beehiiv pricing: the $43 on the page is not a price you can pay monthly
beehiiv opens on its annual rate with the slider at 1,000 subscribers, so the first number you see is $43. Billed monthly the same plan is $49. What each plan costs at the tiers we read, where the free plan stops, and the charge that arrives on its own when your list grows.
What beehiiv costs, read today
beehiiv has four plans. Launch is $0 and stops at 2,500 subscribers. Scale and Max are both priced by how many subscribers you have, and both stop at 100,000. Above that the comparison table offers only Enterprise, which the page prices as "Custom Pricing" with "Flexible billing, 100K+ subscribers".
That means there is no single answer to what beehiiv costs. There is a price for your list, and it changes as the list does. The figures below are what a logged-out browser was shown on 23 September 2026, at the slider positions we actually moved it to.
beehiiv prices we read, by slider position and billing toggle| Subscribers | Scale | Max | Toggle shown |
|---|
| 1,000 | $49 a month | $109 a month | Monthly billing |
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| 1,000 | $517 a year, shown as $43 a month, "Save $71/year" | $1,151 a year, shown as $96 a month, "Save $157/year" | Annual billing |
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| 5,000 | $89 a month | $169 a month | Monthly billing |
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| 25,000 | $1,785 a year, shown as $149 a month, "Save $243/year" | $3,052 a year, shown as $254 a month, "Save $416/year" | Annual billing |
|---|
Read on beehiiv.com/pricing in a logged-out browser on September 23, 2026, by moving the subscriber slider and the billing toggle. Launch is $0 up to 2,500 subscribers at every position. Each row is a position we actually read, not a figure derived from another one.
The first number you see is the annual one
Open beehiiv.com/pricing and two defaults are already set for you. The subscriber slider sits at 1,000, and the billing toggle is on Annual billing rather than Monthly billing.
So the Scale card reads $43 per month, with $517 billed annually underneath it and a badge saying Save $71/year. Click Monthly billing and the same card, at the same 1,000 subscribers, reads $49 per month, Billed monthly.
$43 is $517 divided by twelve. It is not a rate anyone can pay. The monthly price is $49.
The saving is real and the badge is accurate: $49 times twelve is $588, and $588 minus $517 is exactly the $71 claimed. That is our arithmetic on beehiiv's own two numbers, and it is the check that tells you which figure is which.
Max behaves the same way. $96 on the card, $109 if you pay monthly, $1,151 for the year, $157 saved.
One thing worth doing before you decide the annual term is a bargain. The saving is about 12% at every position we checked: $71 on $588, $157 on $1,308, and at 25,000 subscribers $243 on $2,028 and $416 on $3,468. Twelve percent is not the two months free, about 17%, that the phrase usually means elsewhere in this category. It is a discount, just a smaller one than the habit of the market suggests.
The price moves on its own when your list grows
This is the part of beehiiv's pricing that is not on the pricing page, and it is the part that decides what you actually pay.
beehiiv's help centre, on changing your plan: "You will automatically be charged a prorated amount for the next tier of your current plan when you surpass your current subscriber limit."
Read that as written. Crossing a tier is not an upgrade you choose. It is a charge that arrives because your list grew, which is the thing you were trying to make happen.
What counts toward it is narrower than you might fear. beehiiv defines an active subscriber as "A subscriber who you are sending to that has not unsubscribed or been marked as inactive", so people who left do not keep costing you money. The count is taken across every publication in the workspace, which means running a second newsletter does not come with a second allowance.
Going the other way is slower than coming up. A tier downgrade, in beehiiv's words, means "The new subscriber amount will begin at the start of your next billing cycle. That is when you will be charged." The increase is prorated and immediate; the decrease waits for the cycle.
Where the free plan stops, and what stops with it
Launch is genuinely free and unusually unmetered in one respect. beehiiv's own pricing FAQ answers the question of whether it charges extra for email sends with: "No. All beehiiv plans, including the free Launch plan, include unlimited email sends." The comparison table agrees, listing email sends and posts as unlimited on all four plans. Subscribers are the only meter.
What Launch gives you is 2,500 subscribers, one team member, three publications, the website and podcast builder, campaign analytics, custom domains and read access to beehiiv's API, MCP and Agent.
What it does not give you is most of the reason people pay. No paid subscriptions, no digital products, no ad network, no programmatic ads, no email automations, no A/B testing, no surveys or polls, no referral program, no beehiiv AI, no custom HTML, no publishing to segments.
For most people one of those decides it: you cannot charge money on Launch. Paid subscriptions begin on Scale, which at 1,000 subscribers is $517 a year.
One naming trap in the comparison table. There is a row called Recommendation network, which Launch has, and a separate row called Recommendations, which Launch does not. Two rows, near-identical names, opposite answers, in the same table. If one of them is why you are choosing a plan, check which one you were promised.
Launch against Scale, from beehiiv's own comparison table| Item | Launch | Scale |
|---|
| Subscribers | Up to 2,500 | 100,000 |
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| Email sends | Unlimited | Unlimited |
|---|
| Team members | 1 | Up to 3 |
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| Publications | 3 | 3 |
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| Paid subscriptions | No | Yes |
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| Digital products | No | Yes |
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| Ad network | No | Yes |
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| Email automations | No | Yes |
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| A/B testing | No | Yes |
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| Surveys and audience polls | No | Yes |
|---|
| Referral program | No | Yes |
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| Recommendation network | Yes | Yes |
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| Recommendations | No | Yes |
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| AI credits | 10 per day | 25 per day |
|---|
From the feature comparison table on beehiiv.com/pricing, read September 23, 2026. Recommendation network and Recommendations are two separate rows on that table with different answers.
