If your payment didn't go through, your account may enter a grace period during which we'll automatically retry the charge. To avoid any disruption to your builds, it's worth resolving the issue as soon as possible.

Below are the most common reasons payments fail and what you can do to fix them.

Your bank may decline a charge for a number of reasons — suspected fraud, transaction limits, or restrictions on certain purchase types — even if your card is otherwise active.

What to do: Contact your card issuer to find out why the charge was blocked, then retry your payment or add a new card in your billing settings.

Your card didn't have enough available credit or funds to cover the charge.

What to do: Add funds to your account or update to a different payment method in your billing settings.

The card on file has passed its expiration date.

What to do: Add a new card with a valid expiration date in your billing settings.

Your card's CVC, expiration date, or billing postal code didn't match what your bank has on record.

What to do: Update your payment method with the correct details in your billing settings.

Some cards — particularly those issued in India — require an additional authentication step to approve the charge.

What to do: Contact CircleCI Support so we can help you complete the authentication process.

We'll retry your payment automatically over the following days. If the payment continues to fail, your subscription will be canceled after 10 days from the first failed attempt, and your plan will be automatically downgraded from the Performance Plan to the Free Tier. You'll receive email notifications throughout this period with instructions on how to resolve the issue.

If your plan has already been reverted to the Free Tier, you can re-upgrade at any time from your billing settings once your payment method has been updated.

We strongly recommend setting your billing contact to a distribution list or shared inbox (such as a Google Group) rather than an individual's email address. This ensures that billing communications — including failed payment notifications — are always visible to the right people, and that your billing contact stays current if a team member leaves the company.

Missing a failed payment notification is one of the most common reasons accounts are unexpectedly downgraded. A shared inbox helps make sure the right people are notified and can take action promptly.

To update your billing email, see: How to Update Your Billing Email

If you have an outstanding balance or need help completing a payment, follow the steps in our guide: Resolving an Overdue Balance