> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://documentation.outpost.pub/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Group Subscriptions
> Seat-based subscriptions for teams, organizations, or families — one payer, multiple members.
Group subscriptions let one person (the group owner) pay for multiple seats and distribute them by inviting other members via email.
This works for teams, companies, newsrooms, educational institutions, or families.
Group subscriptions differ from [institutional subscriptions](/features/institutional-subscriptions): group subscriptions require inviting members by email; institutional subscriptions apply automatically to anyone with a matching email pattern.
Group subscriptions come in three configurations:
* **Tier benefit** — group benefits attached to an existing tier: anyone who subscribes to that tier can invite others to share their membership. It applies to everyone on the tier, present and future, and is hard to undo, so add it only when you want it to be permanent.
* **Group Subscription Offer** — a fixed, defined offer where you set the tier, the price, and the number of invitations (for example, "Buy 1, Get 3" for four seats total). Can be public or private; useful when a group writes in to request a custom deal.
* **Tiered offer** — a self-serve offer where the buyer chooses their own group size and you set per-seat pricing by size band (e.g., 2-5 seats at $100 each, 6-10 seats at $90 each). Public on your group subscription page.
Public group subscriptions are listed on your group subscription page; private ones still have working URLs but aren't listed publicly.
Go to **Subscriptions → Group Subscriptions** to configure and manage groups.
## How it works (Tiered offer)
You set up a group subscription option on a particular tier and define per-seat pricing in bands. For example: 2-5 seats at $100 each, 6-10 seats at $90 each. Pricing is not progressive — 10 seats cost $900 total, not $500 for the first five and \$450 for the next five.
The group owner selects how many seats they want and completes checkout via Stripe. Payment is charged to the group owner.
The group owner receives an invite link that takes them to the /advanced-settings page on your site (Outpost creates that for you) and they can send invitations to specific email addresses. Outpost then sends invite emails to each recipient.
Invited members click the invite link, create an account (or log into an existing one), and gain access to the tier's content. No payment is required from seat holders.
The group owner can add seats, remove members, and manage their group. Admins can view and manage all groups from the Outpost dashboard.
## Group subscription types
Groups can be configured in three ways:
| Type | Description |
| ---------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Tier benefit** | Group invitations attached to an existing tier — anyone who subscribes to that tier can invite others |
| **Group Subscription Offer** | A fixed offer with a set tier, price, and number of invitations; can be public or private |
| **Tiered offer** | A self-serve offer where the buyer picks the group size and you set per-seat pricing by size band |
## Setting up group subscriptions
Configure group subscriptions per tier in **Subscriptions → Group Subscriptions**:
| Setting | Description |
| ------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Tier** | Which tier the group subscription provides access to |
| **Seat pricing** | Per-seat cost (monthly or annual), charged to the group owner |
| **Seat limit** | Maximum number of seats per group |
| **Public Visibility** | Whether the group is listed on your public group subscription page |
| **Header & description** | Header and description shown on the group's sales page |
| **Expiration date** | Optional expiration date — groups can have a set end date after which access ends |
| **Buyer label** | Optional label applied to the group owner |
| **Member label** | Optional label applied to seat holders |
## Seat management
### How seats work
When a group owner purchases a group subscription, they receive a set number of seats based on the plan they chose. The owner occupies one seat, and the remaining seats can be distributed to other people via invitations.
For **tiered offer** groups, the owner chooses the group size at checkout, and the per-seat price comes from the size band that size falls into.
### Seat limits and availability
Outpost tracks seat usage by counting active and pending invitations against the total seat count. A seat is considered used when an invitation is in **Sent** or **Accepted** status. Expired and deleted invitations free up seats for new invitations.
Before allowing a group owner to send a new invite, Outpost checks:
* The total seat count for the group
* How many invitations are currently sent or accepted
* Whether any pending invitations are waiting to be processed
If all seats are filled, the owner needs to remove a member or purchase additional seats before inviting someone new.
### Adding seats mid-cycle
Adding seats mid-cycle isn't yet self-serve. Contact [support@outpost.pub](mailto:support@outpost.pub) to make this change.
### Removing a seat holder
When a group owner removes a member from the group:
* The seat holder's access to gated content is revoked (they are downgraded to free membership)
* Group-specific labels are removed from the seat holder
* The seat becomes available for a new invitation
## Invite management
### For group owners
Group owners access a management dashboard in the advanced settings page on your site (usually /advanced-settings) where they can:
* **Send invites** — Enter email addresses to invite specific people
* **Copy invite link** — Get a shareable URL (if public sharing is enabled)
* **View seats** — See which seats are filled and by whom
* **Remove members** — Revoke a seat and free it for someone else
### The invitation flow
When a group owner sends an invite:
1. **Invite created** — Outpost records the invitation and queues the invite email
2. **Invite email sent** — The seat holder receives an email with a personalized accept link, including the group owner's name and email
3. **Waiting for acceptance** — The invite remains active until the recipient accepts, it expires, or the owner revokes it
4. **Reminder sent for unaccepted invites** — If configured in your Autoresponder settings, a reminder email is sent after a configurable delay
5. **Accepted** — The recipient clicks the link, creates an account (or logs in), and receives complimentary access to the group's tier. The group owner is notified.
6. **Expired** — If the invite is not accepted within the configured time window (default 7 days), it expires and the group owner is notified. The seat becomes available.
### Invite statuses
| Status | Description |
| ------------ | ------------------------------------------- |
| **Pending** | Invite created but email not yet sent |
| **Sent** | Invite email delivered, awaiting acceptance |
| **Accepted** | Member accepted the invite and has access |
| **Expired** | Invite expired without being accepted |
| **Deleted** | Invite was revoked by the group owner |
Outpost automatically manages the invite lifecycle — pending invites expire after a configured period, and reminder emails are sent for unaccepted invites.
