# What happens when a trial or subscription ends?

_Category: Plans and billing_

When a free trial ends without a subscription, or a subscription ends, your help center goes offline until you activate a plan. Nothing is deleted, and activating brings it back right away.

**Your content is safe.** Articles, categories, your design and your settings are all kept while your help center is offline.

## What your readers see

- Your help center shows a page that says "This Help Center is Taking a Break" and "This help center is currently unavailable due to an expired subscription."
- The page offers **Log In & Reactivate** for you and **Create Your Own Help Center** for visitors.
- AI assistants connected to your help center's public MCP server can't reach it anymore.
- Your team's HelpCenter.io sidebar in Front stops showing articles and asks you to activate a subscription.

## What you see in the dashboard

You can still sign in, but instead of your articles and settings, dashboard pages show "Unfortunately, your free trial has ended." or, if you've had a paid subscription, "Unfortunately, your subscription has ended.", followed by a link to activate or reactivate your subscription. **Billing & Invoices** keeps working, so you can activate from there.

## Bring your help center back

1. Sign in at [helpcenter.io/app/signin](https://helpcenter.io/app/signin), or click **Log In & Reactivate** on your help center.
2. Click your avatar, then **Billing & Invoices**. You can also go straight to [helpcenter.io/app/account/billing](https://helpcenter.io/app/account/billing).
3. Pick your plan, add your billing details and a payment method, and click **Activate**.

You're charged when you activate, and your help center is back online straight away. See [Choose a plan and start your subscription](https://self.helpcenter.io/content/activate-your-subscription) for each step.

## When a payment fails

If we can't charge your payment method, your subscription becomes past due. Your help center stays online, and:

- A banner in the dashboard says your subscription "has gone past due" and for how many days, with an **Update Payment Method** button.
- We email the account owner.

To fix it, open **Billing & Invoices**, add a new card or PayPal account under **Payment Method** and click **Save payment method**. Saving it also retries the overdue payment. Don't leave it for long: if the payment keeps failing, the subscription can be canceled, and your help center goes offline.

## Troubleshooting

**Your help center still shows the "Taking a Break" page after you activated.** Wait a minute and reload the page. If it's still there, email support@helpcenter.io.

**You can't open Billing & Invoices.** Only the account owner manages billing. If you're a team member, ask the owner to reactivate.

## Related articles

- [Choose a plan and start your subscription](https://self.helpcenter.io/content/activate-your-subscription)
- [My help center says it's taking a break](https://self.helpcenter.io/content/help-center-unavailable)
- [Download invoices and update billing details](https://self.helpcenter.io/content/invoices)