Use the Paid Content block on your website to accept one-time, monthly, or annual payments for access to exclusive content that you create—video, images, text, or anything else. Engage your audience with exclusive content while earning money to support your website.
In this guide
In this video, we demonstrate how to create blog content for paying members only using the Paid Content block.
Before adding a Paid Content block, connect your site to Stripe to accept payments. Visit the connect a Stripe account guide for instructions.
To add content only your paying subscribers can see, follow these steps:
- Go to your site’s dashboard.
- Depending on where you want to add the payment button, navigate to a page, post, or template and edit or create a new:
- Page: Go to the Pages section of your menu.
- Post: Go to the Posts section of your menu.
- Template: Go to Appearance → Editor and select the template.
- Click the + (block inserter) icon and search for “paid content”:
- Click the Paid Content block to insert it.
- By default, the Paid Content block will display the “Guest View” and Subscribe and “Log in” buttons. Later in this guide, you will learn how to customize the content of the block.
The Paid Content block can’t be added through the Jetpack app yet. You can use a browser on your mobile device or a desktop computer to add this block to posts or pages.
After you add the paid content block, you will next assign a payment plan to it. Follow these steps to create a payment plan:
- Use the List View to navigate to the Paid Content block.
- In the block toolbar that appears, click the “Select a payment plan” button.
- If you already have payment plans set up, click the payment amount and select another plan, or follow the next instructions to create a new plan.
- Click “Add a new payment plan” in the drop-down.
- In the block settings sidebar, configure the payment settings:
- Name: Give the payment a memorable name. This name will appear in the email receipt your customers receive.
- Currency: Which currency the payment will be collected in.
- Price: How much the payment will be for.
- Interval: The frequency in which your subscribers are billed. This can be a monthly, yearly, or a one-time payment.
- If you want customers to pick their price, toggle on the “Enable customers to pick their own amount” option.
- Click the “Add payment plan” button.
This new payment plan will be assigned to the button you created and appear as an option when you add new payment buttons to your site. Learn more about setting up and managing payment plans.
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You can add multiple subscription levels. For example, you can add bronze, silver, and gold tiers with increasing benefits for each one.
Remember that a single Paid Content block can have just one subscription selected, so you would insert three Paid Content blocks in this scenario, one for each payment plan/subscription level.
You will configure two views for your content. The view for your paying subscribers, and the view for guests who have not yet subscribed.
This is where you will add the content your subscribers are paying for. You can place text, images, and any other content.
Follow these steps to add subscriber content:
- Open the List View sidebar to simplify adding the subscriber content.
- Click the first block in the “Subscriber View” section.
- Edit and add any content you want to appear for subscribers only.
Blocks nested under the “Subscriber View” in the List View will show for subscribers of that paid plan only.
If you have added other administrators or editors to your site, they can access the paid content without a subscription because they can edit the content on the site.
Visitors without access to the subscription will see what you add to the “Guest View” section. You can use this area to showcase a teaser of your paid content and explain the benefits of subscribing.
Follow these steps to add subscriber content:
- Open the List View sidebar to simplify adding the subscriber content.
- Click the first block in the “Guest View” section.
- Edit and add any content you want to appear for visitors who have not subscribed yet.
Blocks nested under the “Guest View” in the List View will show for visitors without access to the paid content.
By default, you should see the Premium Content buttons block in the “Guest View”. These buttons allow your visitors to subscribe to the content or log into their account if they’re already subscribed.
Can non-subscribers access any of the content in a Paid Content block?
Only the HTML content is currently blocked. Non-subscribers can access files, videos, or images with a known direct link.
Why doesn’t the Paid Content block work with my plugin-enabled site?
If you have a plugin-enabled site, the WordPress.com Secure Sign On (SSO) feature will need to be enabled for the Paid Content block to work as expected. You can access this setting under Jetpack → Settings → Security. The setting “Allow users to log in to this site using WordPress.com accounts” should be turned on.
Manage your subscribers
Each time you publish a new post, your subscribers receive an update via email, in their Reader, or both depending on their settings. This guide will explain how to manage your site’s subscribers.
Manage paying customers and donors
This guide will show you how to view and manage your site’s customers, supporters, and donors when using WordPress.com Payments features.
Create and manage payment plans
In this guide, learn how to create and manage the payment plans for payment buttons, paid content, or paid newsletters.
Fees for payments are based on the WordPress.com plan you have and are calculated as a percentage of your revenue:
| Plan | Free | Personal | Premium | Business | Commerce |
| Website hosting | $0 | $4 | $8 | $25 | $45 |
| Subscriber payment fee | 10% | 8% | 4% | 2% | 0% |
| Subscriber import limit | 100 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
In addition to the fees listed above, Stripe collects 2.9% + US$0.30 for each payment made to your Stripe account. Not in the USA? Check Stripe’s fees in your currency.
This system allows you to offer Payments with minimal upfront investment. As you collect more supporters, it may make sense to move to a higher plan to retain more revenue.
Note that if your WordPress.com plan expires, the fee associated with your plan will increase to 10%. The Stripe fee will be unaffected.
