The short version: When you raise your Substack price, only new subscribers pay it. Existing subscribers stay on their original rate. The only route Substack offers for changing an existing subscriber's rate is asking Substack support, one subscriber at a time. And there's no workaround from Stripe: Substack controls the billing relationship for its paid subscriptions, so you can't re-price them yourself, and neither can a tool like PricePilot.
Why your existing subscribers didn't get the new price
Substack sets price at signup. When you change your publication's price, the new rate applies to people who subscribe afterward, and everyone already subscribed keeps paying what they signed up at, as long as they don't cancel and resubscribe. That's grandfathering, and it's how Substack is designed to work. There's no self-serve option and no bulk option for moving existing subscribers to the new price.
Why Stripe isn't a way around it
Substack takes payments through Stripe, so it's natural to assume you could just change the subscriptions there. You can't. Substack controls the billing relationship for its paid subscriptions, which means there's no subscription you can independently re-price from Stripe and have Substack respect. An earlier version of this guide said otherwise. It was wrong, and we've rewritten it.
That's also why PricePilot doesn't support Substack. PricePilot re-prices native Stripe Billing subscriptions that live in your own Stripe account. Substack's paid subscriptions aren't in that category.
What you can actually do
- Raise the price for new subscribers. Change your publication's price in Substack. Everyone who subscribes from then on pays the new rate, and your existing readers stay where they are.
- Ask Substack support about specific subscribers. If there are particular people you need to move, Substack's support team is the route Substack offers. Expect it to be one at a time.
- Move to a platform that bills through your own Stripe account. Paid Memberships Pro, MemberPress, Ghost, beehiiv and Thinkific all create native Stripe Billing subscriptions in your own account. Those are the subscriptions that can be re-priced in bulk later. It's a bigger decision than a price change, so weigh it on everything else the platform does for you, not just this.
Run your subscriptions on your own Stripe account?
If your subscriptions come from a platform that creates native Stripe Billing subscriptions, like PMPro, MemberPress, Ghost, beehiiv or Thinkific, the Migrate Pro preview shows every affected subscriber and the MRR impact for free.
Open Migrate Pro →Frequently asked questions
Can I change the price for existing Substack subscribers?
Not on your own. A Substack price change applies to new subscribers only, and existing subscribers stay on their original rate. There is no self-serve route in Substack, and you can't do it from Stripe either, because Substack controls the billing relationship for its paid subscriptions. The only route Substack offers is asking its support team to change a specific subscriber's rate, one at a time.
What can I do instead?
Three things. Change your publication's price in Substack so every new subscriber pays the new rate. Ask Substack support about specific existing subscribers you want to move. Or, if re-pricing your existing base matters enough, move the publication to a platform that creates native Stripe Billing subscriptions in your own Stripe account, such as Paid Memberships Pro, MemberPress, Ghost, beehiiv or Thinkific.
Can PricePilot re-price my Substack subscribers?
No. PricePilot re-prices native Stripe Billing subscriptions that live in your own Stripe account. Substack controls the billing relationship for its paid subscriptions, so there is no subscription there that a tool like PricePilot can move to a new price.