# Free trial cut from 15 to 8 cards: paid conversion 1.04% to 1.89%

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Free trial (SaaS)
- Elements: Free trial
- Date shared: 2012-08
- Test run by: [Patrick McKenzie](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/patrick-mckenzie/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/08/06/stripe-and-ab-testing-made-me-a-small-fortune/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/patio11-bcc-trial-limit-15-to-8/

Cutting the free trial limit from 15 bingo cards to 8 lifted trial-to-paid conversion from 1.04% to 1.89%, roughly an 82% relative gain. Patrick McKenzie ran this A/B test on Bingo Card Creator and wrote it up on the Kalzumeus blog. The test reported 99% confidence on a sample in the 5,000s.

## Result

**paid conversion 1.04% to 1.89%**

- Trial-to-paid conversion: 1.04% to 1.89% (about +82% relative), at 99% confidence.
- Sample size was in the 5,000s, according to the write-up.
- More users reached the limit, and the extra users who hit it also bought at a good rate once in the cart, so the two funnel steps did not behave independently.
- After the change shipped, year-over-year sales rose 38% in May, 108% in June and 33% in July 2012. Those months also had a site redesign and new Stripe checkout, so they are not a clean read on this test alone.

## Control

Free users could make 15 bingo cards before hitting the trial limit and being asked to buy.

## Variant

The free quota dropped to 8 cards. Nothing else changed: it was a one-line code edit.

## Why it likely won (our reading)

- A recent usability redesign meant fewer people hit the old 15-card limit, so fewer ever saw the purchase path. A lower cap put more users in front of the upgrade prompt.
- Users who needed between 8 and 15 cards were a real group. Under the old limit they could finish for free. Under the new limit they had a reason to pay.
- Patrick McKenzie found that this middle group responded well to the new, nicer checkout, which compounded the gain.

## Caveats

Results are from 2012 and a single low-priced consumer product. The year-over-year sales figures overlap with a redesign and a payment change, so only the 1.04% to 1.89% figure comes from the split test.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we lower the free plan's usage cap, then more trial users will reach the paywall and upgrade, because users with moderate needs can no longer finish their work for free.
- Primary metric: Trial-to-paid conversion rate
- Guardrail: Trial sign-up rate
- Guardrail: Activation (users who complete a first real task)
- Guardrail: Refund or early churn rate
- Who should test it: SaaS products with a usage-capped free trial or freemium plan where many users never hit the cap. It probably won't help if most users already hit the limit, or if the cap is so low that people can't see the product's value before it runs out.

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Credit: Patrick McKenzie ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/patio11-bcc-trial-limit-15-to-8/).
Usage: Free to use, quote and build on, with credit and a link: name the practitioner or organization that ran the test and link to its LiftArchive page. The results belong to the practitioners who ran and shared them; the summaries and commentary are LiftArchive's.