A prepaid subscription charges the customer once, up front, to cover a set run of deliveries. Instead of paying each time a box ships, they pay for the whole period at checkout and then receive their deliveries on schedule. It’s a great fit when you want commitment and predictable cash flow, or when the subscription is really a gift.
How prepaid differs from pay-as-you-go
This is the clearest example of billing and delivery being on different schedules:
Pay-as-you-go (Subscribe & Save) - Charged each time a delivery ships. Bill monthly, deliver monthly.
Prepaid - Charged once to cover several deliveries. Bill once, deliver monthly for the length of the term.
The customer still receives their product on the normal cadence — only the charging is bundled into a single up-front payment.
When prepaid is a good fit
Gifts - “3 months of coffee” as a single purchase the buyer pays for once.
Commitment and cash flow - You collect the full term’s revenue at the start.
Seasonal or fixed-length runs - Where a defined number of deliveries makes sense.
What the customer experiences
At checkout the customer pays the full prepaid amount. Their deliveries then arrive on the regular schedule until the term is complete. When the prepaid term ends, the subscription renews for another term unless it was set up as a fixed-length plan.