Introduction

Use [Exchanges](https://www.axiomcharts.com/dashboard/exchanges) when you want to move eligible paid access into another compatible product, or move the same product or package into a longer term.

Written By Axiom Admin

Last updated 22 days ago

Exchanges and upgrades

Use Exchanges when you want to move eligible paid access into another compatible product, or move the same product or package into a longer term.

This page is careful on purpose. It shows only the exchange and upgrade options the signed-in account can safely offer from the account, billing, product, and access state it can read right now.

That matters because money and access are involved. An exchange is not a refund. It is not a cash balance. It is not account credit. It is a specific self-serve path, governed by the Exchange Policy, for moving eligible value inside the Axiom account.

Think target first, source second, policy underneath. The replacement access needs to be created or confirmed before the old access is removed, canceled, or revoked. Some changes happen inside an existing subscription. Some use Paddle checkout, even when the amount due today is zero. Some need support review because the page cannot safely decide.

Before You Use The Page

Sign in with the Axiom Charts account connected to the purchase. If you are in the wrong account, the page can look empty even when a purchase exists somewhere else.

Before you start, it helps to know:

  • the product or package you want to move from;

  • whether that access is monthly, yearly, or lifetime;

  • whether the change is a product exchange or a term upgrade;

  • whether Billing shows the subscription as current, trialing, past due, scheduled to cancel, or otherwise needing attention;

  • whether you recently changed payment details, checked out, or returned from a Paddle window.

Keep Billing, Products, the Exchange Policy, and the separate Refund Policy nearby. They explain subscription state, current access, policy limits, and refund questions better than the exchange controls can.

One warning before the buttons: a missing option is not a judgment on your account. Sometimes the site cannot find a safe self-serve path from the records it has. That is frustrating, but pretending certainty around payment and access would be worse.

A good starting state is boring: the right account, source access visible where you expect it, and no billing warning asking for cleanup. If the account already feels out of sync, check Billing and Products before trying to force an exchange.

Internal trial access is not paid source value for an exchange or term upgrade. If Products shows Trial access, use Trial access and conversion to see whether the trial is still temporary, confirmed to keep, expired, converted, or failed. It only belongs in exchange or upgrade thinking after it has become paid access and the policy/account state supports the move.

What The Page Can Do

The Exchanges page has two tabs:

  • Exchanges

  • Term upgrades

The Exchanges tab contains two kinds of work:

  • same-cadence subscription exchanges, like monthly to monthly or yearly to yearly;

  • lifetime exchanges, when eligible lifetime access can move into another compatible lifetime product or package.

The Term upgrades tab is different. It is for keeping the same product or package and moving into a longer term, such as monthly to yearly, monthly to lifetime, or yearly to lifetime, where the account has an eligible option.

Do not treat monthly to yearly as a same-cadence exchange. That is a term upgrade. Same-cadence means the billing cadence stays in the same bucket.

The page can preview, start, or apply supported changes. It can also show recent exchange activity. It cannot promise that every product is exchangeable, turn exchange value into cash, stack public discounts with exchange discounts unless checkout expressly says so, or force Paddle and account sync to finish instantly.

If an exchange or upgrade is already in progress, the page may continue that attempt instead of creating a new one. When the state feels uncertain, check Recent exchange activity before starting the same change again.

Same-Cadence Subscription Exchanges

Use a same-cadence exchange when you want to replace one recurring item with another recurring item in the same cadence, such as monthly product to monthly product or yearly package to yearly package.

Open Exchanges, stay on the Exchanges tab, and look for Same-cadence exchanges.

Each eligible row belongs to a subscription item the account can self-manage. The row can show cadence, status, current item or package, a shortened subscription reference, View subscription, and the exchange control. Use View subscription when the row looks unfamiliar or the status makes you pause.

To start a same-cadence exchange:

  1. Find the subscription row for the item you want to replace.

  2. Choose Exchange.

  3. Open the Replacement item selector.

  4. Pick the replacement product or package.

  5. Choose Preview exchange.

If the button is disabled, read the text beside it. The subscription may need to be resumed, cleaned up, or reviewed before the page will swap recurring items. If no replacements are available, the account may not have another compatible published item in the same cadence, or it may already own the target another way.

An account can still have access while not being eligible for self-serve changes. A past-due subscription, for example, may still carry access while the exchange page refuses to touch billing state it cannot safely change.

When this path succeeds, the current recurring item is replaced by the selected recurring item in the same cadence. The renewal amount and date should match the preview.

Read The Preview Before Confirming

After you choose Preview exchange, the page can show:

  • Removing now

  • Adding now

  • Due today

  • Credit today

  • No charge today

  • Next renewal

  • Renewal date

  • Confirm replacement

Check Removing now first. That is the current recurring item the page plans to replace. If it is not the thing you meant to move away from, stop.

