--- title: "What Is Recurring Billing? Definition and Examples" description: "Recurring billing charges a subscriber automatically each period until they cancel. See the billing cycle, failed-payment handling and what to look for." url: "https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/recurring-billing" markdown_url: "https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/recurring-billing.md" category: "Pricing & billing" updated: "2026-10-05" --- # What is recurring billing? Recurring billing is charging a customer's saved payment method automatically at a fixed interval, such as every month or year, until they cancel. It is the billing mechanism behind every streaming subscription. ## How recurring billing works At sign-up the viewer authorizes future charges and the payment provider stores a token for their card or account. On each renewal date the billing system charges that token and, if the charge succeeds, extends the subscription by another period. ## The subscription lifecycle - Trial: access before the first charge - Active: charged successfully and entitled to watch - Past due: a renewal failed and retries are under way - Grace period: access continues for a short time while payment is recovered - Cancelled: no further charges; access usually lasts to the end of the paid period - Expired: access ended ## What good recurring billing handles Failed payments are the main cause of subscribers leaving without choosing to. A billing system should retry on a sensible schedule, email the subscriber with a link to update their card and keep access open for a few days meanwhile. This process is called dunning. It should also cover upgrades and downgrades with proration, coupons, taxes per region, refunds and a clear way to cancel. Subscriptions sold through app stores are billed by the store and need to be reconciled with those sold on the web. ## Recurring billing on RentAnOTT Subscription plans, trials, coupons, bundles, payments, refunds and finance reporting are managed in the RentAnOTT CMS on every plan, with regional payments and tax. [See features](https://www.rentanott.com/features). ## Related terms - [SVOD](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/svod) — SVOD (subscription video on demand) is a streaming model where viewers pay a recurring fee, usually monthly or yearly, for unlimited access to a catalog of on-demand video. - [Payment gateway](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/payment-gateway) — A payment gateway is the service that securely collects a customer's payment details, sends the transaction to the banks and card networks for approval, and reports the result back to the business. A streaming service uses one to sell subscriptions, rentals and purchases on the web. - [Dunning](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/dunning) — Dunning is the process of recovering a subscription payment that has failed. It combines automatic retries of the charge with messages asking the subscriber to update their payment details, over a set period before the subscription is cancelled. - [Involuntary churn](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/involuntary-churn) — Involuntary churn is the loss of subscribers whose renewal payment failed and was never recovered. They did not choose to cancel; their card expired, was declined or lacked funds, and the subscription lapsed. - [Free trial](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/free-trial) — A free trial is a limited period, commonly 7, 14 or 30 days, during which a new subscriber has full access to a streaming service before being charged. When it ends, the subscription starts automatically unless the viewer cancels. - [MRR](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/mrr) — MRR (monthly recurring revenue) is the subscription income a service can expect every month from its active subscribers, with all plans normalized to a monthly amount. It excludes one-time sales and other irregular income. - [In-app billing](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/in-app-billing) — In-app billing is the payment system that an app store, such as Apple's App Store, Google Play or the Amazon Appstore, provides for buying digital goods inside apps. It charges the payment method on the user's store account and manages renewals, refunds and cancellations for subscriptions bought that way. ## Further reading - [OTT subscription plans and tiers](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs/ott-subscription-plans) - [OTT revenue calculator](https://www.rentanott.com/tools/ott-revenue-calculator) - [Pricing](https://www.rentanott.com/pricing) ## Frequently asked questions ### What is the difference between recurring billing and a subscription? The subscription is the agreement: what the viewer gets and for how much. Recurring billing is the process that collects the payment each period. ### What happens when a recurring payment fails? The system retries over several days and notifies the subscriber. If every retry fails, the subscription is cancelled. Recovering these payments is one of the cheapest ways to reduce churn. ### Are monthly or annual plans better? Offer both. Monthly plans are easier to start; annual plans, usually at a discount, bring cash forward and remove eleven chances to cancel. All 163 terms: [Streaming and OTT glossary](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary). ## Book a demo Tell RentAnOTT what you are launching. The team walks through the platform and maps the path to go-live around your catalog, markets and revenue model. Book a demo: https://www.rentanott.com/contact ## More from RentAnOTT - [Home](https://www.rentanott.com/index.md) — What RentAnOTT is, what every plan includes, and how launch works - [Features](https://www.rentanott.com/features.md) — Every core feature and optional add-on - [Pricing](https://www.rentanott.com/pricing.md) — Platform tiers, apps, add-ons, usage rates and example bills in INR and USD - [Free tools](https://www.rentanott.com/tools.md) — OTT app builder and calculators for streaming revenue, bandwidth, bitrate and pricing - [Insights](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs.md) — All streaming business articles - [Glossary](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary.md) — Definitions of streaming and OTT terms - [Book a demo](https://www.rentanott.com/contact.md) — Talk to RentAnOTT about your launch Full site in one file: https://www.rentanott.com/llms-full.txt