Buy-ups — Add-ons for Subscribers
Buy-ups are optional paid add-ons that subscribers can purchase on top of their regular membership — a transcript archive, a bonus episode back-catalog, early access to research notes, or anything else you want to offer as a standalone purchase. They are monthly subscriptions billed as an additional item on the subscriber’s existing Stripe subscription, so there is no second checkout for the subscriber to go through.
Buy-ups require Built-in Membership (NativeBridge) to be active on your show. If your site uses a third-party membership plugin — MemberPress, Restrict Content Pro, Paid Memberships Pro, or others — buy-ups are not available.
Managing Buy-ups
Buy-ups are managed at Benecaster → Memberships → Buy-ups — a sub-tab alongside Tiers.
Creating a Buy-up
Click Add Buy-up to open the definition form.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Shown to subscribers on the account page — keep it short and descriptive |
| Description | Optional longer description shown alongside the name on the subscriber’s Add-ons section |
| Monthly price | Billed monthly in addition to the subscriber’s base tier; minimum $0.50 (Stripe minimum) |
| Available to tiers | Multi-select — choose which of your show’s membership tiers can purchase this buy-up. Leave blank to make it available to all tiers |
| Access token type | The token type slug granted to the subscriber on purchase. Must not collide with any existing native tier slug or bridge tier slug — validation blocks the save if a conflict is detected |
| Subscriber cap | Maximum concurrent active grants. Leave blank for unlimited. Once the cap is reached, the Add-ons section shows a “Sold out” state to eligible subscribers who don’t already hold a grant |
| Active | Toggle off to hide the buy-up from the subscriber account page without deleting it. Existing active grants are not affected — subscribers keep access until their period ends |
How Pricing Works
When you save a buy-up, Benecaster automatically creates a Stripe Product and a monthly Price in every configured Stripe keyset (test and live). Stripe Prices are immutable — if you change the price later, Benecaster creates a new Price on the same Product. Existing subscribers are grandfathered on their original price. New purchasers see the updated price.
Restricting Episodes
Once a buy-up is defined, you can gate individual episodes behind it from the episode editor. When multiple buy-ups are selected for an episode, access uses OR logic — a subscriber holding any one of the selected buy-ups can access the episode. See Buy-up Content Gating for how to configure per-episode access.
The Subscriber Experience
Active buy-ups appear on the subscriber’s account page in an Add-ons section. Subscribers can purchase, manage, and cancel buy-ups there. See Buy-ups — Self-Service for Subscribers for how the subscriber-facing flow works.
For Developers
The admin REST endpoints for buy-up CRUD are documented at Buy-ups Admin REST API.
Three lifecycle action hooks fire during the self-service flow:
benecaster_buyup_purchased— fires after a successful purchasebenecaster_buyup_cancelled— fires when a subscriber schedules cancellationbenecaster_buyup_revoked— fires when a grant terminates
The global helper function benecaster_user_has_buyup() checks whether a subscriber holds a live grant for a given buy-up.