A data analysis of how fast newsletter platforms are growing, how much creators actually earn from paid subscriptions, what open rates look like after Apple’s privacy changes, and why the winning stack is smaller than the tool list suggests.
Substack passed 5 million paid subscriptions in March 2025, up from 4 million just four months earlier, according to Tubefilter’s report. That milestone sits inside a creator economy Goldman Sachs projects will reach $480 billion by 2027, roughly double its ~$250 billion size today. The numbers below show where newsletter money is actually being made in 2026 — and why the newsletters category rewards picking one platform, not five.
Key takeaways
- Substack crossed 5 million paid subscriptions in March 2025, up from 4 million in November 2024, with 35M+ active subscriptions and 50,000+ moneymaking publications (Tubefilter)
- The creator economy is tracking toward $480 billion by 2027, from ~$250 billion today, per Goldman Sachs; Grand View Research sized it at $252.33B in 2025 (Grand View Research)
- beehiiv’s paid-subscription revenue hit $19M in 2025, up 138% from $8M in 2024, and it projects $35M in 2026 (beehiiv)
- beehiiv powered 20 billion emails and $25M in publisher revenue in 2025, across 75,000+ newsletters reaching 350M monthly readers (beehiiv)
- The median free-to-paid conversion rate is 0.62%, while the top 10% of newsletters convert 18-20% (beehiiv)
- Kit (formerly ConvertKit) has helped 600,000+ creators earn over $400 million, on $43.8M of its own 2024 revenue (Sacra)
- The average newsletter open rate is 40.08% with a 3.84% click rate, per GetResponse — though Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection inflates open figures
How big is the creator economy behind newsletters?
Goldman Sachs projects the creator economy will approach $480 billion by 2027, up from roughly $250 billion today, per its research note. Independent sizing agrees on the order of magnitude: Grand View Research put the market at $252.33 billion in 2025.
Newsletters are the paid-subscription core of that economy. Unlike ad-funded short video, a newsletter converts an email list directly into recurring revenue, which is why platform investment and creator earnings have both compounded even as the broader creator market matures.
How fast is Substack growing?
Substack reached 5 million paid subscriptions in March 2025, four months after hitting 4 million, per Tubefilter. The platform also reported 35 million+ total active subscriptions and 50,000+ publications making money — meaning paid conversions are a slice of a far larger free base.
Growth has not stalled. Backlinko reports Substack crossed 8.4 million paid subscriptions in Q1 2026, a 68% jump from the 5 million milestone. Substack raised a $100M Series C in July 2025 at a $1.1 billion valuation, cementing unicorn status.
How much do paid newsletters actually earn?
Money is concentrated, and conversion is hard. On beehiiv, the median free-to-paid conversion rate is just 0.62%, while the top 10% of newsletters convert 18-20%, per its State of Paid Newsletters 2026. Subscriber lifetime value ranges from $83 in community verticals to $230 in investing, and the median newsletter takes 45 days to turn on monetization.
At the platform level the momentum is real: beehiiv’s paid-subscription revenue climbed to $19 million in 2025, up 138% year over year, and subscription revenue rose from about 30% to 85% of total creator revenue on the platform. Fewer creators convert, but those who do increasingly rely on subscriptions rather than ads.
How much volume do newsletter platforms move?
The infrastructure numbers are large. beehiiv alone powered 20 billion emails in 2025 and generated $25 million in publisher revenue, across 75,000+ newsletters reaching 350 million monthly readers, per its 2025 recap. Annualized revenue flowing through the platform passed $30 million.
Email itself keeps expanding underneath all of this: beehiiv’s State of Newsletters cites an estimated 4.89 billion email users worldwide by 2027 — over half the planet. A newsletter reaches an owned audience no algorithm can throttle, which is the structural advantage driving the category.
What are newsletter open and click rates in 2026?
The average newsletter open rate is 40.08% with a 3.84% click-through rate, per GetResponse’s benchmarks drawn from 4.4 billion messages; overall email open rate sits at 39.64%. Mailchimp reports cross-industry open rates between 35% and 45%.