## Admin management
As a site admin, you can:
* View all group subscriptions and their owners
* See seat counts and member rosters for each group
* Send/revoke invitations on the group owner's behalf
* Filter the member list to show only group subscribers
* Archive group subscriptions that are no longer active
Go to **Subscriptions → Group Subscriptions** and click into the subscription you want to see.
Click **See Members** to see a list of buyers for that group subscription.
Open a buyer to see their invite panel and a list of who has already accepted or received an invitation. Use the panel to send, resend, or revoke invites on the buyer's behalf.
### Member identification
Each group member is individually tracked in Outpost's member list and synced to Ghost with the appropriate tier membership, giving them full access to gated content. Members are automatically labeled so you can distinguish them:
* **Group owners** receive a "group subscription buyer" label plus any custom owner label you configure
* **Seat holders** receive a "group subscription member" label plus any custom recipient label you configure
* **Both** receive a label linking them to the specific group subscription, so you can filter members by group
## What happens when a group subscription is set for renewal
When a group subscription is up for renewal and is paid through Stripe, renewal works the same as any other subscription:
* The group buyer is notified of the upcoming charge
* If auto-renewal is not cancelled, the buyer's payment method is charged on the renewal date
* Seat holders and the group owner keep their subscriptions
* This continuation is silent for group members
If the group subscription is paid by invoice, Outpost renews it through Stripe when the buyer has a card on file; otherwise the buyer pays the renewal manually — for example, by check. Because invoices take time to send and settle, invoiced group subscriptions run on a longer cushion than card-paid ones: when the subscription renews, seat holders and the owner keep their paid access until **15 days past the end of the paid term** (versus 7 days for card-based groups), giving the next invoice time to arrive and settle. (This buffer isn't a self-serve setting — contact Outpost if your site needs a different length.) To *issue* a new invoice for a group subscription, see [One-Person Subscriptions → Start Immediately & Send Invoice](/features/one-person-subscriptions#start-immediately--send-invoice) — that's where invoiced group subscriptions are generated.
## What happens when a group subscription is not renewed
If a group subscription ends either because the group buyer turned off auto-renewal or payment for renewal failed:
* All seat holders lose paid level access when the expiration date passes
* The group owner's paid level subscription ends
* Seat holders and the group owner are downgraded to a free membership
* This downgrade is silent for group members
Invoiced group subscriptions are the exception to the immediate downgrade above: when they renew, seat holders and the owner keep access until 15 days past the end of the paid term — rather than the 7 days card-paid groups get — giving the next invoice time to arrive and settle.
## Autoresponder integration
The Autoresponder includes 7 pre-built group subscription email actions, split across two tabs. The two welcome emails live in the **Welcome Flow tab** (under a Group Subscriptions section); the other five live in the **Other tab**:
| Action | Tab | Recipient | Purpose |
| ---------------------------- | ------------ | ----------- | --------------------------------------------------- |
| Buyer welcome | Welcome Flow | Group owner | Welcome email after purchasing a group subscription |
| Seat holder welcome | Welcome Flow | Seat holder | Welcome email after accepting an invite |
| Send invite email | Other | Seat holder | Invitation to join the group |
| Send invite reminder | Other | Seat holder | Follow-up for unaccepted invites |
| Invite accepted notification | Other | Group owner | Notify when someone accepts |
| Expired invite notification | Other | Group owner | Alert when an invite expired without being accepted |
| Remaining seats reminder | Other | Group owner | Remind about unfilled seats |
The **invite expiration** and **invite reminder** timing are controlled by the delay settings on these Autoresponder actions. For example, setting the expired invite action to 168 hours (7 days) makes invitations expire after a week.
The **remaining seats reminder** is sent to group owners after a configurable delay from their subscription start date, reminding them to fill any unused seats.
See the [Basic Autoresponder](/features/basic-autoresponder) for details on both tabs.
***
## Frequently asked questions
When a group owner cancels their subscription, all seat holders lose access at the end of the current billing period. Seat holders are not notified.
A member can only have one active subscription type at a time. If a seat holder wants to switch to an individual subscription (e.g., if they leave the group), they would need to subscribe separately after their group access ends.
Group ownership is tied to the billing relationship in Stripe. Transferring ownership would require administrative intervention — contact support if you need to change a group's owner.
When a group owner adds seats mid-cycle, Stripe prorates the charge for the remainder of the current billing period. We are working on making this simpler, but currently, you'll need to contact Outpost support for help with this.
The buyer's existing individual subscription is prorated when they upgrade. The unused portion is credited against the group purchase — for example, a $100/year subscription with six months unused becomes a $50 credit on the group purchase.
**Proration applies only to the buyer.** If the buyer invites someone who already has their own paid subscription, that invitee is *not* prorated and is *not* charged for the seat. They become a group seat holder after their existing subscription ends naturally.
Yes. Group subscriptions are configured per tier, so you can enable groups for some tiers and not others. For example, you might offer group pricing only on your "Team" or "Enterprise" tier.
Each group member appears individually in the member list with their own profile, activity history, and labels. They are tagged with group-specific labels so you can filter and segment them. The group owner is also identifiable in the member list.
When an invite expires, the group owner is notified via the Autoresponder, and the seat becomes available for a new invitation. The expired invite remains visible in the owner's dashboard for reference.
Yes, using the **tiered offer** group type. The buyer picks how many seats they want on your group subscription page, and the per-seat price comes from the size band you defined (for example, 2-5 seats at one price, 6-10 seats at another).
***
## Related features
The subscription products that groups provide access to
Automated emails for invites, reminders, and group management
View and manage all members including group subscribers
Tag group owners and members for segmentation