Membership pause

Sometimes a member needs a break, not a breakup. Membership pause lets members put an active paid membership on hold instead of canceling it. You stay in control with pause rules that set how often members can pause, how long a pause can last, and which members qualify.

Turn on membership pause

Open Loyalty in the left navigation.
In the VIP Tiers section, click your paid membership.
Select the Membership Pause tab.
Turn on the Membership Pause switch. Your first pause rule appears automatically, pre-set to allow 1 pause per year of up to 3 months, available to all members.
Adjust the rule, then click Save.

Click Add Pause Rule to add more rules.

What members see

Members pause from their wallet, under Manage Membership, a button you add to the wallet yourself (see "Where members manage their membership" in Paid membership billing). There, an active recurring membership (Monthly, Quarterly, or Annually) shows a Pause membership button; the Toki membership block in the Shopify customer account offers the same. Clicking it shows the rule that applies to them: how many pauses they have left in the period and the maximum pause length. They pick a resume date within that limit (or, when the rule has an unlimited duration, tick Pause indefinitely) and confirm with Pause membership.

While paused, the membership shows as Paused with the resume date, or "Paused indefinitely", plus the paid time the member still has. Benefits are on hold for the whole pause, and no renewals are charged. When the membership resumes, that paid time picks up where it left off: the next renewal lands that many days after the resume date.

Members can resume early at any time with Resume membership. When the chosen resume date arrives, Toki resumes the membership automatically (checked every hour). With the End of current billing period policy, the pause is scheduled instead: the membership shows "Scheduled to pause on …" and the member can call it off with Cancel scheduled pause until it starts.

Choose when a pause starts

The Pause start policy applies to all pause rules:

Option	What it does
Immediately	Members are paused as soon as they confirm the pause.
End of current billing period	Members keep the benefits they already paid for, then the pause starts on the next billing date.

Pause rule settings

Each rule is a card titled Pause Rule 1, Pause Rule 2, and so on. The card summary shows the rule's duration at a glance — for example, "Up to 3 months" or "Unlimited duration".

Pause duration

Under Pause Duration, choose how long a single pause can last:

Option	What it does
Limited	Set a Maximum Pause Duration — a number plus a Duration Interval of days, months, or years. This is the maximum period a member can pause their membership.
Unlimited	The pause has no maximum length.

Usage limit

The Usage Limit controls how often a member can pause:

Field	What it does
Amount	How many pauses are allowed within the selected period.
Period	Length of the rolling period used for the usage limit.
Interval	The period's unit: days, months, or years.

For example, an amount of 1 with a period of 1 year allows one pause per rolling year.

Target a rule with conditions

By default, a pause rule is available for all members. To narrow who can use it, click Add Condition under Conditions and pick a Condition Type:

Condition type	Who the rule applies to
Frequency	Members on the billing frequencies you select: Monthly, Quarterly, Annually, or Lifetime.
Segment	Members in the customer segments you select.

Click OR to add another condition — the rule is available when a member matches any one of them. Use the trash icon to delete a condition.

Manage multiple rules

When you have more than one rule, each card shows Move Up and Move Down buttons to reorder the list, and Remove This Rule to delete it. Click Save after any change.

The order matters when a member matches more than one rule: the first matching rule from the top of the list applies, including its duration and usage limit. A rule with no conditions matches every member, so any rule placed below it is never reached.