Hi Nechama thank you for posting in the Lucid community - I'm happy to help!
1. The frequency of billing depends on the type of subscription you choose - there are monthly and annual options! You can see full details on our pricing page.
2. Lucid offers free educational upgrades to students and educators! The free upgrade gives you access to the features described here including unlimited objects and three editable documents.
K-12
If you are a student or educator in a K-12 school and have signed up for a free Lucid account using your school-issued email address you will be automatically upgraded to a free educational account.
Higher Ed
If you are a student or educator at a university or college and have signed up for a free Lucid account using your school issued email address and have also chosen “Student” or “Educator” in the persona picker when setting up your account you will be automatically upgraded to a free educational account.
If you are not automatically upgraded please fill out this form to request your educational upgrade.
3. To cancel your subscription visit your Account Settings > Plan & Billing > choose the product you want to cancel such as Lucidchart > Manage current plan > Cancel plan OR Cancel trial. You can find more detailed steps in this Renew or Cancel Your Subscription article from the Lucid Help Center.
4. For individual and small team accounts we can only accept automatic payments via most major credit cards or PayPal. If you don't want to add a credit card directly to your account you might consider using PayPal instead.
Please let me know if you have any additional questions!