Trials of 17 to 32 days on annual subscription plans converted 44.6% of users, versus 24% for trials of 4 days or less — an 86% relative lift, drawn from the largest trial-behavior dataset published to date. RevenueCat, which powers subscription management for roughly 60% of all mobile subscription apps, tracked more than 17,000 apps over a full year, August 2025 through July 2026. SaaStr Fund, which made the first investment in RevenueCat in 2018, published the analysis of the findings relevant to B2B and AI sellers.

The base skews consumer — fitness, photo editors, streaming, games, language learning — but annual-plan purchases behave closer to B2B contracts, since buyers pay a year up front. The consumer skew matters less than expected on those plans.

Annual plans: longer trials win on every measure

On annual subscriptions, conversion rose with every step up in trial length: 24% at 4 days or less, 33% at 5 to 9 days, 43% at 10 to 16 days, and 44.6% at 17 to 32 days. First renewal moved even more sharply, from 18.3% to 47.5%.

Combine conversion and renewal — the share of trial users who paid and then renewed a year later — and the gap widens: 3.5% on the shortest trials versus 18.5% on the longest. Same number of trial starts, more than five times the retained customers.

RevenueCat's explanation maps directly to annual-contract selling: a year up front is a bigger, harder-to-undo commitment, so buyers want more time before signing, and the ones who get that time and still buy tend to stay. Most B2B teams run 14-day trials because Salesforce and HubSpot did it 15 years ago, then push the annual plan hard on day 14. The data says buyers targeting a 12-month commitment need closer to 30 days.

Monthly plans: 14 days is the right default

Monthly, the closest analog to PLG B2B selling, shows a different curve:

• 4 days or less: 39.6% conversion, 54.2% first renewal
• 5 to 9 days: 45.9% conversion, 62.8% first renewal
• 10 to 16 days: 46.6% conversion, 72.0% first renewal
• 17 to 32 days: 43.7% conversion, 77.5% first renewal

Conversion peaks at 10 to 16 days. Beyond that, renewal keeps rising while fewer people convert. On the combined measure, 30.6% of 10-to-16-day trial users paid and renewed once, and the longer group did no better. The standard 14-day trial lands in the right range; moving to 30 days trades somewhat better retention for somewhat worse conversion. Which to favor depends on whether churn or conversion is the bigger leak in the funnel.

Notably, the top 100 apps by trial starts in each category mostly run short trials: 81 to 100 of them use weekly trials of 4 days or less, and most run 9 days or less on monthly and annual plans. Performance data favors longer trials; the highest-volume apps still run short ones. RevenueCat notes short trials bring cash sooner, faster paid-campaign feedback, and lower free-usage cost — and a lot of it is teams copying the category leader.

Dropping the trial carries a measurable renewal cost

Founders who eliminate the trial to force commitment pay for it on weekly and monthly plans: weekly buyers with no trial renewed at 35.9% versus 65.9% after 5-to-9-day trials; monthly, 49.5% versus 77.5% after the longest trials.

Annual works differently. No-trial annual buyers renewed at 26.6%, beating short-trial cohorts (18.3% at 4 days or less, 25.3% at 5 to 9 days); only trials of 10+ days beat them, at 36.4% and 47.5%. The no-trial annual buyer already knew what they wanted — the sales-assisted or referral customer. The buyer pushed into annual after a 3-day trial is the weakest cohort in the dataset. RevenueCat also cautions that lower renewal doesn't automatically mean lower profit: one cited case study dropped the trial alongside pricing and packaging changes, and revenue per customer funded paid acquisition.

AI apps hit a wall at 16 days

For B2B + AI, the sharpest finding: monthly AI-app conversion fell from 38.5% at 10 to 16 days to 31.8% at 17 to 32 days, with renewal flat (64.2% vs. 64.1%). Two extra weeks of free inference — every free session burns tokens — produced fewer customers and no retention gain. AI apps also converted and renewed below non-AI apps at every monthly trial length, so the margin for a bad trial setting is thinner.

On annual AI plans, 10-to-16-day trials converted 33.8% versus 23.3% at 5 to 9 days, with first renewal at 29.4% versus 19.6%. The practical recommendation: cap time-based trials at about two weeks and extend evaluation with usage caps — credits, runs, seats — so annual buyers get calendar time without the vendor paying for more tokens.

Category and regional splits

Utilities, the closest analog to B2B productivity software, peaked in conversion at 10 to 16 days (47.4%) and kept climbing in renewal, reaching 77.9% on the longest trials versus 55% on the shortest. A short trial proves the product works; a longer one gives it time to enter a weekly workflow and pick up a second or third seat — which is what shows up in renewal.

Geographically, North America and Western Europe converted better at every longer annual trial length through 17 to 32 days; Asia-Pacific followed the same curve through 10 to 16 days, then dropped. On monthly plans, the Middle East and Africa converted best at 5 to 9 days (38.3% vs. 27.4% at 17 to 32), with India/Southeast Asia and Latin America showing the same pattern.

One caveat RevenueCat flags itself: the results are correlational. A user still active on day 25 of a trial was always more likely to pay than one who left on day two, regardless of trial length, so part of the lift comes from who sticks around. The benchmarks are a starting point, not a verdict — run a 14-versus-30-day test on your own annual offer for one quarter, measuring conversion and 12-month renewal together, before changing pricing pages across the board. Most B2B teams set their trial length years ago and never revisited it; 17,000+ apps' worth of data says that old default is losing customers.