Trial period clause (pilot) template clause

    Updated: 21 September 2026

    Please note: these example clauses are intended as a starting point, not as legal advice. Always adapt the text to your specific situation and have important contracts reviewed by a legal professional.

    Clause text

    1. This agreement shall commence with a trial period of [number, e.g. 3] months, running from [the effective date / the date the test environment is delivered].

    2. The purpose of the trial period is to establish whether the services meet the following criteria:
    a) [criterion, e.g. average processing time per order stays below X minutes];
    b) [criterion, e.g. the integration with the accounting package handles at least Y% of invoices without manual correction];
    c) [criterion, e.g. at least Z of the nominated employees complete the basic training and work independently in the system].

    3. Each party shall nominate a contact person to track progress during the trial period. They shall review progress at least [frequency, e.g. every two weeks] and record any departure from the criteria in paragraph 2 in writing.

    4. No later than [number, e.g. 10] working days before the trial period ends, the parties shall jointly establish whether the criteria have been met. The outcome shall be recorded in writing and signed by both parties.

    5. Customer may terminate this agreement in writing during the trial period, and up to [number, e.g. 10] working days after it ends, without giving reasons and without owing any fee or penalty. Services already delivered shall be settled at the agreed rate.

    6. Where Customer terminates under paragraph 5, Supplier shall within [number, e.g. 15] working days return all data supplied by Customer and all data built up during the trial period in a common, machine-readable file format, and shall then delete its own copies.

    7. Where the agreement is not terminated under paragraph 5, it shall continue after the trial period for the agreed term of [number] months. The trial period forms part of that term and shall be deducted from it.

    8. During the trial period Supplier shall charge only the costs listed in Annex [X]. One-off implementation and configuration costs shall be credited at [percentage, e.g. 50]% if Customer terminates under paragraph 5.

    9. The provisions on confidentiality, the processing of personal data and liability shall apply in full during the trial period.

    What does this clause mean?

    A trial period clause gives you room to judge a supplier in practice before the contract runs at full term. What separates it from an informal pilot is that the terms sit inside the contract: there is a start date, there are criteria, and there is a moment at which somebody says yes or no.

    Almost all of the value sits in paragraphs 2 and 4. A trial period without testable criteria ends in a conversation about impressions, and that conversation is usually won by whoever drafted the contract. Naming three concrete outcomes up front turns the review from a debate into a check. Requiring an explicit, signed decision in paragraph 4 then prevents the outcome nobody intends, where the contract simply rolls on because the review slipped past the end of the quarter.

    That risk is not hypothetical. Gartner (2024) estimates that around 40% of SaaS spend goes unmonitored, and pilots that quietly become multi-year commitments are a recognisable source of it. Loio (2026) adds that 71% of contracts are never monitored for deviations after signature. The review date in paragraph 4 therefore belongs in the same calendar as your notice periods, rather than in the project lead's head.

    Paragraph 6 is what makes a trial period genuinely non-committal. If you cannot take the accumulated data with you, walking away after three months is formally available but practically unattractive, and that is exactly the mechanism behind vendor lock-in.

    When should you use this clause?

    A trial period suits contracts where service quality is hard to judge in advance and switching costs climb over time: software subscriptions, facilities services, outsourced receivables management, maintenance contracts with a new party, and staffing assignments. For goods supplied at a fixed price it adds little; an acceptance test is the fitter instrument there.

    Use the clause as a counterweight when a supplier pushes for a long commitment as well. A minimum contract duration of three years is far easier to defend when the opening months can be exited freely, and for a supplier confident in its own service that is a cheap concession to make. Record the outcome of the trial period afterwards in an addendum, so that what was decided stays traceable.

    Customize these elements

    • 1Write the criteria in paragraph 2 so that an outsider could tell whether they were met. "To Customer's satisfaction" sounds strong but is close to worthless in a dispute; a number with a measurement method behind it is not.
    • 2Give yourself a window after the trial period in paragraph 5, not only inside it. Reviews overrun, and a right to walk away that evaporates on the final day puts you under time pressure at precisely the moment you want to decide calmly.
    • 3Agree whether the trial period counts towards the contract term (paragraph 7). Both versions are defensible, but they differ by a quarter, and that quarter will be argued about at the first renewal if it is not written down.
    • 4Look hard at the implementation costs in paragraph 8. A supplier offering the trial period free of charge while invoicing the setup in full up front has moved the risk rather than shared it.
    • 5Put the review date from paragraph 4 into your contract management system at signature, alongside the final termination date from paragraph 5. Those are the two dates on which this clause does anything; on every other day it sits idle.

    Sources

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