AudienceBench

How to Import Paid Subscribers into beehiiv (2026)

Move paying readers to beehiiv via Stripe: plan needs, customer copy, tier mapping, legacy prices, comps, and what can't move from Kit, Substack, or Mailchimp.

By AudienceBench Editorial · Published · Pricing & docs checked

Moving paying readers to beehiiv is not a CSV upload. It’s a Stripe-to-Stripe move. You copy your customers and their saved cards from the Stripe account your old platform used into the Stripe account connected to beehiiv. Then beehiiv’s paid subscription import tool reads your old subscriptions and recreates them on beehiiv tiers. Readers keep their current price and renewal date, and nobody has to re-enter a card. You need a paid beehiiv plan (Lite or higher), and you have to stop billing on the old platform afterward.

This guide is based on beehiiv’s official paid-import, Substack and Kit migration, Stripe setup, paid tiers, and offers help articles, Stripe’s own data-copy documentation, and beehiiv’s public pricing page. We re-checked all of them on October 15, 2026. Menu names change. If a screen looks different, those help articles are the source of truth.

How we researched this: Every step, limit, and price below comes from beehiiv’s help center and pricing page, plus Stripe’s documentation and pricing page. We haven’t run a paid-subscriber import on our own beehiiv account for this article. We have no paying subscribers to move.

About our links: beehiiv links on this page are affiliate links (/go/beehiiv). Where we mention Kit, that link goes through /go/kit, which currently forwards straight to Kit’s homepage. We don’t earn a commission from Kit. Stripe, Substack, and Mailchimp are linked directly or not at all, and we don’t earn from them either. Our recommendations would be the same either way.

The short version

QuestionAnswer from today’s official sources
Which beehiiv plan?Any paid plan. The import article is scoped to All Paid Plans. The pricing table lists paid subscriptions on Lite, Pro, Enterprise (not Free).
What actually moves?Stripe customers and their saved payment methods (copied by Stripe). beehiiv then recreates the subscriptions on the tiers you map.
Do readers pay a new price?No. beehiiv says imported subscribers keep their current price even if the beehiiv tier costs more.
Do they get charged twice?Not by beehiiv. Migrated subscribers sit on a temporary trial until their normal renewal date. The old platform will keep charging them until you pause or cancel billing there.
How long does it take?Stripe’s copy: beehiiv says “up to 72 hours… generally much faster.” beehiiv’s import step itself takes “a few minutes to several hours.”
What can’t move automatically?Kit + Stripe Express paid subscriptions; Substack comped, gifted, and iOS (App Store) subscriptions. None of these live in a Stripe account you can copy from.
Does beehiiv take a cut?beehiiv’s pricing FAQ: 0% of paid subscription revenue. Stripe’s standard 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction still applies.

Start on beehiiv

What you need before you start

From beehiiv’s docs and pricing page (checked October 15, 2026):

  1. A paid beehiiv plan. The paid-import article is labeled All Paid Plans (“Available on paid beehiiv plans”). On the pricing feature table, Paid subscriptions shows — on Free and Yes on Lite, Pro, and Enterprise.
  2. A Stripe account connected to your beehiiv publication for paid subscriptions. This is a different account from the Stripe Express account beehiiv creates per publication for paid recommendations or the Ad Network. beehiiv’s Stripe setup article spells that out. Walkthrough: How to set up paid subscriptions on beehiiv.
  3. Access to the Stripe account your old platform used (the “source” account). You’ll need to log in to it, copy customers out of it, and create a read-only API key in it. If you can’t get into that account’s Stripe dashboard, see the Kit section below.
  4. Enough paid tiers on beehiiv. beehiiv’s pricing table lists paid subscription tiers as 1 on Lite and Unlimited on Pro and Enterprise. You can map several old Stripe products into one beehiiv tier, and readers still keep their old prices. So Lite can work if a single tier is fine for you. If you want separate tiers (for example “Supporter” and “Founding member”), you’ll need Pro.
  5. An activated recipient Stripe account. Stripe’s copy docs say the account receiving the data must be activated for payments.

