Paid memberships

On the house.
On the tier you choose.

A comp puts a member on a tier with no payment and no provider. They read everything a paying member of that tier reads, until the day you set or for good.

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Say it to your agent

Use my staff key to comp the twelve contributors to the spring issue on the Patron tier until June 30.

Two ways to do it.

By hand

In the admin

  1. Open Audience and press the member.
  2. Under Plan, choose the Tier.
  3. To make it end, choose a day in Ends. Leave it empty for no end date.
  4. Press Comp. The plan says Comped on the tier, and the roster marks the member Comped.
  5. To stop it early, press End comp on the same page.

Comps are an admin's to give. A member who already pays has a plan of their own, so a comp cannot go over it.

With your agent

In Claude, ChatGPT or your editor

No tool on your site's MCP server gives a comp. A coding agent with a staff key can do it through your admin's JSON: POST /pixel/members/:id/comp.json with a tier_id and an optional until day, as an admin.

For example

  • Contributors read free

    A literary quarterly comps every contributor on its Patron tier for a year. Each one reads the whole archive they now belong to.

  • A press pass that ends

    A trade newsletter comps a journalist until the end of the month, so the comp ends by itself when the story is out.

  • A thank-you with no end date

    A cycling club comps the volunteer who runs its route maps, with no end date.

Questions, answered

How do I give someone a free membership on PixelGlass?
Open the member in Audience, choose a tier under Plan, choose an end day or leave it empty, and press Comp. The member then reads what that tier opens, with no payment.
Does a comped member read paid posts?
Yes. On PixelGlass a comp counts as paying, so a comped member reads every post for paying members and every post for their tier.
Can a comp end by itself?
Yes. Choose a day in Ends, and the comp ends at the end of that day in your publication's time zone. Without a day, it has no end date.
Can I comp a member who already pays?
No. A member who pays has a plan with your provider, and PixelGlass does not put a comp over it.
Can I find every comped member?
Yes. On the Audience roster, choose Comped in the Plan menu.

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