What happens when the free trial ends?
Nothing is switched off. On day 16 the workspace moves onto the HookSend Free plan — 2,500 DMs a month on 1 Instagram account, 3 active campaigns, no card and no end date — so comment-to-DM campaigns carry on sending while the paid features switch themselves off.
Ending used to mean stopping, and it no longer does: in HookSend's billing code the end of a trial is a downgrade rather than an expiry, and a Free workspace has no period left to run out. The paid features go quietly and specifically. The follow gate, lead capture and any delayed follow-up switch off while the plain link DM still goes out; story-reply and carousel campaigns pause, because neither has a smaller version. Campaigns beyond the Free plan's 3 pause with a message naming the limit, oldest kept first.
What do I get during the 15 days?
Every feature, with the numbers set for a trial rather than for a business. 50,000 DMs across the 15 days, 6 Instagram accounts, unlimited active campaigns, 500 AI credits, 2 knowledge bases and 2 DM flows. Read from HookSend's plan catalogue on 30 September 2026.
Every feature means every feature: story replies and mentions, the follow gate, product carousels in DMs, lead capture, follow-up sequences, the creator storefront, AI copy and campaigns built from an Instagram link. The trial is its own entry in the catalogue with its own limits, not a borrowed copy of a paid plan, which is why the knowledge bases and DM flows are there to try at all. Extra knowledge bases and flows are not sold during the trial — a slot lasts 30 days and the trial 15, so selling one would be taking money for nothing.
Do I need a credit card for the free trial?
No. Signing up takes a name, an email address, a password and a six-digit code sent to that address; a referral code and a mobile number are offered afterwards and both are optional. No card is asked for at sign-up, during the 15 days, or when the trial ends.
Checked in the sign-up code rather than assumed: the registration endpoints accept no payment field of any kind, and a new workspace's subscription row is created with no payment method attached. There is nothing to charge on day 16 because HookSend does not sell subscriptions at all — paid plans are bought a month at a time and never auto-renew, so a plan ends on its date unless you choose to continue. No stored card to fail, and no renewal to remember to cancel.
Is the free trial the same thing as the free plan?
No, and they are two different offers that happen to share the word free. The trial is 15 days of every feature and then it is over. The Free plan is 2,500 DMs a month on 1 Instagram account, every trigger, with no end date at all.
Anywhere HookSend says "free plan" it means the permanent one, and the trial is called a trial. The Free plan does not include any of these: follow gate, product carousels in DMs, lead capture, follow-up sequences, AI copy assistant, build a campaign from an Instagram link, knowledge bases for AI DM answers, or DM flows with buttons and questions. The Free plan carries no AI credits either, so nothing on it is answered by AI — which is the part somebody who has just spent 15 days using the AI most needs told plainly. Story replies and the follow gate start on Starter at $3.50 (₹99 in India) a month, carousels on Pro at $9 (₹249 in India), knowledge bases and DM flows on Growth at $25 (₹899 in India).
Can I extend or restart the trial?
No, the trial runs once per workspace. A workspace gets its 15 days when it is first created, and the 500 AI credits are issued once for that period. After that the workspace is on the Free plan until somebody chooses a paid plan.
Losing the trial is not losing the product, which is the point of the Free plan existing. A workspace that runs out of trial days still sends 2,500 comment-to-DM messages a month, indefinitely, and can pick up a paid plan later from $3.50 (₹99 in India) a month without starting over — the campaigns, the connected account and the history all stay. Paid plans are monthly, so trying Starter for one month and returning to the Free plan afterwards costs one month and nothing more.
What is worth testing in 15 days?
The paid features, in the order you would pay for them. Comment-to-DM is on the Free plan and will still be there afterwards, so the 15 days are better spent on the follow gate, story replies, lead capture, a DM flow and the AI answering from your own documents.
A practical order: get one comment-to-DM campaign live on a real post in the first hour, because everything else builds on it. Then switch the follow gate on and watch what it does to conversion, since the follow gate is the single cheapest upgrade and starts on Starter. Then load one knowledge base with your prices and ask it the questions your DMs actually get, because knowledge bases start on Growth at $25 (₹899 in India) a month and are the largest step in the price list to make on faith.
