How much should a newsletter charge for a sponsorship?

Short answer

Price newsletter sponsorships at $40–$120 per 1,000 opens for the primary placement. A newsletter with 10,000 subscribers and a 40% open rate delivers 4,000 opens, so the primary slot should sell for roughly $160–$480, and more in B2B or finance niches.

Newsletter sponsorship pricing by list size (40% open rate)

Subscribers	Opens	Primary slot
5,000	2,000	$80–$240
10,000	4,000	$160–$480
25,000	10,000	$400–$1,200
50,000	20,000	$800–$2,400
100,000	40,000	$1,600–$4,800

How to read this table

100,000 sits at the top of the table (40,000) — $1,600–$4,800. If your situation looks like this row, plan against the upper half of the range rather than the midpoint.
5,000 anchors the bottom (2,000) — $80–$240. Treat this as the conservative case you should still be profitable at.
The gap between the top and bottom row is roughly 20×. That spread is why a single blended average is close to useless here — pick the row that matches your setup instead of averaging the column.
With 5 reference points in the "newsletter sponsorship pricing by list size (40% open rate)" table, the fastest way to use this page is to find the closest row, take its opens, then stress-test it ±30% before you build a plan on it.

Context

Open-based pricing survives inbox changes better than subscriber-based pricing, and it rewards list hygiene: pruning dead subscribers raises your open rate and therefore your defensible CPM. Niche does the rest — a 5,000-subscriber list of engineering managers routinely out-earns a 50,000-subscriber general-interest list.

What moves this number

CPM-based pricing

Most sponsorship rates resolve to a cost per thousand views or impressions. Agree on the view window (usually 30 days) before agreeing on the fee.

Integration depth

A 15-second mention, a 60-second integration, and a dedicated video are three different products with roughly 1×, 2×, and 4× pricing.

Category and conversion intent

Advertisers with high customer lifetime value pay far more per impression than consumer-goods brands.

Deliverables bundle

Cross-posting, usage rights, exclusivity windows, and revision limits all move the number — price the bundle, not the video.

Methodology

CPM bands come from the RevenueLab newsletter sponsorship dataset. Open counts assume a 40% open rate; adjust proportionally for your own measured rate.

Assumptions and caveats

Rates are pre-agency and pre-tax; agency representation typically takes 10–20%.
Quoted figures assume a standard 30-day view window and no exclusivity.
This page was last reviewed on 2026-08-12. Ranges are updated as new data lands, so re-check before using them in a contract or a plan.
Use these numbers as a starting range, not a guarantee — your own historical data always beats a benchmark.

Frequently asked questions