United Kingdom · Customer Service · Lead Level (8-12 years)

Customer Service Team Lead

Here is the whole job, in plain words. What it is, a real day, what you decide, how you're judged, how people get here and where they go next. Then the part no course gives you: twelve AI tutors who learn your work.

  • Experience bandLead Level (8-12 years)
  • Direct reports3-8 reports
  • Reports toCustomer Service Manager
  • UK framework levelUsually a manager, or the deepest specialist in a team

Also advertised as Senior Customer Support Lead · Customer Experience Lead · Knowledge Manager

Built on an analysis of 43,079 real UK job descriptions · grounded in qualifications employers recognise

Start with a free Future Fluency check, tuned to Customer Service Team Lead

Ten quick questions, one per Future Fluency, asked against this role rather than a generic one. About five minutes, and no card.

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1What this role really is

This role is all about leading a small team of Customer Service Representatives, making sure they're doing a brilliant job for our customers. You'll be the go-to person for tough customer issues, a coach for your team, and someone who spots ways to make our whole service better. It's a proper mix of hands-on support, people management, and a bit of strategic thinking, honestly.

2What you'd actually use

The tools this job runs on, and how well you'd need to know each one.

Building complex triggers and automations, creating custom reports for team performance, training new users on the platform, and troubleshooting platform issues. You'll also handle escalated tickets directly.

Salesforce Service Cloud or HubSpot Service Hub (CRM)Advanced

Creating custom views and reports to track customer history and team activity, understanding how service data links to sales and marketing, and ensuring accurate customer records.

Aircall, Talkdesk, or Five9 (Telephony/CCaaS)Advanced

Analysing call queue data, monitoring real-time agent performance dashboards, and providing feedback on call quality and efficiency. You might also help design basic IVR trees.

Guiding your team in writing, editing, and publishing new knowledge articles following KCS methodology. You'll also analyse article usage and effectiveness to drive self-service.

Tableau or Power BI (Analytics & WFM)Intermediate

Building basic dashboards to track team KPIs, visualising performance trends, and presenting data-backed insights to your manager and team.

Slack or MS Teams (Collaboration)Advanced

Creating and managing team channels, integrating apps (e.g., Zendesk alerts), and establishing clear communication etiquette for effective team collaboration and 'swarming' on complex issues.

3What you get to decide, and how that grows

Power in a job isn't your title. It's what you're allowed to decide. Here's how it grows as you move up.

The choiceComing inWhere you are nowThe step above
Customer Concessions/RefundsEscalate all requests to a Senior Rep or Team Lead.Approve minor concessions up to £20; escalate anything higher.Approve concessions up to £50; consult Team Lead for higher amounts.
Team Scheduling & Workload ManagementFollow assigned schedule; request changes from Team Lead.Manage own breaks and minor shift swaps within guidelines.Manage own schedule flexibility; advise Team Lead on team capacity.
Process Improvement SuggestionsSuggest minor improvements to Team Lead.Propose and document small process tweaks to Team Lead.Design and implement minor process improvements within own scope, with Team Lead approval.
Performance Management (Individual Reps)N/AN/AInformal mentoring; provide feedback to Team Lead.

4How you'll be judged

The scoreboard, honestly: the hard targets, how often each one is actually looked at, and the quiet human signals that never make it onto a dashboard.

Team CSAT (Customer Satisfaction)
The average satisfaction score given by customers after interacting with your team.
Target · >92%

If your team's average CSAT for the month is 93.5%, you're exceeding expectations. If it dips to 88%, we'll be looking at specific interactions and coaching opportunities to get it back up.

Team FCR (First Contact Resolution)
The percentage of customer issues your team resolves on the first interaction, without needing a follow-up or escalation.
Target · >80%

If your team handles 100 tickets in a week and 82 are resolved first time, that's 82% FCR. This shows efficiency and deep product knowledge.

Escalation Rate from L1
The percentage of tickets that Tier 1 (junior) reps escalate to your team or other senior channels.
Target · <10%

If 1000 tickets come in at Tier 1 and only 90 get escalated, that's a brilliant 9% escalation rate, meaning Tier 1 is handling most things effectively.