Treat open rates with caution. Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection preloads images even when a recipient never opens the email, and Apple Mail accounts for roughly 46% of the email-client market — which inflates reported opens. That is why serious operators now weight click and conversion metrics over raw opens, a point we cover in our email marketing statistics.
Which platform should a creator pick?
The three leaders serve different jobs. Substack optimizes for discovery and network effects with 5M+ paid subs; beehiiv optimizes for growth tooling and paid infrastructure ($19M paid revenue in 2025); Kit optimizes for the long tail of professional creators — 600,000+ creators who have earned over $400 million through the platform, per Sacra. Kit itself booked $43.8M in 2024 revenue.
Fee structure decides more than features. Substack takes 10% of paid revenue; beehiiv and Kit charge flat platform fees. One beehiiv case study, Extra Points, would lose about $20,000 a year to Substack’s cut at ~$200,000 in revenue. At scale, the pricing model is the differentiator, not the editor.
Frequently asked questions
How many paid subscribers does Substack have?
Substack reached 5 million paid subscriptions in March 2025, up from 4 million in November 2024, per Tubefilter. The platform reports 35M+ total active subscriptions and 50,000+ publications earning money. Backlinko reports it crossed 8.4 million paid subscriptions by Q1 2026.
How much money do paid newsletters make?
It varies widely and skews to the top. On beehiiv the median free-to-paid conversion rate is just 0.62%, while the top 10% convert 18-20%, per its State of Paid Newsletters 2026. Subscriber lifetime value ranges from $83 in community verticals to $230 in investing.
How big is the creator economy?
Goldman Sachs projects it will approach $480 billion by 2027, roughly double its ~$250 billion size today, per its research. Grand View Research independently sized the market at $252.33 billion in 2025, corroborating the headline scale.
What is a good newsletter open rate?
The average newsletter open rate is 40.08%, with a 3.84% click rate, per GetResponse. Mailchimp benchmarks cross-industry opens at 35-45%. Because Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection inflates opens for the ~46% of users on Apple Mail, weight click-through rates more heavily.
How many emails do newsletter platforms send?
Volume is enormous. beehiiv alone powered 20 billion emails in 2025 across 75,000+ newsletters reaching 350 million monthly readers, per its 2025 recap. The addressable base keeps growing: an estimated 4.89 billion people will use email by 2027, more than half the world’s population.
Which newsletter platform is cheapest for creators?
It depends on revenue. Substack charges no monthly fee but takes 10% of paid-subscription revenue; beehiiv and Kit charge flat platform fees instead. At higher revenue the flat model wins — one beehiiv case study would forfeit roughly $20,000 a year to Substack’s cut at ~$200,000 in revenue, per beehiiv.
What this means for creators
The newsletter market rewards the 80/20 approach. Three platforms — Substack, beehiiv, Kit — cover nearly every real use case, and the decision reduces to two variables: whether you want built-in discovery (Substack) or flat-fee infrastructure (beehiiv, Kit), and how your revenue interacts with a 10% cut versus a flat fee. Everything else is a rounding error against those two.
That is the newsletters category stripped to essentials: pick the platform whose fee model fits your revenue and whose growth tooling matches your ambition, then spend your energy on the writing, not the tool comparison. It is the same logic behind our AI writing statistics — fewer, better-chosen tools beat a longer shortlist every time. See how we score each pick on the about page.
Sources
- Tubefilter — Substack passes 5 million paid subscribers
- Goldman Sachs — The creator economy could approach half-a-trillion dollars by 2027
- Grand View Research — Creator Economy Market Size & Share Report
- beehiiv — The State of Paid Newsletters 2026
- beehiiv — Inside the Newsletter Evolution of 2025
- beehiiv — The State of Email Newsletters (2025)
- Sacra — ConvertKit (Kit) revenue, valuation & funding
- GetResponse — Email Marketing Benchmarks
- Mailchimp — Email Marketing Benchmarks & Industry Statistics
- Backlinko — Substack User and Revenue Statistics