How Much Is beehiiv? What Each Plan Costs for a Business Newsletter

beehiiv is free up to 2,500 subscribers. Lite costs $49 a month billed yearly ($59 monthly) for up to 1,000 subscribers and $69 at 2,500; Pro starts at $95 ($109 monthly). Prices rise with your list. For a business newsletter, Free is enough until you need automations, A/B tests or paid subscriptions.

beehiiv launched these plans for new customers on 1 October 2026, replacing Launch, Scale and Max, with Enterprise still above them for custom needs, so older guides quoting the old tiers are out of date. The pricing page says what moves between them is limits and advanced features, not which products you can use: the newsletter, website, podcast, community and digital products sit on every plan.

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The plans as the pricing page shows them

Free includes unlimited sends, email templates, landing pages, the recommendation network and API and integrations. Lite adds paid subscriptions at a 0% take rate, ad monetisation, up to 10 live automations, write access through the beehiiv MCP, audience polls, A/B testing and custom domains. Pro adds branding removal, unlimited automations, webinars and coaching, advanced analytics, a higher allowance of AI credits, unlimited webhooks (Lite has three), dynamic content and 24/7 priority support.

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What "price depends on your subscriber count" means

The pricing page has a subscriber slider and a yearly or monthly toggle. It opens at up to 1,000 subscribers on yearly billing, which is where the $49 and $95 come from. beehiiv also publishes the whole slider as a price list, and these are the steps a business newsletter is most likely to meet.

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Each price covers a bucket, so a list of 2,600 pays the 5,000 price. The page says yearly billing saves up to 20%; at the first Lite step it is $588 against $708 (12 x $59), about 17%. Lite runs to 100,000 subscribers and Pro to 250,000. One quirk catches small businesses: a list of 1,500 that wants Lite's automations pays the 2,500 price, $69 a month on yearly billing, even though Free would cover the list itself.

How beehiiv counts subscribers

beehiiv counts unique email addresses subscribed to your publication. An address that signs up twice counts once. This matters at the boundary: Free ends at 2,500, and an illustrative bakery with 2,380 subscribers that runs a sign-up promotion could cross it in a week. Plan the upgrade before the promotion, not after.

The trial helps here. Lite and Pro include a free trial with no card needed, and the trial ends when you upgrade. A bakery near the limit can test automations and polls on a trial before choosing.

Four business newsletters, costed

All four are illustrative. They use only the figures on the pricing page; for any list above the starting setting, read the slider price yourself.

A bakery with a Friday email and 1,800 subscribers

One person writes it, sends a weekly issue, collects sign-ups at the till and on the website. It needs templates, a landing page and sends. It does not need automations.

Plan: Free
Monthly cost ............ $0
Branding ................ beehiiv branding stays
Headroom ................ 700 subscribers before the 2,500 limit

The only reason to upgrade is branding or a feature. At the current growth, the bakery stays free until the list nears 2,500.

An HVAC contractor with 4,000 subscribers and a seasonal reminder series

The contractor wants a welcome series, a pre-winter service reminder to everyone who signed up in autumn, and A/B tests on subject lines. The list is over 2,500, so Free is out. Automations and A/B testing are Lite features.

Plan: Lite, 5,000-subscriber bucket
Monthly cost ............ $95 a month on yearly billing ($1,140 a year)
Monthly billing instead . $109 a month ($1,308 a year)
Features used ........... automations, A/B testing, polls

Pro is not needed, because the contractor has one publication, two seats are enough and the branding is not a concern for a service business.

A solar installer with a team and three publications

The installer runs a homeowner newsletter, a commercial buyers' newsletter and an installer-partner newsletter, written by three people. Lite allows three publications and two seats; the third writer would need a guest author slot (Lite lists three).

Plan: Lite (2 seats, 3 guest authors, 3 publications)
Check: three publications fit Lite exactly. A fourth would need Pro.

If the installer wants beehiiv branding gone from the emails, or more than 12 months of analytics, Pro starts at $95 on yearly billing, $46 more a month than Lite at the opening position.

