How to set extra fee as a recurring payment

Before moving to the recurring payment fee, let's learn about what subscription products are and recurring payments.

What is a subscription product?

A subscription product is something offered to the customer for purchase in your store. For most stores, store managers will only ever need to create subscription products. When customers purchase those products, subscriptions will be created automatically.

What does recurring payment mean?

A recurring payment is a payment model where the customers authorize the merchant to pull funds from their accounts automatically at regular intervals for the goods and services provided to them on an ongoing basis.

How Recurring Fees Work with WooCommerce Subscription Renewals

Recurring fees are designed to apply to every billing cycle of a subscription.

When a customer purchases a subscription product:

1. The first order is created during checkout.
2. WooCommerce Subscriptions then automatically generates renewal orders based on the billing schedule.
3. Recurring fees configured in the Extra Fees plugin will be applied to these renewal orders if the rule is set correctly.

Example

If you configure a recurring fee of $5 per billing cycle, the fee will appear on:

• Initial subscription order
• Every renewal order generated by WooCommerce Subscriptions

Why Recurring Fees May Not Appear on Renewal Orders

If the recurring fee does not appear on renewal orders, check the following common causes.

1. The recurring option is not enabled

The fee rule must be configured as a recurring fee.

If the rule is configured as a setup fee or one-time fee, it will only appear during the first checkout.

2. Cart-based conditions may not apply during renewals

Renewal orders are generated automatically by WooCommerce Subscriptions and may not contain the full cart context.

Conditions based on:

• Cart subtotal
• Product categories
• Quantity
• Shipping method

may behave differently during renewal orders.

3. Subscription plugin compatibility

Recurring fees are supported with WooCommerce Subscriptions, but behavior may vary if you use other subscription plugins.

4. Rule configuration conflict

Multiple fee rules may interfere with each other.

Check that:

• Only the intended rule is active
• Conditions are configured correctly

How to Test Recurring Fees on Subscription Renewals

Testing renewal behavior is important to confirm that recurring fees are configured correctly.

Step 1: Create a test subscription

Add a subscription product to the cart and complete checkout.

Step 2: Verify the fee during checkout

Make sure the recurring fee appears in the order summary.

Step 3: Trigger a renewal order

You can manually trigger a renewal order to test the fee.

1. Go to WooCommerce → Subscriptions
2. Open the subscription
3. Click Process Renewal

Step 4: Check the renewal order

Open the renewal order and confirm the recurring fee appears in the order totals.

Compatibility with WooCommerce Subscriptions

The Extra Fees plugin supports recurring subscription payments with WooCommerce Subscriptions.

Supported behavior

✔ Recurring fees applied to each billing cycle

✔ Conditional rules during initial checkout

✔ Fee calculation on renewal orders

Important note

Renewal orders are created automatically by the WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin. Because of this, some conditions that depend on the cart context may not behave the same as during checkout.

Now, if you are selling subscription products and want to apply extra fees on recurring payments as well, then you can use our plugin's "Set fee as recurring payment" option to allow fees on recurring payments.

FAQs

Why does the recurring fee not appear on subscription renewal orders?

This usually happens because the fee rule is not configured as a recurring fee.

Make sure the recurring payment option is enabled in the fee rule settings.

Why does the fee appear during checkout but not on renewal orders?

Renewal orders are generated automatically by WooCommerce Subscriptions.

Some fee conditions based on cart data may not apply during renewal orders.

Make sure the rule is configured for recurring payments and review any conditions applied to the rule.

How do I test recurring fees for subscription renewals?

You can test renewal behavior by triggering a manual renewal order.

1. Go to WooCommerce → Subscriptions
2. Open the subscription
3. Click Process Renewal
4. Check the renewal order totals

Can I charge both a setup fee and a recurring fee?

Yes.

You can configure:

• Setup fee (applies once)
• Recurring fee (applies to each billing cycle)

Both can be applied together depending on your store's requirements.

Why is the recurring fee calculated incorrectly?

This may happen when:

• Multiple fee rules conflict
• Rule conditions are incorrect
• Cart-based conditions do not apply during renewals

Review the rule configuration and test using a renewal order.