Upgraded but still on Free, or 404 on the payment page

If you've reported "I just upgraded to Pro, my card was charged, but my profile still says Free", "no confirmation email", or "404 on the payment page after I entered my card" — this article covers both.

How the upgrade flow works

1. You click Upgrade on /pricing or /settings.
2. You're redirected to Stripe's hosted checkout.
3. After successful payment, Stripe sends a webhook to Consulti.
4. Consulti's webhook handler updates your profile to the new plan and sends a subscription confirmation email.

Steps 3 and 4 happen after Stripe redirects you back to Consulti. There's a brief window — usually 5–60 seconds, occasionally up to a few minutes — where the payment is complete but your profile still shows the old plan.

What to do if your plan still shows Free

Wait 60 seconds, then try in this order:

1. Hard reload the settings page (Cmd-Shift-R / Ctrl-Shift-R).
2. Sign out and back in — this refreshes your session token and pulls the latest profile.
3. Check Settings → Subscription — the plan field there is the source of truth. The header badge in some pages may be cached for a few minutes.
4. Check your email (including spam) for a "Welcome to Pro" / subscription confirmation message — that confirms the webhook fired.

If after 10 minutes your plan still shows Free:

• Check your Stripe receipt email — confirm the payment actually succeeded (not just authorized).
• Submit a ticket including the last 4 digits of the card you paid with and the email address on your Stripe receipt. We can match the Stripe customer to your Consulti profile manually.

Why this can happen

The most common cause is an email mismatch — the email on your Stripe receipt is different from the email on your Consulti account (e.g., you used Apple Pay's hide-my-email or paid with a different work email). The webhook tries to match by user_id first, then falls back to email. If neither matches, the upgrade sits unattached until support links them.

"404 error after entering payment details"

A 404 on the post-checkout page means one of two things:

1. Your Stripe checkout session expired before payment completed (sessions are valid for 24 hours). Refresh /pricing and start the upgrade again — your card was not charged.
2. The redirect URL in your checkout session was wrong — usually only happens during a deploy. Try again in 5 minutes; if it persists, submit a ticket with a screenshot.

In either case, your payment did not go through — Stripe charges only fire after the success page is reached. If you see a charge on your card and a 404, those are unrelated; submit a ticket with the Stripe receipt email and we'll investigate.

Refund / downgrade

To downgrade or cancel, go to Settings → Subscription → Manage Subscription — this opens the Stripe customer portal where you can change plans, update payment, or cancel. Cancellations take effect at the end of the current billing period.

If you need a refund for a same-day upgrade you didn't intend, submit a ticket within 24 hours and reference the Stripe receipt — we issue refunds for accidental charges with no questions asked.