My payment failed. What happens now?
·3 min read
On this page
One failure does not cut you off. We retry after one day, then two, then two more — four attempts in all — and your account works normally throughout, credits included. Only after the fourth failure does the account drop to the free plan. The reliable fix is changing your card under Settings → Subscription: a new card is charged immediately rather than waiting for the next scheduled attempt.
What happens after a failure
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| First failure | Retried a day later. Your account keeps working |
| Second failure | Retried two days later |
| Third failure | Retried two days after that |
| Fourth failure | The account drops to the free plan |
Access is held open a day beyond each scheduled retry, so a same-day retry can never lock you out mid-way.
You can keep working through all of this. Being behind on a payment and losing the service are different things.
What to do now
- Open Settings → Subscription.
- Press change payment method. The button is open even with no card on file — someone without a card is exactly who needs that door.
- Enter the new card and you are back to normal immediately.
Why payments fail
In rough order of how often we see it:
- Limit reached or insufficient funds — often just works on the next attempt.
- The card expired — you will need a new one.
- The bank blocked it — recurring or cross-border payments are sometimes blocked by default; your bank can lift it.
- The card was cancelled — removing a registered card ends the recurring payment with it.
After dropping to the free plan
Subscribe again and you are back. Nothing you made is deleted — your shots stay in your account.
Any credits you had expire at the end of the period you paid for, and nothing new arrives after that.
If it still fails
If a new card keeps failing, email hello@gestel.studio. We will look at the payment history with you and find where it is being blocked. Writing from the address on your account is fastest.