A bicycle repair shop selling a paid members' club

The shop wants a paid tier at $8 a month for members who get discounts and a monthly maintenance guide. Paid subscriptions are a Lite feature with a 0% beehiiv take rate. Stripe's fee is 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction, which the page states.

100 paying members x $8 ........................ $800 a month
Stripe fee per payment: 2.9% of $8 = $0.232 + $0.30 = $0.532
Stripe fees for 100 members .................... $53.20 (about 6.65%)
beehiiv take rate .............................. $0
Lite plan, up to 1,000 subscribers, yearly ..... $49
Left before the shop's own costs ............... about $697.80

The sum shows why a low-priced subscription carries a high percentage fee: the fixed $0.30 matters more at $8 than at $80. A $96 yearly membership paid once a year costs $2.78 + $0.30 = $3.08, or 3.2%.

What a weekly newsletter really costs in time

The plan fee is the smaller number. An illustrative weekly newsletter for a bicycle repair shop takes about this long.

Collect three items (photos, offers, one tip) ........ 20 minutes
Draft the issue ...................................... 40 minutes
Edit, check links and prices ......................... 20 minutes
Schedule and send a test to yourself ................. 10 minutes
Read the results the next day ........................ 10 minutes
Total per issue ...................................... 100 minutes
Per month (four issues) .............................. about 6.7 hours

At a $30 hourly value, that is about $200 a month of your time against a plan fee of $0 to $95. If the newsletter brings two repair bookings a month at $60 each, it roughly pays for itself on time alone, and the plan is a rounding error. If it brings none, the best saving is a leaner newsletter, not a cheaper tool. The customer newsletter in 30 minutes with AI is the way to cut that 100 minutes to about 60.

A welcome automation worth the jump to Lite

Automations are the most common reason a business moves off Free. Here is an illustrative three-email welcome series for an HVAC contractor, written to be copied.

Email 1 (send immediately)
Subject: Welcome, here is how to keep your system running
Body: Thanks for signing up, [first name]. Once a month I send one tip
to keep your heating and cooling running. First tip: change or clean
the filter every 1 to 3 months. Reply with your system's make if you
want a tailored tip.

Email 2 (3 days later)
Subject: The one check that prevents most winter call-outs
Body: ...one specific check, with a photo and 3 steps...

Email 3 (7 days later)
Subject: Want us to check it for you?
Body: ...a clear offer to book a seasonal service, one button...

The series takes an afternoon to write once and then runs for every new subscriber. That is the sum to weigh against Lite's price: one booked service from the welcome series in a month justifies the plan. Without automations you would send the three emails by hand each time someone joined, which does not happen in practice.

Subject-line tests, a before and after

A/B testing is on Lite and above. The point is not clever copy but learning what your readers open. An illustrative test for a bakery.

Version A: Friday newsletter: new loaves and opening hours
Version B: Seeded rye is back on Saturday (and 3 other things)
Test on 20% of the list, send the winner to the remaining 80%.

Version B is specific, names the thing a reader cares about and promises a small list. Run one test a month on a single variable and write down the winner. After six months you will know whether your readers prefer specifics, questions or offers, which is worth more than any feature on the page.

Paid subscriptions: the year-long sum

Lite lists paid subscriptions with a 0% take rate. Start from the bicycle shop with 100 paying members at $8. Over a year, that is $9,600 gross. Stripe's standard fee, per the page, is 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction: 12 payments x 100 members x $0.30 = $360 in fixed charges plus 2.9% of $9,600 = $278.40, a total of $638.40, about 6.65%. The Lite plan at the opening position is $49 x 12 = $588. The shop keeps about $8,373.60 before its own costs.

Switch to an annual price of $80 and the arithmetic improves: 100 members is $8,000 gross, Stripe takes 2.9% ($232) plus 100 x $0.30 ($30) = $262, 3.3%. Annual membership therefore reduces the fee percentage and the work of failed payments. Whether members take the annual option depends on the value you offer, not on the maths.

