beehiiv Pricing Breakdown - What Every Plan Costs and Gets You

The Short Answer on beehiiv Pricing

beehiiv has four plans: Launch (free), Scale (starts at $43/mo billed annually or $49/mo monthly), Max (starts at $96/mo billed annually or $109/mo monthly), and Enterprise (custom pricing for 100,000+ subscribers).

The free plan is genuinely useful. Scale is where I see most newsletter operators end up. And the Max plan makes sense once you are running multiple publications or need to strip beehiiv branding.

That is the quick version. But if you are comparing platforms, deciding between monthly and annual billing, or trying to figure out at what list size beehiiv becomes cheaper than Substack or Mailchimp - read the rest of this.

beehiiv Pricing by Plan

Launch - Free

The Launch plan is free forever. It supports up to 2,500 active subscribers and includes unlimited email sends. Compare that to Mailchimp, whose free plan caps you at 250 contacts and just 500 monthly emails, or Kit (formerly ConvertKit), whose free plan allows unlimited sends up to 1,000 subscribers.

beehiiv's Launch plan also includes custom domain sending, audience segmentation, API access, a website builder, and landing pages. These are features that other platforms put behind a paywall.

What you do not get on the free plan: the ad network, referral program, automations, paid subscriptions, A/B testing, or surveys. Those all require Scale or above.

One thing worth knowing: when you sign up for beehiiv, you automatically get a free trial of either the Scale or Max plan - no credit card required. You get a real look at the paid features before committing to anything.

Scale - Starts at $43/mo (Annual) or $49/mo (Monthly)

Scale is where beehiiv unlocks its growth and monetization stack. This plan gives you access to the ad network, Boosts, paid subscriptions with a 0% platform fee, referral program, automations, A/B testing, polls, and advanced analytics.

The pricing scales with your active subscriber count. Here is how it breaks down on the annual plan:

• Up to 1,000 subscribers: $43/mo
• Up to 2,500 subscribers: $69/mo
• Up to 5,000 subscribers: $99/mo
• Up to 10,000 subscribers: approximately $149/mo
• Up to 100,000 subscribers: continues to scale upward with each tier

You can use the interactive calculator on beehiiv's pricing page to check your exact cost by subscriber count. Annual billing saves you roughly 15-20% compared to month-to-month.

The Scale plan allows up to 3 publications in your workspace and supports up to 100,000 active subscribers across all of them before requiring an upgrade to Enterprise.

Max - Starts at $96/mo (Annual) or $109/mo (Monthly)

The Max plan adds a handful of things that matter at a specific stage: removing beehiiv branding from your newsletter and website, access to up to 10 publications in one workspace, priority support with faster response times, and access to the NewsletterXP course (previously sold separately for $999).

Like Scale, Max pricing scales by subscriber count. At the entry level, it is $96/mo annually. Most operators running a single newsletter find Scale is enough. Max becomes valuable when you are building a media company with multiple newsletters under one roof.

Enterprise - Custom Pricing

Enterprise kicks in once you cross 100,000 active subscribers across your workspace. You contact beehiiv directly for pricing. It includes everything in Max plus dedicated onboarding, custom account management, and infrastructure built for large-scale publishing operations.

The One Thing Most Pricing Comparisons Miss

beehiiv takes 0% of your paid subscription revenue. None. You keep everything except the standard Stripe processing fee of 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction.

This number matters more than the monthly plan cost once you start monetizing. Substack charges 10% of all paid subscription revenue - forever. At $10,000/month in subscription revenue, that is $1,000 going to Substack every single month, on top of Stripe fees. On beehiiv, that $1,000 stays with you.

One analysis calculated that on $120,000 in annual subscription revenue, a Substack publisher walks away with roughly $97,668 after fees. On beehiiv, that same publisher keeps around $109,320. The difference is $11,652 per year - more than enough to cover beehiiv's annual plan cost many times over.

