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Complimentary subscriptions give a member paid-tier access without requiring a Stripe subscription. Use them for your team, advisors, beta testers, press contacts, or anyone you want to give free access to premium content. In Ghost, complimentary members are treated as paid members and can access all paywalled content for the tier they are set to. In Outpost, complimentary members are tracked separately from paying subscribers: they show as Complimentary on the Members page rather than Paid, and they do not count toward revenue metrics.
Outpost uses complimentary subscriptions to power gift, group, and institutional subscriptions. These all appear as complimentary subscriptions in Ghost. Don’t delete complimentary subscriptions without checking why they exist: they may be powering gift, group, or institutional access.
Complimentary subscriptions are added and managed from the Members page. There’s no separate page for them.

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Adding a complimentary subscription

From the member detail page:
1

Open the member's profile

Go to Members and click on the member you want to give a complimentary subscription.
2

Add complimentary subscription

Click + Add Complimentary Subscription in the Subscriptions card.
3

Configure the complimentary subscription

Select the tier to grant access to and a duration (1-11 months, 1 year, or Lifetime).
4

Member gets access

The member immediately gains access to the selected tier’s content in Ghost. They’re synced as a paid-tier member without any Stripe billing.
A complimentary subscription does not replace or pause an existing paid subscription. If the member already has a Stripe subscription, adding a complimentary subscription on top of it stacks the two: they keep being charged, and the complimentary subscription runs alongside. Cancel the paid subscription first if your intent is to switch them to free access.

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Adding a complimentary subscription for someone who isn’t a member yet

You can do this entirely in Outpost. Create the member first, then add their complimentary subscription:
1

Create the member

On the Members page, click Add Member, enter at least an email address on the Create Member page, and click Submit. New members are created with the free newsletter subscription enabled, and they sync to Ghost automatically.
2

Add the complimentary subscription

On the saved member’s page, click + Add Complimentary Subscription, pick the tier and duration, then click Add Subscription.
Submit the new member before you add their complimentary subscription. A subscription cannot be attached to a member who does not exist yet, and you will see an error if you try. Members walks through the whole flow with screenshots.
If you are already working in Ghost, the same thing works there: create the member under Members → New Member, then use + Add Complimentary Subscription on their record.

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Expiry options

Complimentary subscriptions can be: When a time-limited complimentary subscription is about to expire, the Autoresponder can automatically:
  • Notify your staff that a complimentary subscription is ending soon (so you can decide whether to extend it)
  • Send the member emails encouraging them to become a paying subscriber
These emails are configured in the Complimentary tab of the Basic Autoresponder.

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When a complimentary member starts paying

A complimentary member can subscribe at any time, including before their complimentary subscription ends. The paid subscription starts at checkout and replaces the complimentary access. Outpost sends the member the subscription thank-you email, and they no longer appear under the Complimentary filter on the Members page. Members of a group subscription, and members who are part of an institutional subscription, are told they already have access when they try to check out.

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Managing complimentary subscriptions

Go to Members to see your complimentary members: their Status column reads Complimentary, and you can sort by it. Open a member’s profile to see their complimentary subscription’s tier and expiry date, or to Remove it (the member reverts to free).

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Extending a complimentary subscription

There is currently no control to edit an active complimentary subscription’s expiry date in place. To extend one, use one of these:
  • Renew from the expiry reminder. As a time-limited complimentary subscription nears its end date, the Autoresponder’s staff notification email includes a renewal link. The link works for 24 hours from the time that reminder is sent, so renew from a reminder that has just arrived rather than an older one. If the link has expired, wait for the second staff reminder or remove and re-add the complimentary subscription instead. Renewing sets it to end one year from the day you renew rather than adding a year to the current end date, and it keeps the member on the tier they already have.
  • Remove and re-add. On the member’s profile, Remove the complimentary subscription, then click + Add Complimentary Subscription again with the tier and duration you want. Use this if the complimentary subscription has already lapsed or you missed the reminder window.
  • Set an exact end date. Need a specific end date rather than a whole number of months? Email support@outpost.pub and we’ll set it for you.
A direct “extend” control on the member profile (to move an active complimentary subscription’s expiry date without removing and re-adding it) is planned but not yet available.

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What the renewal page does

The renewal link opens a page with the renewed-notification email loaded into editable Subject and Body fields, and two buttons:
  • Extend Silently renews the complimentary subscription without emailing the member.
  • Extend Member Subscription renews it and sends the member the message shown on the page.
The page only opens while the complimentary subscription is still active and while the Autoresponder’s Complimentary tab still has an email template attached to Tell a complimentary subscriber their free subscription was extended for another year. If Outpost cannot work out which tier to renew, it stops and shows “We were unable to extend the subscription: no tier is available for this site.” The complimentary subscription is left as it was and the member is not emailed. This happens when the member has no tier recorded and your site has no active paid tier with a yearly price. Add a yearly price to one of your paid tiers in Ghost, or add the complimentary subscription by hand from the member’s profile in Outpost.
To move a complimentary member to a different tier, remove the complimentary subscription from their profile and add it again on the tier you want. Renewing a member from an expiry reminder keeps them on their current tier.

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Autoresponder integration

The Autoresponder’s Complimentary tab includes 7 pre-built email actions for complimentary subscriptions. Note that these do not apply to gift/group/institutional subscribers even though they are technically also complimentary. See Autoresponder → Complimentary tab for details. When a complimentary member starts paying, the Thank a complimentary member who started paying email goes out from the Other tab, not this one. See Thank You for Upgrades.

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Complimentary vs. gift comparison

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Frequently asked questions

Yes, at any time. A complimentary member can check out whether their access has no end date, has already ended, or still has time left. The paid subscription starts straight away and is charged at that point, so any free time that was left is not saved. Outpost then shows them as Paid, stops the complimentary expiry emails, and sends Thank a complimentary member who started paying. The upsell emails in the Autoresponder link to this checkout. The only members turned away are those with an accepted seat in a group subscription and members of an institutional subscription, because they already have access.
No. Complimentary subscriptions don’t generate Stripe charges, so they don’t appear in revenue metrics. They do appear in member counts and tier segmentation.
A member can only have one active complimentary subscription at a time. There is no control to change the tier on an active complimentary subscription. To move a complimentary member to a different tier, remove the complimentary subscription from their profile and add a new one on the tier you want.
The member loses access to paid content and reverts to free status. If you’ve enabled the expiring subscription upsell emails in the Autoresponder, they’ll receive reminders encouraging them to subscribe before losing access.
Yes. The three Expiring Subscription Upsell emails send on their own schedule, by default 10 days, 3 days, and 1 day before the complimentary subscription ends, as long as those rows are turned on. They do not wait for you to act on the staff notification. Clicking Do Not Renew only stops further staff reminders for that member; the member still gets the upsell emails. Clicking Renew extends the subscription for a year, so the upsell emails for this cycle no longer send because the end date has moved out.
There’s no hard limit in Ghost or Outpost. However, since complimentary members count toward your member total and receive the same content access as paying members, consider the impact on your publication’s economics.

Gift Subscriptions

Paid gifts from one member to another (different from complimentary subscriptions)

Autoresponder

Automated emails for complimentary welcomes, expiry warnings, and staff notifications

Members

View and manage all members, including complimentary members

Labels

Tag complimentary members for segmentation and targeting