What happens when I downgrade to the Free plan?
In this article: What actually happens to your students, courses, payments, and integrations when you downgrade to the Free plan — and what the 5-student cap really means for creators who already have more than 5 enrolled. All Plans
Short answer: Your existing students keep full access to your courses. The 5-student cap on the Free plan applies to new enrollments only — if you already have more than 5 students enrolled when you downgrade, they stay, and you can still teach, schedule meetings, and release new lessons. You just can't add new students beyond 5 until your active enrollment count drops below the cap.
Your existing students
All students currently enrolled in your courses keep full access, regardless of how many you have. A course with 50 existing students stays at 50 students after you downgrade. They can continue consuming lessons, joining meetings, participating in discussions, and earning certificates (if previously issued on Pro).
Your courses and content
Nothing is deleted. All courses, lessons, videos, quizzes, discussion threads, enrollments, and sales history are preserved indefinitely. If you reactivate later — weeks, months, or years from now — everything is exactly as you left it.
Zoom integration and live meetings
The Zoom integration works identically on every plan, including Free. You don't need to disconnect or reconnect anything when switching plans. You can continue scheduling meetings, running live sessions, and recording to the cloud (cloud recording capacity depends on your Zoom plan, not Ruzuku's). Built-in Video Conference (up to 60 participants) and Presentation (up to 250) also remain available.
Payments and sales
Your Stripe or PayPal connection stays active. You can continue accepting payments on the Free plan with zero platform transaction fees — the same as paid plans. If you have more than 5 students enrolled, new purchases for those courses will be blocked until your enrollment count drops below 5.
Features you lose access to on the Free plan
Features unique to Core or Pro stop being active when you downgrade:
- Core + Pro only: Unlimited new enrollments, tech support for your students, unlimited course invitations.
- Pro only: Custom domain, certificates of completion, multiple instructor accounts, public storefront, digital product sales, AI video transcription and captions, Zoom recording integration, 4 GB video uploads (Free and Core are 2 GB).
Content you already created using Pro-only features (like certificates already issued) isn't deleted — it's just that you can't issue new ones until you upgrade back.
Billing timing
Downgrade requests take effect at the end of your current billing period — you keep paid-plan access until then. If your subscription payment fails, your account moves to the limited/Free state automatically. You can reactivate anytime with no data migration required.
Reactivating
Upgrade back to Core or Pro from your account settings at any time. The 5-student cap is lifted immediately — all existing enrollments above 5 remain in place, and you can enroll new students right away.