Check Adding now next. That is the replacement you selected. If it is a package, the selector area may also show included products so you can see what the package covers.

No charge today does not mean you have been given a free future term. It means the preview found no charge due today for this replacement under the current billing state.

Due today means the preview expects money to be collected now. That can happen when the replacement costs more for the remaining period, or when the billing/payment state requires action.

Credit today is not cash credit. It is the preview showing an immediate credit effect inside the subscription change. Do not read it as money you can withdraw or spend outside this exchange path.

Next renewal and Renewal date matter because they tell you what the subscription expects after the replacement. A same-cadence exchange normally keeps you in the same cadence bucket, but the renewal amount can change because the item changed.

The preview is a serious checkpoint. If the source, target, immediate charge, next renewal, or renewal date do not match what you expected, close the control and check Billing before confirming.

Confirming A Replacement And Payment Update

Choose Confirm replacement only after the preview matches the change you intended.

If Paddle accepts the subscription update cleanly, the page can refresh and show a success message for the replacement. Check the subscription detail page if you want to see the updated subscription context.

If payment action is needed, the site may open a Paddle payment update popup. Complete the payment update there if it appears.

Browsers do not all behave the same way with popups. If the popup is blocked and the page shows a recovery link, open that link and finish the payment details there. Then return to the Exchanges page and retry from the state the page gives you.

While the site is working through that handoff, you may see states like Finish payment details or Finalizing subscription swap. Those states mean the page is trying to complete the recurring change after payment details have been handled. They do not guarantee the swap is already finished.

If the payment popup closes but the exchange still does not apply, check:

  • Exchanges, especially Recent exchange activity;

  • the subscription detail page from View subscription;

  • Billing, for payment or subscription state.

If the state still looks wrong, stop there and contact support from Contact. Include what the preview showed and whether the Paddle popup opened, was blocked, or completed. Preserving the visible state is more useful than pressing the same button again.

Lifetime Exchanges

Lifetime exchanges appear on the Exchanges tab, below same-cadence subscription exchanges.

A lifetime exchange option appears only when the page can find a safe self-serve path. The account needs active eligible lifetime access, recoverable source payment data, a compatible target, and no already-owned target that would make the exchange a no-op.

The card can show:

  • source product or package;

  • target product or package;

  • target price;

  • exchange credit;

  • discount applied;

  • amount due;

  • Start checkout.

The phrase exchange credit needs a careful read. For lifetime exchanges, value is based on recoverable source payment data and the Exchange Policy's three-year value-depletion model. It is capped by the target price. It is not a refund balance, stored value, or cash credit.

If a lifetime option is missing, reasons include inactive source access, unrecoverable payment data, an incompatible target, already-owned target access, unavailable one-time target pricing, or account state that needs review before source access can be handled safely.

Lifetime exchanges use checkout. That can be true even when the amount due today is zero. Checkout is still the way the target purchase/access record gets confirmed.

After target access is confirmed, the source lifetime access is revoked according to the exchange path. That source-second order is intentional. The page should not remove the old lifetime access before it can see the target is in place.

A checkout window opening is not the same thing as completion. After checkout, check target access, Recent exchange activity, and whether the page shows a pending, completed, failed, or manual-review state.

Term Upgrades

Use Term upgrades when you want to keep the same product or package and move into a longer term.

Supported self-serve directions are:

  • monthly to yearly, where a yearly target exists;

  • monthly to lifetime, where a lifetime target exists;

  • yearly to lifetime, where a lifetime target exists.

Self-serve term downgrades are not part of this page.

Open Exchanges, choose the Term upgrades tab, and look for the product or package you want to upgrade.

A term upgrade card can show:

  • current term;

  • target term;

  • target price;

  • exchange credit;

  • discount applied;

  • amount due;

  • Apply upgrade or Start checkout.

Use the button the page shows. Apply upgrade is used when the page can apply the longer-term target through a direct subscription update path. Start checkout is used when checkout is required.

Term upgrades keep the product or package the same. If you are switching products, look for an exchange instead.

Term upgrade options may not appear when the source is not active recurring access the account can self-manage, the longer term is unavailable, the account already owns the target term, duplicate yearly subscription state blocks a safe path, Paddle cannot preview source value safely, or the product/package does not support that upgrade direction.

The amount due is the target price minus the allowed exchange discount, as shown by the page. Do not assume public promotional discounts will stack with exchange discounts unless checkout itself says they do.

Source handling depends on the path. The page may remove an item from a current subscription, schedule the source subscription to cancel at period end if it was the last item, or revoke source lifetime access after target confirmation. The manual version is simple: the target has to be confirmed first, then the source is handled.

