After account setup, your first visit to the dashboard stops at one screen — Choose how you pay — and goes no further until you've answered. Both answers need a card, and switching later is just a plan change.
A free month of Pro
The recommended path — badged as such on the screen: Start free trial. £0 today — your card is saved but nothing is charged until day 30. For the month you get:
- £45 of calling credit, applied straight away. It covers calls, model usage and speech at one all-in per-minute rate.
- Everything in Pro — three phone numbers, Workspace integrations, six months of call history. The full deck is in Plans & limits.
From day 30 the trial becomes a normal Pro subscription at £45 + VAT (£54) a month on the saved card — unless you cancel during the trial, which costs nothing. Cancel and you keep Pro and the credit until the trial's last day; whatever promotional credit remains then lapses. The exact end date is on screen from the moment you start. One trial per organisation, ever.
Why we ask for a card
Every standard account needs a payment card, trial included. The reasons are boring and honest: nothing is charged until day 30, and you can cancel any time before that. Taking the card now means any bank verification happens today rather than mid-service — and if you stay, your agents don't stop answering on day 30 for want of a card. The form is Stripe's own; card details go to Stripe, not to us.
Pay as you go instead
Prefer no subscription? The plan screen links to pay-as-you-go setup: pick a first top-up of £25, £50 or £100, see the credit, VAT (20%) and total before you pay, and one payment both funds your balance and saves your card for future top-ups. Calls draw the balance down; at zero they stop — you can never owe us money.
An auto top-up option is pre-ticked — £25 whenever your balance falls below £5 — and you can change or turn it off any time in Billing.
The trade: no monthly fee, but the promotional £45 comes only with the trial, and Pro features — extra numbers, Workspace integrations, longer call history — wait until you upgrade.
Paid but got interrupted mid-checkout? Go back to the plan screen — a Continue to your dashboard box picks up a completed payment, so you never pay twice.
Tester and complimentary accounts
Some invites are tester invites. They skip this screen entirely and land on A month of Pro, on us — complimentary Pro until a stated date, £45 of credit already applied, no card needed. We remind you as the month ends; subscribing then is the normal plan choice in Billing.
Switching later
Nothing here is final. Trial to pay as you go, pay as you go to Pro, Pro to Scale — all of it is a plan change from the Billing page. And whatever you choose, calling stays prepaid: billed in 6-second increments at one all-in rate, with a hard stop at zero — see Credit & top-ups.