Subscriptions with automatic charges in a funnel
How to sell access for a month, three months, six months or a year with automatic charges: what the bot does on renewal, a failed card and cancellation, and how to close access in your channel.
The Payment step can do more than a one-time payment: it can start a subscription. Lava charges the buyer's card by itself every month (or every 3 months, 6 months, year). The bot follows each charge and decides what happens with access.
How to turn it on#
- In your Lava account create a Subscription product with the period you need and copy its ID (offerId).
- In the funnel open the Payment step → How to charge → pick a period. The step shows the period next to the price.
- The rest is optional:
- Grace period after a failure, hours — how long access stays on if a charge fails. 72 hours by default, 0 closes it right away.
- Remind before charge, days — when to warn about an upcoming charge. 3 days by default, 0 turns it off.
- Remove from the channel or chat when the subscription ends — turn it on and list channels and chats separated by commas (
@channelor-100…). The bot must be an admin with permission to ban members. - Message the buyer about charges — turn it off if you want to write to buyers yourself.
⚠️ Automatic charges work with cards only. An SBP payment can't be charged again, so a subscription has no SBP button. Foreign cards, Apple Pay and PayPal work when subscriptions are enabled in your Lava account.
⚠️ The period in the step must match the product in Lava. If the product has no such period, the invoice isn't created and the buyer sees that payment didn't open.
What happens next#
| Event | What the bot does |
|---|---|
| First payment | Delivers access, same as a one-time payment. You get a "New subscription" message |
| Charge coming up | The buyer gets a reminder with the date, the amount and a Cancel subscription button |
| Charge succeeds | Extends the period. Stays quiet so it isn't noisy |
| Charge fails | The buyer gets the reason, the grace deadline and a Pay again button. You get a message. Access stays on for now |
| A day before grace ends | The buyer gets a last warning (if closing access is on) |
| Grace ends | Removes the person from the listed channels and chats, and tells them and you |
| The buyer paid again or Lava charged the card | The subscription is active again and access comes back |
| The buyer or you cancel | Charges stop, access stays until the paid period ends, then closes |
| A refund or dispute that closed the subscription | The subscription closes and access closes according to your settings |
If Lava is silent about a renewal for a long time, Craft checks that subscription with Lava itself and updates the date.
Managing subscriptions#
Your buyers' subscriptions are visible in the AI assistant (Claude, ChatGPT, Codex and other connected clients): ask "show my funnel's subscriptions". You can also cancel a subscription, give extra time (extend the grace period or the paid-until date), check it against Lava and get a new payment link for a specific person.
Other payment providers#
The Payment step can take one-time payments and subscriptions through more than Lava. In the Payment provider field choose Prodamus, CloudPayments, Stripe, YooKassa, T-Bank, Robokassa or Tribute. First connect the provider in Statistics → Payments → Connect payments and paste the notification address Craft shows into the provider's dashboard. Craft creates the payment link with your keys, and the invoice amount comes from the step's Price field.
| Provider | How repeat charges work | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Prodamus | Prodamus charges | Create the subscription in your Prodamus dashboard and enter its ID in the step. The connection needs your payment page address |
| CloudPayments | Craft creates the subscription after the first payment using the card token | Turn on "Save card token" in your site settings and add Pay, Fail, Recurrent and Refund notifications |
| Stripe | Stripe charges | The key needs write access to Checkout Sessions and Subscriptions, and the connection needs the webhook secret. The payment link lasts a day |
| YooKassa | Craft charges on a schedule | A YooKassa manager enables autopayments for your shop. Add the notification address in its dashboard |
| T-Bank | Craft charges on a schedule | The bank enables recurring payments for your terminal. Rubles only |
| Robokassa | Craft charges on a schedule | Robokassa must enable recurring payments and the connection needs "Password #1". Rubles only |
| Tribute | Tribute charges | Paste your Tribute subscription link into the step. The buyer is recognized by their Telegram ID, so they must pay from the same account |
For providers without their own subscriptions (YooKassa, T-Bank, Robokassa), Craft retries a failed charge once a day while the grace period lasts. If the buyer revoked permission or the card expired, retrying is pointless, and they get a link to pay again straight away.
🔴 Autocharges are off by default at YooKassa, T-Bank and Robokassa. The first payment goes through, but repeat charges fail until the provider enables the feature for your shop. Ask their manager before you start selling.
⚠️ Tribute has no cancellation through its API and no "charge failed" event. The buyer cancels in the Tribute bot, and you learn about a failure when Tribute ends the subscription itself.
FAQ#
What if the buyer pays again while the old subscription is still alive? The old one is cancelled in Lava so they aren't charged twice.
Can I give a buyer more time? Yes, extend the grace period or the paid-until date through the AI assistant.
The bot removed someone from the channel. Can they come back? Yes. After a new payment the bot sends the invite link again.
Does it work in Instagram? You can start a subscription, but the buyer can't be messaged about failures in Instagram (Meta's 24-hour window), so only you get failure alerts, and there's no channel to close in Instagram.
What's not there yet#
- A free trial: Lava doesn't support it. You can make a trial as a separate funnel.
- Retrying a charge on our request: Lava decides when to try again. We give a grace period and a new link.
- Changing the period of an existing subscription: start a new one and the old one is replaced.