In the WordPress admin, navigate to Memberships > Settings and select Levels. From here you can create a new level or edit existing levels.

Changes to existing membership levels will only apply to new checkouts. Existing users with a recurring payment subscriptions will not be affected by the changes.

Select a Membership Level Template

Paid Memberships Pro has level settings for almost any type of level you can imagine. The plugin includes level templates for the most common types of levels our user research revealed including:

• free: no payment, never expires
• one-time: one initial payment at checkout with expiration
• monthly or annual: recurring subscription that charges the same amount at checkout and per period until the user cancels
• lifetime: one initial payment at checkout with no expiration
• trial: a free period of membership that begins charging the recurring membership after one period
• advanced: the complete Add Membership Level screen with all options expanded

When creating a new level, select a template from the list that best fits the type of level you need.

Note that even though you may have chosen a template to set up your level, you can still access every individual level setting if you decide to change your one-time payment level to recurring later.

Membership Level Settings

General Information

• Name: The name of your Membership Level (required, public).
• Group: Select a Level Group.
• Level Image: Choose Select Image to pick an image from the Media Library, or Remove Image to clear it. The image is not shown at checkout. It is used as the product image in the level’s structured data (JSON-LD) so search engines and shopping tools can show an image for this membership. If no image is set, PMPro uses your site icon or custom logo.
• Description: Optional descriptive content shown on the checkout page. You can format content in this field using the toolbar. This content can also be shown on the Membership Levels page using the Advanced Levels Page Add On or the Single Membership Level block’s Level Description element.
• Confirmation Message: Optional content shown on the Membership Confirmation page. You can format content in this field using the toolbar or enter it as HTML. This message can be added to the membership confirmation email by selecting the “Include this message in the membership confirmation email” checkbox.
• Membership Account Message: Optional content shown on the Membership Account page. Use it to share benefits or link to content specific to this level.

Billing Details

• Initial Payment: (This is what is charged at checkout. E.g. $10.)
• Recurring Subscription: Check if your level has a recurring payment
• Billing Amount: The amount to be billed one cycle (day(s), week(s), month(s), year(s)) after the initial payment.
• First Recurring Payment: Shown when Recurring Subscription is checked. Choose Default (one billing cycle after checkout), After a number of days, or On a specific date. Need everyone to start on a shared date? See Date Patterns.

Advanced Level Billing Settings
These are the less-used settings that you may need to create a more complex level.

• Billing Cycle Limit: The total number of recurring billing cycles for this level, including the trial period (if applicable) but not including the initial payment. Set to zero if membership is indefinite. At the end of the last cycle, billing will stop, but the user will still have their membership level access unless you also set an expiration below.

For a free trial that collects payment details at checkout, set the initial payment to 0 and set First Recurring Payment to After a number of days. For a shared start date, choose On a specific date. See Date Patterns.

Expiration Settings

• Membership Expiration: Select the checkbox to set when membership access expires.
• Expiration Type: Choose After a set duration and enter a number and a period (hour(s), day(s), week(s), month(s), or year(s)), or choose On a specific date to expire everyone on a date set with a date pattern. When membership expires, the member’s recurring subscription (if any) is cancelled. See Date Patterns.

Content Settings

• Categories: Select categories to bulk protect posts. You can control whether non-members see posts in archives or a shown excerpts using this guide. If you have any Categories that should be locked down for members, you can check them off at the bottom of the edit level page.
• Single Posts: Add or edit a single post to protect it.
• Single Pages: Add or edit a single page to protect it.
• Other Content Types: PMPro can protect other content types such as a Custom Post Type, Course, Community, Directory, Podcast, and more.

Other Settings

• Disable New Signups: Disables new signups and hides the level from default “Membership Levels” page
• Enable Profile Pictures — Check to enable custom profile picture support for users with this membership level. This setting only appears when the WordPress Show Avatars option is enabled in Settings > Discussion. If the sitewide profile picture option is enabled in Memberships > Settings > Advanced, this per-level setting is not needed.

Other settings may also appear in this section if you are using any of our Add Ons or third party integrations.