# Payments and Billing Any Audio uses a balance-based billing system rather than charging your payment method directly on a fixed monthly date. Understanding how it works will help you avoid surprises and make the most of your subscription. ## Account Balance Your account balance is a pool of funds held in your Any Audio account. When you pay for features, you are adding to this balance. The balance is then drawn from automatically each day to cover the cost of your active subscriptions. You can add balance at any time using a credit or debit card via Stripe, or via PayPal. There is no requirement to add a fixed amount — you can top up as little or as much as you like (minimum $2.25 per transaction). --- ## Subscription Types When you add a feature to your cart, you choose how to pay for it: ### Monthly You pay a monthly rate for the feature. The cost is spread over 30 days and deducted from your balance daily (see Daily Deductions below). Monthly subscriptions renew automatically each cycle unless you disable auto-renewal. ### Yearly You pay a yearly rate for the feature. The cost is spread over 365 days, so the daily deduction is smaller than monthly. Yearly subscriptions include a discount compared to paying monthly for a full year — the discount applies automatically once your total yearly spend reaches a qualifying threshold. Alternatively, you can pay the entire yearly cost up front at checkout. When you pay upfront, no daily deductions are made for that subscription during the year; instead, the full renewal amount is charged on the anniversary of your purchase. See **Paying Upfront** below. ### Lifetime A one-time payment that activates the feature permanently. Lifetime purchases are deducted from your balance immediately at checkout and are not subject to daily deductions or renewal cycles. --- ## Daily Deductions Each day, Any Audio calculates the total daily cost of your active subscriptions and deducts that amount from your balance. For example, if your monthly subscriptions add up to $9.00 per month, your daily cost is $9.00 ÷ 30 = $0.30 per day. If you also have yearly subscriptions costing $36.50 per year, that adds $36.50 ÷ 365 = $0.10 per day. Your total daily deduction would be $0.40. Because charges happen daily rather than on a specific calendar date, **you are only charged for the days you actually have a subscription active**. If you cancel partway through a billing cycle, you stop being charged from that day onward rather than losing the remainder of a prepaid month. ### Why Charges May Fall on Unexpected Dates Since balance top-ups are not tied to a calendar date, a payment to your payment method (card or PayPal) can happen on any day — whenever your balance runs low enough to trigger a top-up. If you manually add balance in advance, no automatic charge is made until the balance is depleted. If you use auto top-up, the charge to your payment method happens on the day your balance falls below the threshold, which can vary depending on how much you added last time. There is no fixed "billing date." If you need predictable charge dates, add a fixed amount of balance each month on a date of your choosing rather than relying on auto top-up. --- ## Paying Upfront (Yearly Subscriptions) When you have yearly items in your cart, you can choose to pay the full yearly cost up front at checkout. This is recommended if you want to avoid small daily deductions and prefer to deal with one annual charge instead. When paid upfront: - The full yearly cost is deducted from your balance immediately. - No daily deductions are made for that subscription during the year. - On the anniversary of your purchase date, the full yearly amount is charged again (via your default saved payment method or auto top-up, if enabled). If you do not pay upfront, yearly subscriptions work the same way as monthly ones — the cost is spread across daily deductions. --- ## Building Your Cart The Any Audio store lets you mix and match features freely. You can have some features on a monthly cycle and others on a yearly cycle, all active at the same time. Each set of features you check out creates a separate subscription record. Some features are stackable — for example, you can purchase multiple concurrent streams or additional bitrate upgrades. Others are single-purchase features like a verified badge. There is no requirement to purchase bundles; you can select exactly the features you want and only pay for those. --- ## Commitment Periods To protect against abuse, subscriptions have a minimum commitment period: - **Monthly** subscriptions have a 30-day commitment from the purchase date. - **Yearly** subscriptions have a 365-day commitment. During the commitment period, you can **disable auto-renewal** for a subscription. The subscription remains fully active and daily deductions continue until the commitment period ends, at which point it is automatically cancelled. This is equivalent to what most services call "cancel at end of period." After the commitment period has elapsed, you can cancel a subscription immediately with no further charges. --- ## Manual Payments Toward a Subscription From your subscription management page, you can make a manual payment toward any active subscription at any time. This credits the payment against the current billing cycle, reducing the remaining daily cost for that cycle. For example, if your monthly subscription costs $9.00 and you have paid $3.00 so far this cycle, you could make a one-time payment of $6.00 to pay off the rest of the cycle. Once a cycle is fully paid, daily deductions for that subscription stop until the next cycle begins. This is useful if you want to get ahead of charges, reduce your daily deduction rate, or top up a specific subscription without adding general balance. --- ## Auto Top-Up If you enable auto top-up in your billing settings, Any Audio will automatically charge your default saved payment method whenever your balance is insufficient to cover the next day's deductions. You can configure: - **Whether auto top-up is enabled** — if disabled, subscriptions will enter a grace period when your balance runs out (see below). - **A custom top-up amount** — if set, this amount is charged each time a top-up is triggered. If not set, the amount charged is calculated automatically based on your total monthly subscription cost to cover approximately one month of usage. The minimum auto top-up amount is $2.25. --- ## What Happens When Your Balance Runs Out If your balance reaches zero and auto top-up is disabled (or fails): 1. Your account enters a **grace period**. Your subscriptions remain active for a short time to give you a chance to add balance manually. 2. If balance is not restored during the grace period, active subscriptions are suspended. 3. Once you add balance, your subscriptions are automatically reactivated. To avoid service interruption, keep a comfortable amount of balance in your account or enable auto top-up. --- ## Gifting Balance You can send account balance to another Any Audio user as a gift. The amount is deducted from your balance and credited to theirs. Gifts can be made from the "Add or Gift Balance" section of your account settings. Gift transactions are final. If you have questions about a gift you sent, please contact support rather than disputing the charge with your bank. --- ## Saved Payment Methods You can save a card or PayPal account to your Any Audio account for faster checkout and to enable auto top-up. Saved payment methods are stored securely with the payment provider (Stripe or PayPal) — Any Audio does not store your full card details. You can add, remove, and set a default payment method from the Billing Settings tab on your account page. --- ## All Purchases Are Final Account balance top-ups, subscription purchases, and lifetime purchases are non-refundable. If you have a billing concern, please contact support before disputing a charge with your bank, as a chargeback will result in immediate suspension of your paid features pending investigation. --- If you have questions about your bill or need help with your account, please open a support ticket.