AudienceBench

How to Set Up Paid Subscriptions on beehiiv (2026)

Enable beehiiv paid subscriptions: Lite+ required, Stripe setup, tiers, 0% platform fee vs Stripe, and paid-subscriber import caveats from official docs.

By AudienceBench Editorial · Published · Pricing & docs checked

beehiiv lets you charge readers for premium content with paid subscription tiers, Stripe checkout, and paywalls. Paid subscriptions are not on Free—you need a paid beehiiv plan (Lite or higher). beehiiv’s pricing FAQ says the platform takes 0% of paid subscription revenue; Stripe’s standard processing fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction still applies.

This guide walks through what beehiiv’s official help center and pricing page documented on October 9, 2026: plan requirements, connecting Stripe, creating tiers, fees, and the caveats when you import existing paid subscribers. Menu names change, so if a screen looks different, beehiiv’s help article is the source of truth.

How we researched this: Every step below comes from beehiiv’s help center (paid subscription tiers, Stripe setup, import paid subscribers) and beehiiv’s public pricing and paid-subscriptions feature pages. We haven’t set up paid subscriptions on our own beehiiv account for this article.

About our links: beehiiv links on this page are affiliate links (/go/beehiiv). Our recommendations would be the same without them.

What you need before you start

From beehiiv’s docs and pricing page (checked October 9, 2026):

  1. A paid beehiiv plan. The paid-subscription tiers help article is marked for All Paid Plans. beehiiv’s feature comparison lists paid subscriptions on Lite, Pro, and Enterprise, not Free. Lite allows 1 paid subscription tier; Pro and Enterprise list unlimited tiers.
  2. An active Stripe account you can connect to beehiiv. Free digital products don’t need Stripe; paid subscriptions and paid digital products do.
  3. Clarity on what you’re selling: monthly / quarterly / annual recurring access, a one-time (lifetime) payment, or pay-what-you-want—and which perks sit behind the paywall.

Plan prices (context only). On October 9, 2026, beehiiv’s pricing page showed Lite at $59/mo monthly or $49/mo billed yearly at 1,000 subscribers, and Pro at $109/mo monthly or $95/mo billed yearly. Free remains $0 up to 2,500 subscribers but without paid subscriptions. Full tier tables: beehiiv pricing explained.

Start on beehiiv

Fees: beehiiv 0% vs Stripe

beehiiv’s pricing FAQ (October 9, 2026) answers “Do you take a cut of my paid subscriptions or product sales?” with: No. beehiiv takes 0% of paid subscription and digital product revenue. You keep what you earn, minus Stripe’s standard processing fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.

beehiiv’s paid-subscriptions feature page makes the same claim: zero revenue share from beehiiv; Stripe charges the industry-standard processing fee.

What that means in practice: if a reader pays $10 once, Stripe’s fee on a typical card charge is about $0.59 (2.9% of $10 + $0.30), and beehiiv does not take an additional platform percentage on that subscription payment—per beehiiv’s published FAQ. Always confirm current Stripe rates in your Stripe account and region.

Source: beehiiv pricing FAQ and Paid Newsletter Subscriptions, checked October 9, 2026.

Step 1: Enable paid subscriptions and connect Stripe

beehiiv’s Stripe help article (updated October 1, 2026) and tiers article (updated October 2, 2026) describe the same path:

  1. From the left panel, go to Subscriptions.
  2. Click Create your first paid tier (or, if you’ve started before: Tiers → + New Tier).
  3. If prompted, click Enable under Enable paid subscriptions.
  4. When asked to Connect Stripe account, select your country, then Connect to Stripe.
  5. Complete Stripe’s portal steps (email, password, verification, business details, agree and submit).

Important Stripe notes from beehiiv’s docs:

  • The Stripe account for paid subscriptions and digital products is separate from the publication-specific Stripe Express account used for paid recommendations or the Ad Network.
  • After connecting, revenue from paid subscriptions appears in the Stripe account associated with beehiiv paid subscriptions (beehiiv says to pick that account from the Stripe account switcher).
  • Stripe does not support every country; beehiiv points you to Stripe’s supported-countries list. India is called out as invitation-only via Stripe.
  • Default checkout methods through Stripe’s external checkout include major cards plus Apple Pay and Google Pay; additional methods are configured in Stripe. beehiiv notes those extra methods apply to Stripe’s external checkout and are not supported inside internal pricing blocks on your website.

Source: Setting up a Stripe account for paid subscriptions and digital products, checked October 9, 2026.

Step 2: Create a paid subscription tier

beehiiv’s “How to set up and use paid subscription tiers” article (updated October 2, 2026) describes a three-step flow, then save:

Tier details

  1. Go to Subscriptions → Tiers → + New Tier.
  2. Enter a Name (required) and optional Preview Text (shown on paywalls and the upgrade page).
  3. Click Next.

Pricing and benefits

  1. Choose a currency (beehiiv lists USD, AUD, BRL, CAD, EUR, GBP, INR, MXN, NZD, among others on the help page).
  2. Toggle the plan types you want:
    • Recurring subscription: monthly, quarterly, and/or annual.
    • One-time payment: single payment, no recurring billing.
    • Pay-what-you-want: readers choose what they pay for lifetime access, starting at $1.00. Enabling this disables all other plan types on that tier. beehiiv notes Stripe limitations block pay-what-you-want in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, and Thailand.
  3. For each option, set Price, Button Text, and Benefits (benefits appear on the Upgrade page and Pricing block cards).
  4. Preview how the tier will look; use Edit in website builder if you want to change presentation.