New Hire Ramp Time (to full productivity)
How quickly new team members you're mentoring reach a consistent level of performance against core metrics (CSAT, AHT, FCR).
Target · <6 weeks

If a new rep you're coaching hits 90% CSAT and 75% FCR within 5 weeks, you've done a great job getting them up to speed quickly.

Knowledge Base Contribution & Quality (if Knowledge Manager focus)
The number of new or updated knowledge articles created by your team, and their impact on ticket deflection.
Target · 5+ new/updated articles per month; 5% increase in article usage leading to deflection.

You publish 7 new articles in a month, and we see a 6% rise in customers self-serving for those topics, reducing incoming tickets. That's a clear win.

Team Morale & Engagement
How supported, motivated, and engaged your direct reports feel, reflected in their willingness to contribute and their overall job satisfaction.
  • Regular positive feedback in 1:1s, proactive participation in team discussions, low team absenteeism, positive scores in internal engagement surveys, and, frankly, the general 'vibe' of the team.
Proactive Problem Solving
Your ability to spot recurring customer issues or process bottlenecks and propose solutions before they become major problems.
  • Bringing specific, data-backed suggestions to manager meetings, leading small projects to fix process gaps, identifying product bugs from customer feedback trends, and getting ahead of potential 'queue is lit up' situations.
Coaching Effectiveness
How well you develop your team members, helping them improve their skills, handle difficult situations, and grow in their roles.
  • Observable improvement in individual agent metrics after coaching sessions, positive feedback from agents about your guidance, successful progression of team members to more complex tasks, and their ability to independently solve issues they previously struggled with.
Cross-functional Collaboration
How effectively you work with other teams (like Product or Sales) to get things done for customers or to improve processes.
  • Other teams proactively reaching out to you for customer insights, successful resolution of cross-departmental issues, clear communication loops established with product or engineering on bug fixes, and positive feedback from your peers in other departments.

5Would you like it

The honest version. What people enjoy, and what grinds them down.

What people enjoy
Developing Others

You get a real buzz from seeing a team member grasp a new skill, handle a tough customer brilliantly, or solve a problem they previously struggled with. You enjoy giving feedback and watching people grow.

You spend an extra 15 minutes after a tough call with a junior rep, walking them through how they could have handled it differently, and then see them apply that advice perfectly on their next interaction.

Solving Organisational Puzzles

You're not content with just fixing a single customer's issue; you want to understand why it happened and how we can prevent it at scale. You enjoy digging into data to find patterns and proposing solutions that make a real difference to our processes or product.

You notice a spike in 'forgotten password' tickets, dig into the data, and realise our password reset flow is broken. You then work with the product team to get it fixed, reducing ticket volume by 10% for that issue.

Building a Strong Team Culture

You care about the atmosphere in your team. You're keen to foster a supportive, collaborative environment where everyone feels comfortable asking questions and helping each other out. You'll celebrate successes and help navigate challenges together.

You organise a quick 'wins and learnings' session at the start of the week, encouraging everyone to share a success and a challenge, building camaraderie and shared learning.

What frustrates people
  • Dealing with constant firefighting instead of having time for strategic work.
  • Lack of resources or budget to implement team improvements you know are needed.
  • Having to deliver difficult performance feedback or manage underperformers.
  • Resistance from other departments to act on customer feedback you've collected.
  • The emotional drain of absorbing your team's frustrations on top of your own.
What this role does not give you
  • A purely individual contributor path with no people management.
  • A role where you only interact with 'happy path' customers.
  • Complete autonomy over strategic direction without needing to consult.

6Who you work with

This role directly impacts customer retention and satisfaction by ensuring high-quality, efficient support. It also plays a crucial part in developing our frontline talent, reducing agent churn, and feeding critical customer insights back into the business. Get it right, and you're building a loyal customer base and a strong, happy team. Get it wrong, and you'll see customer complaints rise and agent morale drop, which really hurts the bottom line.

Inside the business
  • Other Customer Service Team Leads
  • Customer Service Manager
  • Product Team (for bug reports and feature requests)
  • Sales Team (for customer retention and issues affecting deals)
  • Training & Quality Assurance Teams
Outside the business
  • Key customers requiring escalation
  • Vendor support teams (for tool issues)

7What you need before you start

Not a wish list. The things you would be expected to already have.