The math flips even harder as your paid subscriber count grows. A newsletter charging $100/year with 5,000 paying subscribers generates $500,000 in annual revenue. Substack's 10% take on that is $50,000. beehiiv's flat monthly fee at that subscriber count is a fraction of that number.

beehiiv vs Mailchimp - Pricing at Scale

Mailchimp charges on a contact-based model with email send limits. At 5,000 contacts, Mailchimp Standard starts around $110/month with a cap on monthly emails. At 50,000 contacts, Mailchimp pricing exceeds $600/month.

beehiiv charges a flat tier-based fee and includes unlimited sends on every plan. At 5,000 subscribers on beehiiv's Scale plan billed annually, you are paying approximately $99/month with no sending limits.

One practitioner who tested both platforms documented that at 5,000 subscribers, beehiiv saves over $612/year compared to Mailchimp - and includes features like a built-in referral program and ad network that Mailchimp does not offer at all.

Mailchimp has evolved into a broad marketing platform built primarily for e-commerce and enterprise teams. beehiiv is built for newsletter publishers. Mailchimp's learning curve and pricing have both grown as it added CRM complexity, social publishing, and retargeting tools that newsletter operators rarely use.

beehiiv vs Kit (formerly ConvertKit)

Kit's free Newsletter plan allows unlimited sends to up to 10,000 subscribers for free. Kit allows 10,000 free subscribers versus beehiiv's 2,500. If your list is under 10,000 and you do not need monetization tools or automations, Kit's free plan beats beehiiv's on subscriber count alone.

But the calculus changes on paid plans. Kit's Creator plan starts at $25/month for 1,000 subscribers. Kit is cheaper than beehiiv for very small paid lists, but its pricing often exceeds beehiiv's once you pass roughly 3,000 subscribers.

More importantly, Kit does not have beehiiv's native ad network or Boosts system. The built-in monetization infrastructure that beehiiv includes in Scale requires third-party integrations or separate tools on Kit. If your goal is to make money from the newsletter itself - not just use it as a traffic channel for a course or coaching program - beehiiv's ecosystem is more complete.

The one area where Kit consistently wins: automation builder depth and migration tooling. Kit has dedicated importing tools for users moving from ActiveCampaign, GetResponse, Drip, and Mailchimp. If you are running multi-step product launch sequences and need deep funnel automation, Kit still has an edge. For pure newsletter growth and monetization, beehiiv is more purpose-built.

beehiiv vs Substack - Two Different Business Models

Substack's appeal is its built-in writer discovery network and zero upfront cost. The platform is free to use as long as your newsletter is free. Once you enable paid subscriptions, Substack takes 10% of all revenue plus Stripe fees.

beehiiv costs money upfront through its monthly plan. Creators who are not yet generating revenue will feel that cost. But the comparison flips decisively once paid subscribers start converting.

A creator with 2,000 paying subscribers at $10/month is generating $20,000/month. Substack's 10% cut is $2,000/month, or $24,000/year. beehiiv's Scale plan at that subscriber count costs a fraction of that. The break-even point comes much sooner than most creators expect.

Substack's advantage is its social and discovery layer. Its Notes feature and reader network mean your writing can surface to new readers without external marketing. beehiiv has no equivalent newsfeed discovery mechanism - you have to bring your own growth through SEO, social, or the paid Boosts system. For writers who want organic discovery without managing growth themselves, Substack is easier at the start.

For operators who view their newsletter as a business asset with multiple revenue streams - ads, paid subscriptions, affiliate recommendations, and Boosts - beehiiv's toolset is more complete and its economics are better at any meaningful scale.

What the beehiiv Ad Network and Boosts Pay

The reason beehiiv's pricing looks expensive on paper but feels cheap in practice is the monetization infrastructure. Specifically, two features that have no equivalent on most competing platforms.

The Ad Network

beehiiv's ad network operates on both CPM (cost per 1,000 unique opens) and CPC (cost per verified click) models. A CPM ad at $10 with 10,000 unique opens earns $100 from a single send. A CPC deal at $2 per click with 100 verified clicks pays out $200.