Plan prices (context)

From beehiiv’s pricing page, checked October 15, 2026:

SubscribersLite (billed yearly / monthly)Pro (billed yearly / monthly)
1,000$49 / $59 per month$95 / $109 per month
2,500$69 / $79 per month$129 / $149 per month
5,000$95 / $109 per month$169 / $199 per month
10,000$119 / $139 per month$199 / $239 per month

Free is $0 up to 2,500 subscribers but can’t run paid subscriptions. The pricing FAQ says Lite and Pro include a free trial with no credit card needed. beehiiv counts subscribers as unique email addresses (Lite up to 100,000; Pro up to 250,000), and imported paid readers land in your main Subscribers list. So size the plan for your whole list, free and paid together. Full tier tables: beehiiv pricing explained.

Fees after the move

beehiiv’s pricing FAQ says 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.” Stripe’s pricing page (checked October 15, 2026) lists 2.9% + 30¢ per successful transaction for domestic cards on its standard pricing. International cards and other payment methods can cost more. Check your own Stripe dashboard for your account’s rates.

How the move works (and why it’s two separate copies)

Stripe’s data copy documentation (checked October 15, 2026) explains what Stripe will and won’t copy between accounts:

  • Copied: raw Customer objects plus their saved payment data. That covers cards and US ACH bank accounts, plus SEPA mandates stored as payment methods.
  • Not copied: charges, invoices, plans, subscriptions, coupons, events, and guest customers. Stripe also can’t copy SEPA sources, Bacs Direct Debit, or Canadian pre-authorized debits.
  • It’s a copy, not a move. The data stays in the old account too. Customer IDs stay the same, and saved payment methods get new IDs (Stripe puts a mapping CSV in the recipient account’s Documents).
  • Deleted customers can’t be copied, and guest customers (gcus_) aren’t copied.

That’s why beehiiv’s tool has two halves. Stripe copies the customers and cards. Then beehiiv uses a read-only key on your old account to see your products and subscriptions and recreate them in your beehiiv-connected Stripe account.

Step 1: Copy your Stripe customers into your beehiiv Stripe account

Keep beehiiv and Stripe open in separate tabs. beehiiv recommends this.

  1. In beehiiv, click the Settings icon (bottom-left). If you have several publications, pick the right one at the top left.
  2. Click Subscribers import. Under Import paid subscriptions from Stripe, click Start a new migration.
  3. Read the note about canceling subscriptions with your previous provider, then click Start a New Migration again.
  4. Follow the on-screen copy instructions. beehiiv shows your beehiiv Stripe account ID and a Go to Stripe link.
  5. In Stripe, switch to the source account (the one your old platform used). Go to Customers → Copy → Copy all customers, paste the beehiiv Stripe account ID, and confirm the request. These are the labels from beehiiv’s Substack guide. Stripe’s docs call the button Copy customers.
  6. Switch to your beehiiv-connected Stripe account, open Customers, and accept the pending transfer.
  7. Wait for the copy to finish. beehiiv says it “may take up to 72 hours depending on size, though it is generally much faster. No charges occur.” Stripe’s docs say copies of fewer than 10,000 customers typically finish within a couple of hours. beehiiv’s Substack guide says most finish in 5–15 minutes.
  8. Back in beehiiv, click I’ve completed these steps.

Watch for: Stripe notes that if expired cards are in the copy and Card Account Updater is on in the receiving account, it may try to refresh them, which can mean extra fees. Stripe’s suggested fix is to keep expired cards out of the copy.

Step 2: Give beehiiv read access to your old Stripe account

beehiiv needs two things from the source account:

  • Account ID: starts with acct_. beehiiv’s import article says to find it under Settings → Personal details → Accounts, and its Substack guide says Settings → Business. Use whichever your Stripe dashboard shows.
  • Restricted API key: Developers → API keys → Create restricted key, with read access to customers, products, coupons, and subscriptions. beehiiv’s Substack guide adds the details: choose Providing this key to another website, enter beehiiv as the name and beehiiv.com as the URL, and finish Stripe’s verification.