Tech notes from beehiiv:

  • Creating a tier does not automatically make it visible on your upgrade page or pricing blocks. You must enable visibility (eye icon) in the website builder, then publish the website.
  • Group subscriptions (Pro and Enterprise only) require an annual billing cadence on the tier.
  • The number of tiers you can create depends on your plan (Lite: 1; Pro/Enterprise: unlimited, per the pricing feature table).

Advanced settings, then save

Optional toggles beehiiv lists: gift subscriptions, group subscriptions (Pro/Enterprise), a redirect URL after payment (per tier), and Discord role integration. Click Create to save the tier. Selling seats to teams or companies? See our guide to beehiiv group subscriptions.

Source: How to set up and use paid subscription tiers, checked October 9, 2026.

Step 3: Show tiers on your site and gate content

After tiers exist:

  1. Confirm Enable paid subscriptions is on under Subscriptions → Tiers → Settings (troubleshooting section of the same help article).
  2. In the Website Builder, turn on tier visibility and publish. If tiers don’t appear, beehiiv’s troubleshooting checklist covers: newly created tiers hidden by default, website onboarding incomplete, paid subscriptions toggled off, and placeholder data still on in the Pricing block.
  3. In the Post Builder, set Email Audience / Web Audience, and use section Visibility so specific blocks only show to paid tiers.

You can also segment by paid tier and use automation triggers such as Upgraded (per the help article).

Paid tiers can also gate a beehiiv Community or individual channels inside it: see beehiiv Community explained for the access options and why a two-tier ladder needs Pro.

Source: same paid subscription tiers article, checked October 9, 2026.

Managing prices, pauses, and multiple tiers

From beehiiv’s FAQ in that article:

  • Price changes apply to new subscribers only. Existing subscribers keep their current price unless they cancel and re-subscribe.
  • Archiving a tier keeps access for existing subscribers but blocks new ones; deleting is permanent.
  • Toggling paid subscriptions off stops new readers from joining, but does not stop Stripe from charging active subscribers—you must manage cancellations/pauses in Stripe as well.
  • Letting readers pause instead of cancel is a separate, reader-side feature: see beehiiv’s retention flow (pause, downgrade discount, survey).
  • Multiple recurring subscriptions for one reader are off by default (a new purchase replaces the old one). You can allow multiples under Subscriptions → Tiers → Settings → Allow Multiple Recurring Subscriptions. That setting does not affect one-time or pay-what-you-want purchases.

Importing paid subscribers (read this before you migrate)

If you’re moving a paid list from another platform, use beehiiv’s How to import paid subscribers guide (updated October 5, 2026; paid plans). High-level flow beehiiv documents:

  1. Copy customer/payment data from your source Stripe account into your beehiiv Stripe account (Stripe’s customer copy process; beehiiv says it can take up to 72 hours).
  2. Give beehiiv access to the source Stripe account (Account ID starting with acct_ plus a restricted API key with read access to customers, products, coupons, and subscriptions).
  3. Map Stripe products to beehiiv tiers (create tiers in-flow if needed).
  4. Review and Start Import; watch Uploaded / Processed / Skipped counts.
  5. After success, cancel billing on the previous platform yourself so subscribers aren’t double-charged.

Caveats beehiiv calls out:

  • You need both an active Stripe account connected to beehiiv and a source Stripe account from the old platform.
  • Imported subscribers keep their legacy price, even if you map them to a higher beehiiv tier. Only new beehiiv signups pay the new tier price.
  • Migrated subscribers are billed on their regular renewal date and placed on a temporary trial until then to prevent double billing.
  • The process “may vary depending on the platform you are migrating from.”
  • Separately, beehiiv’s Kit migration guide says paid subscribers on Kit’s built-in Stripe Express connection can’t be transferred the same way—see migrate Kit to beehiiv if that’s your case.

Source: How to import paid subscribers, checked October 9, 2026.

Our recommendation

Based on beehiiv’s published docs:

  • Upgrade to Lite (or higher) before you promise readers a paywall. Free does not include paid subscriptions.
  • Connect a standard Stripe account dedicated to subscriptions/products (not the Ad Network Express account).
  • Start with one clear tier on Lite (you only get one paid tier there). Add gifts, group plans, or many tiers when you move to Pro if you need them.
  • Publish website visibility after you create tiers—creating alone doesn’t put prices on the Upgrade page.
  • If you’re importing paid members, budget time for the Stripe copy step and cancel the old platform only after beehiiv shows a successful migration.

Try beehiiv · beehiiv pricing explained · Migrate to beehiiv from Kit · Migrate from Substack

FAQ

What beehiiv plan do I need for paid subscriptions?

A paid plan. beehiiv’s feature table lists paid subscriptions on Lite, Pro, and Enterprise. The help article is scoped to All Paid Plans. Free does not include them.

Source: beehiiv pricing feature table and paid subscription tiers help article, checked October 9, 2026.

Does beehiiv take a cut of subscription revenue?

beehiiv’s pricing FAQ says 0% platform take on paid subscriptions and digital products. Stripe’s 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction still applies.

Do I need Stripe?

Yes, for paid subscriptions (and paid digital products). Free digital products do not require Stripe.

Can I offer monthly and annual pricing?

Yes. Recurring options documented in the help center include monthly, quarterly, and annual. You can also offer one-time and pay-what-you-want (with the limits noted above).

How many paid tiers can I create?

Per beehiiv’s feature table on October 9, 2026: 1 on Lite; unlimited on Pro and Enterprise.

Will changing my price raise what current subscribers pay?

No. beehiiv’s FAQ says price updates apply to new subscribers only unless existing subscribers cancel and re-subscribe.

Sources

All checked October 9, 2026.