Payment & Billing Policy

This Payment & Billing Policy governs all paid subscriptions and billing transactions on orbitsub.com, operated by OrbitSub, a sole proprietorship owned and operated by Karan in New Delhi, India, and registered as a micro enterprise under the Udyam (MSME) scheme of the Government of India ("OrbitSub", "we", "us", or "our"). It forms part of our Terms of Service and should be read alongside our Refund & Cancellation Policy.

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1. Plans, Pricing & Entitlements

1. Available plans. OrbitSub offers a permanent Free tier and paid subscription tiers (Pro and Max), available on monthly or yearly billing cycles. Current prices, currencies, and per-plan entitlements are published on our Pricing page and inside Settings → Billing.
2. Metered monthly limits & tool switches. Each plan defines finite monthly usage allowances across metered capabilities — including active Research Rooms (research), Deep Research papers (deep_research), Fast Drafts (fast_draft), AI Prompts (ai_prompts), Citations (citations), Autocompletes (ai_autocompletes), PDF Chats (ai_pdf_chats), Saved Library Sources (library_sources), and per-response output token ceilings (max_output_tokens) — as well as tool and perk switches (verified_badge, priority_support, and bulk_export).
3. Monthly usage reset. Metered monthly usage counters reset at the start of each calendar month (UTC). Unused monthly allowances do not roll over to subsequent months.
4. Verified badge on yearly plans. Eligible yearly paid plans grant the Verified badge on your profile for the duration of the active yearly subscription.
5. Founding 500 is separate from billing. As stated in our Terms of Service, the Founding 500 badge (#1–#500) is a permanent community recognition badge only and is not a paid subscription or billing plan.

2. Exclusive Payment Processor: PayPal Only

1. PayPal-exclusive checkout. All subscription payments on OrbitSub are processed exclusively through PayPal. When you subscribe to a paid plan, we create a PayPal billing agreement and redirect you to PayPal's hosted approval flow (paypal.com), where you may pay using your PayPal balance or any bank account, credit card, or debit card linked to your PayPal account.
2. Zero storage of raw payment credentials. OrbitSub never collects, sees, processes, or stores your credit card number, debit card number, CVV, bank account number, or UPI PIN. We receive and store only PayPal's subscription identifier (paypalSubscriptionId), plan identifier, subscriber email, billing status, period end date (currentPeriodEnd), and sale/refund transaction identifiers in our payment audit ledger (PaymentEventLog).
3. Cryptographic webhook verification. Every asynchronous billing event sent by PayPal to /api/billing/webhook is verified over the raw HTTP request bytes against PayPal's cryptographic signature before any state change is applied.

3. Currency, Taxes & Price Changes

1. Displayed currency. Plan prices are quoted and billed in United States Dollars (USD) unless another currency is explicitly displayed at checkout. If your PayPal funding source uses another currency (such as INR, EUR, or GBP), PayPal performs the currency conversion at its prevailing exchange rate disclosed during PayPal checkout.
2. Taxes. Prices displayed on our Pricing page are exclusive of applicable indirect taxes (such as Goods and Services Tax (GST), Value Added Tax (VAT), or state sales tax) unless stated otherwise. Where required by law, applicable taxes are calculated and itemised at checkout.
3. Advance notice of price or plan changes. We may modify plan prices or entitlements prospectively. Any price increase for an existing active subscription will take effect only at your next renewal cycle after we give you at least thirty (30) days' prior email notice, giving you ample time to cancel before the new price applies.

4. Enterprise Checkout Safeguards & Automatic Instant Refunds

Our billing engine is engineered with strict concurrency locks and automated compensating controls so that you are never charged for a failed activation or billed twice for the same plan:

1. Per-user concurrency locks & idempotent session reuse: If you double-click the subscribe button or open checkout in multiple tabs within a 10-minute window for the same plan and interval, our server reuses your existing pending PayPal session rather than creating duplicate billing agreements.
2. Duplicate-subscription prevention: If your Account is already active on the exact plan and billing interval you select, our server blocks the redundant checkout (ALREADY_ON_PLAN) before you reach PayPal. If you inadvertently approve two separate PayPal checkouts in parallel browser tabs for the same plan, our confirmation engine keeps your primary subscription active and immediately cancels and auto-refunds 100% of the duplicate subscription (DUPLICATE_SUBSCRIPTION_PREVENTED).
3. Post-approval compensating auto-refund (AUTO_REFUNDED): If you approve a subscription on PayPal and any technical or database error prevents OrbitSub from immediately granting your paid plan entitlements, our compensating transaction engine automatically cancels the PayPal billing agreement, issues an instant 100% full refund of any captured sale via PayPal, logs the full audit trail in PaymentEventLog, and emails you an automated refund confirmation receipt containing your Subscription ID, Sale ID, and Refund ID.

5. Renewals, Plan Upgrades & Self-Serve PayPal Sync

1. Automatic recurring renewal. Paid subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each monthly or yearly billing period unless you cancel before the renewal date. On each successful renewal, PayPal captures the subscription fee and extends your currentPeriodEnd for the next period.
2. Upgrading or switching billing intervals. When you upgrade from Pro to Max or switch between monthly and yearly billing, our system activates your new PayPal subscription and automatically cancels your previous PayPal subscription (OLD_SUBSCRIPTION_CANCELLED) so that only one billing agreement remains active.
3. One-click self-serve reconciliation (Sync with PayPal). If your browser closes before returning from PayPal checkout, or if a network delay slows down webhook delivery, you can click Sync with PayPal in Settings → Billing at any time. This queries PayPal live, activates any approved pending subscription, updates your billing dates, and syncs your plan entitlements immediately.

6. Cancellations, Grace Periods & Failed Renewals

1. Cancel at any time with full grace-period access. You may cancel your subscription at any time in Settings → Billing (or directly inside your PayPal account under Settings → Payments → Automatic payments). When you cancel:
   • Future recurring charges stop immediately (cancelAtPeriodEnd = true);
   • You keep full access to your paid plan entitlements (and any yearly Verified badge) until the end of your current paid billing period (currentPeriodEnd); and
   • Once currentPeriodEnd passes, your Account transitions cleanly to the Free plan without deleting any of your existing research, citations, or Library sources.
2. Failed renewal payments. If a recurring renewal charge fails or is suspended by PayPal (PAST_DUE / SUSPENDED), we notify you so you can update your funding method in PayPal. If the subscription remains unpaid past the end of the billing period or is cancelled by PayPal for non-payment, your Account reverts to the Free plan while preserving all your existing research and data.
3. Cancelling before Account deletion. As detailed in our User Data Deletion Policy, if you wish to delete your OrbitSub Account while holding an active PayPal subscription, our system requires you to cancel the subscription in Settings → Billing first so PayPal never charges you after your Account is deleted.

7. Billing Receipts, Payment History & Audit Ledger

Every checkout, activation, renewal, cancellation, reconciliation, and refund is recorded in our immutable payment ledger (PaymentEventLog). You can view your current plan, next billing date, PayPal Subscription ID, and recent billing events at any time in Settings → Billing, and you receive transactional email receipts at your registered email address.

8. Refunds & Billing Disputes

All refund requests — including our 14-day first-purchase money-back guarantee and our automatic instant refunds for duplicate or failed checkouts — are governed by our Refund & Cancellation Policy. For any billing question or invoice assistance, contact us at team@orbitsub.com or via our Contact page (select category Billing) (effective date: 1 October 2026; last updated: 25 October 2026).