X is lastly following by means of on its long-rumored plans to promote previous consumer handles, and a number of the most sought-after usernames may fetch hundreds of thousands of {dollars}. The corporate shared extra particulars about and opened a waitlist for its "deal with market," that may allow paying subscribers to request and purchase "inactive" handles.
Based on the corporate, X will make two forms of "inactive' handles out there: "precedence" usernames which will embrace "full names, multi-word phrases, or alphanumeric mixtures" and "uncommon" handles that include "quick, generic, or culturally vital names." Subscribers to X's Premium+ and Premium Enterprise tiers will finally have the ability to request some "precedence" handles as a part of their subscription. The corporate says @PizzaEater and @GabrielJones are doable examples of such handles. Notably, this course of requires what primarily quantities to an indefinite subscription to X Premium, as the corporate says it would revoke precedence handles if an account's subscription lapses.
The X Deal with Market is our industry-first resolution to redistribute handles which can be not in use.
Eligible Premium subscribers will have the ability to search and make requests, with each complimentary and paid choices out there.— Deal with Market (@XHandles) October 19, 2025
The method for buying a "uncommon" deal with is so much much less clear. X says that it’s going to provide some uncommon handles by means of "public drops" and that these can be given away without spending a dime "primarily based on benefit" and that a number of customers will have the ability to apply. X will take a consumer's engagement and "previous contributions" to the platform under consideration when deciding who will get these handles. The corporate will even make some handles out there on the market through an invitation-only course of. These costs can be "fastened" and "decided by a variety of elements together with recognition of phrase, character size, and cultural significance." These usernames may embrace frequent one-word usernames like @one, @fly or @compute, in keeping with examples offered by X. They is also extremely costly.
"Some handles are included with a Premium+ or Premium Enterprise subscription," X wrote in an FAQ. "Others – particularly Uncommon handles – could also be priced wherever from $2,500 to over seven figures, relying on demand and uniqueness." Individuals who purchase a supposedly uncommon deal with might want to have a Premium+ or Premium Enterprise subscription to be able to begin the method, however gained't be required to take care of one to be able to hold the deal with.
In a separate "deal with switch settlement," X describes its handle-buying scheme as an "evolving initiative" that it hopes can be adopted by different social media corporations sooner or later. "We’re establishing a brand new commonplace for social media handles—a framework we hope the broader {industry} will undertake, just like how Group Notes has influenced on-line transparency," the corporate wrote.
Andrew Allemann, the writer of Area Title Wire, a publication that tracks the area identify {industry}, says that there are some similarities between X's plan to promote handles and {the marketplace} for expired domains. "For a very long time, individuals have been shopping for and promoting handles off of X, and X hasn't been getting a reduce of that," he advised Engadget. "So in some methods, I believe this may get a number of the higher handles to be extra used on the platform."
However he mentioned he would have considerations about a number of the phrases in X's insurance policies, which permit it to "reclaim'' handles in the event that they develop into inactive. The corporate's present "inactive account coverage" defines an inactive account as one which hasn't been logged into for 30 days. "I might positively need a firmer contract if I had been to pay cash for a deal with," Allemann says. "I might need some rights baked right into a contract that claims it could't simply be taken away. I definitely need a longer interval of inactivity earlier than it may be taken away."
X additionally has a historical past of commandeering fascinating handles from customers that had been actively utilizing them. The corporate took the @X deal with from a San Francisco photographer in 2023 with out compensating him, although he was provided "merch" and a tour of X's headquarters. That very same 12 months, it additionally took the @music deal with from a longtime consumer with greater than a half million followers. Final 12 months, the corporate swiped the @America deal with from a reported Donald Trump critic. The deal with is now utilized by Musk's tremendous PAC.
X's plan to present away handles primarily based on "benefit" raises extra questions on who the platform may determine to reward and penalize. The corporate didn't instantly reply to a request for remark.
Allemann says that every one social media customers ought to bear in mind they don't personal any of the content material they publish on firm platforms. "For those who create your web site, you management it, and other people can at all times come to it. On social media, the only billionaire proprietor of it may determine they don't such as you, and it's just about inside their rights to kick you off, or demote you, or change the algorithm to affect you as properly."
This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/xs-handle-marketplace-will-sell-some-rare-usernames-for-millions-of-dollars-224852740.html?src=rss