# The free trial and what happens when it ends

New accounts start on a **free trial** so you can try HostTracker at real scale before deciding on a plan.

## What you get

- **30 days**, starting from account creation.
- Up to **100 monitors**, at a **1-minute** check interval, across the monitor types your account supports.
- No card required to start - you sign up and start monitoring immediately.

This is enough to monitor a real portfolio of sites, not just one or two, while you evaluate HostTracker. SMS
sending and API calls carry their own fair-use limits during the trial to prevent abuse.

## The exact timeline

Days are counted from the day the account was created; the trial ends on day 30.

| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| Day 0 | Account created on the trial package. Monitoring starts immediately. |
| Day 30 | The trial ends. If you haven't chosen a plan, the account is marked disabled for the reason "package expired". You get an email that day naming the two monitors that will keep running and the date the account will be deleted. **Every monitor keeps running.** |
| Days 30-37 | Seven more days with everything as it was: every monitor keeps checking and alerting as normal. |
| Day 37 | Your **two most-checked monitors keep running**, checked every **30 minutes**, and keep sending you email alerts. Every other monitor pauses. You get an email listing which monitors are still checked and which paused. |
| Day 37 until deletion | The two monitors keep running. You can sign in and choose a plan at any time until sign-in locks; reminder emails give the lock and deletion dates. |
| 83 days after the trial ends (about day 113) | Sign-in to the account is locked. |
| 3 months after the trial ends (about day 120) | The account and its data - monitors, check history, contacts and status pages - are **deleted**, unless a plan was chosen before then. |

The lock and the deletion are carried out by scheduled jobs shortly after those dates - never before the dates
the emails give.

If you've chosen and paid for a plan **before** day 30, your account simply continues on that plan with no
interruption at all - the timeline above never starts.

### Which two monitors keep running

The two monitors with the most checks over the last 30 days of the trial. Ties go to website (HTTP/HTTPS) and
ping monitors, then to the older monitor. A monitor that checked more often than every 30 minutes is slowed to 30
minutes; one already set to a longer interval, or to a cron schedule, keeps its own schedule.

:::caution[The account is deleted 3 months after the trial ends]
If no plan is chosen, the account and everything in it is deleted 3 months after the trial ends. Choosing any
plan - or switching to Free - before then stops this clock, and nothing is deleted.
:::

### Choosing a plan brings everything back

Choose a plan at any point - during the trial, in the seven days after it, or while only two monitors are
running - and the account is active again on that plan:

- Every paused monitor resumes, as many as the new plan allows. If you have more monitors than the plan
  includes, the ones that don't fit stay paused until you upgrade or make room.
- The two monitors slowed to 30 minutes go back to the interval you had set, unless the new plan's minimum
  interval is longer - then they use that minimum.
- If you changed one of those two monitors' interval yourself after day 37, your change is kept.

:::tip[Trial-only features]
Some plan-gated features (for example status-page custom domains, a higher subaccount count, or Site crawl)
are tied to plan size and may not be available once the trial ends and the account drops below a plan that
includes them, even if they worked during the trial. Choosing a plan that includes them restores access.
:::

## Your two options once the trial ends

Both are available from **Billing -> Packages** at any point during or after the trial, until sign-in locks:

1. **Activate a paid plan, then pay within 14 days.** Monitoring runs on the new plan's limits from the moment
   you activate it, with every monitor and interval restored as described above. If payment isn't completed
   inside that window, the account pauses until you pay - your choice and configuration are kept.
2. **Switch to Free.** The account becomes active on the Free plan's limits (2 monitors, checked every 30
   minutes) with no end date, and the deletion clock stops. Monitors beyond Free's limits stay paused, not
   deleted.

## Do it with the API or MCP

`get_account` (or `GET /account`) reports the account's billing state under `flags`:
`active` is `false` while disabled, `enabled` turns `false` on day 37 when monitors pause (the two kept
monitors still run - check each monitor's own status to see which), and `disableReason` names the reason
(`PackageExpiration` after a trial that ran out). These flags inform - they don't themselves change anything;
choosing a plan is a billing action taken in the app.

## Converting to a paid plan

You can upgrade at any point during or after the trial - see
[Upgrade or downgrade your plan](/account/upgrade-downgrade/). Upgrading early doesn't waste any trial time;
it simply replaces the trial with the plan you choose.

## Limits and gotchas

- The seven days after the trial, the day-37 pause, the sign-in lock and the deletion are automatic and
  account-wide - they are not something you configure.
- A trial account that never adds a monitor still gets the same emails; they simply focus on getting started
  rather than on numbers.
- Signing up with just an email (no password) still starts the same 30-day trial - see
  [account settings](/account/settings/) and the sign-in note below for how to get back into that account
  later.

## Related

- [Plans and packages compared](/account/plans/)
- [Upgrade or downgrade your plan](/account/upgrade-downgrade/)
- [Quotas & limits](/account/quotas/)