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Pricing Trends
How the newsletter ecosystem prices — platform comparison, price distribution, and monetization rates
Median Monthly Price
$5
Substack $5 default dominates
Newsletters Tracked
42.1K
9.3K with paid tiers
Platform Identity
substack 15% paidbeehiiv 0% paid
Paid Tier Adoption by Platform
What percentage of newsletters on each platform charge for content
| Platform | Total | Paid | % Paid | Median Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| substack | 37K | 5.6K | 15% | $6/mo | |
| beehiiv | 1.1K | 2 | 0% | $8/mo |
Ghost excluded: Ghost has built-in membership infrastructure, so most Ghost sites register a paid tier even without active paid subscribers (4K Ghost newsletters tracked).
Price Distribution
Monthly price clustering across all paid newsletters
$1–5
5020
$6–10
3141
$11–15319
$16–25312
$26–50211
$50+232
Monetization by Category
Paid newsletter count and median price by category
Uncategorized3714 paid$5/mo
Culture905 paid$5/mo
Business458 paid$5/mo
Lifestyle410 paid$6/mo
Finance398 paid$8/mo
Technology370 paid$5/mo
Politics357 paid$7/mo
Media348 paid$6/mo
Health344 paid$5/mo
Design247 paid$5/mo
Food239 paid$5/mo
Sports224 paid$5/mo
Religion215 paid$5/mo
AI213 paid$6/mo
Education152 paid$5/mo
Raised Prices, Kept Growing
Newsletters that increased their price 2+ times and maintained positive subscriber growth
| Newsletter | Category | Price | Increases | Subscribers | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Business | $69/mo | 8x | 146K | ++0.3% |
 | Uncategorized | $10.99/mo | 6x | 377K | ++0.6% |
 | Uncategorized | $12.95/mo | 6x | 261K | ++0.2% |
 | Uncategorized | $6/mo | 6x | 111K | ++0.9% |
 | AI | $12/mo | 5x | 23K | ++2.3% |
 | Business | $99/mo | 5x | 95K | ++0.5% |
 | Finance | $60/mo | 4x | 62K | ++2.5% |
 | Politics | $9/mo | 3x | 496K | ++0.2% |
 | Uncategorized | $5/mo | 3x | 129K | ++0.4% |
 | Politics | $15/mo | 3x | 338K | ++1.1% |
 | Uncategorized | $10/mo | 2x | 681K | ++0.1% |
 | Food | $10/mo | 2x | 59K | ++0.9% |
 | Business | $9/mo | 2x | 348K | ++0.5% |
 | Education | $39/mo | 2x | 153K | ++0.3% |
 | Politics | $10/mo | 2x | 152K | ++0.4% |
 | AI | $20/mo | 2x | 126K | ++1.8% |
 | Finance | $40/mo | 2x | 389K | ++0.1% |
 | Finance | $49/mo | 2x | 341K | ++0.7% |
Pricing data from 42.1K actively tracked newsletters. Prices reflect the cheapest available monthly plan per newsletter. Platform percentages compare paid newsletters to total active newsletters per platform. Updated daily via automated ingestion.