Is Substack Free? Fees and Pricing Explained (2026)

Is Substack really free?

Yes. Substack's pricing article opens with: "Publishing on Substack is free, no matter how many subscribers you have." You can write, send free newsletters, run a podcast or post Notes without paying anything. Substack makes money only when you do: once you switch on paid subscriptions, it keeps a share of each payment.

That makes the honest answer "free to start, a percentage once you earn". There is no monthly plan, no subscriber-count tier and no charge for sending email. The fees all come out of reader payments, so you never get a bill from Substack.

Readers don't pay extra either. Substack says it "doesn't add a fee to web payments". Readers pay the monthly, annual or founding-member price the writer sets (Substack Help).

What does Substack charge writers?

These are the fees from Substack's help centre, checked on 22 October 2026. The Stripe rows match Stripe's pricing page and Stripe Billing pricing.

Fee	Amount	Who charges it
Publishing free newsletters	Free	–
Substack fee	10% of each subscription payment	Substack
Card processing (US cards)	2.9% + $0.30 per payment	Stripe
Billing (recurring payments)	0.7%	Stripe
International cards	+1.5%	Stripe
Currency conversion	+1% if needed	Stripe
Local payment methods (SEPA, iDEAL and others)	Set by Stripe, varies by country	Stripe
Custom domain (optional)	One-time $50	Substack

Two details are easy to miss:

• The $0.30 is per payment, not per subscriber per year. A monthly subscriber triggers it twelve times; an annual subscriber once.
• Stripe's Billing fee also applies to non-card methods such as direct debit, per Substack's article.

How much do I keep from each subscriber? Worked fee math

Here is the arithmetic for common prices, using US cards and the fees above. Substack's 10% and Stripe's percentages are all taken from the gross payment (Substack, Stripe). Figures are rounded to the cent.

Plan price	Substack 10%	Stripe 2.9% + $0.30	Stripe Billing 0.7%	Total fees	You keep	Share kept
$5/month (the minimum)	$0.50	$0.44	$0.04	$0.98	$4.02	80.4%
$10/month	$1.00	$0.59	$0.07	$1.66	$8.34	83.4%
$30/year (the minimum)	$3.00	$1.17	$0.21	$4.38	$25.62	85.4%
$50/year	$5.00	$1.75	$0.35	$7.10	$42.90	85.8%
$80/year	$8.00	$2.62	$0.56	$11.18	$68.82	86.0%
$150/year founding member	$15.00	$4.65	$1.05	$20.70	$129.30	86.2%

The pattern: low monthly prices lose the most to the fixed $0.30 (Stripe), so the share you keep rises with price and with annual billing. A reader on $5/month pays $60 a year and you keep about $48.24 after twelve sets of fees; a reader on $50/year pays less but you keep $42.90 from a single payment.

Substack's about page says "Writers keep 90% of their revenue minus credit card fees", which is the same thing stated from the other side: 90% before Stripe, roughly 80% to 86% after it for US cards.

What if a reader subscribes in the iOS app?

Apple takes its own service fee on in-app purchases. Substack's in-app payments article says Apple's fee "is deducted from your take-home revenue along with Substack's fee". Substack's 10% is based on your web price, and you choose whether in-app prices go up to cover Apple's cut or stay the same (Substack Help). Apple pays Substack monthly, "up to 45 days after the end of that month", so app revenue lands later than Stripe payouts.

What are the minimum prices for a paid Substack?

From the help article on setting up a paid publication:

Plan	Minimum (US-dollar Stripe accounts)
Monthly	$5
Annual	$30
Founding member	Any amount above your annual price

There is no "yearly only" option: you offer monthly and annual together. You can change prices at any time, but "Only new paid subscribers will pay the new rate"; existing subscribers stay on their original price (Substack Help).

If you're not ready to charge, Substack's Pledges let free readers promise to pay at a price you suggest, with no charge until you switch on payments. Pledge amounts must be higher than $5/month and $30/year (Substack Help).

Is Substack cheaper than paying for a newsletter tool?

It depends on revenue, not on list size. Substack's cost is zero at any number of free subscribers, which is why it suits writers who are building an audience. The 10% grows with income: at $100,000 a year in gross subscriptions it is $10,000, plus Stripe, which you would pay on most platforms anyway (Substack Help).

Gross subscription revenue per year	Substack's 10%
$1,000	$100
$10,000	$1,000
$50,000	$5,000
$100,000	$10,000

Tools with a flat monthly fee and no revenue share can work out cheaper at high revenue, and more expensive while you have a large free list and little income. Our Substack vs WordPress comparison shows how one alternative trades plan prices for a lower percentage, and Substack alternatives covers others.

How do I check what I'm actually paying?

Substack's article explains where fees show up (Substack Help):

1. In your Stripe dashboard, open Transactions and select a payment marked Succeeded. The breakdown shows Substack's fee and Stripe's processing fee.
2. For the Billing fee, open All activity on the Transactions tab, or go to Balances → Payouts, select a payout and look under Summary at "Stripe fee".

If your Substack dashboard and Stripe totals disagree, our guide to why Substack and Stripe numbers don't match walks through the usual causes: fees, refunds, timing and app purchases.

For a running view of revenue per subscriber after fees, the newsletterapi analytics API works from your own Substack export to show growth, cohorts and revenue trends. For what Substack itself exposes to developers, see does Substack have an API?. To understand whether those fees are worth it, read how to make money on Substack.