Newsletter Advertising Rates and CPM Benchmarks for 2026

HR newsletters cost advertisers $18.47 per 1,000 subscribers. Lifestyle newsletters cost $1.22. That's a 15x spread by niche, from one newsletter ad marketplace's Q3 2026 benchmarks¹. The same reader count can cost you a coffee or a nice dinner depending on who's reading.

This page pulls together the newsletter advertising rates that are actually published. You'll get category benchmarks, real rate cards from small Substacks to big developer lists, classified and package prices, and the math to turn any quote into a CPM per subscriber or per real open. Every number names its source.

Facts and prices checked November 11, 2026. See something wrong? Tell us.

Key takeaways

• One marketplace's Q3 2026 benchmark prices HR newsletters at $18.47 per 1,000 subscribers and lifestyle lists at $1.22, a 15x spread¹.
• beehiiv's guide puts most newsletter CPMs at $10 to $75, with specialized B2B lists at $50 to $100 or more².
• Published rate cards run from a $55 top-of-email ad in a 1,150-reader Substack to $3,680 for a primary slot in the 163,202-subscriber JavaScript Weekly³⁴.
• Classifieds are the cheapest unit, from $7 in a small Substack to $180 to $250 in Cooperpress's developer newsletters³⁴.
• Multi-issue packages often cut 15% to 30% off the single-issue price, per published rate cards⁵³.

How newsletters price ads

Newsletter advertising rates come in four shapes. Learn to convert between them and every quote becomes comparable.

• Per 1,000 subscribers. You pay for list size. A $500 slot on a 12,000-person list is about $41.67 per 1,000 subscribers. Most direct deals and marketplace benchmarks use this unit.
• Per 1,000 opens. You pay only for people who opened. beehiiv's ad network can bill this way, per 1,000 unique opens⁶.
• Per click. You pay for each unique click on your link. beehiiv bills per click after it filters out bots, duplicate clicks and instant bounces⁶.
• Flat fee. One price per issue or per month, whatever the opens. Small writers mostly work this way.

The formula for all of it is the same. Price divided by the count, times 1,000. Divide by subscribers for a subscriber CPM, by opens for an open CPM, or by clicks alone for a cost per click.

beehiiv's pricing guide puts most newsletter CPMs between $10 and $75. It says specialized B2B newsletters often charge $50 to $100 or more and broad consumer lists sit closer to $15 to $35². Use those ranges as a sanity check, not a price list.

Price per 1,000 subscribers by category

The best category data published this year comes from one newsletter ad marketplace's Q3 2026 benchmark. It uses 12 months of live campaign data and only shows categories with at least 20 completed campaigns¹. Prices are per 1,000 subscribers, not per open.

The last column is simple math, price per 1,000 times average list size. It shows something the per-subscriber number hides. The flat price of a placement doesn't swing nearly as much as the rate does. An average HR newsletter costs about $451 a slot and an average lifestyle one about $935. You pay more per reader in HR because there are far fewer readers.

The same report lists Education at $7.21, Finance at $7.11, Health and Wellness at $5.60 and Business at $5.34 per 1,000, without list sizes¹. PPC Land also flagged sorting errors in the report's table¹, so treat it as a direction, not a quote you can hold anyone to.

Why niche B2B lists cost more than lifestyle lists

An advertiser pays for who reads, not how many. One HR director can be worth a big software contract. A lifestyle reader might buy a $30 candle. Rates follow the value of the buyer.

Three more things push B2B prices up.

• Fewer substitutes. There are only so many newsletters read by payroll managers. There are thousands for general readers.
• Higher intent. People subscribe to a work newsletter to do their job better, so they read sponsor offers with a buyer's eye.
• Smaller lists. The fixed work of writing and selling an issue gets spread across fewer readers, so the per-reader price rises.

