# beehiiv API, Webhooks, Send API and MCP: What Each Plan Unlocks

> The beehiiv API explained: REST on every plan at 180 requests a minute, webhooks from Lite through Svix, the Send API on Pro, the MCP for AI tools, and where the pricing page and developer docs disagree.

_Source: https://professionalstoolkit.com/articles/beehiiv-api — The Professional's Toolkit · updated 2026-10-09_

---


beehiiv has a public REST API on every plan, webhooks on paid plans, a Send API on Pro, and an MCP
server that connects the account to AI tools. People search for the beehiiv API about 260 times a
month in the United States, and as many again under the misspelling *beehiv api*. This page explains
what each interface does, which plan unlocks it, and where the documentation and the pricing page
disagree. Everything comes from beehiiv's developer documentation, help centre and pricing file,
read on 9 October 2026.

## The short answer

| Interface | Free | Lite | Pro | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| REST API | Yes (Send API excluded) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Webhooks | No | 3 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Send API | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| MCP for AI tools | Read-only | Read and write | Read and write | Read and write |
| Zapier and Make | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| WordPress integration, S3 data sync | No | No | No | Yes |

From the vendor's pricing file [3] and developer documentation [55].



> 💡 **undefined:** Verify Svix signatures on every webhook.

## The REST API

The developer documentation describes the API as a way to "enrich your user records with custom fields
from external forms, manage lists and segmentation programmatically" [60]. In practice it covers
subscriptions, posts, segments, custom fields, tiers, automations and webhooks. Authentication is by
API key as a bearer token; an OAuth2 authorization code flow is documented for integrations that act
on behalf of other beehiiv users [56].

**Rate limit.** The developer documentation is precise: 180 requests per minute, counted per
organization [54]. Exceeding it returns a 429 error, and each
response carries RateLimit-Limit, RateLimit-Remaining and RateLimit-Reset headers [54].

**Where the pricing page disagrees.** The pricing file lists the API rate limit by plan as "Low" on
Free, "Standard" on Lite, "High" on Pro and "Custom" on Enterprise [3], without numbers. The
developer page gives one number for everyone. Until beehiiv reconciles them, build to 180 a minute and
treat anything higher as something to confirm with support.

**What 180 a minute means.** Three requests a second. Syncing 30,000 subscribers one call at a time
takes about 167 minutes; paginated list reads are much faster. *Our arithmetic.* The documentation
recommends a queue with exponential backoff, and notes that Zapier and Make "automatically adhere to
our rate limit" [54].

## Pagination and authentication

List endpoints use cursor-based pagination, which the documentation recommends; offset-based
pagination is marked deprecated [61]. Each page returns up to 100 results, with a next cursor and
a has-more flag [61]. At 100 results a page and 180 requests a minute, reading a list of 100,000
subscribers takes about six minutes. *Our arithmetic.*

API keys are created in the account and passed as bearer tokens. For integrations that act on behalf
of other beehiiv users, the documentation describes a standard OAuth2 authorization code flow, with
PKCE required for public clients, and asks developers to contact support to register an OAuth client
[56]. The getting-started page offers a downloadable OpenAPI specification [60].



> 💡 **undefined:** Test the Send API during the trial.

## Webhooks

Webhooks notify your system when something happens: a subscription created, confirmed, upgraded,
downgraded, paused or deleted; a post sent or scheduled; a podcast episode published [55]. They
are paid-only: the documentation reserves them for paid users on Lite and above [55]. Lite allows three endpoints, Pro unlimited [3].

Delivery runs through Svix, and every request carries svix-id, svix-timestamp and svix-signature
headers that you should verify with the endpoint's signing secret [55]. Downgrading to Free
disables webhook endpoints [5].

**Three endpoints on Lite** is a real constraint. A newsletter that wants to notify a CRM, a
community tool and an analytics warehouse uses all three; a fourth means Pro.

## The Send API

The Send API is how you send a beehiiv post from another system. It is not a raw email relay. The
help centre explains that it uses the Create post endpoint "to mirror the structure of the beehiiv
Post Builder", so API posts use the same blocks as the editor, including Ad Network placements and
polls [32]. It is explicit about the limit: "we do not currently offer the ability to send 100%
custom HTML email." [32]. Every post keeps beehiiv's fixed email head and required footer.

The Send API is a Pro and Enterprise feature [32]. At 1,000 subscribers that means $109 a month,
or $95 billed annually [3].

**Where the vendor disagrees with itself.** The pricing file lists "Send API (not in trial)" [3].
The Send API help article says "This feature is available on the Free Trial" [32], and the
trial article lists the Send API among features you can use during the trial [7]. Two of three
sources say yes; test it in the trial rather than relying on either.

**When it is the wrong tool.** For receipts, password resets and other transactional email, beehiiv is
not built for the job; a transactional email service is. The Send API is for newsletters generated by
other systems: a daily digest assembled from a database, or a post triggered by a CMS.



> ⚠ **undefined:** The Send API cannot send fully custom HTML.

## The MCP server

beehiiv's MCP server connects the account to AI clients that support the Model Context Protocol. The
help centre names "Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex" and says it is "available to all beehiiv
users with no waitlist or paid plan required." [26]. Free accounts get read access; creating,
editing and managing content through the MCP requires a paid plan [26].

Through it an AI assistant can create and edit posts, manage tags, custom fields and segments, build
automations, manage products and tiers, view ad offers and sponsorships, edit site metadata and
manage redirects [26]. The pricing file adds AI scheduling and sending through the MCP on Pro
[7].

For a writer, the MCP is the most practical interface: it does in conversation what the API does in
code, with the same permissions as the account.

