Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) has raised the price of its top-tier subscription service, Premium+. This is the largest price hike since Elon Musk bought the platform in 2022.
As announced via statement, price increase ranges based on location with markets such as Nigeria, Turkey, and India being the most impacted. With a 51 per cent increase, Nigerian users will now subscribe to ₦34,000 monthly, up from ₦22,550. Likewise, the annual subscription for the same plan will now go for ₦354,000.
However, the price increment did not affect the lower Premium subscription plan which still costs only N3,650 per month in Nigeria and N38,500 annually.
The social media company explains that existing subscribers whose new billing cycle starts before January 20, 2025, will be charged at their current rate. However, the new rate will apply beginning with the first billing cycle after that date.
For new subscribers, the new price will be immediately activated once they subscribe to the Premium service.
“We’re updating the X Premium+ subscription price on December 21, 2024. New subscribers will pay the updated price starting that day. If you’re an existing subscriber and your next billing cycle starts before January 20, 2025, you’ll be charged at your current rate; otherwise, the new rate will begin with your first billing cycle after that date,” the statement reads.
Across the international markets, X users in the United States faced a 37.5 per cent increase from $16 to $22 per month while annual subscriptions rose from $168 to $168. Also, the European Union market witnessed a price hike to €21 from €16 monthly while Canada will see Premium+ rates climb to $29 from $20.
In other African countries, South African users will now pay R400 monthly, while Premium+ users in Kenya and Egypt will pay Ksh2,800 and €1,115, respectively, for the same service. Users in Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Ghana, and some others will now subscribe for $22 monthly.
Since its launch in October 2023, the X Premium+ plan has offered ad-free browsing across the platform and many other features. These range from post-editing, the ability to undo posts, longer video uploads, top articles, background video playback to reply boosts, and more.
Moreover, this development comes after X recently made xAI’s latest version of the Grok chatbot free for all users on the platform. Grok was described by the company as more capable than its predecessor and comes with greater accuracy and improved multilingual capabilities. It added that the chatbot can interpret user prompts more effectively and generate responses that are relevant in terms of their contents.
In addition, the price hike follows months after it was reported that millions of users switched to Bluesky following Trump’s victory, as Musk openly came out as a big supporter of US President-elect Donald Trump.
The ‘Why’ of X Premium+ price hike
A statement released by popular social media explained that the change in Premium+ subscription is due to some new additions.
First, X Premium+ is now completely ads-free which now provides an uninterrupted browsing service. Secondly, Premium+ subscribers will enjoy higher priority support from @Premium. This includes access to new features such as Radar and higher limits on Grok AI models.
Likewise, it expressed that its supporting creators’ model will now reward content quality and engagement rather than ad views alone. The company said that the hike in subscriptions helps fuel its services for a more enhanced system.
“Your Premium+ subscription fee contributes to this new, more equitable system where creator earnings are tied to the overall value they bring to X, not impressions of ads … Increased pricing allows us to invest more into making Premium+ better and better over time,” the statement reads.
Meanwhile, a recent WARC Media report claimed that the social media platform’s ad revenue lowered by nearly half between 2022 and 2023, from $4.5 billion to $2.2 billion year-on-year. The decline has been predicted to continue with revenue in 2024 projected to reach $2 billion, and even lower in 2025. Comparatively, other social media platforms have experienced comparatively strong growth in ad revenue during the same period.
Also Read: Spotify launches offline backup playlist for premium users.
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