Trial & restricted mode
The 14-day Growth-tier trial, what it includes, and what happens when it ends without a subscription.
Every new SMAQ organization gets a 14-day Growth-tier trial — full Growth features, no credit card required, no commitment.
If you don't subscribe by day 14, your org enters restricted mode. The org stays alive, your dashboards stay alive, but several features pause or cap until you subscribe.
The 14-day trial
What's included
Full Growth-tier features — see Tiers explained for the Growth list.
Unlimited projects, team members, data sources
Full automation suite (Daily Brief, Dashboard Summary, Metrics Alert, Multi-Metrics Alert, plus the SMB automations)
Generous credit allowance for AI usage during the trial
What's not included
Scale-tier features (Media Plan Intelligence, full creative intelligence, etc.) — those require a Scale subscription.
Agency-tier features.
Expiry warnings
You'll get warnings as the trial winds down:
3 days before expiry — in-app banner + email to the org owner.
1 day before expiry — in-app banner + email.
At expiry — email confirming trial expired.
3 days after expiry — final reminder email.
[Screenshot needed] Trial banner across the top of the app: "Trial expires in 3 days. Subscribe to keep your automations running."
Subscribing during trial
Click Subscribe anywhere you see the banner, or Settings → Billing → Upgrade. You'll be taken to Stripe Checkout. Your trial ends and your subscription begins immediately — you don't lose remaining trial days.
Extending the trial
Talk to [email protected] if you need more time to evaluate. Most teams find 14 days is enough; we extend on a case-by-case basis.
Restricted mode
If the trial expires without payment, your org enters restricted mode. Specifically:
What's locked
Team members locked out. Only the organization owner can log in. Team members see "Subscription required" until you upgrade.
Automations paused. Running automations stop. Configured automations are preserved but don't fire.
Auto-refresh disabled. Dashboards don't auto-refresh. Manual refresh is still allowed but capped (3 per day).
Credits reduced. The credit allowance drops to a small floor (~250 credits/month vs the trial's much higher cap).
AI agents disabled for heavy work. Chat still works for simple questions but multi-step analyses and report generation are blocked.
What still works
Project structure stays intact. Projects, dashboards, datablocks, connections — all preserved.
Manual dashboard refresh (3x/day cap).
View-only access for the owner.
Public dashboards previously shared continue to work for external viewers (with stale data, since auto-refresh is off).
Email and support — [email protected].
[Screenshot needed] App in restricted mode showing the persistent "Restricted mode — subscribe to restore full access" banner and grayed-out automation status.
Restoring full access
Subscribe to any paid tier and restricted mode lifts immediately:
Team members regain access.
Automations resume on their next scheduled run.
Auto-refresh re-enables.
Credit allowance returns to your tier's level.
AI agents come back online.
How long does restricted mode last?
Indefinitely. Your data stays in restricted mode until you either:
Subscribe — restores full access.
Delete the organization — permanently removes data after a 30-day grace period.
We don't auto-delete data. If you want to come back six months later and subscribe, your old projects and dashboards are still there.
V2 grandfathered users
If you're on the legacy V2 Pro plan, restricted mode doesn't apply to you — you're on a different model. The V2 plan continues to work; you can opt into V3 anytime via the migration dialog in Settings → Billing.
Existing-user behavior
Users who created their org before the V3 onboarding wizard launched will not see the wizard or trial flow. They're treated as existing users on whatever plan they already had. To start a trial, they need to be in a brand new org.
Tips
Subscribe before trial end if you're definitely keeping SMAQ. Avoid the restricted-mode interruption.
Run a real workload during the trial. Connect your platforms, set up a Daily Brief, build a dashboard you'd use weekly. That's the only way to evaluate.
Talk to us if anything's blocking you from subscribing — [email protected].
Related
Tiers explained.
Last updated