How to Set Up a Recurring Payment

Jotform’s Recurring Payment Options make it simple for your customers pay automatically on a schedule—whether that’s weekly, monthly, or yearly—having to fill out your form each time. It’s a great setup for things like memberships, subscriptions, or ongoing donations. For example, a gym can bill members each month without extra hassle, or a nonprofit can accept recurring donations with just a one-time sign-up.

You can build these kinds of forms without writing any code, connect them to over 20 payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, or Square, and even customize things like billing intervals, trial periods, or the first payment amount to suit your needs.

The recurring payment option is supported in the following payment fields:

Adding and Setting up the Payment Field

Whether you’re creating a new payment form or updating an existing one, it only takes a minute to set up a recurring payment option. Here’s what to do:

1. In Form Builder, click on Add Element on the left side of the page.

2. Now, in the Form Elements menu, under the Payments tab, search for and click on a supported payment field. Or, just drag and then drop it to where you want it to be on your form.

3. Next, in the Integration window that opens on the right side of the page, and depending on the payment gateway you chose:
   • Click on the Connect button to log into your payment gateway’s account.
   • Enter the Gateway Credentials from your payment gateway’s account.

4. Then, in the Currency Dropdown menu, select one of the currencies available with the integration. You can skip this step for payment gateways that only support one currency, or if the currency is based on your payment gateway’s account.

5. After that, in the Payment Type Dropdown menu, select Sell Subscriptions.

You can also expand the Additional Gateway Settings to access advanced options for the payment gateway you chose. These settings let you control how the form looks, enable extra features, and manage customer or billing details if needed.

6. Once everything is set, click on Continue to start creating subscriptions for your payment field.

Setting Up the Subscription Items

After configuring your payment field and clicking on Continue, you’re ready to set up subscription items with the gateway. Here’s how to do it:

1. In the Payment Settings window, under the Subscriptions tab, click on Create Subscription.

2. Now, in the Subscription Setup section, you can adjust the following settings—what’s available may vary depending on the payment gateway you’re using:
   • Name — Enter the name of the subscription item as it will appear on the form.
   • Price — Set the recurring amount to be charged. If left blank, the subscription will be free.
   • Description — Add a short description to give users more context about the subscription.
   • Subscription Period — Choose how often payments will recur, like daily, weekly, or monthly.
   • Day of the Month — Select which day the payment should be charged. This is only available with GoCardless.
   • Number of Payments — Set how many times the subscription will be billed. This isn’t supported in Worldpay UK, Stripe, Stripe Checkout, Stripe ACH Manual, SensePass, or Purchase Order.
   • Image — Upload an image to visually represent the subscription.
   • Auto Scale Images — Turn this on to automatically resize the image to fit the display area.
   • Variable Price — Let customers define the subscription amount. This is useful for recurring donations or when using form-based pricing. Check out our guide on Setting up a Custom Recurring Donation Form to learn more about it.
     • Get Price From — This appears when Variable Price is enabled. It’s set to None (Manual) by default, but you can choose a Form Calculation Widget to pass a calculated amount to the Subscription Amount field instead of asking customers to enter it manually.
   • Set Trial Period — Enable a trial period during which no payment is collected. This is disabled when Variable Price is active, and it isn’t available in Mollie, BluePay, Stripe ACH Manual, GoCardless, Purchase Order, and 2Checkout.
     • Trial Period — This appears when Set Trial Period is enabled. It defines how long the trial lasts before recurring payments begin (e.g., 1 day, 1 week, 1 month)
   • Set Custom First Payment Cost — Let the first charge differ from the regular recurring amount. It’s useful for discounts or one-time setup fees. When enabled, the First Payment field becomes available. This option isn’t supported on Stripe Checkout, Mollie, GoCardless, or SensePass.
     • First Payment — This is required when Set Custom First Payment Cost is enabled. Enter the amount to be charged for the first payment.
     • Change First Payment Period — Adjust the time between form submission and the first charge. It appears when Set Custom First Payment Cost is enabled. This isn’t available in Authorize.Net, Stripe, BluePay, WorldPay UK, BlueSnap, Stripe ACH Manual, PayFast, Purchase Order, or 2Checkout.
       • First Payment Period — This appears when Change First Payment Period is enabled. It defines the delay before the first payment is charged (e.g., 1 day, 1 week, 1 month).
     • Variable First Payment Cost — This lets the first payment amount be manually entered or calculated. It’s only available in the Stripe payment field. And it automatically hides the First Payment setting.
       • Get First Payment Price From — This appears when both Set Custom First Payment Cost and Variable First Payment Cost are enabled. It’s set to None (Manual) by default, but you can use a Form Calculation Widget to pass a calculated amount to the first payment field instead of requiring manual entry.
     • Selected by Default — This’ll automatically select this subscription when the form loads.

3. Once everything is set, click on Save at the bottom.

That’s it. You’ve successfully created a subscription for your payment field. If you want to add another one, click on Create Subscription, follow the same steps above, and customize it as you like.