You can see this inside one publisher. Cooperpress's Q4 2026 rate card prices a primary slot in JavaScript Weekly at $3,680 for 163,202 subscribers, about $22.55 per 1,000. Postgres Weekly costs $1,280 for 17,501 subscribers, about $73.14 per 1,000⁴. The smaller, narrower list costs over 3 times more per reader.

That's not a reason to skip it. If database buyers are your customers, Postgres Weekly may still give you the lowest cost per lead.

Published rate cards from small to large newsletters

Most big newsletters don't publish prices. TLDR, for one, builds a custom proposal from your goals and budget instead⁷. But plenty of writers do post rate cards, and they make good anchors.

Take OpenLampTech, a Substack newsletter with 1,150+ readers. It sells a two-sentence classified for $7, a mid-email shout-out for $20 and a top-of-email ad with a logo and three paragraphs for $55. All paid content is marked as sponsored³. That's a full sponsor slot for less than a lunch meeting, and a sign of how cheap a first test in a tight niche can be.

beehiiv's guide sums up the size bands. Under 5,000 subscribers, placements run about $50 to $250. From 5,000 to 50,000, about $500 to $3,000, with most at $1,000 to $1,500. Above 50,000, about $3,000 to $20,000 or more². To see what buyers got for these prices, read our newsletter advertising statistics and case studies.

The catch is that the rate cards above are the easy ones. For most newsletters you'll want, you won't find a price at all. You'll have to find the writer and ask, one newsletter at a time.

Classified and text ad rates

Classifieds are the cheapest way into a newsletter. You get a line or two and a link, usually near the bottom.

• OpenLampTech charges $7 for one classified or $20 for four weeks³.
• Cooperpress charges $180 to $250 per classified across its seven developer newsletters. A listing is up to 140 characters with one link⁴.
• TLDR's Quick Links unit at the bottom of the issue runs up to 30 words with one call to action⁷.
• Print still sets the model for some publishers. Harvard Magazine charges $5.50 a word for plain text classifieds, with a 12-word minimum⁹.

Per reader, classifieds are often a bargain. JavaScript Weekly's $250 classified works out to about $1.53 per 1,000 subscribers, against $22.55 for its primary slot⁴. You get far less space and attention, but it's a cheap way to see whether a list responds at all.

Dedicated send and package pricing

A dedicated send is a full email about your brand, sent to the whole list. Few newsletters publish a price for it. Next.js Weekly and Cooperpress, for example, list sponsor slots and classifieds but no dedicated issue⁵⁴. When a writer does offer one, ask for the price in writing and compare it with buying their primary slot two or three times.

Packages are where big budgets go. beehiiv's guide says quarterly packages with large newsletters may start at $25,000². It also says sponsors who commit to 12-week campaigns report 40% better performance than one-off placements². That figure comes from a platform that earns from ads, so test it yourself before you sign a quarter.

How open-rate inflation changes your real CPM

Media kit open rates can run high, because Apple Mail Privacy Protection loads email content in the background whether or not anyone reads it¹⁰, and Litmus says more than half of opens now happen with it on¹¹.

So price a quote on unique clicks, not opens. Our open rate vetting guide covers the checks and the newsletter CPM calculator does the real-open math.

Discounts for multi-issue buys

Almost every rate card rewards repeat bookings. The discounts are bigger than most buyers expect.

• OpenLampTech sells four weekly top-of-email ads for $175, against $220 for four single ones. That's about 20% off³.
• Next.js Weekly sells its first sponsor slot at €290 for one issue, €990 for four and €1,740 for eight, about 15% and 25% off⁵.
• Its second sponsor slot drops from €150 to €105 per issue in a four pack, about 30% off⁵.
• Harvard Magazine takes 10% off classifieds for three issues and 20% for six⁹.

Don't open with a package. Buy one issue first, measure, then ask for the multi-issue rate on the newsletters that worked. You'll know which ones earn the discount. For tactics on how much to pay, see how much it costs to advertise in a newsletter.

