> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://guides.paynow.gg/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://guides.paynow.gg/products/tier-groups.md).
# Tier Groups
A tier group turns related products into a ladder, like Bronze / Silver / Gold, so a customer who already owns a lower tier pays only the **difference** when they move up. No separate upgrade products, no manual price maths.
*Dashboard → Content → Tier Groups. Available on every plan including Free, for subscriptions and one-time products, across all game types including Minecraft.*
Without one, a customer on Iron Rank who wants Obsidian pays the full Obsidian price having already paid for Iron. Most people don't, and you lose the upgrade.
## How it works
When a customer owns a product from a tier group and buys a higher-tier product from the same group, PayNow charges only the difference instead of treating it as a new purchase. Downgrades work in reverse, without losing existing access.
For subscriptions:
| Change | What happens |
| ------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Upgrade** | Applies immediately. The customer is charged the prorated difference for the remainder of the current billing period and receives the new tier straight away. |
| **Downgrade** | Scheduled for the next renewal. They keep the current tier until the renewal date, then drop. |
Customers see pending tier changes on the storefront, so a scheduled downgrade is never a surprise.
For one-time purchases, pricing is cumulative: someone who bought Bronze and wants Gold pays the difference. You don't create Bronze→Gold, Silver→Gold and so on; the group derives the price from what the customer already owns.
## Tier order
{% hint style="danger" %}
**Tier rank comes from the order products appear on the Products page, not from price.**
The first product listed is the lowest tier; the last is the highest. If your ladder is VIP → Elite → Premium, they must appear in that order on the Products page, whatever they cost.
Get this wrong and upgrades charge the wrong amount, or a customer "upgrading" is silently processed as a downgrade. Reorder the Products page to change the ladder.
{% endhint %}
## Creating a tier group
1. Go to **Content → Tier Groups**.
2. Click **Create** in the top right.
3. Enter a **Name**, for your reference only. Customers never see it. For example `Ranks`.
4. Click **Create**.
The group appears in the list, empty. Products are assigned from each product's own page, not from here.
## Assigning products
1. Open the product.
2. In the right sidebar, find **Tier Group**, labelled *"Used for cumulative pricing and subscription upgrades/downgrades"*.
3. Select the group from the dropdown.
4. Save.
Repeat for every product in the ladder. **A product can belong to only one tier group.** For the rest of the product form, see [Creating a Product](/products/creating-a-product.md).
## Email verification
Where customers sign in with just a username or in-game name and no Steam login, PayNow requires **email verification** before a tier change goes through. That stops someone who merely knows a player's name from interfering with their [subscription](/orders-and-subscriptions/subscriptions.md). Steam-login stores skip it; the identity is already verified. You don't configure this. PayNow applies it based on how customers authenticate.
## Custom storefronts
A headless or custom storefront means implementing the upgrade and downgrade flows yourself against the Storefront API. See the [Tier Groups API reference](https://docs.paynow.gg/storefront-headless/storefront-api/tier-groups).