📰 Substack Revenue Calculator
Find your actual take-home pay after Substack's 10% platform cut and Stripe's transaction fees. Results update instantly.
Calculate your take-home
Formula & Sources
Gross = subscribers × monthly_pricePlatform Fee = Gross × 0.10Stripe Fee = (Gross × 0.029) + (subscribers × $0.30)Net = Gross − Platform Fee − Stripe FeeSources:Substack Pricing (substack.com) ·Stripe Processing Fees (stripe.com). Annual billing uses the same per-transaction Stripe fee structure, divided across 12 months for monthly equivalent.
How Substack fees actually work
Substack keeps 10% of every paid subscription. Stripe charges 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction on top of that. On a $7/month subscription with a single subscriber, you net about $5.80 — not $6.30.
The $0.30 flat fee hits harder at lower price points. 500 subscribers at $5/month costs $150/month in Stripe flat fees alone. At $10/month with the same 500 subscribers, that fixed fee is identical — so your effective rate improves just by raising your price.
Annual billing reduces Stripe transactions from 12 per subscriber to 1 per year. On 200 subscribers, switching to annual saves roughly $660/year in flat transaction fees. The percentage fee stays the same either way.
Frequently asked questions
Does Substack take 10% from free newsletters?
No. The 10% fee only applies to paid subscriptions. Free newsletters cost nothing to send on Substack.
What is Stripe's cut on Substack?
2.9% of the charge plus $0.30 per transaction. On a $7 monthly subscription, that's roughly $0.50 per subscriber per month in Stripe fees alone.
Is annual billing better than monthly on Substack?
Yes, for your take-home. Annual plans mean one Stripe transaction per subscriber instead of 12, cutting 11 months of the $0.30 per-transaction fee. On 200 subscribers, that's about $660/year saved.
How much do I keep from $1,000 in Substack revenue?
Roughly $841 if you have 100 subscribers at $10/month. Substack takes $100 (10%), Stripe takes $29 in percentage fees plus $30 in per-transaction fees — total $159 in deductions.
Can I avoid Substack's 10% fee?
Only by switching platforms. Ghost and Beehiiv charge flat monthly fees instead of a revenue percentage. Whether that's cheaper depends on your subscriber count and revenue level.