  • Proven experience as a Senior Customer Service Representative or Tier 2 Specialist, demonstrating consistent high performance across all core metrics (CSAT, FCR, AHT).
  • Demonstrable experience in informally mentoring or coaching junior team members, perhaps through buddying up or leading training sessions.
  • A track record of identifying and proposing solutions for recurring customer issues or process inefficiencies, not just solving individual tickets.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex issues clearly and empathetically.

8What to practise next

Where the job is going, and what to do about it starting this week.

AI Tool Integration & Validation

More and more, AI tools will integrate directly into our existing helpdesk and CRM systems. You'll need to understand how these integrations work, how to set them up, and crucially, how to validate that the AI is actually doing what it's supposed to, without 'hallucinating' or making mistakes.

API Basics · Data Privacy for AI · Prompt Engineering (Advanced) · Output Validation

  • This week: Read up on basic API concepts and how our current tools (e.g., Zendesk) integrate with others.
  • This month: Take an online course on prompt engineering for business applications.
  • Month 2: Work with IT or product to understand the data security protocols for any AI tools we're considering.
  • Month 3: Develop a small 'AI validation checklist' for your team to use when reviewing AI-generated content.

Quick win: Start actively experimenting with different prompts in tools like ChatGPT to see how you can get more accurate and useful outputs for tasks like summarising customer feedback.

9Staying current once you are in

What people here do to keep up
  • Attending industry webinars and conferences focused on customer service leadership, CX trends, and support technology.
  • Joining professional communities or forums for Customer Service Leads to share best practices and learn from peers.
  • Taking online courses in coaching, performance management, or specific software tools (e.g., advanced Excel, Tableau basics).
  • Reading books and articles on leadership, team motivation, and customer experience strategy.

10How the AI economy is changing work like this

Before we ask anything of you, here's what we can already say about AI and work of this kind:

The new skill this role is being asked for: AI-Driven Workforce Optimisation & Coaching

AI is getting incredibly good at analysing agent performance, predicting customer demand, and identifying skill gaps in real-time. Team Leads who can use these insights will build more efficient, happier teams and hit service levels consistently.

We'll only ever tell you what we can actually back up. No hype, no scare tactics.

Your PlanIllustration

Built for Customer Service Team Lead

2 units that map to this job, from the qualifications that cover it.

  1. Lead a team to improve customer serviceTraining Qualifications UK Ltd · covers 3 of 10 standardsLevel 3
  2. Champion customer servicePearson Education Ltd · covers 2 of 10 standardsLevel 4
These are the real units behind this job, in the order they rank for it. Nothing here is marked done, because this plan has not been started by anyone yet. Yours would fill in as you go.

The rising capability

Zavmo analysis

What's rising in its place

This is where the work is heading, and the higher pay with it. Get fluent here and the shift stops being a threat and starts being your edge.

AI-Driven Workforce Optimisation & Coaching

AI is getting incredibly good at analysing agent performance, predicting customer demand, and identifying skill gaps in real-time. Team Leads who can use these insights will build more efficient, happier teams and hit service levels consistently.

  • Predictive Forecasting
  • Sentiment Analysis for Coaching
  • Skill-Based Routing Optimisation
  • Automated Performance Summaries

What you’ll use

Skills this role draws on

Technical

  • De-escalation Techniques (Advanced)
  • Ticket Triage & Prioritisation (Systemic)
  • Knowledge-Centered Service (KCS) Methodology
  • SLA Management & Reporting
  • Workforce Management (WFM) Principles

The pathway

How you actually get there, here

How you become one varies far more by country than what one does. This is the UK route. Most people take one of these ways in; the right one depends on where you're starting from.

  1. 1

    Senior Customer Service Representative / Tier 2 Specialist

    3-5 years as a Senior Rep

    Skills to master

    • Mastering complex issue resolution, informal mentoring, proactive problem identification, and a deep understanding of our product and processes. You'd be the 'go-to' person for tough questions.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Consistently exceeding individual performance targets (CSAT, FCR).
    • Regularly taking on complex escalations and resolving them successfully.
    • Actively helping and training new or junior team members without being asked.
    • Proposing tangible improvements to processes or knowledge base content.
  2. 2

