Elon Musk's X has hiked prices for its ad-free Premium+ subscription service to $22 a month, up from $16 before ($168 to $229 annually), TechCrunch reported. That represents a 37.5 percent increase, the largest since Elon Musk purchased the platform previously known as Twitter back in 2022.
One stated reason for the hike is that Premium+ is now "completely ads-free," with X claiming that it's a "significant enhancement" to the previous ad-free experience. It also promised a few other features. "Premium+ subscribers will enjoy higher priority support from @Premium, access to new features such as [X's advanced search tool] Radar, and higher limits on our most cutting-edge Grok AI models," the company wrote in a help page article. X also promised that more subscription revenue would be shared with creators.
Premium+ prices are also rising by a similar amount in Europe, the UK, Canada and Australia. Existing users on monthly subscriptions will keep their current rates until January 20th, and price for other tiers (Basic and Premium) remain unchanged.
X first introduced the Premium+ subscription tier in October 2023, promising an ad-free experience your "for you" and following timelines, along with existing Premium perks like a blue checkmark. However, users quickly noticed that ads appeared elsewhere on X (profiles, replies, Explore and elsewhere). A further update in August 2024 promised to eliminate those too, but X said that users would still see "occasional branded content in less common areas." Now, it seems, those will be vanquished too.
X has reportedly lost 2.7 million active users in the last two months, with rival Bluesky gaining nearly the same number over that period. That has likely led to some loss in advertising revenue, which the platform may be hoping to recoup by raising subscription prices.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/x-hikes-ad-free-premium-subscription-price-from-16-to-22-133016526.html?src=rss