No. Substack does not show profile visitors to anyone. Not to the person you visited. Not to you when others visit yours. You are a ghost, and no one knows you were there.
But there's more to the story — and this article explores a handful of related questions.
Does Substack show who viewed your profile?
No. There is no "viewed by" list, no viewer count, no notification triggered by someone landing on your profile page. Substack does not surface this information to users in any form.
This is one of the more thoughtful design choices Substack has made. The platform's built around reading and writing, not social performance — and a public viewer list would turn every profile visit into a social signal. (See: LinkedIn, which shows you who viewed your profile, and which mostly just causes low-grade existential dread.)
Writers on Substack can see aggregate analytics — how many people opened a particular post, click-through rates on links, that sort of thing. But none of that is tied to individual profiles, and none of it shows up as "X viewed your profile page."
Does Substack tell you when someone views your profile?
No. There are no "profile view" notifications in Substack's notification system, full stop. You won't get an email, an in-app ping, or a badge count from someone browsing your page.
The notifications you do get from Substack are: new subscriber alerts, replies to your posts, new comments, and similar engagement-based events. A profile visit doesn't count as engagement in Substack's model — it's more like walking past a bookshop and glancing at the window display.
Can people on Substack see if you view their profile?
No. This works symmetrically — the privacy applies in both directions. Just as you can't see who viewed your profile, the people whose profiles you visit can't see that you were there either.
You can browse Substack with the same quiet anonymity as reading a book in a library. No one is watching. No one is keeping a list.
The Substack default profile picture situation
If you've created a Substack account without uploading a photo, you'll have the default profile picture: a letter avatar. It's your initial on a solid-coloured background, auto-generated from your display name. It communicates, accurately, "I signed up to leave one comment and then moved on with my life."
There's no way to control which colour you get — Substack assigns it based on your name. The only way out is uploading an actual photo. Which brings us to:
How to change your profile picture on Substack
This is mercifully simple:
- Go to substack.com and sign in
- Click your profile icon in the top-right corner
- Select Edit Profile, or navigate directly to substack.com/profile/edit
- Click on your current profile picture (or the letter avatar)
- Upload a photo from your device
- Save
Your photo will update everywhere Substack displays your account — comments, your public profile, subscriber lists where you appear.
One thing worth knowing: if you're a writer with your own newsletter, you have two separate images. Your personal profile picture is your face (or whatever you choose). Your publication logo is the brand image for your newsletter. They live in different settings pages and don't automatically sync.
How to add links to your Substack profile
Writers can add social links to their Substack profile page. Here's where to find them:
- Go to substack.com/profile/edit for your personal profile links
- Or go to your publication's Settings — dashboard.substack.com/settings — for links on your newsletter homepage
- Add URLs for Twitter/X, Instagram, LinkedIn, your personal website, or wherever else you live online
- Save
These links appear on your publication's profile page and give readers a way to find you beyond the newsletter. If you're a reader-only account (you subscribe to newsletters but don't publish one), the social linking options are more limited — your public profile mostly just shows your subscription and commenting activity.
How to make your Substack profile private
"Private" on Substack means a few different things depending on what you're actually trying to hide, so let's be specific.
Your reading activity
By default, Substack shows your liked posts and subscriptions on your public profile. To turn this off: go to substack.com/profile/edit, scroll down to the Activity privacy section, and toggle off the activity you don't want displayed.
Your appearance in subscriber lists
If a newsletter has a public subscriber list, you can opt out of appearing in it. Look for privacy options in your account settings, or manage it per-publication.
Your profile page itself
This is where Substack is less flexible: there's no master toggle that makes your account completely invisible. Your profile at substack.com/@yourhandle will technically exist as long as your account does. You can minimize what's visible — remove your photo, clear your bio, turn off activity sharing — but a blank profile page will still be there.
Your newsletter
If you're a writer, you can restrict your publication to paid subscribers only, or set it to invite-only. That controls who can read your content, but it's separate from your personal profile's visibility.
How to delete your Substack profile
If you want to remove your account entirely:
- Go to substack.com/settings
- Scroll down to the Danger Zone section
- Click Delete your account and follow the confirmation steps
A few things to know before you do it:
- Deleting your account ends your active subscriptions
- If you're a writer with paid subscribers, you'll need to manage refunds separately before deleting
- According to Substack, all posts, comments, and account data are permanently deleted — nothing is retained on the platform
- Download your data first — go to Settings → Import/Export and create an export before you pull the trigger
- It's permanent. There is no undo
The one thing worth remembering
If you landed here because you're worried about someone tracking your profile visits — you're fine. And if you landed here because you wanted to track someone else's — I have some disappointing news. Substack is not LinkedIn.
Which is, honestly, a feature.