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Pay to Unlock

Give customers a taste for free, then charge to unlock the real thing. Pay to Unlock products show a safe public preview — a blurred image, a short audio clip, or a video teaser — and deliver the full file only after payment.
Pay to Unlock is available on all plans. Three content types are supported: Images (unlockable), Audio Tracks (unlockable_audio), and Videos (unlockable_video).

Free Preview, Real Teaser

Customers see a blurred image, hear a short clip, or watch a video teaser before paying — enough to evaluate the content without receiving the full file

Server-Generated, Irreversible

Previews are generated on PayRequest’s servers from the original file. The original detail is never recoverable from the preview

Automatic Delivery

Built on the same secure delivery system as Digital Products — the full file unlocks instantly after payment

One File, One Purchase

No custom fields or quantity selection — Pay to Unlock products are a single item at a single price

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Pay to Unlock: Images

Upload a photo and PayRequest automatically generates a blurred preview to use as the product image. Customers see the blur everywhere your product appears — shop listings, product page, checkout — and only receive the sharp original after paying.
1

Start a New Product

Navigate to Products and click New Product. Select Pay to Unlock (Image) as the product type.
2

Upload the Photo

Upload the original photo (JPG, PNG, WebP, or GIF, up to 25MB). This file is stored privately — it is never served directly.
3

Choose a Blur Level

Use the Blur Level slider (1–10) to control how much detail is hidden in the public preview. Higher levels hide more.
4

Set Your Price and Save

Enter the unlock price and save. The blurred preview is generated immediately and appears wherever the product is shown.
The blur is generated by shrinking the photo down to a tiny thumbnail and blurring that — not by applying a CSS filter to the full-size image. This means the original pixels are never sent to the browser before payment, so the blur can’t be reversed with browser tools.

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Pay to Unlock: Audio Tracks

Upload a full track and PayRequest automatically generates a short, separate preview clip customers can listen to for free — like a stock-music or beat-marketplace preview. The full track is delivered only after payment.
1

Start a New Product

Navigate to Products and click New Product. Select Pay to Unlock (Audio) as the product type.
2

Upload the Track

Upload the full track (MP3, WAV, or FLAC, up to 100MB). It’s stored privately, the same way Digital Product files are.
3

Set the Preview Length

Use the Free preview length slider (5–60 seconds, default 25s) to choose how much of the track plays for free.
4

Add Cover Art (Optional)

Upload a Cover Image separately from the track itself — this is the artwork shown on your shop and product pages.
5

Set Your Price and Save

Enter the unlock price and save. The preview clip is generated immediately, with the full track’s and preview’s lengths shown to customers (for example, “0:15 free preview of the 0:27 track”).
The preview clip is always a physically shorter, separate audio file — never the full track with playback cut off in the browser. Generating it server-side (with a short fade-out at the end) means the full track’s file is never exposed to anyone who hasn’t paid.

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Replacing or Updating a Track

Open the product, go to the Unlock Track tab, and upload a new file — the old track and its preview clip are automatically replaced. Changing the Free preview length alone (without uploading a new file) regenerates the preview clip from the stored original at the new length.

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Pay to Unlock: Video

Upload the full MP4, MOV, WebM, or M4V and choose a teaser length. PayRequest creates a physically separate MP4 preview for the public product page; the original file remains private and is delivered only after payment.
1

Start a New Product

Navigate to Products and click New Product. Select Pay to Unlock (Video) as the product type.
2

Upload the Full Video

Upload an MP4, MOV, WebM, or M4V file up to 500MB. The original is stored privately and is never used as the public player source.
3

Set the Teaser Length

Use the Free preview length control (up to 60 seconds, default 15s) to choose how much customers can watch before buying. PayRequest detects the uploaded video’s duration and never lets the teaser exceed it — a 6-second video can have a maximum 6-second teaser.
4

Add Cover Art (Optional)

Upload a cover image for product cards and listings. The playable teaser appears on the product and checkout pages.
5

Set Your Price and Save

PayRequest generates a browser-friendly MP4 teaser. Customers can watch it immediately and pay to unlock the original video.
The teaser is a physically separate H.264/AAC MP4 at up to 720p. PayRequest never sends the full video to the browser with a client-side time limit, because that would expose the original file URL.

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Replacing or Updating a Video

Open the product, go to the Unlock Video tab, and upload a replacement. PayRequest removes the previous public teaser and generates a new one. Changing only the preview length regenerates the teaser from the privately stored original.

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How Delivery Works

Image, audio, and video unlock products share the same secure delivery mechanism as Digital Products:
  1. Customer pays — Payment is processed through Mollie
  2. Token created — A secure, unique download token is generated for the original file
  3. Instant access — The full image, track, or video is available immediately on the payment success page
  4. Email delivery — The order confirmation email includes the download link
  5. Portal access — Customers can re-download from their order history in the customer portal
Download limits and link expiry work exactly as they do for Digital Products, and are configurable per product under Download Settings.

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FAQ

For photo unlock products, the blurred version of your uploaded photo is the product image. For audio unlock products, the cover image is separate — it’s regular artwork shown alongside the track, not something that gets blurred or unlocked.
No. The preview clip is a separate, shorter audio file rendered on PayRequest’s servers — it never contains the rest of the track, so there’s nothing further to extract from it.
No. The player receives only the separately generated teaser MP4. The private original is delivered through a secure download token after successful payment.
Images: JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF (up to 25MB). Audio: MP3, WAV, FLAC (up to 100MB). Video: MP4, MOV, WebM, M4V (up to 500MB).
Yes. Changing either setting regenerates the public preview from the original file — no need to re-upload.
No. Each Pay to Unlock product is a single image, track, or video sold as one item, so the custom fields step and quantity selection are skipped automatically.

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Next Steps

Digital Products

The delivery system Pay to Unlock is built on

PayRequest Upload

The fastest way to create a Pay to Unlock link — just drop the file

Creating Products

Learn about all product types and settings

Shop Setup

Configure your shop to showcase Pay to Unlock products

Customer Portal

How customers access their unlocked files