If the card shows Apply upgrade, expect a direct subscription update path. If it shows Start checkout, expect a Paddle checkout handoff. Either way, do not treat old access as handled until the target state and activity status make sense.

Recent Exchange Activity

Recent exchange activity appears below the tab content on the Exchanges page.

Use it after checkout, payment recovery, or a confusing refresh. It can show recent exchange and upgrade attempts for the signed-in account, including the operation type, source-to-target summary, discount amount, and current status.

You may see status wording such as:

  • target pending;

  • target completed;

  • source removed;

  • completed;

  • failed;

  • needs manual review.

Treat this section as a dashboard clue, not a full billing ledger. It is useful for understanding what the page thinks recently happened. It is not the place to reconstruct every payment event, tax detail, receipt, or legal refund question.

If Recent exchange activity says needs manual review, the target purchase may have completed while source handling still needs support to review the account state. That is the moment to stop clicking around and contact support with the visible status.

If Recent exchange activity is empty, do not use that alone as proof that no purchase exists. It only means the page has no recent exchange or upgrade attempt to show for this signed-in account.

If No Options Appear

No options can feel like the site forgot you. Usually it means one of the required pieces is missing, blocked, already satisfied, or not safe for self-serve handling.

For same-cadence subscription exchanges, check:

  • Are you signed into the account tied to the subscription?

  • Is the access monthly or yearly?

  • Does another compatible product or package exist in the same cadence?

  • Does Billing show the subscription as active or trialing?

  • Is the subscription scheduled to cancel, duplicated in the same cadence, or otherwise needing cleanup?

  • Does the account already own the target or get it through a package?

For lifetime exchanges, check:

  • Is the lifetime access active?

  • Is the target compatible?

  • Does the account already own the target?

  • Is the source purchase old, manual, complimentary, refunded, disputed, revoked, or otherwise outside a clean self-serve path?

  • Could the page be missing recoverable source payment data?

For term upgrades, check:

  • Is the source monthly or yearly recurring access?

  • Are you trying to move to a longer term, not a different product?

  • Does the longer term exist for that product or package?

  • Does the account already have the target term?

  • Could duplicate yearly subscription state be blocking the option?

If you recently checked out, changed billing details, or returned from a Paddle flow, wait for the page to refresh and then check Billing and Recent exchange activity. There is no customer-facing time guarantee for confirmation or sync, so avoid reading a temporary pending state as a final answer.

If Checkout Or Confirmation Gets Stuck

Work through the stuck state in order. Preserve what the page is showing, then check the next visible source of truth. This is not the moment to make five new attempts.

If checkout opens, finish it in Paddle and return to Exchanges. The page may confirm the operation when you return.

If checkout finishes but access still looks pending, check Recent exchange activity. The page may still be waiting on target access confirmation before it handles the source.

If payment update was required, complete the Paddle handoff if it opens. If the popup is blocked and the page gives you a recovery link, use that link. Then return to the page and retry the swap.

If the option disappears after a refresh, the account, product, billing, or target state may have changed enough that the old option is no longer available. That can happen after a checkout attempt, a subscription update, a payment-state change, or another access update.

If the page shows failed or needs manual review, or if the source and target access do not make sense after the flow, contact support. The right support job is record review and state cleanup. Support should not be treated as a way to bypass the Exchange Policy, override Paddle, or convert exchange value into cash.

Exchange Policy, Refunds, And Discounts

The Exchange Policy is the authority for eligibility, same-cadence rules, lifetime value handling, term upgrades, incomplete checkout, and manual review.

The Refund Policy is separate. If you want a refund, use the refund policy. If you want to move eligible value into another product or longer term, use Exchanges.

Exchange discounts and public discounts do not stack unless checkout expressly says otherwise. If checkout does not show stacking, do not assume stacking.

When To Contact Support

Contact support through Contact when the page cannot explain the state well enough for you to trust the next step.

Include:

  • the email address on the Axiom account or purchase;

  • the source product or package;

  • the current term, such as monthly, yearly, or lifetime;

  • the target product, package, or target term you were trying to reach;

  • whether you used Preview exchange, Confirm replacement, Apply upgrade, or Start checkout;

  • what the preview showed for Due today, No charge today, Credit today, Next renewal, or Renewal date, if you saw those fields;

  • whether Paddle checkout or payment update opened;

  • whether a popup was blocked, completed, or never appeared;

  • the current Recent exchange activity status;

  • any Paddle receipt, visible subscription reference, or visible transaction reference you have;

  • a short description of what looks wrong.

The more concrete you are, the easier it is to review the account without guessing. Plain is best: "I tried to move this source to this target, this amount showed, this Paddle step happened, and this is the status I see now."