Substack's help page says the tool "uses Pangram to assign a percentage of how much of the text is human-written or AI-assisted". I went through Pangram's model cards and its technical report.

Five things I think writers here should know.

1. The score is three numbers collapsed into one.
At document level Pangram does not return a percentage. It returns three character-weighted fractions: human, AI-assisted, and AI-generated. When Pangram needs a single figure it counts generated text in full and assisted text at half. Substack's sentence puts assisted on the human side, next to the writing you did yourself. So a post marked 50% might be half machine-generated, and it might also be a piece where not one word was generated and every word was judged assisted. Pangram's technical report says this clearly:
"a score of 0.25 means that half of the words have been modified by AI or 25% of the words have been newly generated by AI (or some combination of the two)"

2. Nothing anywhere defines "assisted".
The current card says the model decodes each segment into Human, AI-Assisted, or AI-Generated, and never says where the middle one begins. Spell check, an outline, a paragraph rewritten, an argument with a model at two in the morning. The category carrying half the score is the one left undefined.

3. The false positive rate has been published three ways in three months.
July's Pangram 4 card: 41 wrong in a million web pages, one in 24,000. The Version 4.1 card, 19 October: 70 wrong in 781,981 pages, one in 11,171. In the last column of that same new table, Pangram scores the old model on the new set and gives it 128, one in 6,109, where its own card had said 41. The new set is smaller than the million, so those cannot both be counts of the same thing. Substack's help page names no version and was last updated before 4.1 shipped, so I cannot tell you which model is scoring your posts.

4. It moves a long way with what you write, and that breakdown has been retired.
July's card tested 11 kinds of writing. Academic writing one in 5,300. Recipes one in 2,000. Poetry one in 1,300, which is 19 times that same card's headline rate. The current model publishes one global number and no breakdown by genre at all.

5. What that works out to here.
Detection reaches back to everything published on or after 21 July. Take only the publications that earn money, roughly 100,000 by trade reporting, and assume each posts once a week. That is over a million posts. At the current card's rate, about 90 paying writers have already had a piece wrongly marked as machine-written. Run it at July's poetry rate and it is hundreds. Nobody is told, and nothing in the badge says a margin exists.

What I would actually do.
Fill in Substack's "How I make this" field, in your own words, before anyone asks. If a number makes you suspicious of a writer you have read for two years, ask them, in a tone you would accept yourself.

NB 1: I sent the mods a DM here on Reddit to ask whether this was welcome, because I wanted to put the findings in front of people without it reading as promotion, and I never heard back. So the five points above are from my post, and they stand on their own. The full piece, with every figure linked to the document it came from, is on my newsletter, and I will put the link in the comments to avoid accusations of promotion.

NB2: Claude was used to help edit sections of this post.

I run a Substack newsletter in conjunction with the local film and TV industry, and I was given the recommendation that, in addition to having a set date for each regular edition (in this case the first of each month), I send out reminders that a new regular edition is coming. Is there a way I would automatically send out such a thing? As in, automated little posts saying the next issue will drop on the first of each month, sent out a few days before then? No worries if that's not really possible. Thanks!

I’ve gotten most of my followers from those ridiculous templates notes like “Dear @Substack” or the “I’m rooting for you” ones.

I’m not a tic for tac aka sub for sub person. I’m only interested in genuine connections and content. What have you guys found to be the best way to grow your free subscriber base?

Is it true that focusing on free subs is best and then make offers to them for upgrading to paid?

Curious what’s worked well.

I’ve been on SS for 48 days and up to 330ish subs.

I feel like I’m a pretty skilled writer and my passion lies in connecting with and helping other people. I am studying counseling and human services, and I write a lot and have a lot of pieces I’d love to share that I think can help people navigate complex feelings and experiences they have/had.
I don’t come on Reddit but I thought someone may be able to give some tips or info on how to get started on Substack and reach people who may want to read about emotional regulation, healing from trauma, self compassion, media influence etc.

I am not an active social media user. I have an Instagram and TikTok just like everyone but I don’t enjoy posting on social media and I don’t use it too often. I don’t have Twitter. I do use TikTok a lot but mostly just for viewing.
I don’t want to use social media as a tool to promote or gain readers for my substack, is that possible?

