The checkout is for the choice you already made

Clicking a plan used to bring you to a page that was still doing several other jobs. The plan chooser, your current account state, billing information, and the payment form all wanted attention.

But you'd already chosen a plan. Putting the choice back in front of you while asking for payment made the next step harder to see.

I reduced that state to the selected plan, its price and request allowance, and the payment form. There's a way back to the plans if you want to change your mind. The rest of the account's billing page can wait until checkout is over.

The same rule applies while the form is loading. If you arrive from a plan card, the page shouldn't briefly show the whole chooser and then replace it. It already knows what you came to do.

After payment succeeds, the next action is getting your API key. You can go back to the full Plan page to manage billing, but that doesn't have to be the first thing you see after buying access to the API.

The plans page is for comparing. Once you choose, checkout should help you finish that choice.