generated: '2026-08-13'
method: searched
source: https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037607131-How-much-does-Substack-cost
docs: https://substack.com/going-paid
plan_count: 2
currency: USD
model: revenue-share
note: >-
  Substack does not sell API access and publishes no API plans, quotas or overage
  pricing. There is no paid developer tier: the Developer API is granted by application
  at no charge, and the MCP server is included with a Bestseller publication rather than
  purchased. What Substack does publish is platform pricing, which is a revenue share on
  creator subscription income — that is what is recorded here. https://substack.com/pricing
  returns 404; the canonical pricing page is the Help Center article above.
plans:
  - name: Publishing
    price: 0
    currency: USD
    billing_period: none
    description: >-
      Publishing on Substack is free regardless of subscriber count. No platform fee
      until paid subscriptions are enabled.
    included:
      - unlimited posts
      - unlimited free subscribers
      - email delivery
      - podcast and video hosting
      - Notes, Chat, custom domain support
    limits: none published
  - name: Paid subscriptions
    price: 10
    price_unit: percent-of-transaction
    currency: USD
    billing_period: per-transaction
    description: >-
      Substack takes 10% of each paid-subscription transaction. Stripe's fees apply on
      top and are charged by Stripe, not Substack.
    third_party_fees:
      - provider: Stripe
        name: credit card fee
        amount: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction
      - provider: Stripe
        name: Billing fee (recurring subscriptions)
        amount: 0.7% of recurring payments
        effective: July 2024
        note: >-
          Creators who enabled payments before 2024-07-10 kept the prior 0.5% billing
          fee through 2025-06-30.
    payment_methods:
      - Visa
      - MasterCard
      - Discover
      - American Express
      - European direct debit / iDEAL / Bancontact / Sofort (Stripe fees vary by country)
    limits: none published
    note: >-
      Subscription prices themselves are set by each creator, not by Substack. Readers
      pay no additional Substack fee.
api_plans:
  count: 0
  note: >-
    No priced API tier exists. Developer API access is by application (Substack states
    7-10 business days for approval). MCP server access requires Admin role on a
    Bestseller publication — an eligibility gate tied to publication performance, not a
    purchasable plan, and Substack publishes no definition of the Bestseller threshold
    on the developer-facing pages.
x-evidence:
  - fetched: '2026-08-13'
    url: https://support.substack.com/api/v2/help_center/en-us/articles/360037607131.json
    http_status: 200
  - fetched: '2026-08-13'
    url: https://substack.com/pricing
    http_status: 404
  - fetched: '2026-08-13'
    url: https://substack.com/going-paid
    http_status: 200