Upgrading from free to premium (direct payment)

The end state

After a successful direct-payment upgrade, your UserProfile has:

• role = 'premium_athlete'.
• premium_source = 'direct_payment'.
• premium_until = <one year from today>.
• premium_granted_by = NULL (no granter; you paid yourself).

The role flip from athlete to premium_athlete is what unlocks calculator-running, the planning wizard, longer analytics windows, and full season visibility.

The flow

1. Sign in to your athlete account.
2. Open /settings/billing/.
3. Find the Upgrade to premium section.
4. Confirm the price ($49 / yr at current pricing; see the pricing page).
5. Enter payment details. The Hub uses Stripe in production (during beta we may invoice manually).
6. Submit.

On a successful payment:

• premium_until is set to today + 365 days.
• premium_source is set to direct_payment.
• role flips to premium_athlete immediately.
• You see new menu items and unlocked features on the next page load.

What changes immediately

• The full calculator catalog is runnable.
• The race planning wizard becomes accessible from each race detail page.
• Analytics windows extend (180 / 365 / custom).
• Full season visibility on the dashboard.

What does NOT change

• Your athlete data (races, activities, wellness, equipment, notes) is the same. Premium does not alter or unlock any prior data.
• Your coach relationship is unchanged.
• Existing CoachNotes flagged visible_to_athlete = False remain hidden.
• If a coach was granting you premium when you upgraded, their grant is now redundant; the system uses the direct payment source going forward.

Renewal

• premium_until is the renewal date.
• Renewal reminder emails go out 14 days before expiry.
• Renewal goes through Stripe automatically when live.

If you cancel

See Downgrading from premium.

Edge cases

You upgraded but a coach was already granting

The direct payment takes priority. If the coach later revokes their grant, you stay premium because direct payment is still active.

You upgraded mid-grant period

The direct-payment source replaces the coach grant immediately on next save. No proration; you have premium until today + 365 days.

Payment fails

premium_source stays none, role stays athlete. The Hub does not partially-upgrade; either you have premium or you don't.

See also: Free vs Premium athlete, Billing and subscription, Downgrading from premium.