Copy the key right away. beehiiv notes you can’t view it again after closing the window, so you’d have to create a new one.

Step 3: Map Stripe products to beehiiv tiers

beehiiv lists every Stripe product in the source account. For each one you want to bring over:

  1. Check its box.
  2. Pick a matching beehiiv tier from the dropdown, or click Create new tier (it’ll show up in your paid tier settings to edit later).

beehiiv’s Substack guide adds that you can map legacy price points to an existing tier or create a separate tier to keep them distinct. Either way, readers keep what they pay today.

The legacy-price rule: beehiiv says imported subscribers keep their current price no matter what the beehiiv tier costs. Its example: a $3/month Stripe product mapped to a $5/month beehiiv tier stays at $3/month for migrated readers. Only new beehiiv signups pay $5.

Coupons and discounts: beehiiv’s key asks for read access to coupons, but its import article doesn’t say how existing discounts carry over. Check the preview in Step 4 (and the CSV) before you start, and contact beehiiv support if discounted readers look wrong.

Tip from the tiers article: new tiers are hidden in your website’s Pricing block by default. Turn on visibility (eye icon) and publish your site so new readers can see them.

Step 4: Review and start the import

beehiiv shows every subscription it found, with the original product details and the tier it will map to.

  1. Click Download CSV above the list. Keep it as your record of who should have moved. beehiiv’s Substack guide recommends this too.
  2. Click Start Import.

beehiiv’s Substack guide says the preview can take 2–10 minutes to build if you have many products. Refresh if the page doesn’t update.

Step 5: Watch the progress, then check the results

beehiiv sorts subscriptions into three groups while it runs:

GroupMeaning (from beehiiv)
UploadedTotal subscriptions queued
ProcessedMigrated successfully
SkippedCouldn’t be migrated because of Stripe errors

The import can take “anywhere from a few minutes to several hours,” and you’ll get a success message when it’s done. Paid subscribers then show up under Subscribers, in your main list. beehiiv’s Substack guide says to use View audience and filter All tiers to see them.

Compare the Skipped count against your downloaded CSV. beehiiv’s article doesn’t list specific Stripe error causes. Anyone skipped needs a manual fix, either with beehiiv support or as a comp (see below).

Step 6: Stop billing on the old platform (don’t skip this)

beehiiv is blunt about this: “it’s your responsibility to cancel billing on your previous platform to ensure subscribers are not charged there again.”

Here’s how beehiiv avoids double charging on its side, from the import article:

  • Migrated subscribers see no change in price, access, or billing schedule.
  • They’re placed on a temporary trial until their regular renewal date, then billed by beehiiv on that date.

So the risk is the old platform charging on that same renewal date. For Substack, beehiiv’s guide says to pause or cancel paid subscriptions there. Most publishers pause indefinitely: Dashboard → Settings → Payments → Pause subscription billing → Pause indefinitely. If you’d rather fully cancel, contact Substack Support and confirm no refunds are issued in the process.

Also from beehiiv’s Substack guide: in your beehiiv-connected Stripe account, turn on Revenue recovery → Emails → Send emails when card payments fail and Send emails about expiring cards. Both are off by default on a new Stripe account.

What can and can’t move, by platform

Substack

Moves with the Stripe import: regular paid subscriptions billed through your Substack-connected Stripe account, including legacy price points.

Doesn’t move: beehiiv says Complimentary, Gifted, and iOS subscriptions aren’t in Stripe. Give those readers complimentary access in beehiiv instead:

  • Use the Expiration date column from Substack’s subscriber export to see how long each person’s access should last. iOS subscribers need a separate export filtered by Type is iOS Subscription.
  • Create comps one by one from subscriber profiles, or in bulk using Segments. You can match each person’s exact remaining days, or group people by month to save time.
  • iOS readers must cancel in Apple’s App Store themselves. Substack doesn’t let publishers cancel those. Tell them by email, and consider a discount link to re-subscribe on beehiiv. beehiiv warns that upgrading through a discount link ends the comp immediately, so suggest readers wait until their paid iOS period is nearly over.

