Kajabi offers a free trial so you can build in the platform before paying for a subscription. While most features are available during the trial, a few stay locked until you activate a paid plan, and the card you enter at signup may show a temporary authorization hold that is not a charge.
Your trial length is set when you sign up. The standard Kajabi trial runs 14 days, and the exact end date appears in the banner at the top of Settings > Subscription & Billing.
What's available during a trial
Kajabi makes most of the platform available during the trial. The following features stay locked until you activate a paid plan:
Editing site-wide email templates (Settings > Email templates)
Editing email content in the Theme Builder
Sending a test email from an email template
Automation actions: Send an email, Send a certificate, Send a single-use coupon, Grant an offer, and Register to an event
Bulk contact imports: You can still add contacts one at a time and collect them through form submissions.
To unlock a restricted feature, activate a paid plan. Activating ends the trial immediately.
The authorization hold
When you start a trial with a credit card, Kajabi places an authorization hold on that card to confirm it works and to prevent fraudulent payment methods from being used. The hold is not a charge. A hold:
Appears as a pending transaction, not a completed charge
Is released once your card is validated
Drops off your statement on your bank's processing schedule, not Kajabi's
If the card is declined or has insufficient funds, the Kajabi account is not created. Use a valid card with available funds to finish signing up.
Note: Not every trial places a hold. If you started your trial without entering a card, there is no authorization hold on your account.
Activate a paid plan
Activate your account at any time during the trial to start using every feature in your Kajabi plan.
From the Dashboard, open Settings.
Under Account settings, select Subscription & Billing. The date your trial automatically ends is listed in the banner at the top of this page.
Click Change plan and choose the Kajabi plan you want to activate.
When the trial ends
If you entered a card at signup, Kajabi charges it for your first subscription period on the day your trial ends, and your paid plan starts. To avoid that charge, cancel before the end date.
If your trial ends and you have not started a paid plan, Kajabi prompts you to choose one before you can keep working in your Dashboard. Your content is not deleted. Your products, pages, and settings are saved, and you pick up where you left off once you subscribe.
Warning: If a payment fails after your trial converts to a paid plan, the account becomes past due. Kajabi suspends a past-due account after 35 days and cancels it after 50 days. Pay the outstanding balance from Settings > Subscription & Billing to restore access.
Cancel a trial
If you cancel your trial before its scheduled end date, you are not billed. For the full cancellation steps, see Cancel a Kajabi account.
Troubleshooting
A pending charge appeared right after signup
This is almost always the authorization hold described above, not a charge. Holds are standard banking practice and are not unique to Kajabi. They appear as pending transactions and drop off on your bank's schedule. Contact your bank to confirm their processing timeline for released authorizations.
Two charges or two invoices posted at once
Two charges close together usually mean two invoices were collected at the same time. This happens when:
A previous failed billing attempt was retried and went through
A past-due invoice and the current renewal charge came due together
Updating your payment details, or the billing cycle running, can trigger both invoices to collect at once.
Review the charges on your account
From the Dashboard, open Settings.
Under Account settings, select Subscription & Billing, then click the Billing tab. This page shows your invoices and the reason for each one. If you need any invoices that don't appear here, reach out to our support team.
For a pending authorization hold, contact your bank to confirm their processing timeline.
For an unexpected charge, contact our support team with your account details.
FAQs
Does an authorization hold mean I have been charged?
No. A hold confirms your card is valid. It appears as a pending transaction and is released once validation succeeds. It does not debit your account.
What happens to the hold if I cancel before my trial ends?
Nothing is billed. Canceling before the trial end date means you are not charged, and the authorization hold does not become a charge.
Will I lose what I built if I don't start a paid plan right away?
No. Your Products, Pages, Contacts, and Settings are saved when a trial ends. You need an active paid plan to get back into your Dashboard and to put your site in front of members, but nothing you built is deleted when the trial lapses. To inquire how long a lapsed account is kept, contact our support team.