Guide to memberships
In this article:
- What are memberships
- How to buy a membership
- How to access your membership
- Managing your membership
- Canceling your membership
- Updating your payment information
- Changing tiers
- Fixed-length memberships
- Restarting a membership
What are memberships
A membership is a recurring subscription to a product, which allows creators to offer recurring content like courses, paid communities, newsletters, and more. The billing frequency can be monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, or annual.
How to buy a membership
To buy a membership, navigate to the membership tab on the creator’s profile page and choose a tier and your billing frequency (some memberships will have only one tier). Click on the "Subscribe" button and complete the checkout form.
How to access your membership
You can access your membership through your Gumroad Library if you have an account, or through the "View content" button in your emailed receipt.
Either of these two methods will take you to the download page where you can view all content files in the membership and any Posts the creator has made. You can also view or resend your original purchase receipt from there.
Managing your membership
You can change your payment method, tiers, or cancel your membership from the "Manage membership" page.
You can access this page by clicking "Subscription settings" on your purchase receipt, or from the Library.
Don’t forget to click “Update membership” once you are finished making changes.
Canceling your membership
The Manage membership page is also where you can cancel your membership. If canceled, your membership will remain active until the end of the current billing cycle.
Read this article to know more about canceling memberships.
Updating your payment information
Want to be billed to a different credit card to PayPal? Click "Use a different card" on the Manage membership page to update your payment details.
Changing tiers
For memberships with multiple tiers, you can change tiers or payment frequencies at any time, again, from the "Manage membership" area.
If you upgrade your membership to a higher tier, you will be charged immediately with a “prorated” amount. You will get a discount for the remaining part of your subscription, which will be subtracted from your new membership rate.
Here’s an example: If you are a week into a $10/month membership and upgrade to a $100/year membership, you’ll get a discount equal to the remaining 3/4th of your $10 subscription, or $7.50. So you’d be charged $100 - $7.5 = $92.50 for the yearly membership. This discount is calculated as of the end of the current day, rather than the exact current time. So the amount won’t change if you, say, refresh the page after 5 minutes, but it will change if you try the next day.
If you move to a less expensive tier or plan, the tier won’t be updated immediately. Instead, we will wait until the end of your billing cycle to change it.
You will get a receipt of your change in your email inbox.
Fixed-length memberships
Some memberships will be of a fixed length. An example of this is a course that the creator is offering with a duration of 1 year. After all the content has been delivered, your membership will automatically be canceled.
Restarting a membership
Sometimes you regret your past choices and want to come back to a membership that was previously canceled. Or maybe your credit card charge failed and the membership got canceled? No worries! You can restart your membership from the "Manage membership" page. Make sure your payment details are correct, click "Restart membership", and you're all set!
Alternatively, you can always get a new iteration of the membership from the creator's profile page, but there can be price increases. Restarting an old membership, on the other hand, ensures that you only pay the amount that you were originally paying.