specification: API Commons Plans
specificationVersion: '0.1'
schema: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/interface-research/main/schema/api-commons.yml#/$defs/Plans
provider: Buttondown
providerId: buttondown
created: '2026-05-04'
modified: '2026-08-13'
generated: '2026-08-13'
method: searched
source: https://buttondown.com/pricing
description: >-
  Buttondown's published pricing, read from its pricing page. This replaces the 2026-05-04 scaffold,
  whose tiers and quotas were placeholder values. Buttondown does not sell named API plans: the base
  price is a continuous function of active subscriber count (free for the first 100), and capability
  is sold as fixed-price monthly add-ons rather than tiers. API access itself is not metered or
  separately priced; it is governed by rate limits, not by plan quota.
tags:
  - Email
  - Newsletters
  - Paid Subscriptions
  - SaaS
pricing_model: subscriber-based-base-plus-addons
currency: USD
billing_period: month
plans:
  - id: buttondown-free
    name: Free
    type: free
    price: 0
    currency: USD
    period: month
    description: >-
      Free for the first 100 active subscribers, with unlimited emails at up to one send per day to
      the full list.
    included:
      - Rich text or Markdown editor
      - Send from a custom domain
      - Hosted newsletter archives
      - Privacy-first analytics posture
    limits:
      - {name: active_subscribers, limit: 100, unit: subscribers}
      - {name: send_frequency, limit: 1, unit: email per day to the full subscriber base}
  - id: buttondown-paid
    name: Paid (subscriber-scaled)
    type: usage
    price: null
    currency: USD
    period: month
    description: >-
      Above 100 active subscribers the base price scales continuously with the number of active
      subscribers; the pricing page exposes it through a subscriber-count slider rather than named
      tiers. Buttondown charges for active subscribers only, not total contacts.
    limits:
      - {name: send_frequency, limit: 1, unit: email per day to the full subscriber base, note: "higher volume requires a usage-based conversation with sales"}
add_ons:
  - {name: Tagging & segmentation, price: 9, currency: USD, period: month}
  - {name: Paid subscriptions, price: 9, currency: USD, period: month, note: no platform revenue share}
  - {name: Comments and surveys, price: 9, currency: USD, period: month}
  - {name: Analytics, price: 9, currency: USD, period: month}
  - {name: RSS-to-email support, price: 9, currency: USD, period: month}
  - {name: Sponsorships, price: 9, currency: USD, period: month}
  - {name: Email attachments, price: 9, currency: USD, period: month}
  - {name: Archives on a custom domain, price: 29, currency: USD, period: month}
  - {name: Multiple newsletters, price: 29, currency: USD, period: month}
  - {name: Automations, price: 29, currency: USD, period: month}
  - {name: Whitelabeling, price: 79, currency: USD, period: month}
  - {name: Teams, price: 79, currency: USD, period: month}
discounts:
  - {name: Non-profit, amount: 50%, eligibility: "registered 501(c)(3) or national equivalent, verified by email"}
api_access:
  metered: false
  note: >-
    API access is not sold as a separate plan or quota. Consumption is bounded by the published rate
    limits (see rate-limits/buttondown-rate-limits.yml). Some API-reachable capabilities are gated on
    the corresponding add-on — creating tags, for example, returns 403 feature_disabled on a plan
    without the tagging add-on.
plan_count: 2
add_on_count: 12