Newsletter rates vs podcast and YouTube rates

Podcasts price per download and YouTube per view, so compare them with newsletters on cost per signup, as our newsletter vs podcast vs YouTube comparison shows.

Find newsletters in your price band and email the writers

Once you know the rate band you can afford, the next job is finding newsletters in it and asking for their prices. Media List helps with that part.

• Search. Media List has 28,000+ newsletters you can email. Filter by category, country and language.
• See the contact. Emails unlock from your plan's allowance, no bot checks.
• Save a shortlist. Keep your picks in a saved list for each test.
• Ask for rates. On Professional, send one rate request to the whole list from built-in email campaigns.

Media List doesn't hold rate cards, open rates or subscriber counts for newsletters, and there's no subscriber filter. It tells you who writes each newsletter and how to reach them. The rates come back in their replies.

Basic at $99 a month covers search, saved lists and exports. Built-in email campaigns come with Professional at $399 a month. Try it with a 3-day trial. It's $0 today, and you can cancel anytime. See the pricing page. New to the channel? Start with our newsletter advertising guide.

Questions, answered

What are typical newsletter advertising rates?

beehiiv's guide puts most newsletter CPMs between $10 and $75 per 1,000 subscribers, with specialized B2B newsletters at $50 to $100 or more. By size, placements run about $50 to $250 under 5,000 subscribers and $500 to $3,000 between 5,000 and 50,000.

What is a good CPM for a newsletter ad?

It depends on the niche. One marketplace's Q3 2026 data runs from $1.22 per 1,000 subscribers for lifestyle lists to $18.47 for HR lists. Compare a quote with its category, then judge it on cost per result after a test.

How do I calculate a newsletter CPM?

Divide the price by the number of subscribers and multiply by 1,000. For an open CPM, divide by unique opens instead. A $1,000 slot on a 20,000-subscriber list is a $50 subscriber CPM.

Why do B2B newsletters charge more?

Their readers are worth more to advertisers, there are fewer newsletters that reach them, and the lists are smaller. Cooperpress's Postgres Weekly costs about $73 per 1,000 subscribers against about $23 for its much larger JavaScript Weekly.

How much does a newsletter classified ad cost?

Published classified prices run from $7 in a 1,150-reader Substack to $180 to $250 in Cooperpress's developer newsletters. Classifieds are short, usually one or two lines and a link.

Do newsletters give discounts for multiple issues?

Most do. Next.js Weekly takes about 15% off for four issues and 25% for eight, and OpenLampTech takes about 20% off a four-week package. Test one issue first, then ask for the package rate.

Related guides

• Newsletter Advertising Guide for Brands Buying Direct in 2026
• How Much Does It Cost to Advertise in a Newsletter
• How to Find Newsletters to Sponsor in Your Niche
• Newsletter Directory and Contact List for Advertisers
• B2B Newsletter Advertising for SaaS and Business Brands

Sources

1. PPC Land, Newsletter marketplace finds HR ad rates run 15 times higher than lifestyle lists (Aug 30, 2026), checked 2026-11-11
2. beehiiv, How much does a newsletter sponsorship cost (Nov 9, 2025), checked 2026-11-11
3. OpenLampTech, Newsletter sponsorship rates, checked 2026-11-11
4. Cooperpress, Media kit Q4 2026 (October to December 2026), checked 2026-11-11
5. Next.js Weekly, Sponsor Next.js Weekly, checked 2026-11-11
6. beehiiv, Ad Network, checked 2026-11-11
7. TLDR, Advertise with TLDR, checked 2026-11-11
8. Write the Docs, Newsletter sponsorship, checked 2026-11-11
9. Harvard Magazine, Classifieds pricing and sizes, checked 2026-11-11
10. Apple, Mail Privacy Protection and privacy, checked 2026-11-11
11. Litmus, Apple Mail Privacy Protection resources, checked 2026-11-11