In beehiiv’s redesigned Paid Subscriptions area, Complimentary access lives on the Offers tab, in its own flow separate from creating trials and discounts.

Full Substack walkthrough (content, free list, paywalls, domain): Migrate Substack → beehiiv.

Kit

It depends on which Stripe setup your Kit paid newsletter uses, per beehiiv’s Kit migration guide (updated Sep 3, 2026):

  • Kit + Stripe Express: beehiiv says there’s no way to migrate those paid subscriptions, because Kit doesn’t expose the customer profile, payment method data, or subscription details needed. You have two options:
    1. Ask readers to re-subscribe. Cancel or refund the Kit subscriptions, then email paid readers a link to your beehiiv Upgrade page or a discount offer.
    2. Comp them first. Give paid readers complimentary access on beehiiv through the end of their current billing period, and tell them they’ll need to re-subscribe on beehiiv to keep access after that.
  • Kit + your own Standard Stripe account: if the Customers tab in that Stripe account has full subscription and payment details, beehiiv says you can use the standard paid import above.

To cancel on Kit, beehiiv says you delete the subscription product. Kit then emails subscribers at the end of their billing cycle that they won’t be charged again. beehiiv also notes Kit doesn’t support pro-rated or bulk refunds, so any refund is one at a time. Kit links: /go/kit (homepage forward, no commission). Full Kit walkthrough: Migrate Kit → beehiiv. If you’re still deciding between them for a paid newsletter: beehiiv vs Kit for paid newsletters.

Mailchimp

beehiiv’s Mailchimp migration guide (updated Nov 21, 2025; checked today) covers free subscribers and content and has no paid-subscriber section. If you charged readers through a separate tool backed by a Stripe account you control, the general Stripe import above is the documented path. That’s our reading of beehiiv’s general import article, which isn’t platform-specific, not a Mailchimp-specific instruction. If your old checkout tool held the Stripe account for you, ask that tool’s support whether they can copy customers to your account. Stripe’s docs say platforms can do copies for connected accounts that don’t have dashboard access.

Free Mailchimp list: Migrate Mailchimp → beehiiv and How to import free subscribers into beehiiv.

Things beehiiv’s docs don’t answer (yet)

We couldn’t confirm these in today’s official sources, so treat them as questions for beehiiv support before a big migration:

  • Readers in a free trial on the old platform. The import article doesn’t say how in-progress trials are handled.
  • Coupons and discounts on existing subscriptions (see Step 3).
  • Whether the paid import is available during a beehiiv Lite/Pro free trial or only after you pay. The import article just says paid plans.
  • Which specific Stripe errors cause a subscription to be Skipped.

A sensible order of operations

  1. Pick a plan (Lite for one tier, Pro for several), connect Stripe, and create tiers that mirror your old ones (setup guide).
  2. Import your free list by CSV (free import guide). Import content if you’re bringing your archive too.
  3. Run the paid import (Steps 1–5). Save the CSV, and check Processed against Skipped.
  4. Set up comps for anyone who couldn’t move (Substack comp/gift/iOS, Kit Express, skipped rows).
  5. Pause or cancel billing on the old platform right away, before anyone’s next renewal date.
  6. Turn on Stripe’s failed-payment and expiring-card emails, and make your tiers visible on your beehiiv site.
  7. Email paid readers that the newsletter is moving and nothing changes about their price or billing date. Include App Store instructions for iOS readers.

Our take

beehiiv’s paid import is a sensible design. Stripe handles the sensitive card data, beehiiv only gets read access to your old account, and readers keep their price and renewal date. The real risks are operational, not technical: forgetting to stop billing on the old platform, missing comped/gifted/iOS readers, or discovering that your old platform’s Stripe setup (like Kit’s Express accounts) never let you control your own customer data. If you’re picking a platform now and might move later, a Stripe account you own is worth more than any single feature.

Try beehiiv · Paid subscriptions setup · Import free subscribers · Kit → beehiiv · Substack → beehiiv · beehiiv pricing explained

Sources

All sources below were re-checked October 15, 2026.