Substack Notes: What They Are, vs Posts, and Scheduling

The problem

Notes reward consistency, and writers who post them alongside X, Threads or LinkedIn want one place to plan them. Until 2026 that meant fragile workarounds:

"Substack has no public API for Notes." (LinkedIn, September 2026)

"Users should note that for the scheduled post to be posted when scheduled, an instance of chrome needs to be running on the computer that was used to set the schedule." (Chrome Web Store review, August 2025)

"Exporting your "notes" is unnecessarily difficult!" (Trustpilot, September 2025)

That has changed. Substack added native scheduling and two partner integrations. Here's how Notes work as of October 2026, and which route fits.

What are Substack Notes?

Notes are Substack's short-form feed. Substack describes them as a place where creators "publish short-form posts and share ideas with each other and their readers", including "posts, links, images, quotes, and comments" (Substack Help).

Key facts from Substack's help centre:

• Notes are public. They appear on the web, in the Substack app and on your profile. Anyone with the link can see a note; only signed-in users can post, like or reply (Substack Help).
• Anyone can post one. "You don't need a publication" (Substack Help).
• They aren't emailed. Subscribers "will not get an email as they would do with newsletters". They may get a push notification for your first note, and occasionally for notes they missed (Substack Help).
• Each note has stats. "View stats" shows revenue generated, new paid and free subscribers, new followers, clicks and shares. Stats are available within 24 hours and usually refresh hourly (Substack Help).
• You can't turn them off. You can delete single notes, delete all notes and restacks from Settings → Danger Zone, or hide the Notes tab on your publication site (Substack Help). Edited notes carry an "edited" label (Substack Help).

Substack Notes vs posts: what's the difference?

	Notes	Posts
Length and format	Short-form: text, images, video, links, quotes	Long-form newsletter issue, podcast or video
Where it appears	Home feed, Explore, your profile	Subscribers' inboxes, your publication site, the app
Emailed to subscribers	No	Yes
Paywall	No; you can limit replies to paid subscribers or subscribers	Yes: free, paid or founding members only
Who can publish	Any Substack account	Publication authors
Scheduling	Native, Buffer, Typefully	Native in the post editor
Stats	Per-note "View stats"	Post stats in your dashboard
In your export	No	Yes

Sources: Notes vs Chat, Getting started on Notes. Many writers use Notes to point at posts: share a quote from a new issue, restack another writer's post, or test an idea before writing it up. If you want readers outside Substack to see your posts too, the Substack RSS feed is the simplest route.

How do I schedule Substack Notes?

There are three routes as of October 2026.

1. Native scheduling in Substack

From Substack's help centre:

• Web: Create → Note, write it, click the calendar icon, pick a date and time, Save, then Schedule.
• App: tap the plus sign, write, tap the three dots at the top, choose Schedule, pick a time, Save, then Schedule.

Scheduled notes sit in your Drafts in the composer. This is the simplest option if Substack is your only channel.

2. Buffer

Buffer added Substack in September 2026. Its help article says:

• Substack works "on all of our current Buffer plans, including the Free plan".
• You connect by authorising Buffer on Substack ("Review the permissions and click to authorize Buffer").
• It publishes "Top-level Notes only": no replies or restacks, no threads, no long-form posts.
• Notes publish as plain text (no bold or lists), up to 10,000 characters, with one attachment type per note. @mentions and hashtags don't link.
• On connection it imports your 100 most recent Notes for its Insights.

Buffer says its Free plan allows up to three channels, and that it connects through Substack's API rather than a stored login (Buffer, 2026-10-06, self-reported). In its first week, Buffer said "Almost 3k posts have been shared to Substack Notes", using "a mix of Buffer's app, API, and MCP" (Buffer on X, self-reported).

3. Typefully

Substack's changelog announced a "Typefully partnership" on 25 August 2026, describing Typefully as a tool to "schedule and publish content" across X, Threads, LinkedIn and Bluesky (Substack). Typefully says you can "create and schedule Substack Notes" and that it's "Available for free to all users" (Typefully, self-reported).

	Substack native	Buffer	Typefully
Cost for Notes	Free	Free plan available	Free to all users (self-reported)
Other channels in the same calendar	No	Yes	Yes
Replies, restacks, threads	Native composer	Not supported	Not documented
API or MCP access	No public API	Buffer's API and MCP	Not documented for Notes
Connection	Your account	Authorised on Substack	Partner integration

Avoid tools that ask for your Substack password or a browser cookie, or that need a browser left running. The partner integrations authorise through Substack instead.

Can AI agents post Substack Notes?

Partly, and only through sanctioned routes:

• Substack's official MCP server can't. It "cannot publish posts, send Notes, or modify your account" and "cannot access profile data or Notes activity". It's read-only and limited to admins of Bestseller publications (Substack Help). See Substack MCP server.
• Buffer's API and MCP can. Because Buffer publishes Notes for connected channels, an agent with access to your Buffer account can schedule Notes through it (Buffer on X). Review Buffer's terms first, and keep a human approving each note: Notes publish publicly once sent.
• Drafting is the useful agent job. The newsletterapi MCP server lets Claude, ChatGPT and other agents read your own archive and learn your voice, so they can draft Notes that quote and link your posts. You then publish natively or through Buffer. Our guides to connecting Claude to Substack and the Substack API explain what each surface can reach.

Can I export or back up my Notes?

Not through Substack's export. The Settings → Exports zip contains "your posts, subscriber list, and related statistics" (Substack Help); Notes aren't listed. If a note matters, turn it into a post, which is included in exports and in our Substack backup guide. The newsletterapi backups API keeps dated copies of your posts.