You can run up to 3 ads per newsletter issue. You accept or decline each offer. beehiiv handles the advertiser relationships, creative delivery, fraud detection, and payout processing. Payouts land on the 20th of each month for the prior month's ads. Brands including Netflix, Notion, and HubSpot have run campaigns through the network.

At 1,000 subscribers, a newsletter with a 40-60% open rate can expect CPM earnings of roughly $5-20 per send depending on niche. Finance and B2B newsletters typically command higher CPM rates. One creator documented earning roughly $92/month from ad placements and Boosts combined before reaching 2,000 subscribers. That meaningfully offsets the monthly Scale plan cost in the early months.

Boosts

Boosts is beehiiv's cross-promotion system. You earn $1-3 per verified subscriber you send to other newsletters in the marketplace. You can also pay to acquire subscribers from other newsletters at similar rates.

The average cost to acquire one active subscriber through Boosts is approximately $1.63, according to beehiiv's own data. Subscribers acquired through Boosts historically open at over 40% - high for a paid acquisition channel.

One newsletter documented sending 50 subscribers to a partner newsletter via Boosts, with 45 passing verification, earning $90 at $2 per verified subscriber. Those wins add up consistently across every send for newsletters with engaged lists.

beehiiv Costs at Different Stages

Here is how the math works at different points in newsletter growth, using annual Scale plan pricing.

Under 1,000 subscribers: $43/mo on Scale (annual) or free on Launch. I stayed on Launch until I had something worth monetizing - there's no reason to pay before that point. You can upgrade any time from Settings.

1,000-2,500 subscribers: $43-69/mo on Scale. If you are running ads and Boosts actively, even a 1,000-subscriber list can generate $100-500/month in passive revenue on an engaged list. The plan pays for itself within the first few months for lists with 40%+ open rates.

5,000 subscribers: Approximately $99/mo on Scale (annual). At this size with a 40% open rate, a weekly newsletter can realistically earn $200-400/month from the ad network alone, plus Boost income. Net cost after monetization is often close to zero for high-engagement lists.

10,000+ subscribers: The tier pricing continues upward, but the revenue potential scales with it. At 10,000 subscribers in a finance or B2B niche, realistic annual revenue from ads and paid subscriptions can reach $30,000-100,000/year depending on monetization strategy and engagement. The platform cost is a small percentage of that at any tier.

Annual vs Monthly Billing

Annual billing saves roughly 15-20% on both Scale and Max. On Scale, that is approximately $6/mo saved at the base tier - more at higher subscriber tiers where the monthly price is higher.

beehiiv lets you try Scale and Max without a credit card. If you test the trial and decide to upgrade, annual billing is almost always the better financial choice unless your subscriber count is growing so fast you expect to move up multiple tiers within months.

One practical note: beehiiv has an auto-upgrade option in Settings that automatically bumps your subscriber tier when you hit the limit. This prevents delivery delays if your list spikes unexpectedly. You will be charged a prorated amount for the next tier when it activates.

Who Should Pick Which Plan

Launch (Free): Anyone starting out or testing the platform. You get a functioning newsletter with unlimited sends, custom domain, website, segmentation, and API access up to 2,500 subscribers. It is a real newsletter platform.

Scale: The right home for newsletters treating this as a business. Once you want ad revenue, paid subscriptions, automations, A/B testing, or the referral program, Scale is where you need to be. The vast majority of active beehiiv operators run on this plan.

Max: Makes sense when you need to strip beehiiv branding, manage up to 10 newsletters in one workspace, or when priority support matters. The NewsletterXP course access is worth noting for operators newer to newsletter monetization - it previously sold for $999 as a standalone product.

Enterprise: For publishers and media operations above 100,000 subscribers who need dedicated infrastructure and white-labeling. Contact beehiiv directly for pricing at this scale.

The Referral Program Is Worth More Than It Looks

beehiiv's built-in referral program is available on all paid plans. It was designed by the same team that built Morning Brew's referral infrastructure. Morning Brew's referral program took the newsletter from 100,000 subscribers to 1.5 million in 18 months. At its peak, Morning Brew averaged over 1,000 referrals per day, with 30% of all new subscribers coming through the referral channel.

