Paid Substack publications can restrict access to their Chat, offering it as a benefit to paid subscribers or founding members. There are three ways to paywall your Chat:

Paywall Individual Chat Threads

Just like paywalled posts, you can restrict replies to individual chat threads. When starting a thread in the Substack app:

1. Tap the settings icon.
2. Tap "Audience."
3. Select "Paid subscribers" or "Founding members."

Free subscribers will still see your initial message (this preview cannot be removed), but only paid subscribers can reply.

Paywall the Entire Chat

Restrict access to your entire chat space in your publication's Settings:

1. Enable "Enable chat paywall."
2. Choose who can bypass the paywall ("Paid subscribers" or "Founding members").

Subscribers without access cannot view or reply to any threads and will see an upgrade prompt.

Restricting Permission to Start New Threads

You can also control who can start new chat threads, offering this as a privilege to specific subscriber tiers. Other subscribers can still view and reply to existing threads.

1. Go to your Chat settings.
2. Choose the desired subscriber tier under "Who can start new threads?"

This allows you to offer tiered access to your Chat, providing more engagement options for your most loyal subscribers.