After account setup, the first visit to the dashboard stops at one screen — Choose how you pay. Both answers need a payment method on file to validate your identity, and switching later is just a plan change.
A free month of Pro
The recommended path — badged on the screen: Start free trial. £0 on day one — the card is saved but nothing is charged until day 30. The month includes:
- £45 of calling credit, applied straight away. It covers calls, model usage and speech at Pro's per-minute rate.
- Everything in Pro — three phone numbers, Workspace integrations, six months of call history. The full deck is in Plans & limits.
From day 30 the trial becomes a normal Pro subscription at £45 + VAT (£54) a month on the saved card — unless it is cancelled during the trial, which costs nothing. The trial screen assumes UK billing; for the beta period we want to get the product right for the UK market and are only inviting UK based organisations (how VAT works). We plan to expand rapidly to other countries in Q3/4 2026 so keep checking back if you are not based in the UK. Cancelling keeps Pro and the credit until the trial's last day; whatever promotional credit remains then lapses. The exact end date is on screen from the moment the trial starts. One trial per organisation, ever. The trial is not transferable to other accounts or organisations.
Why a card is required
Every standard account needs a saved payment method, trial included. Unless you run out of credit and decide to top-up to continue, nothing is charged until day 30, and the trial can be cancelled any time before that. Taking the card up front means any bank verification happens on day one rather than mid-service — and agents don't stop answering on day 30 for want of a card. The form is Stripe's own; card details go to Stripe, not to polite.ai. It accepts cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Pay as you go instead
The plan screen links to pay-as-you-go setup for accounts that prefer no subscription: a first top-up of £25, £50 or £100. One payment both funds the balance and saves the card for future top-ups. Calls draw the balance down; at zero they stop — an account can never owe money.
An auto top-up option is pre-ticked — £25 whenever the balance falls below £5 — and can be changed or turned off any time in Billing.
If your checkout is interrupted after payment, check back on the plan screen before re-trying, it may have completed successfully.
Tester and complimentary accounts
Some invites are tester invites that we have sent specifically to known customers and partners. They skip the payment screen entirely at this point and land on A month of Pro, on us — complimentary Pro until a stated date, £45 of credit already applied, no card needed. A reminder arrives as the month ends; subscribing then is the normal plan choice in Billing.
Switching later
Nothing here is final. Trial to pay as you go, pay as you go to Pro, Pro to Scale — all of it is a plan change from the Billing page. Whatever the choice, calling stays prepaid: billed in 6-second increments — see Credit & top-ups.