    Quality Assurance (QA) Specialist

    2-4 years in QA

    Skills to master

    • Developing a keen eye for quality, understanding coaching methodologies, data analysis for performance trends, and creating effective feedback loops for agents. This role focuses on improving agent performance through review and feedback.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Excellent attention to detail and ability to identify areas for improvement in agent interactions.
    • Strong communication skills for delivering constructive feedback.
    • Experience in developing training materials or coaching guides.
  3. 3

    Customer Service Trainer

    2-4 years as a Trainer

    Skills to master

    • Expertise in adult learning principles, curriculum development, public speaking, and assessing training effectiveness. You'd be responsible for getting new agents up to speed and improving existing skills.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Demonstrated ability to teach and explain complex concepts clearly.
    • Experience in presenting to groups and facilitating workshops.
    • A passion for helping others learn and grow.

11Where this role leads

The long view:Your journey as a Team Lead is a critical step in building a truly customer-centric career. The skills you hone here, from coaching to strategic problem-solving, will set you up for significant impact, whether you choose to climb the management ladder or specialise as a deep expert. We're excited to see where you take it.

Pay & demand

Pay and demand for this role will appear here, each figure traced to a named authoritative source (e.g. the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, under the Open Government Licence). We don’t show numbers we can’t attribute.

The ten Future Fluencies

Zavmo analysis

The credential is what you can do today. These are what keep you valuable.

A qualification proves you can do the job as it's defined today. These ten are what decide whether you're still the obvious person for it in five years. They're the capabilities employers are now writing into senior roles faster than people are learning them. Zavmo weaves them through whatever you study, so you come out with both: the credential and the fluency.

The highlighted ones are the Fluencies your role leans on hardest, from how Customer Service Team Lead is actually changing. In about two minutes, the free confidence check asks where you stand on each of the ten. That's the whole check, and it's what makes the plan yours rather than generic.

12The team that's yours

No two people are taught the same way. This is one-to-one, not one-to-many.

Zavmo is a hyper-personalised AI learning platform. Twelve virtual tutors, each with a different way of teaching, and one orchestration agent that picks the right one for the moment. So every single lesson is shaped around you, your role, and the way you learn. Not a course everyone sits through. A conversation built for you, and no one else.

…and nine more, matched to you after your first chat. Meet all twelve

13What it feels like

A conversation, not a course

Because your tutor knows your role, your projects and your last session, learning sounds like this. And it's different for every single person:

Lead a team to improve customer serviceLevel 3

Applied to your work in Customer Service Team Lead

By completing this unit, learners will be able to plan and organise team work, provide support, and review performance, ultimately leading a team to improve customer service within a hospitality setting.

How the thinking builds
  1. Remember
  2. Understand
  3. Apply
  4. Analyse
  5. Evaluate
  6. Create
An illustration of a Zavmo lesson, built from this role’s own route. The unit, its objective and every criterion above are the awarding body’s own words, not an example.

One to one, not one to many

No two people run this the same way

A course is written once and handed to everyone. This is assembled around you, and keeps changing as it learns you. Five things it reads, and what each one changes.

  1. Your actual work Every lesson is taught against a live piece of your own work, not a worked example from a textbook.
  2. What you already know The first conversation finds your starting point, so you skip what you can already do and spend the time on what you cannot.
  3. The conditions you learn under Not a learning-styles quiz. The evidence does not support those. The dimensions the research does back, read once and used to shape the plan.
  4. How far you got last time It picks up mid-thought. The tutor knows what you said, what you struggled with, and what it asked you to try.
  5. Which tutor suits the moment Twelve of them, each for a different kind of thinking. The one who walks you through a first idea is not the one who stress-tests it.

See how you learn, free. Eight questions, no sign-up. A directional taster; the diagnostic inside Zavmo goes deeper and keeps adapting.

DemonstrateIllustration

Evidenced on your work in Customer Service Team Lead

You do not finish by watching something. You finish by showing it on the work you already do, against the measures this job is judged on.

