On Substack, subscriptions automatically renew at the price the subscriber signed up for.
Mostly true True in substance, wrong in a detail.
Factual: Statements about the present or the past, checked against the record: did they hold up?
The second judge would not resolve this claim; the verdict shown is the first judge's.
The evidence is the person's or their organisation's own records.
What would count as true or false
Judged as of 2023-09-11 against Substack's official help-center documentation or policies on subscription renewal and price changes. True: paid subscriptions renew automatically by default, and existing subscribers keep the price they signed up at when a publisher raises prices (they are grandfathered). Mostly true: both hold as the default, with minor exceptions (e.g. publishers can choose to migrate existing subscribers, or promotional discounts expire). Mixed: auto-renewal holds but subscribers are routinely moved to new prices, or the reverse. Mostly false: renewal at the original price is unusual rather than the norm. False: Substack subscriptions do not auto-renew, or renewals are charged at the current price by default.
Set before the research began.
Evidence (4)
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E1 Can I change the price of my subscription after launch? Substack, Inc · 6 February 2025 Own record
“Your existing subscribers will remain on the plan they originally paid for.”
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E2 Can I change the price of my subscription after launch? Substack, Inc · 6 February 2025 Own record
“Note: Subscriptions renew at the original rate the subscriber pays as long as they don't cancel and resubscribe.”
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E3 Will my paid subscription automatically renew on Substack? Substack, Inc · 24 September 2026 Own record
“If you're a reader with a monthly or annual paid subscription to a Substack publication, your subscription will automatically renew.”
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E4 Can I change the price of my subscription after launch? Substack, Inc · 6 February 2025 Own record
“If you'd like to request a change in price for your existing subscribers, visit the support widget and ask for a human support specialist.”
Reasoning
Substack's help center says monthly and annual paid subscriptions renew automatically (E3). It also says existing subscribers stay on the plan they originally paid for and renew at that original rate unless they cancel and resubscribe (E1, E2). However, publishers can ask Substack support to change the price for existing subscribers (E4). The criteria list this as an exception that makes the claim mostly true rather than fully true. These help-center pages are dated after 2023-09-11, but they are the source the criteria name, and nothing in the evidence suggests the policy was different on that date.
Cite this claim
Nate Silver, “On Substack, subscriptions automatically renew at the price the subscriber signed up for.” (said 11 September 2023). Verdict: mostly true. Reliability API, claim c_bc834b7680df, method 0.1.0+28da144b, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_bc834b7680df
This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.
Reply to this claim
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Verdicts are made automatically; how verdicts are made.