Last updated October 16, 2026
Paid live events work best when the ticket buys something a member could not get for free. This guide covers some suggestions on when to charge, how to price, and what a paid event commits you to.
This is a first version, written before we have data on how members respond to paid events. Treat this as a starting point. We will update this document as we learn more.
This guide covers the judgement calls. For how the feature works, including payment breakdowns, refunds and replays, see the Paid Live Events FAQ.
In this guide
When to make it paid | Choosing your price | Setting your ticket cap | Charging raises the bar | Cancelling | Marketing your event | The paid experience | Hosting for the replay | Sending people to the web | Balancing free and paid
When to make a live event paid
Charge when the event has a clear, named outcome a member can point to before they buy. Keep it free when the goal is reach, discovery or building a regular habit with your community.
Good candidates for paid
- A workshop that teaches a skill over a longer session
- A deeply immersive experience
- A one-off deep dive into a specific topic or technique
- Small-group work where your attention is part of the value
Better kept free
- A regular weekly or daily conversation
- Sessions designed to introduce you to new members
- Anything you would struggle to describe in one sentence as a reason to pay
Choosing your price point
Price to the depth of what you deliver, not to what you hope to earn. You choose from a fixed list:
$1.99 $4.99 $9.99 $19.99 $49.99 $99.99 $199.99 $249.99 $299.99 $499.99
When in doubt, start lower than you think for your first paid event. It is easier to raise your price once you have proof people turn up and tell others than to recover from an empty room.
Tickets are sold one event at a time. At this time there is no way to bundle sessions into a single purchase, so price each event to stand on its own. If you want to run several linked sessions, members buy a ticket to each one.
Two additional considerations: Insight Timer takes 10% of the ticket price on every purchase. Member Plus subscribers receive a 30% discount, taken off the top, so our 10% and any app store fee are calculated on the discounted price.
Setting your ticket cap
The cap is the number of tickets available. Use it to shape the room, not to limit yourself by accident.
- Want it open to everyone? Set a very large number like 1,000,000. There is no benefit to guessing your ceiling.
- Want it intimate? Set a smaller number. A cap of 20 or 30 signals that attention is part of what people are buying, and scarcity can help you sell. Make it clear when you market the event.
One thing to know for now
The cap applies to the live event only. Paid replays have no purchase limit, so anyone can buy the replay after the fact, even for a session you capped at 20. We expect this to change in future, and we will tell you before it does. If an intimate cap is central to your offering, say in your description that the replay will be available to buy afterwards.
Charging raises the bar
Once someone pays, the standard changes. A dropped connection or a rambling first ten minutes reads very differently when a member has handed over money. Before you commit to a paid event, commit to the preparation.
- Test your camera, microphone, lighting and internet in the same room and at the same time of day you will go live
- Use a wired connection where you can, and close everything else on your device
- Plan the session end to end, including how you open and how you close
- Have any talking points, practices or visual guides finalised in advance
- Start on time and finish on time
- Have a plan for what you do if something fails mid-session
If you would not be comfortable charging for a recording of this session, it is not ready to be paid.
Cancelling is a last resort
We strongly discourage cancelling a paid live event. Once a single ticket is sold, treat the date and time as fixed.
You cannot reschedule a paid live event. If the date needs to move, the event has to be cancelled. So be certain of your scheduling before you publish.
If you do cancel, every ticket holder is refunded in full. While there is nothing for you to process, you will have taken money from people and handed it back with nothing in return, and that can quickly impact trust.
A few related points
- No-show attendees are not refunded. They keep access to the replay and can watch whenever suits them.
- Refund requests come to us, not to you. Send any member asking for a refund to Insight Timer support.
- We understand that uncontrollable circumstances can come up. If you are unwell or something urgent comes up, please contact us directly to support you in cancelling your event.
Market your paid live event clearly and directly
Nobody buys a ticket to a session described as "a beautiful hour together." Make the value obvious before anyone has to decide.
Your trailer and description should answer three questions in the first few lines:
- What will I learn or experience?
- What do I walk away with?
- Why is this worth paying for rather than waiting for a free session?
Be specific. "You will leave with a five-minute practice you can use before difficult conversations" sells. "Deepen your practice" does not.
Promote it yourself as well. Your own newsletter, social channels and community are where most ticket sales will come from, especially while paid events are new and members are still learning what they are. Give people at least two weeks' notice, and remind them again in the final 48 hours.
The paid live experience is very similar to free
Today, a paid live event looks and feels close to a free one for members. Same player, same chat, same questions in advance, same way of joining. The ticket is the difference, not the format.
This matters for two reasons. It means you do not need to learn anything new to host one. It also means the difference has to live in your content and your preparation, because the surface will not create it for you. A paid event that runs exactly like your free weekly sit will feel like a free event someone paid for.
Host your event with your replay audience in mind
Every paid live event becomes a paid replay. There is no option to publish it free or as premium, and no option to skip the replay. Ticket buyers keep access indefinitely, and anyone can buy the replay afterwards.
So you are always speaking to two audiences at once. Host for both:
- Welcome both groups early on, so replay viewers are not left feeling like eavesdroppers
- Read out or summarise questions from the chat before you answer them
- Avoid "as we discussed last week" or anything that only makes sense live
- Be careful with time-bound references, since someone may watch this months from now
- Deliver the core teaching in full rather than leaning on live interaction to carry it
A good test: would someone watching the replay alone feel they received what they paid for?
Send your audience to the web to buy
This is the single easiest way to increase what you earn. Insight Timer takes 10% either way, but a purchase made inside the app also carries a 30% app store fee. A ticket bought on the web returns significantly more to you.
So whenever you promote a paid event, link to the web page, not the app. In your newsletter, your social posts, your community group, anywhere you share the event, point people to the browser. You are welcome to explain why, too. We imagine most of your audience would prefer as much of their money as possible goes directly to you.
Members can still buy in the app, and some will. You are not asking them to do anything difficult, just offering the link that happens to be better for you.
Balancing free and paid
For most Insight Timer teachers and publishers, your free events are what build the audience that buys your paid ones. Going all paid could quickly shrink the room if you're still building your audience.
Starting points, not rules
- Keep the majority of your regular free sessions running on their usual schedule, untouched
- Add one paid event a month, or one a quarter, rather than converting what you already host
- Let a free session lead naturally into a paid one. Teach the foundation free, go deep in the paid workshop
- Mention the paid event at the end of your free sessions. You have already shown people what you are like to learn from
- Give your first paid event a generous run of free sessions beforehand to build interest
Watch what happens to attendance on your free events after you add a paid one. If it drops, you have likely moved too much behind a ticket.