Get Subwave: iOS · Android · Web
Subwave lets you earn directly from your audience by offering paid channel subscriptions that give members access to exclusive content. You can mix public, free, and paid posts on the same channel, and there's no monthly fee or setup cost to use monetization. Subwave takes a 10% platform fee on paid subscriptions. Setup takes two steps: connect Stripe, then switch on paid subscriptions.
Before you start: is Stripe available in your country?
Stripe is Subwave's only payment provider, so whether you can accept paid subscriptions depends on whether Stripe supports payouts in your country.
- Stripe is supported in a growing list of countries and regions, with more to come
- Check the full list on Stripe's global availability page
- If Stripe isn't available in your country, you won't be able to turn on paid subscriptions on Subwave at this time
Step 1: Connect Stripe
- Go to Payments and complete the verification process with Stripe
- Stripe will ask for your business or personal address, identity details, bank account information for payouts, and contact details, including a phone number, email, and address
- For US creators, Stripe's verification can take a couple of days
Tip: you only need to connect Stripe once. It unlocks monetization across all your channels, not just the one you're setting up.
Step 2: Turn on paid subscriptions
- Go to Channel Settings for any channel
- Scroll to Paid channel
- Toggle on Offer paid subscriptions
You can enable this on all of your channels.
Step 3: Choose your price and billing cycle
- You set your own subscription price, from a minimum of $1.00 to a maximum of $10,000.00 per billing period (or the equivalent in your chosen currency)
- Supported currencies are USD, CAD, EUR, and GBP, with more coming soon
- You can offer monthly or yearly billing
- There are no free trials: every paid subscription is charged at signup
Step 4: Choose who can see each post
Every post you publish has an audience setting that controls who can see it. By default, every channel has two options:
- Everyone (public): visible to anyone, whether or not they follow your channel
- Subscribers: only people subscribed to your channel for free can view it
Once you turn on paid subscriptions, a third option appears:
- Paid subscribers: only followers with an active paid subscription can access it
Turning on paid subscriptions doesn't change your existing posts, and it doesn't put your channel behind a paywall. Each post has its own audience setting, so you can mix all three types on the same channel: some posts public, some for free subscribers, some for paid subscribers only. How you structure it is up to you. You can also convert existing public or subscribers-only posts to paid at any time.
What fees does Subwave charge?
- Subwave charges a 10% platform fee on every paid subscription, deducted before your payout is calculated
- Stripe also charges its own processing fee. The rate depends on your country and is shown on your Stripe dashboard
- Both fees come out before you receive your earnings
- There's no monthly fee or setup cost for monetization on Subwave
How do payouts work?
Once a subscriber pays, Stripe processes the transaction and schedules a payout to your connected bank account. Your exact payout timeline is shown on your Stripe dashboard.
To see your payouts:
- Go to Payments and click View on Stripe
- Navigate to Balance, then Transactions, then Payouts
- You'll see all the payments sent to your bank account
How to view your earnings and transaction history
- Go to Payments and click View on Stripe
- Your Stripe dashboard shows your total balance, your upcoming payout with an estimated arrival date, and a full transaction history
- Each payment lists the date, status, amount, fee, and net payout
Subwave doesn't show earnings or payout metrics in the app yet.
How to cancel a subscriber's paid subscription
- Go to My Channel and open Manage subscribers
- Tap Cancel paid subscription
- It takes effect immediately, and Stripe stops charging them right away
- No partial refund is issued. To refund the last invoice, do it manually from your Stripe dashboard
The subscriber stays on as a free follower. To remove them entirely, tap Remove subscriber separately.
What happens when you turn off paid subscriptions?
You can toggle off Offer paid subscriptions in your channel settings at any time. Two things to know:
- Your existing posts stay as they are. Paid posts remain paid-only. To make that content free, edit each post and change its audience manually.
- Existing paid subscribers keep being billed. Turning the toggle off only stops new paid signups. It doesn't cancel anyone's active subscription. To stop billing current paid subscribers, cancel them one by one from your subscribers list, or delete the channel, which cancels all of them at once.
How to track your channel's performance with Analytics
Every channel has a built-in analytics dashboard.
- Open the left sidebar menu and tap Analytics
- Filter the data by 7 days, 30 days, 90 days, or All time
The dashboard shows:
- Views: total views in the selected period, compared to the previous period
- Unique visitors: distinct people who visited your channel, compared to the previous period
- Posts published: how many posts you published in the period
- Top country: where most of your audience is coming from
- Views over time: a chart of how your view count changes across the period
- Newsletter: the number of newsletter sends in the period
- Top posts: your best-performing posts, ranked by views
- Audience: views broken down by viewer type (Anonymous, Free subscribers, or Paid subscribers), so you can see how much of your content reaches paying members
Want the full walkthrough? See Track Your Growth with Channel Analytics.
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