## MCP or API: which to build on

The help centre answers this directly. The API is "versioned with a long-lived contract, meaning
beehiiv will not introduce breaking changes or deprecations without advance notice" [26]. The MCP
is not: "beehiiv continuously improves MCP tools to better serve the agent use case, so response
formats and behaviors may change over time." [26].

The rule that follows is simple. Build production integrations, such as a CRM sync or a signup
pipeline, on the API. Use the MCP for work done through an AI assistant, where a changed response
format is absorbed by the model rather than breaking your code.

Agencies managing several clients can connect more than one beehiiv account to the same AI tool by
adding a different parameter to the MCP address for each connection, each inheriting the role
permissions of the account it signs in with [26].

## Webhook events you can subscribe to

The developer index lists webhook events in four groups [62]:

| Group | Events |
|---|---|
| Subscription | Created, confirmed, deleted, upgraded, downgraded, paused, resumed; tier paused, resumed, created |
| Post | Sent, updated, scheduled |
| Podcast | Episode published, updated, archived, deleted; private feed activated, access revoked, deactivated |
| Newsletter list | Subscribed, unsubscribed, paused, resumed |

The subscription events are the ones most integrations need: *upgraded* and *downgraded* track paid
status, *deleted* tracks churn.

## Exporting data by API

Subscriber exports can be triggered programmatically through an export endpoint, but it is gated:
"This is a gated feature and requires enabling for your publication." [28]. You request access
through support before using it. Dashboard exports, by contrast, are self-serve on every plan.

## Zapier and Make

beehiiv maintains official Zapier and Make integrations, and both respect the rate limit
automatically [54] [55]. In Zapier, webhooks appear as triggers; in Make, you point beehiiv's
webhook at Make's custom webhook module [55]. The integrations page lists Stripe, HubSpot,
Shopify, Webflow and others natively [27].

## Integrations by use case

| Use case | Interface | Plan needed |
|---|---|---|
| Add subscribers from your own forms | REST API | Free |
| Read subscriber lists into a spreadsheet | REST API, paginated | Free |
| Tag readers from a quiz or survey tool | REST API, custom fields | Free |
| Notify a CRM when a reader pays | Webhook, subscription upgraded | Lite |
| Sync paid status to a community tool | Webhooks | Lite (3 endpoints) |
| Draft posts from an AI assistant | MCP, write access | Lite |
| Publish a digest built by a script | Send API | Pro |
| Notify more than three systems | Webhooks | Pro |
| Mirror data to your own S3 bucket | S3 data sync | Enterprise |
| Publish to WordPress | WordPress integration | Enterprise |

From the vendor's pricing file and documentation [3] [55] [32] [26].

## Segments and custom fields

Segments are unlimited on every plan, with a segment depth of 20 conditions [3]. Custom fields
are on every plan too, and are the main way the API enriches subscriber records [60]. Publishing
to a segment, however, starts on Lite [3]: on Free, the API can build segments you cannot yet
send to.

## Another place the documents disagree

The pricing file's podcast table lists *Podcast API & webhooks* as included on Free [3], while
the developer documentation reserves webhooks for paid users on Lite and above [55]. The likely
reading is that podcast-specific endpoints differ from account webhooks, but neither page says so.
If you are building on podcast events from a free account, test it before you rely on it.

## Testing before you build

The Send API help article recommends testing calls through the command-line tester in beehiiv's API
reference or with tools such as Postman or Insomnia [32]. A post needs at minimum a title and
either blocks or body content, sent to the publication's posts endpoint with a bearer token
[32]. Test against a second publication rather than your live one; on Lite and Pro you have
three and ten [3].

## What is Enterprise only

- WordPress integration and S3 data sync [3].
- SSO and SAML, audit logs and granular role permissions [3].
- A custom API rate limit, by the pricing file's account [3].
- An agent audit log, no-training and zero-retention commitments, and a bring-your-own model key for
  AI features [3].

## Three integrations, priced

**A signup form on your own site feeding beehiiv.** The REST API on any plan, or a beehiiv embed.
Cost: $0 on Free.

**New paid subscribers sent to a CRM.** One webhook on subscription.upgraded: Lite, from $59 a month
or $588 a year at 1,000 subscribers [3].

**A daily digest built by a script and sent as a newsletter.** The Send API: Pro, from $109 a month or
$1,140 a year [3].

## Common integration mistakes

1. **Building to an undocumented rate limit.** Use 180 a minute [54].
2. **Skipping webhook signature checks.** Verify the Svix headers [55].
3. **Expecting raw HTML sends.** The Send API keeps beehiiv's layout and footer [32].
4. **Forgetting the downgrade.** Webhooks stop on Free; integrations that depend on them fail
   silently [5].
5. **Counting on the export endpoint** without asking for access first [28].



## FAQ

**Is the beehiiv API free?**

Yes, the REST API is on every plan including Free, excluding the Send API, which is Pro and Enterprise.

**What is the beehiiv API rate limit?**

The developer documentation states 180 requests per minute per organization; the pricing page describes plan-based limits without numbers.

## How the API affects our score

Our integrations score for beehiiv is 3.4: an open API on every plan, an MCP on every plan, and
official Zapier and Make integrations, held back by a Pro-only Send API, three webhooks on Lite,
Enterprise-only WordPress and data sync, no native mobile app, and documentation that disagrees with
the pricing page on rate limits and trial access.




## Sources

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[2] beehiiv machine-readable pricing file — https://www.beehiiv.com/pricing.md (2026-10)
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[54] beehiiv developer docs: webhooks — https://developers.beehiiv.com/webhooks.md (2026-10)
[55] beehiiv developer docs: OAuth2 — https://developers.beehiiv.com/oauth2.md (2026-10)
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