Growing past 2,500: what a realistic year looks like

An illustrative solar installer starts a homeowner newsletter with 600 subscribers from past quotes and adds about 120 a month from the website form and quote follow-ups. Month by month the list passes 1,000 in month four, 2,000 in month twelve and reaches 2,040 after a year, so Free covers the whole first year. A second installer with a stronger sign-up offer, such as a free roof-check guide, adds 350 a month: 600 plus 350 x 6 is 2,700 at month six, so a paid plan is needed from the second half of the year: Lite in the 5,000 bucket is $95 a month on yearly billing or $109 monthly, and the budget must include it.

The lesson is to project your own list with two growth rates, cautious and hopeful, and mark the month where each crosses 2,500. Then budget for the earlier date, so an upgrade is an event you planned and not a surprise on the day sign-ups spike.

Polls and short surveys as a cheap research tool

Audience polls are listed on Lite. For a small business they are a low-cost way to learn what readers want, with no separate survey tool. An illustrative poll for a bicycle repair shop reads: "What would you most like a guide on? A) Fixing a puncture, B) Choosing a lock, C) Winter maintenance." Put it at the foot of an issue, and let the winner decide the next issue. After three polls you will have a content plan that your readers asked for, and a reason to keep sending.

Costs that sit outside beehiiv's plan

• Your own domain. beehiiv's plan comparison lists custom domains from Lite upwards, and the domain itself is a separate annual cost at a registrar.
• Design time. Templates are included, but making them match your brand takes an afternoon.
• Images and tools. Stock photos, a design tool for graphics and a proofreading step are separate.
• Consent paperwork. If you have customers in the EU, data-protection law requires a clear record of consent and a working unsubscribe; build that into your sign-up form.
• Migration. Moving from another tool means exporting the list, checking consent records and rebuilding templates, usually an afternoon.

Using the trial to answer questions, not just look around

A trial is only worth the time if you test specific things. Before starting one, write down three questions. For example: can I build the welcome series in under an hour; does A/B testing give me a result with a list of my size; can the editor handle the pricing table I use each month. Then use the trial days on exactly those, and write the answers down. If all three are yes, move to the paid plan at the subscriber level you read from the slider. If one is no, you have found the limit before paying for it.

Because no card is needed, you can run a trial for a week before a promotion, upgrade only if it passes, and be on the right plan on the day it matters.

What changes if you were on an older plan

beehiiv's announcement says existing customers see no change until their first renewal on or after 1 November 2026. Annual customers keep their current price to the end of the term, monthly customers get at least 30 days' notice before the first bill at the new price, and plans move across automatically. It also moved accounts that had outgrown the tier they were billed for to the tier matching their current subscriber count, charged from that first renewal. Your billing screen is still the source of truth, so check it like this.

1. Open billing and note the plan name, price, subscriber count and next renewal date.
2. Compare with the Free, Lite and Pro lists above and decide which matches the features you actually use.
3. If the renewal is within 30 days and the price differs, email beehiiv support with a screenshot and ask what you will be charged.
4. If you are paying for a feature you do not use, downgrade at renewal, not mid-term, unless support confirms a refund.
5. If the new tier is driven by inactive subscribers, remove them before renewal: beehiiv says removing subscribers can bring you down a tier.

When Free is enough, and when it stops being

Free is a real plan, not a trial. You get unlimited sends, templates, landing pages and the recommendation network, plus a custom editor and analytics. For a small business newsletter that goes out weekly, the limits that bite are specific.

• 2,500 subscribers. The hard stop. Plan for it.
• One seat. If your assistant and you both write, Lite's two seats matter.
• 30 days of analytics. Fine for a weekly check, not for year-on-year comparison.
• No automations or A/B tests. A welcome series you must send by hand is a task people stop doing.
• beehiiv branding. Present on Free and Lite, removed on Pro.

The practical advice is to start Free, because the setup work is the same on any plan, and upgrade when a specific limit costs you time or money. The walkthrough is in how to use beehiiv for a free business newsletter.

A cost-per-subscriber view that keeps you honest

Divide your monthly plan price by your subscribers to see the cost of holding a reader. Lite at 3,000 subscribers sits in the 5,000 bucket, $95 a month on yearly billing, so about 3.2 cents a subscriber a month; at 10,000 subscribers Lite is $119, about 1.2 cents. The number matters less than what a subscriber is worth. An illustrative HVAC contractor with 4,000 subscribers pays $1,140 a year for Lite, about $0.29 a subscriber. If it earns $1,500 margin on a service job and converts one in 400 subscribers a year, each subscriber is worth about $3.75 a year in margin. The ratio is what justifies the plan, not the plan's price.