Is beehiiv worth it? The parts of the answer that are checkable
We have not run a newsletter on beehiiv and we are not going to tell you whether the editor is pleasant or the deliverability is good. What we can do is say where the money goes, and let you decide whether your situation is on the paying side of the line.
Under 2,500 subscribers, not charging anyone, mailing as often as you like: Launch is $0 and the sends are unlimited. At that stage the question barely exists.
The moment you want to take money, automate a welcome sequence, A/B test a subject line or run ads, the price is Scale. At 1,000 subscribers that is $517 a year, or $588 if you pay monthly. So the honest way to put the decision is not "is beehiiv worth $517" but "will I use the monetisation and automation that $517 unlocks", because that is nearly all of what separates Scale from free.
On revenue share beehiiv is strong and says so plainly: "beehiiv takes 0% of your paid subscription revenue", with "Stripe's standard processing fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction" still applying. Kit, the closest comparison in our catalogue, charges 3.5% + 30c inclusive of card processing. The gap is about 0.6 points of what you sell, which is $60 on $10,000. That is a real advantage and a slow one: it takes a lot of sales to repay Scale on fee savings alone. Our guide comparing the two does that arithmetic tier by tier.
The case against, stated fairly: Kit's free plan runs to 10,000 subscribers and lets you sell on it, so a creator between 2,500 and 10,000 subscribers who wants to charge is being asked for $517 by beehiiv and $0 by Kit. That is the band where beehiiv is hardest to justify on price alone.
StackOnSale earns a commission if you buy beehiiv through our link, which is a reason to read the numbers above rather than the recommendation.
Two symbols on the pricing page, and no key anywhere on it
On the plan cards, several features carry a superscript marker. On Scale: Ad Network and Recommendations each carry an asterisk and a dagger, while 0% Take Rate on Paid Subscriptions, Teams (3 Seats) and Slack Community Access carry an asterisk alone. On Max: Remove beehiiv Branding, Up to 10 Publications, Teams (Unlimited Seats) and Send API carry an asterisk.
We looked for the footnote those markers point at and did not find one on the page.
Two distinct symbols means two distinct conditions attached to some of the headline features, including the 0% take rate and the ad network, which are among the main reasons to pay for Scale at all. We are not going to invent what they say. If one of them is your reason for buying, ask beehiiv what the marker means and get the answer before you pay.
What beehiiv does not publish, and what we are not going to guess
The tier ladder itself. The price exists only as a slider position; the page prints no table of subscriber counts against prices, so the only way to learn what 7,500 subscribers costs is to go and move it.
Whether the annual rate holds at renewal. Nothing on the pricing page says it does or does not.
What the ad network pays. It is sold as a headline feature of Scale, and its revenue share is not on the pricing page.
What happens to the rest of an annual term if you downgrade. beehiiv's help article covers changing plan type and changing tier, and says nothing about a refund or a credit for the unused part of a year already paid for.
Four gaps on the pages of the company that sends the invoice. If another page gives you those numbers with confidence, the useful question is where it read them.
Before you take the annual term
One detail in beehiiv's help centre is worth more than the 12%. The option to pause a subscription is available for monthly plans only. So the annual discount is bought partly with the ability to stop, which for a newsletter that might go quiet for a season is not a small thing to trade.
Remember also that the annual term does not fix your price. Your tier can rise inside it, and when it does the prorated charge arrives on its own.
And check the figure on your own screen before you commit. The price you are quoted depends on a slider whose default is 1,000 subscribers and a toggle whose default is the annual rate, and neither default is likely to be your situation.
Questions
How much is beehiiv per month?
At 1,000 subscribers, Scale is $49 a month billed monthly, or $43 a month if you pay $517 for the year. Max is $109 monthly, or $96 a month on the $1,151 annual term. Launch is $0 up to 2,500 subscribers. Read on beehiiv.com/pricing on September 23, 2026; the price rises with your subscriber count.
Is beehiiv worth it?
Under 2,500 subscribers and not charging anyone, Launch is free with unlimited email sends, so there is little to weigh. The real decision is Scale at $517 a year, and nearly everything it adds is monetisation and automation: paid subscriptions, digital products, the ad network, email automations, A/B testing. If you will use those, the price is doing something. If you only want to write and send, the free plan already does that.
Is beehiiv free?
Launch is $0 up to 2,500 active subscribers, with unlimited email sends, one team member and three publications. It excludes paid subscriptions, digital products, the ad network, email automations and A/B testing.
Does beehiiv charge more as my list grows?
Yes, and without asking. beehiiv's help centre states: "You will automatically be charged a prorated amount for the next tier of your current plan when you surpass your current subscriber limit." Only active subscribers count, which beehiiv defines as someone you send to who has not unsubscribed or been marked inactive, and the count covers every publication in the workspace.
Does beehiiv take a cut of paid subscriptions?
beehiiv states it takes 0%, with Stripe's standard fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction still applying. Paid subscriptions are not available on the free Launch plan; they start on Scale.
What is the catch with beehiiv's annual price?
Two worth knowing. The saving is about 12% at every tier we checked, not the roughly 17% that two months free means elsewhere in the category. And beehiiv's pause option is available on monthly plans only, so the discount costs you the ability to stop.
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