Earlier this month, we analyzed hundreds of millions of transactions across Stripe to identify first-party fraud trends. One of the biggest findings: free trial abuse is rapidly accelerating. From November 2025 to February 2026, our models detected 6.2x more abusive free trials across Stripe’s network.Free trial abuse isn’t new, but users are increasingly targeting AI companies and driving much of the increase we’re seeing today. These businesses run on expensive compute resources and rely on free trials to acquire customers, making them a target for abuse. Bad actors have become as sophisticated at stealing compute as they have money, cycling through trials or signing up with invalid payment methods without ever converting to paid subscriptions. This puts AI companies at risk of losing hundreds of thousands of dollars. AI startups are particularly impacted: those that offer free trials with self-serve signups and direct API access see 10x more attempted abuse than enterprise AI companies. However, these fraud patterns aren’t limited to just one industry. We’re seeing similar free trial abuse across SaaS platforms, marketplaces, and other businesses that offer free trials.Helping prevent free trial abuse in one click