For newsletter writers
Substack Income Tracker: Newsletter Revenue Tracking After Substack and Stripe Fees
A $10 subscription does not pay you $10: Substack takes 10% and Stripe processing comes out on top of that. Earnly shows your real per-subscriber take-home and puts sponsor placements and tips on the same board.
Gross
Fees
Take-home
...
Next month Estimate
Payout calendar
Sample data for illustration
In short
A substack income tracker shows what your paid subscriptions actually pay you after the platform and processor take their cut, which is the number Substack's own dashboard does not put in front of you. Newsletter revenue tracking starts with a fee most writers only notice at payout time: Substack takes 10% of every paid subscription, as published, and Stripe processing of about 2.9% plus $0.30 per charge comes out on top, so a $10 subscription lands closer to $8.40. Earnly shows each month's subscription revenue as gross, Substack's cut, processing, and take-home, and tracks the rest of your newsletter income the same way: sponsor placements you invoice directly, affiliate links, and a Ko-fi tip jar, which charges 0% platform fee on donations with processing still applying. Lite invoicing nudges late sponsors, and the payout calendar shows when Stripe payouts should land. The next-month forecast band, always labeled an estimate, turns churn-month anxiety into a working number. Figures follow published fee schedules; confirm against your Stripe dashboard. Solo at $12 per month billed yearly covers a solo newsletter; Creator at $32, the most popular plan, adds room for more sources.
What changes
Three things you stop doing by hand
Real per-subscriber math
Every paid subscription shows gross, the 10% platform cut, and processing, so growth plans rest on the $8.40 you keep, not the $10 sticker.
Sponsors and tips beside subscriptions
Sponsor placements, affiliate income, and Ko-fi tips sit on the same board as subscription revenue, so diversifying is measurable, not a hunch.
A number for churn months
The forecast band, always an estimate, projects next month from your trailing pattern, so a wave of cancellations is a data point instead of a panic.
Who this fits
Paid newsletter writers on Substack or a Stripe-backed stack who want honest take-home per subscriber and a single view across subscriptions, sponsors, and tips.
The pieces doing the work here: the revenue dashboard, platform fees calculator, payout calendar . Plans start at $12 per month billed yearly on income tracker pricing.
Questions people actually ask
When does Substack pay you?
Substack pays through Stripe on a rolling basis rather than on a fixed monthly date. Each subscription payment moves to your bank a couple of business days after it clears, so income arrives in a steady trickle instead of one lump. Your first payout takes longer while Stripe verifies the account. Full detail is in our Substack payout schedule guide.
How much does Substack take?
Substack keeps 10% of every paid subscription, and Stripe processing of about 2.9% plus $0.30 per charge comes out on top of that. On a $10 monthly subscription that leaves roughly $8.40. On an annual $100 subscription the percentage stings less, because the fixed $0.30 is charged once rather than twelve times, which is a real argument for pushing annual plans.
How much do Substack writers make?
It ranges from nothing to seven figures, and the mechanics are what you can actually control: paid subscriber count times price, minus 10% to Substack and processing. A newsletter with 500 subscribers at $8 a month grosses $4,000 and takes home roughly $3,400. Most writers earn well under that, and the ones who do best usually add sponsors on top of subscriptions rather than relying on subscriptions alone.
Can I track Substack income alongside sponsors?
Yes, and that is the point of tracking it here rather than in Substack. Substack only knows about Substack. Sponsor placements you invoice directly, affiliate income, and tips live outside it entirely, so the platform dashboard always understates what the newsletter earns. Earnly puts all of it on one board with fees broken out per source.