---
title: Make your community members-only
sidebarTitle: Members-only community
description: >-
  Keep your community for people with an active paid membership, and bring new
  subscribers in automatically.
audience: luminary
feature: community
type: guide
availability: live
last_verified: '2026-10-13'
keywords:
  - members-only community
  - paid community
  - paywall community
  - subscribers only
  - require membership
  - gated community
url: 'https://help.bringsoul.life/luminaries/community/require-a-paid-membership'
---

# Make your community members-only

> Keep your community for people with an active paid membership, and bring new subscribers in automatically.

Turn your community into a benefit of your paid membership: only people with an active paid membership can be inside, and new subscribers can be added for you.

## When to use this

- Your community is part of what people pay for.
- You want subscribers to land in the community without an extra step.
- You want a free community with a paid room inside it (use a [circle](https://help.bringsoul.life/luminaries/community/create-circles) instead, see below).

You need a membership price set up first. See [Membership pricing](https://help.bringsoul.life/luminaries/business/membership-pricing).

**Step 1: Open Membership settings**

Go to [Community → Settings](https://portal.bringsoul.life/community/settings) and scroll to
Membership: *"Who can join your community."*

**Step 2: Require a paid membership**

Turn on Require a paid membership. When you click Save changes, Soul asks *"Require a paid
membership?"* and explains that everyone without an active paid membership loses access. Click
Save and pause them to confirm.

**Step 3: Add new subscribers automatically (optional)**

Turn on Add new subscribers automatically: *"Anyone who starts a paid membership from now on
joins the community without asking."* Click Save changes.

**Step 4: Invite your existing subscribers**

Auto-join only reaches people who subscribe from now on. Send your current subscribers your
community link with an [announcement](https://help.bringsoul.life/luminaries/audience/send-an-announcement-to-a-segment) to
All Subscribers.

## What changes for current members

| Setting                               | Effect on people already inside                                                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| ------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Require a paid membership on          | Members without an active paid membership are paused. Their status shows Subscription inactive. _"Nothing of theirs is deleted"_: their circles, posts and history are held, and they return the moment they subscribe or you turn the setting off. |
| Require a paid membership off         | Everyone who was paused is let straight back in.                                                                                                                                                                                                    |
| Add new subscribers automatically on  | Nobody changes. Only future paid memberships add people.                                                                                                                                                                                            |
| Add new subscribers automatically off | Nobody is removed.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  |

**Warning:** 
Turning on Require a paid membership affects people who are already in your community, not only
new joiners. Check how many free members you have on Community Members before you save, and
consider telling them first.

## Tips

- Want a free community with a paid inner room? Leave this off and create a circle with Hold for a paid tier turned on. See [Create circles](https://help.bringsoul.life/luminaries/community/create-circles).
- Paused members can't be restored by hand. A member with Subscription inactive shows no Restore button, so paid access is never handed out for free. They come back by subscribing again.
- Auto-join respects your decisions. Someone you removed, or someone waiting on a rejoin request, is never pulled back in automatically. A Read only or Archived community admits nobody.
- Community tiers are labels, not prices. Changing a member's tier doesn't charge them or give them a subscription.

## What your members see

Visitors without a paid membership see Subscribe to join instead of Join the community. Paused members lose access until they subscribe again. New subscribers who are added automatically find themselves already inside, without having asked to join.

## Related

- [Membership pricing](https://help.bringsoul.life/luminaries/business/membership-pricing)
- [Customers & Subscribers](https://help.bringsoul.life/luminaries/business/customers-and-subscribers)
- [Your community](https://help.bringsoul.life/luminaries/community/introduction)