  • Team CSAT (Customer Satisfaction)The average satisfaction score given by customers after interacting with your team.If your team's average CSAT for the month is 93.5%, you're exceeding expectations. If it dips to 88%, we'll be looking at specific interactions and coaching opportunities to get it back up.>92%
  • Team FCR (First Contact Resolution)The percentage of customer issues your team resolves on the first interaction, without needing a follow-up or escalation.If your team handles 100 tickets in a week and 82 are resolved first time, that's 82% FCR. This shows efficiency and deep product knowledge.>80%
  • Escalation Rate from L1The percentage of tickets that Tier 1 (junior) reps escalate to your team or other senior channels.If 1000 tickets come in at Tier 1 and only 90 get escalated, that's a brilliant 9% escalation rate, meaning Tier 1 is handling most things effectively.<10%
  • New Hire Ramp Time (to full productivity)How quickly new team members you're mentoring reach a consistent level of performance against core metrics (CSAT, AHT, FCR).If a new rep you're coaching hits 90% CSAT and 75% FCR within 5 weeks, you've done a great job getting them up to speed quickly.<6 weeks

and 1 more in the full scoreboard below.

These are this job's own measures, with its own targets. Nothing is marked evidenced, because nobody has started this yet. Yours would fill in from the work you bring.

Your passport

This isn't a certificate you file away. It's a passport to the life you're designing.

Every credit you earn and every fluency you build adds up: evidence where it counts, carried with you. Zavmo keeps the map: where you are, where you're heading, and the next step, at your pace, around your life. From Customer Service Team Lead to Customer Service Manager, and whatever you decide comes after.

Level 5 · in progressAI Fluency→ Customer Service Manager→ your design
Where this takes you

Your journey as a Team Lead is a critical step in building a truly customer-centric career. The skills you hone here, from coaching to strategic problem-solving, will set you up for significant impact, whether you choose to climb the management ladder or specialise as a deep expert. We're excited to see where you take it.

See Your Progress GrowIllustration
Customer Service Team Lead
  • De-escalation Techniques (Advanced)
  • Ticket Triage & Prioritisation (Systemic)
  • Knowledge-Centered Service (KCS) Methodology
  • SLA Management & Reporting
  • Workforce Management (WFM) Principles
This is your Mind Palace on learn.zavmo.ai. Every skill above comes from this role's own record, not an example borrowed from another job. A node lights up when you evidence it, and what you build stays yours between jobs. That is the part a course cannot do.

14The detail, folded away

Everything else the record holds

The career branches in full, how AI is already showing up in the day-to-day, and the questions people ask about this job. Here when you want them, out of the way while you decide.

Where it leads next, rung by rung

Where it leads

The career path, and where it branches

Customer Service Team Lead is a start, not a ceiling. Each step below asks for new skills and hands back more autonomy.

  1. Customer Service Manager

    3-5 years as a Team Lead

    Level 5 (Principal/Manager)

    • Advanced Workforce Planning & Optimisation
    • Customer Journey Mapping (strategic level, cross-departmental)
    • Complex Project Management (leading large-scale initiatives)
    • Advanced Analytics (interpreting complex data for strategic decisions)
  2. Programme Manager, Customer Experience (CX)

    3-5 years as a Team Lead

    Level 4 (Lead/Staff) or Level 5 (Principal/Manager) depending on scope

    • Customer Journey Mapping (end-to-end across the business)
    • Voice of the Customer (VoC) Programme Management
    • Service Design Principles
    • Data Analysis for CX Insights
Working with AI on the job

Working with AI

Where AI is starting to help

Let's be real, as a Team Lead, your plate is always full. You're juggling coaching, escalations, reporting, and trying to improve things. What if you could get back a significant chunk of that time every week? That's exactly what AI tools are starting to offer, not to replace you, but to make you ridiculously more effective.

We're not talking about sci-fi here. We're already seeing AI tools that can take the grunt work out of your day, freeing you up to do the high-value stuff: really coaching your team, digging into complex problems, and shaping our customer experience strategy. Think of it as having a super-efficient admin assistant who never sleeps.

Automated Team Performance Insights

AI summarises agent performance across key metrics, flags specific calls or chats for review, and identifies coaching opportunities based on sentiment and keywords. No more sifting through endless reports; AI tells you exactly who needs what kind of support.

Smart Knowledge Base Content Creation

Imagine AI drafting new knowledge base articles directly from resolved tickets or common customer questions. It can also suggest improvements to existing articles based on agent feedback and customer search queries, making your KCS programme far more efficient.