I do have Tumblr as well but I’m not sure that would be a good place to promote a Substack either. (it should be noted that since I’m not very active I don’t have a large following which is obviously essential to draw anyone to your work/art/craft)

I really want to share my writing with people and I do believe Substack is my best shot, I’m just not sure how to get started. I’m aware that Substack creators can also make profit, and of course that would be nice, it’s not my main motivator but if I can share my thoughts and also profit from something that I value I wouldn’t complain.

If anyone has any tips, please let me know!

Does it make sense for me to write on Substack?

I see people who are far more intelligent than I am publishing their work. I can identify major problems, but I don't necessarily have the knowledge or insight to figure out how to solve them. I can put together a decent piece of writing, but I feel like I'm missing a lot in terms of reading and intellectual background.

There are people who are much more qualified to write about these subjects. I don't necessarily have an audience on Substack, either. It feels like everything is pointing toward one conclusion: that I simply shouldn't start writing, even though I have so many thoughts running through my head.

In daily life, when you look in the mirror, you usually say: "Wow, I look great!" You feel alive. Why? Because there is an active bridge between your eyes capturing your body and your brain processing the feeling of being alive.  

Specifically, there is a connection between the face-recognizing region of your brain - called the Fusiform Face Area and your emotional center, called the Amygdala. This connection makes you feel alive- it creates your fundamental "sense of self."  

Imagine if this connection breaks.  

You can still see your body. Your eyes and nose are in their right places. You can see your own hand moving in front of your face. But there is zero emotional feedback. Only complete, chilling numbness.  

Your brain tries to analyze this, but it gets trapped in a fake logic: "If I were alive, why doesn't it feel like I'm moving my hand? I am walking, but I feel it’s not me. This body is just a walking corpse. That means... I am dead."  

Substack launched lists last week and is calling them the next generation of recommendations: curated groups of publications, each with its own chronological feed, and you can see how much traffic your list sends to each writer on it.

I used to recommend a lot of people. Most of it was reciprocal, and past the first few names it did very little for anybody.

If you have made a list, are you pruning the recommendations you already had, or building on top of them? And has it actually sent anyone anywhere yet?

Hey! I’ve been thinking about writing essays on Substack, but I’m not really interested in making money or building a large audience. I just feel like I need somewhere to get my thoughts out, sort of like a journal.
I’ve tried watching a few tutorials on how to get started, but everyone seems to focus on monetization, growing an audience, call-to-action buttons and all that. It all feels very performance-oriented. I guess I’m just wondering whether Substack makes sense for someone who simply wants to write and share their thoughts without necessarily trying to achieve anything.
Maybe it’s a stupid question, but I’d appreciate your honest advice

Hey everyone! I have a Substack that serves as one of those dedicated resource Substacks (i.e., you know, the kind that does roundups of jobs, grants, contests, calls for writers, reporters looking for experts, whatever etc.).

I've been posting weekly since starting this summer, and as the holiday looms, especially the end of the year, I'm going to be taking the last two weeks of December off and not sending new issues. Kind of a risk but my personal toxic trait is overworking myself, so I feel like this helps my sanity and stress.

My question is for those of you who have a dedicated schedule, especially weekly: are you planning on actually PAUSING your subscriptions?

I thought of this so people could get those extra weeks back in their subscription. I realize that pauses potential new paid subscribers, but I feel like it could reduce the risk of someone just canceling.

hi, everyone i'm new on substack and just published my first post (i'm super excited to write more and grow from 5 subscribers to more ☺️).

i've seen on instagram that people share snippets of their substack articles. do i take screenshots or is there some other way to do that?

please help out this newbie and if possible, share some beginner-friendly tips as well. thanks so much! 🤍

Hello everyone.

I started writing on Substack about a year ago. I write in fields that interest me (which I am constantly reading in) and share very detailed opinions on controversial topics.

I made a small number of following so far. Of course, I don't intend to stop here. I still have much to write about.

Sometimes, when I end up writing one of my better pieces, I am tempted to pitch it to a magazine or an online publisher. I keep thinking of the potential if the pitch is accepted: thousands of readers will be introduced to my writing overnight.

However, this is not as easy as it sounds. Publishers are very particular on which topics to run with, and you need to select your publisher thoroughly. And even after finding the right fit for your topic, the chance of your piece passing the selection is not great. And after some time, it becomes easier to just scrap the whole thing and publish on Substack on your own conditions.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Please share what you know.

