Substack’s fee model is straightforward but the maths surprises new creators: the headline 10% rate becomes 13-19% effective once Stripe processing is added. The calculator above shows your real net per subscription for any tier price.
What Substack actually charges
Each paid subscription transaction pays:
- Substack platform fee: 10% flat
- Stripe payment processing: 2.9% + $0.30 (US card rate)
- Currency conversion (if subscriber pays in non-USD): ~2% — not modelled here
For a $5/month subscription: - $5.00 × 10% = $0.50 platform - $5.00 × 2.9% + $0.30 = $0.45 processing - Total: $0.95 (19% of subscription) - Creator net: $4.05/month per subscriber
For a $50/year subscription: - $50.00 × 10% = $5.00 platform - $50.00 × 2.9% + $0.30 = $1.75 processing - Total: $6.75 (13.5% of subscription) - Creator net: $43.25/year per subscriber
Annual subs improve retention AND fee economics. Both are reasons to default to annual-first pricing.
Effective fees by tier price
| Monthly tier | Total fees | Effective % |
|---|---|---|
| $3 | $0.69 | 22.9% |
| $5 | $0.95 | 18.9% |
| $8 | $1.33 | 16.7% |
| $10 | $1.59 | 15.9% |
| $15 | $2.24 | 14.9% |
| $20 | $2.88 | 14.4% |
| $50 | $6.75 | 13.5% |
The fee-percentage curve flattens above $15. Below $8 the Stripe $0.30 fixed component dominates, making sub-$8 tiers economically inefficient. Don’t price your entry tier below $5; consider $8+ for any tier expected to attract significant volume.
Substack vs Patreon — the fee question
Both charge headline 10% (Patreon Pro), but Substack adds Stripe on top while Patreon’s processing is bundled. Net effective rates are similar (13-19%). Choose based on:
- Substack: long-form writing audience, native app distribution, recommendations engine, subscriber-only audio podcasting included, simpler tier structure (one paid + one free)
- Patreon: tier flexibility (multiple paid levels), one-off “tip jar” support, broader content type fit (video, audio, art, code), more mature merchant tooling
For audience fit and content type, the platform choice matters more than the fee delta.
What’s not in this calculator
- Currency conversion for non-USD subscribers (~2%)
- Substack Notes revenue (no direct creator monetisation yet)
- Tax — see side hustle tax calculator
- Refund / chargeback impacts on revenue
- Founding member tiers with one-off premium pricing
For multi-platform creators combining Substack with Patreon, YouTube, and other income streams, the self-employment tax calculator handles the combined-income tax picture once you've totalled earnings across every platform.
Why Substack's paid conversion rate is the number that matters most
Fee percentage gets attention, but it's a secondary lever compared to free-to-paid conversion rate for most Substack writers. A newsletter with 5,000 free subscribers converting at 2% to a $5/month tier generates 100 paying subscribers and roughly $405/month net of fees — the same 5,000-subscriber list converting at 5% (achievable with strong, consistently valuable free content plus a clear paid-tier value proposition) generates 250 paying subscribers and over $1,000/month, more than double, without a single new free subscriber added. Fee optimization (annual-first pricing, tier pricing above $8) moves the needle by single-digit percentage points; conversion rate moves it by multiples.
The founding member tier — psychology over fee math
Founding member tiers (a one-off, premium price point above the standard paid tier, often 3-10x the monthly rate) exist primarily as a way for a newsletter's most committed readers to signal support beyond what the standard tier captures — not because the fee structure changes at that price point. Substack's standard 10% + Stripe processing applies identically to a founding-member payment as any other subscription revenue. The real function of a founding tier is segmenting genuinely high-willingness-to-pay readers who'd happily pay more than the standard ask, capturing that extra value without needing to raise the price for everyone else.