Proactive Queue Management & Forecasting

AI can predict incoming ticket or call volume spikes based on historical data, marketing campaigns, or product releases. This means you can proactively adjust staffing, move agents between channels, and avoid those 'queue is lit up' moments, keeping service levels consistent.

AI-Powered Coaching Prompts

During live chats or calls, AI can listen for specific keywords or customer sentiment and provide real-time suggestions to your agents on de-escalation tactics, relevant knowledge articles, or even upselling opportunities. This isn't about replacing you, but giving your team a safety net and instant guidance.

Common questions

Common questions

How do you become a Customer Service Team Lead?

Common routes in include Senior Customer Service Representative / Tier 2 Specialist (3-5 years as a Senior Rep), Quality Assurance (QA) Specialist (2-4 years in QA) and Customer Service Trainer (2-4 years as a Trainer). Times vary with prior experience.

Where can a Customer Service Team Lead progress to?

This role can lead on to Customer Service Manager (3-5 years as a Team Lead) and Programme Manager, Customer Experience (CX) (3-5 years as a Team Lead), depending on the skills you build.

What level is a Customer Service Team Lead in the UK?

This role aligns to RQF Level 5 on the UK framework, a guide to the depth of qualification it maps to, not a hard entry bar.

What new skills matter most for a Customer Service Team Lead?

Increasingly, AI-Driven Workforce Optimisation & Coaching. These are the areas where the higher-paid, future-proof work is heading.

The honest bit

You’ve started things before

Most of them were built for a room full of people who aren’t you. A cohort moves on whether or not your week allowed it, and by the third week the thing you’re behind on becomes the reason you stop opening it.

There’s no cohort here, and no timetable to fall behind. Before anything starts, Zavmo asks when you’re sharpest and how long you can realistically sit down for, then builds the sessions around those answers. A bad fortnight changes your pace. It doesn’t put you behind.

And you only pay once you start learning. Searching and planning are free, and you can cancel any time — so the cost of finding out is an afternoon, not a year.

What it costs

Less than one coaching session. Every month.

A single career-coaching hour costs more than a month of this, and it ends when the hour does. Zavmo doesn't. It's £70 a month, about £2.30 a day, for a companion that knows a Customer Service Team Lead, works on the job you actually do, and keeps going at your pace rather than a timetable's.

  • Searching and planning stay free. You only pay when you start learning.
  • Your credits are yours. Regulated, and they don't vanish when a subscription ends.
  • Cancel any time and billing stops. No notice period, no minimum term.

Your path, personalised

You have the map. Walking it is the part we do together.

This route runs to 10 national skill standards. That is a real journey.

Zavmo shapes a learning experience as unique as you are. It fits how you learn, your pace and the work you already do. Every step stays benchmarked to recognised national standards. That’s the plan for becoming a Customer Service Team Lead: personal to you, and it still counts. The first steps are free.

Independent research finds well-designed intelligent tutoring performs nearly as well as one-to-one human tutoring: VanLehn (2011), Educational Psychologist.

A private tutor in the UK averages £35–40 an hour . Zavmo is £70/month.

A real plan on learn.zavmo.ai: Ofqual-regulated units, credits, and a three-month run at your own pace.
Start free No commitment. See your first steps free.

15Where to go from here

Other roles at Level 5

Same depth of qualification, different job. Useful if the work appeals but this particular role does not.

Other roles in Customer Service

Stay in the field you know and move sideways rather than up.

If you leave this industry

The skills you'll gain as a Customer Service Team Lead are highly transferable. You could move into similar leadership roles in other SaaS companies, e-commerce, financial services, or even large-scale operations in other industries. The ability to manage people, analyse data, and improve processes is always in demand.

Not sure this is the right direction?

Work out what you actually want from work first, then come back and see which roles fit it. Takes about ten minutes.

This role profile is © 2026Growth Engineering Technologies Ltd. Built from UK occupational standards and regulated qualification data, and written for Zavmo.

You're not behind. You're right on time. The shift is only just beginning. Your role won't look the same in two years. Be the one who leads the change, not the one it happens to. Build my plan, free Here's the first ten minutes: a 2-minute confidence check → your personalised roadmap → meet the tutors matched to you. No card, cancel any time. No card. Build your plan, see your roadmap and meet the twelve tutors matched to you. All free. When you're ready to start learning, it's £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.