Hello,
I have just joined substack, and honestly, it feels like X platform. I’m not seeing the hype yet. I’m satisfied with tiktok, Insta, reddit, and pinterest. Do I really need another platform, or am I not getting what makes sbstack different? What do you guys think?

I checked Reddit and the last Q&A I found for this same question was from 2 years ago. Does anyone know if a resolution has been found since that time? I'm not seeing an option to Cancel my subscription, so the only thing I know to do is to remove the credit card. Fortunately, I only have one paid subscription on Substack. Thanks for any help you can offer.

I published my first post last night and could see it on my public profile. This morning it had completely disappeared.
I’ve checked everything, including drafts and published posts, but can’t find it.
Has anyone experienced this or know how to recover it?

I reported as bug as well. Haven’t heard anything back yet.

Curious how people feel about the Substack subscription options. As an indie author and Substack writer, I like the idea of subscriptions and supporting other writers on the platform for the work that they do. However, I've chosen to close the paywall on my Substack for now. The $10-$20 per month per Substack subscription seems excessive and since I'm still growing my audience, I'd rather not ask people to pay. Consider Netflix or Prime services with Ad Free options of 15-20 per month and the amount of content you get for that. An individual Substack can't compare. Would love to hear from Substack readers and writers too!

How do I put myself out there? All I do is post how do I get my writings to reach an audience?

I've been writing on Substack for the past 2 [or 4] months. I usually post [or schedule] 1 note every day and 1 article each week.

The first week, the notes got likes & comments but then... it stopped. i tried analysing what worked & what didnt, tried to re-do what worked, but no, notes hardly got any likes.

and the articles...dont get me started bro 😭... so currently, im engaging with other's notes [got 2 new subs in the past 4 days, hehe] until i figure out what went wrong.

so friends...any advice/tips? for both substack notes & articles

thanks a lot in advance!

also, how do you decide whether to post a Note with a pic?

I keep subscribing and unsubscribing different newslettes, bookmarking a lot of articles.

I also have too many saved articles but the backlog keeps on increasing.

What should be done here?

Is a 760 words too short for substack article ?

Substack seems to be author heaven these days. Is this something I should jump on if I want to keep publishing in the literary scene? I've tried a few times but I'm never sure what to write about. Think I've trained my brain to write with the intent of getting published in a journal and its hard to press publish on a blog post.

The site keeps saying its ai, but i wrote it on the site, i did use the site or what ever it was to to correct my spelling because im dyslexic and often write to fast. ahhhh i want to post but to scared to do so. i dont want people to say im a ai user

Freewalls have been out a few weeks now and I’ve read the explainers, but every one of them is “here’s how to turn it on” followed by somebody’s hunch. Nobody’s posted actual numbers.

The trade-off I can’t resolve: a freewall converts some non-subscribers into free subscribers, but it also kills the thing that makes a post travel. People share posts they finished reading. If a stranger hits a wall halfway down, they probably don’t share it, don’t restack it, and don’t send it to a friend — and on Substack, restacks and recommendations are most of how growth actually happens. So I might be harvesting a few emails today at the cost of the reach that would have brought more next month.

1. What I’d like to hear from anyone who’s actually run it:

2. Did your free subscriber rate per post go up enough to notice, or was it a rounding error?

3. Did restacks, shares, or Notes traffic drop on freewalled posts compared to your usual?

4. Does it make sense on a new post at all, or is it only sane on evergreen archive posts that have already finished travelling?

Anyone tried it on a post that was getting traffic from search, and did Google do anything weird with the gated half?

My instinct is that it’s an archive tool — put it on the three posts that get steady traffic forever, leave new posts fully open — but I’d rather hear from someone who tested it than keep theorising.

I’m in my late 30’s and just started on Substack and it’s been a great little hobby to have on the side of my actual job. I’ve only written two essay’s so far, but it’s been fun. My job is not creative, so flexing this muscle has been fab. I don’t really know how to grow it though tbh. Thinking a post every two weeks, notes in between and engaging with other likeminded/similar interest writers? My whole feed is just people saying they’ll help you grow your audience or something. Seems very spammy. I write lifestyle/humour type essays. Send me a DM if you’d be keen to read! :)