A mistake in budgeting that shows up at 2,500

A frequent mistake is treating Free as permanent. An owner builds the newsletter, grows quickly and finds the list at 2,480 on the Friday before a big sign-up push. The next week lands at 2,900, past the most subscribers Free supports, so the move to a paid plan lands in the middle of the promotion. The fix was available: the Lite trial lets you test automations beforehand, and the price list shows the cost at 2,900 (the 5,000 bucket, $95 a month yearly or $109 monthly), which is the number to put in the plan for the promotion.

Put a calendar reminder at 2,000 subscribers: read the slider at 3,000, decide whether you want Lite, and start the trial.

Comparing beehiiv's cost with the alternatives honestly

Price comparisons between email tools fail when they compare different things. beehiiv's plan covers a newsletter, website, podcast hosting and a community, and takes no cut of paid subscriptions; a competitor's cheaper email-only plan may exclude these. At the same time, a business that never sells subscriptions or hosts a podcast is paying for features it does not use. Compare the exact features you will use over the next year.

Start with Mailchimp at 500 to 5,000 contacts for a like-for-like list-size price, then ConvertKit (now Kit) against beehiiv for a service business. If your emails are mainly promotional with product blocks, a campaign tool may suit better; if they are essays and tips people read, a newsletter platform does.

Before you pay: a one-page plan check

Subscribers today ........................ ____
Subscribers in 12 months (honest guess) .. ____
Issues a month ........................... ____
People who need to log in ................ ____ (Free 1, Lite 2, Pro 10)
Publications needed ...................... ____ (Free 1, Lite 3, Pro 10)
Need automations or A/B tests? ........... yes / no  -> Lite or above
Need to remove beehiiv branding? ......... yes / no  -> Pro
Need paid subscriptions? ................. yes / no  -> Lite or above
Slider price at today's list ............. $____ a month yearly / $____ monthly
Slider price at next year's list ......... $____ a month yearly / $____ monthly

If every "yes" is a "no" and you are under 2,500, the answer is Free. If one "yes" appears, pick the lowest plan that covers it. The AI newsletter walkthrough shows what a weekly routine looks like on any plan, and the AI guide covers where else AI can take work off your plate.

beehiiv cost questions from business owners

Is beehiiv free for a business newsletter?

Yes up to 2,500 subscribers. The Free plan has unlimited email sends, templates, landing pages and the recommendation network, with one seat, one publication and 30 days of analytics. It keeps beehiiv branding, which Pro removes. Lite and Pro each offer a free trial without a card, though some paid features, such as the 0% take rate, extra seats and branding removal, are not available during it.

Does beehiiv take a cut of my sales?

beehiiv says it takes 0% of paid subscription and digital product revenue. Stripe's standard processing fee of 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction still applies, so a $8 monthly subscription loses about $0.53 to Stripe before any other costs.

Do I pay more for sending more emails?

No. The pricing page says every plan includes unlimited email sends, so a weekly issue and a daily issue cost the same. What drives the price is your subscriber count, plus the plan features you need.

I was on an older beehiiv plan. What happens to my price?

beehiiv says existing customers see no change until their first renewal on or after 1 November 2026. Annual customers keep their price to the end of the current term, monthly customers get at least 30 days' notice before the first bill at the new price, and plans move across automatically: Launch to Free, Scale to Lite, Max to Pro.

Further reads

• Email Newsletter QA Checklist Before You Hit Send — Check each issue before you hit send.
• Bookstore Newsletter Template: AI-Polished Staff Picks and Events — A filled-in newsletter template for a small shop.
• Gym Newsletter Examples: A Monthly Member Email Written With AI — A monthly member email written with AI.
• AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.

Sources: beehiiv pricing page (beehiiv.com/pricing) and the price list it publishes (beehiiv.com/pricing.md), and beehiiv's October 2026 announcement of the new plans, all read 5 November 2026; USD list prices.