially well as a survey offer for reasons like "I'm not using it enough" or "I need a break".
Step 1: Add the pause offer
Open your flow and go to the offers section.
Choose Default offers or Survey offers depending on where you want the offer to appear.
Add a new offer and select the Pause type ("Let them pause their subscription temporarily").
The new offer card opens so you can configure it.
Step 2: Write the offer copy
Every offer card has two text fields at the top:
Headline — the main line the customer reads (up to 60 characters).
Subtext — a short supporting line (up to 120 characters).
If you leave these blank, churn.io shows sensible default wording for a pause offer. Keep the headline reassuring — for example, letting customers know they can step away and come back whenever they're ready.
Step 3: Choose the pause mode
The Pause mode setting controls who decides how long the subscription stays paused. You have three options:
Fixed duration — you decide the exact pause length. Every customer who accepts is paused for the same amount of time.
Customer chooses — the customer picks a length, in months, from a range you set.
Customer picks date — the customer chooses the exact date their subscription should resume.
Fixed duration
Choose Fixed duration to pause everyone for the same length of time. Pick one of the preset durations — 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, 2 months, or 3 months — or select Custom to enter your own number and unit (days, weeks, or months). The customer is paused for exactly this duration, and billing resumes automatically when it ends.
Customer chooses
Choose Customer chooses to let the customer pick a pause length in months. Set the allowed range with the From and to month steppers (anywhere from 1 up to 12 months). You can also set the Selection style for how the choices are presented to the customer — as Pills (tappable buttons) or as a Dropdown.
Customer picks date
Choose Customer picks date to let the customer select the exact date their subscription should resume. Use the Maximum days ahead field to limit how far into the future they can choose — they can pick any date up to that many days out (up to 365).
⚠️ What happens when a pause is accepted
When a customer accepts a pause offer, churn.io pauses billing on their subscription and sets it to resume automatically on the chosen date. No invoices are collected during the paused period. Make sure the resume timing you allow matches what your business can support.
Step 4: Order, save, and go live
If you have several default offers, drag the cards to set the order in which customers see them — the pause offer can sit before or after a discount or free-month offer. When you're happy with the setup:
Save the flow.
Take the flow Live when you're ready for it to start intercepting cancellations.
Once live, customers who reach the offers step will see your pause offer, and accepting it will pause their subscription according to the mode you configured.