The beehiiv version lets you set custom milestones and rewards, automates tracking and milestone notifications, and handles fraud detection. When beehiiv launched its referral program tool publicly, one newsletter saw over 350 referrals from its very first send after activating it.

The referral program is a near-zero-cost subscriber acquisition channel. If your list is growing through referrals, the effective cost per subscriber drops toward the cost of your reward. For digital incentives - exclusive content, early access, resource documents - that cost is essentially zero. Compare that to Boosts at $1.63 per verified subscriber or paid social acquisition that regularly costs $3-10+ per subscriber in competitive niches.

What Operators Are Doing With beehiiv

Across case studies and published operator data, a consistent pattern emerges at the 1,000-5,000 subscriber range: newsletters on Scale often find the plan pays for itself through Boosts and ad placements within the first 90 days of active monetization.

For email-first businesses using their newsletter as a lead generation tool rather than relying on paid subscriptions, the math is even more favorable. The cost to build a warm email audience on a platform that charges per send or per contact scales badly as volume grows. beehiiv's flat tier pricing with unlimited sends is structurally cheaper at scale.

One agency operator running B2B outreach described it plainly: a warm list you own is the most reliable asset in the business. Newsletter subscribers sit at the overlap of owned audience and warm leads. That ownership calculus is why email platforms have grown quickly among operators who understand list economics.

If you are building a B2B audience and want to grow your contact base before funneling them into a newsletter or outreach sequence, Try ScraperCity free - it lets you search millions of contacts by title, industry, location, and company size, so you have a warm seed list from day one rather than starting from zero.

Migration and Switching Costs

I've seen people move to beehiiv and finish faster than they planned. beehiiv has migrated lists of 500,000+ subscribers via CSV import without data loss. The list itself imports in roughly 2 minutes. Automations need to be rebuilt - beehiiv's support team can help map existing workflows - with full operational transition typically taking 1-2 weeks.

Substack users can export their subscriber list and import directly into beehiiv. Paid subscribers can transfer without being notified - their payment method, billing cycle, and subscription stay unchanged. The only change is you stop losing 10% of revenue to Substack going forward.

Kit users lose the advantage of Kit's dedicated migration tooling. On beehiiv, it is CSV or API import, which is straightforward but slightly more manual. For large migrations, beehiiv's Max and Enterprise plans include dedicated onboarding support.

The Hidden Cost of Staying on the Free Plan

The Launch plan is generous, but there is one meaningful gap that catches people by surprise: automations are not available on the free plan. This means no welcome sequence triggers, no drip sequences, and no automated subscriber journeys.

For anyone building a newsletter that should do something when a new subscriber joins - even just a single welcome email - you need Scale. Operators who assumed automations were a freebie will find out otherwise when they go to set them up.

The same applies to A/B testing and the ad network. If you want to run split tests on subject lines or earn from ad placements, the free plan will not get you there. These are the features that move the revenue needle fastest on a growing list, which is why Scale is the right default for anyone treating their newsletter as more than a hobby.

Final Take on beehiiv Pricing

beehiiv's pricing structure is built around a simple premise: the platform should pay for itself as your newsletter grows. The ad network, Boosts, and 0% take rate on paid subscriptions are not marketing language - they offset the monthly plan cost at modest scale.

For creators coming from Substack, the transition economics are straightforward: pay more upfront with a monthly fee, keep far more per paid subscriber. For creators coming from Mailchimp, the trade is fewer broad marketing automation features but a dramatically better native newsletter toolkit at lower cost per subscriber at scale.

The free Launch plan is the right starting point for anyone not yet monetizing. Scale is where the platform performs. Max answers a specific question about multiple publications and branding control. Enterprise is for large-scale publishing operations that need the full infrastructure stack.

Pick the plan that matches where your newsletter is today. The tier-based structure means your costs scale with your actual audience size, and you can upgrade any time. The free trial is the most honest way to evaluate which plan you need - use it before paying anything.