How Much Does beehiiv Take? Creator Fees & Earnings (2026)

beehiiv takes 0% of your subscription revenue. You keep 100% of what your paid subscribers pay — minus Stripe's processing fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. beehiiv earns money by charging creators for paid plans, not by skimming your earnings.

That's the clean answer. But the full picture is more layered than a single fee number: beehiiv has four distinct revenue streams, most of which require a paid plan, and each earns differently. Knowing how each one works changes whether upgrading makes sense for you.

The 0% subscription fee — what it actually means

When a paid subscriber sends you $10 a month on beehiiv, beehiiv keeps $0 of it. That's a meaningful commitment: Substack takes 10%, Patreon takes 8–10% (with additional processing fees), and most newsletter platforms clip somewhere between 5% and 15%. beehiiv keeps nothing.

What does come out? Stripe's transaction processing fee: 2.9% + $0.30 per payment. That's industry-standard and not beehiiv-specific — every platform that processes credit cards pays Stripe (or something comparable). On a $10 subscription, you net approximately $9.41 after Stripe. On a $25 subscription, you net approximately $23.98.

The trade-off is explicit: beehiiv earns by charging you for a paid plan, not by taking a revenue share. That works in your favor if you're earning meaningfully — your effective take-home percentage climbs as your subscription volume grows, since the plan fee becomes a smaller fraction of your total earnings. It's a less favorable model if you're in early growth and paying for a plan while subscriptions haven't ramped up yet.

How beehiiv's four revenue streams work

Paid Subscriptions are the core. You set your pricing, offer free and paid tiers however you like, and every paid subscriber's dollar goes to you minus Stripe's processing fee. beehiiv handles the billing infrastructure, subscriber management, and payment processing. Available on paid beehiiv plans.

The beehiiv Ad Network is a live marketplace of brand advertisers who want to reach newsletter audiences. beehiiv sources the advertisers and manages the relationship — you don't pitch or negotiate deals. Ads run in your newsletter and pay you on a CPM basis (per thousand unique opens) or CPC basis (per unique click). beehiiv doesn't publish standard rate cards; rates vary based on your audience size, niche, engagement rate, and what advertisers are currently competing for in your space. Available on paid beehiiv plans. Direct Sponsorships — a more premium extension of the Ad Network — require Max or Enterprise plans.

To get Ad Network opportunities, you need to select up to 3 tags for your publication and include a detailed description of your audience. beehiiv uses that to match you with relevant advertisers.

Boosts let you earn by recommending other newsletters. When someone subscribes to a newsletter you've boosted, you get paid. It's a way to monetize list growth as well as content — your recommendation sends value both ways. Available on paid beehiiv plans.

The Partner Program is beehiiv's referral commission program. You earn a monthly commission for every person you refer who becomes a paying beehiiv customer. Commission tiers:

• Launch: no conversions yet
• Bronze: first conversion — 50% monthly commission for 1 year
• Silver: higher volume — 55% monthly commission for 1 year
• Gold: top volume — 60% monthly commission for 1 year

The commission runs for a full year per paying referral. Any beehiiv account can apply — you don't need a paid plan to participate in the Partner Program.

What you need to start earning

The free plan on beehiiv gets you a functional newsletter platform. You can publish, grow your list, and build an audience without paying anything. But earning from your newsletter directly requires upgrading.

The path to monetization on beehiiv looks like this:

1. Create a free beehiiv account and start publishing.
2. Connect a Stripe or Stripe Express account — all payouts flow through Stripe, and you can't receive money without one.
3. Upgrade to a paid beehiiv plan to unlock Paid Subscriptions, Ad Network access, and Boosts.
4. For Ad Network: add up to 3 tags and a detailed publication description so beehiiv can match you with advertisers.
5. For Direct Sponsorships (the premium Ad Network tier): upgrade to Max or Enterprise.

There's no follower minimum to start or apply. You don't need to hit a subscriber threshold before beehiiv lets you monetize — you just need a paid plan and a connected Stripe account.

beehiiv vs Substack: the fee comparison

The most common comparison is beehiiv versus Substack, and the fee difference is the center of it.

Substack takes 10% of subscription revenue. That's the model: free platform, Substack earns when you earn. No monthly plan fee.

beehiiv takes 0% of subscription revenue but charges a monthly plan fee. You pay for the infrastructure upfront, and keep more of what comes in.

Which is better depends on your earnings:

If your monthly subscription revenue is small — say, $200/month — Substack's cut is $20. beehiiv's paid plan costs more than that at launch stages, so Substack is cheaper.

At $1,000/month in subscription revenue, Substack takes $100. beehiiv's plan fee at entry-level paid tiers is less than that, so beehiiv nets you more.

At $5,000/month, the math strongly favors beehiiv. The platform fee is a fixed cost; Substack's 10% scales with every dollar.

This is the core decision: Substack is cheaper to experiment with at low scale; beehiiv returns more to established newsletters.

Both platforms also have equivalent path features: paid subscriptions, free/paid tier mixing, analytics, and audience management. beehiiv tends to have more native monetization infrastructure (Ad Network, Boosts, Partner Program stacking). Substack has a stronger built-in discovery engine (its reader app, recommendations, and the Substack network) for audience growth.

For a comparison from the membership side, see how much Patreon takes — the structure is different (Patreon is for membership tiers across any content type, not newsletter-first), but the fee trade-off logic is the same.

Who beehiiv works best for

beehiiv makes the most sense for creators who are running — or building toward — a newsletter as a real business, not a side project. The platform is designed to stack revenue streams: subscriptions as the base, Ad Network as passive income on top of that, Boosts adding another layer, and the Partner Program as a fourth line.

That stacking model rewards creators who are willing to optimize across multiple channels. If you want to publish, collect subscriptions, and keep it simple, Substack is arguably less friction. If you want all the monetization levers in one place and you're building toward real volume, beehiiv's infrastructure is built for that.

The Substack Creator Accelerator Fund is worth understanding if you're already on Patreon with $2,000+ MRR and considering a newsletter pivot — they guarantee your first-year revenue for qualifying migrations. And for creators thinking about where newsletters fit in a broader income stack, Ko-fi (tips and memberships at 0–5%) and Medium's Partner Program (reading-time payouts) cover two adjacent models.