FAQs about the Recommendations Network

Only a workspace Admin or Owner can access paid recommendations. Read Workspace user roles and permissions overview for more.

Yes. Free and paid recommendations live together under Grow > Recommendations, split into Outgoing recommendations and Incoming recommendations, and can run concurrently without interfering with each other.

Paid recommendations are processed through Stripe, so Stripe is required to participate. You can check the current list of supported countries on Stripe's website. Alternative payment methods aren't available.

Stripe identity verification is required before you can create a paid offer or apply to recommend another publication for pay. The prompt appears automatically when you try to take either action, and you can't proceed until it's complete. Read How to confirm your account with Stripe Identity Verification.

Yes, and they're available on all beehiiv plans, including the free plan. There's no cost to recommend other publications or to be recommended in return.

You can feature up to 4 publications in your Top 4. These appear in your signup flow and can be embedded in posts.

Recommendations are a cross-promotion tool between publishers: you recommend other newsletters to your new subscribers, and they can recommend you in return. The Referral Program works differently: it rewards your own existing subscribers for sharing your newsletter with others.

To appear in the Recommendations Network, a publication must not be private, must have sent at least one post in the last 60 days, and must have a name and logo set. Publications you already recommend are excluded from your own discovery results.

Your Top 4 appears in your signup flow after someone subscribes (if enabled) and can also be inserted directly into posts.

In your Subscribers dashboard, the Acquisition source column shows Paid Recommendations for subscribers referred through a paid offer, and recommendation for subscribers referred through a free recommendation.

Not currently. There's no way to opt out of appearing in the network.

Just one. Each publication can have only one live paid offer at a time.

Yes, $20. When you create your offer, you'll add funds via Stripe, and $20 is the minimum deposit. Funds are consumed only when an approved partner refers a subscriber who successfully completes verification. You also need to ensure that you meet the minimum balance to keep your offer live: at or above 10 times your live offer's cost per subscriber. 

Yes. Your available funds need to stay at or above 10 times your live offer's Cost per subscriber (CPA). If your balance drops below that threshold, your offer may be automatically paused. To avoid an interruption, add funds manually from Incoming recommendations, or toggle on Auto-deposit to top up your balance automatically before it drops too low. Read Using the beehiiv Wallet for more.

Active paid agreements may pause automatically when your available funds are insufficient. You can add funds manually from Incoming recommendations, or toggle on Auto-deposit to top up your balance automatically when it drops below a threshold you set. Set your Balance threshold, Deposit amount, and a Frequency of once per week, once every two weeks, or once per month. Read Using the beehiiv Wallet and Automating your paid incoming recommendations for more.

Yes. When creating or editing your offer, set your eligible subscriber countries. You're only charged for verified subscribers from the countries you select.

Yes. Toggle on Automatically approve publishers that match your conditions and use the slider to move between prioritizing the highest-quality subscribers and faster growth. You'll see an estimate of your growth and the percentage of publishers in the network your settings give you access to. For finer control, expand Advanced conditions to filter by category, language, or audience country.

Yes. Auto-pause automatically pauses a paid partner if the open rate of the subscribers they drive falls below a threshold you set, and it applies to all current and future partners. Set an Open rate threshold and a minimum subscriber count (the number of verified subscribers a partner must send before the rule applies, minimum 100). For example, a 20% threshold with a minimum of 100 subscribers pauses any partner who sends at least 100 verified subscribers whose average open rate falls below 20%.

Yes. Go to Grow > Recommendations > Incoming recommendations > Overview. Click the 3 dots menu next to the publisher's name and select Block publication. You can unblock them from the same menu at any time.

Go to Grow > Recommendations > Incoming recommendations > Overview. Click the 3 dots menu next to the publisher's name and select Report publication. This flags the publisher account, not an individual subscriber. There's no separate self-service flow for disputing one subscriber's verification result. If you believe a specific verification outcome was wrong, please use the chatbot to help you reach out to beehiiv support, or access the Help page in your account.

From Recommendations, click Discover publications to browse available offers. Filter by category, language, size, last posted date, audience location, and CPA, then click Recommend for $x.xx/subscriber on any offer that fits your strategy. You can include a personal message with your application.

Your earnings are held in your beehiiv Wallet. To receive payouts, you must complete Stripe Identity Verification and link your bank account via a Stripe Express account.

Applications remain pending until the publication on the other side reviews and accepts them. The timing is entirely at their discretion, and some applications may not be approved if the publication doesn't consider your audience a good fit.

Yes. You can configure up to 4 slots total, up to 3 of which can be paid. Each slot can be set to:

• Shuffle: rotates through your active recommendations. Can be filtered to draw from free recommendations, paid recommendations, or both.
• Pinned: locks in a specific publication.
• Smart: automatically fills with the best matches from across the network.
• Your publication: features one of your own publications.
• None: leaves the slot empty.

If your account is under review or has been frozen, withdrawals are temporarily suspended until the review is complete. Please use the chatbot to help you reach out to beehiiv support, or access the Help page in your account.

To prevent abuse, paid recommendations use a review system that analyzes various factors to ensure quality and compliance. If your access has been frozen, please use the chatbot to help you reach out to beehiiv support, or access the Help page in your account. In some cases, access may be permanently revoked.

Subscriber verification uses a range of signals, including email engagement, geolocation, and behavioral data, to confirm subscribers are genuine and active. Due to the nature of these measures, specific methods aren't disclosed. This process protects all publishers from being charged for inauthentic subscribers.

Verification checks engagement and authenticity against your offer's criteria, including any eligible country restrictions you've set. You're not charged for subscribers who fail verification, and any pending funds associated with them are returned to your Wallet.

Not automatically. Auto-clean has been removed. Every subscriber acquired through a paid recommendation is tagged Rec: Pending Verification, Rec: Verified, or Rec: Failed Verification, so subscribers who don't pass stay on your list and you decide what to do with them. You can build a segment based on these tags, or turn on beehiiv's pre-built automation template that removes failed-verification subscribers automatically. Read Verification outcomes for paid recommendation subscribers for more.

Yes. A 20% fee applies to all paid recommendations to cover operational and Stripe transaction costs, and it's already factored into the marketplace price. For example, if you create an offer with a $2.50 CPA, publishers browsing your offer see $2.00 per subscriber, the amount they'll actually be paid.

Yes. From your beehiiv Wallet, you can transfer available earnings from outgoing paid recommendations into your available funds for incoming paid recommendations.

Both have been retired. You can no longer create new email boosts or direct links. Email boosts already in flight will run until they expire, and direct links you've already shared will continue resolving for subscribers who use them.

The subscriber attribution channel label has also changed: paid acquisitions now show as Paid Recommendations, and free acquisitions show as recommendation, throughout your dashboards. For a full walkthrough, read Boosts to paid recommendations: what changed, Growing your audience with paid incoming recommendations, and Monetizing your newsletter with paid outgoing recommendations.