Substack waives fees in India and Brazil

Waiving the 10% fee is less about near term revenue and more about seeding a two sided market that does not work until enough local writers and local readers show up at the same time. Substack still monetizes most paid subscriptions through a 10% take rate, but in India and Brazil it is giving that up temporarily to remove the biggest creator objection, especially while payments depend on Stripe onboarding that is more limited and operationally heavier in those markets.1 2 3 4

• Substack has made the exception explicit. Its payments support page says creators in India and Brazil with connected Stripe accounts can enable paid subscriptions and Substack does not currently charge its fee there. The same page lists Indonesia, Mexico, Malaysia, and Thailand as exception markets where the application fee does not apply.1
• This is a competitive lever against newsletter tools that already sell on low or zero take rates. Substack still charges 10% in its core model, while Beehiiv mixes SaaS with ads and creator referral monetization, and Kit monetizes through SaaS. Cutting the fee in new markets lets Substack match the economics of rivals without changing its global pricing model.2 3 5
• The bottleneck is not just demand, it is payments infrastructure. Stripe says India remains invite only for new accounts, and Substack notes that some India based creators must request Stripe access directly. That makes fee waivers a practical way to offset extra friction while creator onboarding and local payment rails catch up.1 4 6

If this works, Substack can turn waived take rate markets into new supply centers for local language writers, then switch from subsidizing payments to monetizing discovery, subscriptions, and eventually ads once audience density is high enough. The pattern is the same as any marketplace rollout. First remove friction, then monetize the network after habits and liquidity form.1 2 3