Prerequisites
- Something you can write consistently about
- A Stripe account, to receive payments
"Substack takes 10%" is the number everyone repeats. It's accurate and it's incomplete, because Substack's cut is one of three separate charges on every payment.
Publishing Is Genuinely Free
Worth stating first, because it's the genuinely good part of the deal: Substack says publishing is free "no matter how many subscribers you have."
There is no monthly platform fee, no per-email cost, and no subscriber tier pricing. You can build a list of fifty thousand free readers and pay nothing. Fees begin only when you enable paid subscriptions, and only on money you actually collect.
That is a materially better arrangement than most email platforms, which charge by list size whether you earn anything or not.
The Three Charges
Once you take payment, this is what comes out:
| Deduction | Amount |
|---|---|
| Substack | 10% of each transaction |
| Stripe card fee | 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction |
| Stripe Billing fee (recurring) | 0.7% as of July 2024 |
⚠️ Warning
Many articles still quote Stripe's Billing fee as 0.5%. Substack's own page says that rate was replaced — creators who enabled payments before 10 July 2024 kept 0.5% only until 30 June 2025. If a comparison you're reading uses 0.5%, it is out of date.
The Real Arithmetic on $10
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Subscriber pays | $10.00 |
| Substack (10%) | −$1.00 |
| Stripe card fee (2.9% + $0.30) | −$0.59 |
| Stripe Billing fee (0.7%) | −$0.07 |
| You keep | $8.34 |
That's 83.4%, not 90%. The effective rate is 16.6% — two thirds higher than the headline number.
Annual Plans Quietly Pay You More
Here's the part almost nobody calculates. Stripe's $0.30 is a fixed fee per transaction, so it lands twelve times on a monthly plan and once on an annual one.
Compare $120 of annual revenue collected two ways:
| Total fees | You keep | |
|---|---|---|
| 12 monthly payments of $10 | $19.92 | $100.08 |
| One annual payment of $120 | $16.62 | $103.38 |
That's $3.30 more per subscriber per year, for the same revenue and the same reader — purely from how the payment is structured.
💡 Pro Tip
With 500 paying subscribers, shifting them from monthly to annual is worth about $1,650 a year in avoided fees alone. That's before counting the reduced churn that annual billing usually brings. It's the highest-leverage pricing decision available to a newsletter, and it costs nothing to offer.
The Fixed Fee Punishes Cheap Subscriptions
The same $0.30 explains why very low prices don't work on Substack:
| Monthly price | Fees | You keep | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| $3 | $0.71 | $2.29 | 23.6% |
| $5 | $0.98 | $4.02 | 19.6% |
| $10 | $1.66 | $8.34 | 16.6% |
| $20 | $3.02 | $16.98 | 15.1% |
At $3 a month you surrender almost a quarter of revenue. Substack's own minimum pricing reflects this reality — pricing low to attract subscribers costs you disproportionately, and you need far more of them.
What Isn't Included
Two costs sit outside this table:
Payouts and currency. Stripe pays into your bank account, and if that involves a currency conversion, there's a spread on top. The same trap that catches freelancers using PayPal applies here.
Tax. Subscription revenue is income. In the US, self-employment tax alone is 15.3% of net earnings before income tax. Roughly 83% of gross is what reaches your business, not what reaches you.
✅ Action Step
If you already run a paid newsletter, check what proportion of your subscribers are on annual plans. If most are monthly, offering a discounted annual option — even at two months free — often nets you more than monthly billing does, because you stop paying the $0.30 twelve times over.
Where to Verify Any of This
Substack publishes both its own cut and the Stripe fees on the page linked below, and it is the only source here that reflects the July 2024 Billing fee change. Fee structures move, so confirm current rates there rather than relying on any summary, including this one.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Substack take?
Substack takes 10% of each transaction. On top of that Stripe charges a credit card fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, plus a Billing fee for recurring subscriptions of 0.7% as of July 2024. On a $10 monthly subscription that totals about $1.66, leaving you roughly $8.34.
Is Substack free to use?
Yes for publishing. Substack states publishing is free no matter how many subscribers you have. Fees apply only once you enable paid subscriptions, and only on money you actually collect.
Why do I keep less than 90% on Substack?
Because Substack's 10% is only the first deduction. Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 and its 0.7% recurring Billing fee come out as well. Combined they take roughly 16.6% of a $10 monthly subscription, not 10%.
Are annual Substack subscriptions better than monthly?
Yes, because Stripe's $0.30 fixed fee is charged per transaction. Twelve monthly payments incur it twelve times; one annual payment incurs it once. On $120 a year that is about $3.30 more kept per subscriber.
Sources & Further Reading
Every factual claim in this guide is drawn from primary, authoritative sources. Figures reflect the referenced pages at the time of our last review and can change — always confirm current terms on the official site.
- 1How much does Substack cost? — Substack
- 2How do I set up my Stripe account on Substack? — Substack
- 3PayPal Merchant Fees (US) — PayPal
- 4Self-Employment Tax (Social Security and Medicare Taxes) — Internal Revenue Service
EarnRoutes Editorial
Researched and fact-checked against primary sources
Compiled from Substack's published pricing documentation, which lists both its own cut and the Stripe fees that apply on top. Every percentage quoted here is stated by Substack itself, linked in the source list below.
Last reviewed on September 3, 2026