A time-limited period during which a prospective customer can use a product, typically with full or close-to-full functionality, before being required to pay to continue.
Why it matters
A free trial lets a prospective customer evaluate a product's real value before committing financially, which can significantly improve conversion for products where that value isn't obvious from marketing copy alone — the tradeoff is a hard deadline that requires strong onboarding to make sure users actually reach that value within the trial window.
In a sentence
"We shortened our free trial from 30 days to 14, since the data showed almost nobody who was going to convert needed more than two weeks to decide."
Related terms
- Often confused with: Freemium (see above).