Is beehiiv Free? Yes, to 2,500 Subscribers, Without Paid Subscriptions

Yes. beehiiv has a free plan with no time limit and no card required, and it is one of the more generous free plans in email: up to 2,500 subscribers and unlimited sends. The vendor's own answer is "Yes. beehiiv's Free plan is free, forever, with no credit card required." ^[3]. The question people search, 90 times a month in the United States, is usually a second question in disguise: free for what? This page answers that, from the vendor's pricing file and help centre, read on 9 October 2026.

The short answer

The free plan is enough to write, send and grow a newsletter of up to 2,500 readers, with a website, a podcast feed and the recommendation network. It is barely enough to earn from it: one digital product can be sold, but paid subscriptions, the Ad Network and paid recommendations all need a paid plan. It also carries beehiiv branding, has no automations beyond a welcome email, cannot add a custom domain, and offers support through a chatbot only.

## What the free plan includes

From the vendor's feature tables ^[3]:

Area	On Free
Subscribers	Up to 2,500
Email sends	Unlimited
Publications	1
Team seats	1
Guest authors	1
Custom pages on the website	1
Analytics lookback	30 days
Podcast downloads	5,000 a month, 1 show
Community notifications	5,000 a month
Digital products	1 product
API	Read access; no Send API
MCP for AI tools	Read-only
Support	Buzz chatbot

The welcome email works on every plan. Everything else in automations needs Lite.

The free plan, area by area

Newsletter. Unlimited posts and sends, the custom builder, email templates, custom fields, a welcome email and one sender address. Not included: custom HTML, audience polls, A/B testing, publishing to segments, RSS to Send and newsletter lists ^[3].

Website. The website builder and templates, hosting, subscribe forms, advanced email capture, link-in-bio and basic analytics, with one custom page. Not included: custom domains, surveys, redirects, custom robots.txt and AI bot control ^[3].

Podcast. One show, 5,000 downloads a month, RSS hosting and distribution, feed imports, YouTube publishing, transcripts and basic analytics over three months. Not included: dynamic ad insertion, programmatic advertising and private subscriber feeds ^[3].

Community. Channels, member profiles, direct messages and group chats, search, badges, invites, moderation and the installable app, with 90 days of feed history and 5,000 notification emails a month ^[3].

Digital products. One product with one price, one-time purchases, a customer library and refund management ^[3]. This is the one way to sell on Free: a single guide, template or download. The trial article confirms the digital product features stay on every plan after a trial ends ^[7].

Data and security. Data exports and two-factor authentication on every plan ^[3].

## What the free plan does not include

• Paid subscriptions. Not on Free and not during the trial.
• The Ad Network and paid recommendations. Lite and above; not in the trial either ^[3].
• Automations beyond the welcome email.
• Removing beehiiv branding. Pro only.
• A new custom domain. "You can't add a new custom domain on the Free plan." ^[5].
• Webhooks, which the developer documentation reserves for paid users on Lite and above ^[55].
• Human support. "Customers on the Free plan outside of a trial should use Buzz as their primary support path." ^[14].

Free against the free plans of other platforms

Platform	Free ceiling	Sends	Sell on free?
beehiiv	2,500 subscribers	Unlimited	One digital product; no subscriptions
Kit	10,000 subscribers	Unlimited broadcasts	Yes [20]
MailerLite	250 subscribers	2,500 a month	Limited [22]
Mailchimp	250 contacts	500 a month	No [21]
Brevo	100,000 contacts stored	300 a day	No [23]
Substack	No plan fee	Unlimited	Yes, at 10% [18]

beehiiv's free plan is ten times MailerLite's and Mailchimp's, with no send limit. Kit's is four times larger and allows selling. Substack has no plan fee at all and takes 10% of what you sell.

## The 14-day trial is not the free plan

New accounts start a 14-day trial of Pro features with no card ^[4]. During the trial the account is technically on Free with temporary access to Pro features, and some things stay locked: paid subscriptions, paid recommendations, custom domains, more than one publication, more than one team seat, and posts above one a day ^[7]. When it ends, "If you choose not to upgrade to a paid plan when your trial ends, your account stays on the Free plan." ^[7].

What you built during the trial then changes. Automations turn off and stay as drafts; custom pages unpublish but stay saved; podcast analytics prefixes added during the trial are deleted; webhooks are disabled ^[7]. Nothing is charged, because no card was taken.

Free, the trial and Lite, side by side

	Free	Trial (14 days)	Lite
Subscribers	2,500	Free plan limits	By tier, to 100,000
Posts a day	Unlimited	1	Unlimited
Automations	Welcome email only	Up to 10 live	Up to 10 live
Custom domain	No	No	Yes
Paid subscriptions	No	No	Yes, 0% share
Ad Network	No	No	Yes
Digital products	1	1	3
Branding removed	No	No	No
Support	Chatbot	Tickets	Tickets
Card required	No	No	Yes

From the vendor's pricing file and trial article ^{[3] [7]}. The trial is a preview of Pro's tools, not of Pro's monetisation.

What upgrading costs, by list size

Your list	Lite monthly	Lite annual	Pro monthly	Pro annual
Up to 1,000	$59	$588	$109	$1,140
Up to 2,500	$79	$828	$149	$1,548
Up to 5,000	$109	$1,140	$199	$2,028
Up to 10,000	$139	$1,428	$239	$2,388

From the vendor's pricing file ^[3]. A free newsletter at 2,000 readers that upgrades for a custom domain pays the 2,500 tier, $79 a month; one that waits until 2,600 readers pays the 5,000 tier, $109. Upgrading before the list crosses 2,500 is $30 a month cheaper for the same plan, as long as the list stays under the line.

