With localized pricing enabled on your paid publication, readers can select a subscription plan that'll show the price in their local currency. Localized pricing is available for the following locations:
- CAD (shown in Canada)
- GBP (shown in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland)
- AUD (shown in Australia)
- EUR (shown in 20 Eurozone countries)
- USD (shown in the United States; only applicable for non-USD publications)
- BRL (shown in Brazil)
- CHF (shown in Switzerland and Liechtenstein)
- DKK (shown in Denmark, Greenland, and Faroe Islands)
- MXN (shown in Mexico)
- NOK (shown in Norway, Bouvet Island, Svalbard, and Jan Mayen)
- NZD (shown in New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau, and Pitcairn)
- SEK (shown in Sweden)
- PLN (shown in Poland)
Example subscription page with local currencies enabled (Lenny's Newsletter)
Note: If localized pricing is disabled for your paid publication, readers will see subscription plans in the default currency of your publication, regardless of where they're located.
How are subscription plan rates set?
Subscription plan prices are converted according to exchange rates set by Substack and then rounded as follows:
- If <=50, round up to the nearest dollar
- If >50, round up to a multiple of 5
With localized pricing enabled, you may incur a slight extra fee on your Stripe transactions as Stripe charges 1% to 2% for currency conversion and settlement.
Rounding the price up ensures that you will still get an equivalent net amount, after the conversion and settlement fees, for local currency subscriptions as you would for normal subscriptions.
Note: At the launch of the localized pricing feature, subscription prices will be updated roughly every three months based on exchange rate fluctuations– this is subject to change.
Does enabling localized pricing benefit my Substack publication?
This feature lets you show your publication's subscription price in the reader's local currency on the subscription page (including gift, group, and donate pages) versus one global price for all subscribers.
Some benefits your publication may see similar to other publications who've participated in localized pricing are:
- Lift in paid subscriptions from a better free-to-paid conversion rate on the "Choose subscription plan" page.
- Higher to neutral revenue per subscriber, further lifting your ARR.
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For publications currently presenting in a different currency than where their Stripe account is registered (ex. Stripe account in Europe with USD as default currency), your total Stripe fees will likely be lower.
What does a multi-currency transaction look like on Stripe?
On the Payments tab on your Stripe account, click on a transaction that displays a different currency than your publication's default currency.
In this example, the publication's default currency is USD. A reader in France selected the "Annual" plan at €140.00 EUR.
The publication's annual plan price is $150.00 USD which converted to €138.25 EUR at the time of purchase. The amount was rounded up to €140.00 and this is what the reader saw on the subscription page. After Stripe's conversion and settlement fee, the transaction amount equals $149.74. Minus Stripe's card processing fees and Substack's 10% cut, the resulting payout is $130.13 USD.
Note: The Contribution in the screenshot is an optional program on Stripe– if you have this disabled, you will not see it in your transaction.
In this transaction, a reader in the US selected the annual plan at $150.00 USD. Minus Stripe's card processing fees and Substack's 10% cut, the resulting payout is $130.35 USD.
The net amounts in both transactions ended up being approximately equal.
How do I disable localized pricing?
Localized pricing on paid publications will be on by default. To disable localized pricing, head to your publication's Settings page and scroll to the Payments section.
Uncheck the box next to "Localized pricing" and new subscribers will see prices in your publication's default currency moving forward.