AI newsletter advertising rates and CPM benchmarks

What does an AI newsletter sponsorship actually cost? The honest answer is: it depends on the publication, and for the biggest ones there is no public price at all. This guide explains how to read the prices that do exist — and how not to be misled by the ones that don't.

How CPM works

CPM means cost per thousand subscribers (or, more precisely, per thousand sends). The formula is simple:

A worked example from a fully verified listing: AI Weekly's exclusive sponsorship costs $1,400 per week, verified on its own advertise page, and its subscriber count is 52,000+, also from its own advertise page. That gives a computed CPM of about $27 ($1,400 ÷ 52,000 × 1,000). Note that this is a computed figure from two verified inputs — not a rate AI Weekly itself quotes.

The benchmark range — and what it is not

Where a publication's own price is unverified, our database shows a cross-publication AI/tech CPM benchmark range of $100–150. That range is a planning aid built from the market, not any specific publication's price. Never treat it as a quote: if you budget $125 CPM for a newsletter that turns out to charge differently, the benchmark did not mislead you — the missing verification did. The only price that counts is the one the publication confirms in writing.

Publicly priced examples in our database

Only a minority of AI newsletters publish rates. Among the publicly priced listings in our database:

Two different publications share the name "AI Weekly" — aiweekly.co and ai-weekly.ai — with different prices. They are separate listings in our database and must not be merged.

Why the biggest names show no price

The Rundown AI, Superhuman AI, and TLDR AI are all inquiry-only in our database. That is the norm at the top of this market: rates are negotiated per campaign, per format, and per date. If a roundup quotes a specific price for one of these publications without a source, treat it as unverified. Our database marks such prices "inquiry-only (unverified)" and shows the $100–150 benchmark range instead — clearly labeled as a benchmark, never as that publication's price.

What moves the price

• Format. An exclusive whole-issue sponsorship costs more than a classified link. See our guide to sponsorship formats explained.
• Audience. A technical audience of engineers and researchers prices differently from a general audience, even at similar subscriber counts.
• Placement and scarcity. Top-of-issue placements and publications that cap advertisers per issue (TLDR AI allows a maximum of 3 advertisers per issue, as verified on its own sponsor page) command higher prices.
• Subscriber count — and its source. A price divided by an inflated subscriber count produces a flattering CPM. Always check where the subscriber figure comes from; see how to check a newsletter's real subscriber count.

Disclaimer: this site is an independent database. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any publication listed here. Figures are shown with their source and verification status; where a figure is an estimate or a benchmark range, it is labeled as such and is not that publication's price.