When you will need to pay

Most free beehiiv accounts upgrade for one of five reasons. Each has a price:

1. The list passes 2,500. The next step is Lite at the 5,000 tier: $109 a month or $1,140 a year ^[3]. (Lite at the 2,500 tier, $79, only fits lists up to 2,500.)
2. You want a custom domain. Lite at the 2,500 tier: $79 a month or $828 a year.
3. You want to charge readers. Lite, at your list size.
4. You want automations beyond a welcome email: Lite, up to ten live.
5. You want the branding gone. Pro: $109 a month or $95 a month billed annually at 1,000 subscribers.

What happens at 2,500 subscribers

The help centre describes limits as caps per plan type: "When your subscriber count reaches your plan type's limit, you'll need to upgrade to the next plan type to keep growing." ^[4]. On paid plans, leaving auto-upgrade off means "sends to your subscribers may be delayed when you go over your plan limits." ^[5]. Imports that would push a free account over 2,500 are held whole rather than partly accepted ^[9].

Suppressed addresses may still count as active ^[10], so a free list that looks like 2,300 deliverable readers may already be at the limit. Deleting bounced and suppressed addresses is the free way to stay on Free longer.

Can a free account be closed?

Yes. The terms allow it after inactivity: "If you have a free account, we may cancel your account and reclaim the subdomain after a period of inactivity." ^[15]. The same clause promises "not less than thirty (30) days advance notice" by email. The terms also allow beehiiv to "suspend or discontinue any free, beta, or trial features and accounts at any time" ^[15]. Paid accounts are protected against material reductions in core functionality during the term; free ones are not.

What to do: if you park a newsletter on Free, log in now and then, and export the list regularly. Exports are self-serve and "Download links for exported data are valid for 24 hours." ^[28].

How to stay on Free longer

1. Delete suppressed and bounced addresses. They may still count as active ^[10].
2. Delete, do not just unsubscribe, long-inactive readers. Inactive status can still appear in some counts until deletion; deletion is permanent ^[10].
3. Keep one publication. The count is per workspace ^[4]; a second newsletter shares the 2,500.
4. Use the free recommendation network for growth instead of paid recommendations, which need a paid plan ^[3].
5. Export monthly. It costs nothing and protects you if the account is ever closed ^[28].

The October 2026 changes to the free plan

In early October 2026 beehiiv renamed its plans, and Launch, the old free plan, became Free. One reviewer reports that the free plan's guest author allowance dropped to one, discovered "by trying to add someone and getting blocked" ^[19]. The vendor's pricing file today lists one guest author on Free ^[3]. If you used an older free account with several contributors, check your limits in Billing.

Selling one product on Free, worked through

Suppose a free newsletter of 2,000 readers sells a $19 template. Free allows one product with one price ^[3], so the template can be sold without a paid plan. Card processing applies to each sale. Selling 50 copies brings $950 before fees; at Stripe's standard 2.9% plus $0.30 that leaves about $908. Our arithmetic, assuming Stripe's standard rate applies to digital products as it does to subscriptions ^[17].

What the same newsletter cannot do on Free is sell a second product, a subscription, or a coupon: discount codes, pay-what-you-want pricing and product reviews start on Lite ^[3].

Free accounts and deliverability

A free account sends from beehiiv's shared infrastructure, like every account below Enterprise ^[3]. The rules that protect that infrastructure apply equally to free senders. beehiiv publishes its complaint thresholds: a feedback-loop complaint rate of 0.10% or lower is acceptable, and 0.30% or higher is problematic ^[41]. Complaints sent through its report-abuse form weigh more: "Direct abuse desk complaints often lead to quicker enforcement actions, including suspensions or account deactivations" ^[41].

For a free newsletter, the practical rule is the same as for a paid one: send only to people who asked, and remove readers who have stopped opening.

Is the free plan good enough?

Yes, if you are writing a free newsletter to fewer than 2,500 people, are happy with a beehiiv.com address and beehiiv branding, and do not need automations or human support.

No, if you plan to charge readers soon, need a custom domain, or expect to pass 2,500 within a few months. In that case compare Kit's free plan, which goes to 10,000 and allows selling ^[20], or Substack, which has no plan fee ^[18].

Three free-plan scenarios

A local history newsletter, 900 readers, monthly. Free covers it indefinitely. Cost: $0. Risk: the inactivity clause if the writer stops logging in.

A hobby newsletter growing 200 a month from 1,500. It passes 2,500 in month six. From then, Lite at the 5,000 tier: $109 a month or $1,140 a year. Our arithmetic. Planning for that in month five, by pruning inactive readers or budgeting, avoids a surprise.

A writer who wants a custom domain on day one. Free will not do it. Lite at the 2,500 tier, $828 a year billed annually, is the cheapest way.

## How beehiiv's free plan scores with us

Our composite score for beehiiv is 3.61, fourth of seven in the email category. The free plan is one of the reasons its value score is 3.4 rather than lower: for anyone who will never charge readers, Free is the best part of beehiiv's offer, and Lite is expensive by comparison.