X increases ad-free Premium+ subscription price from $16 to $22

Elon Musk’s X has raised 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 biggest since Elon Musk bought the platform formerly known as Twitter back in 2022.

A stated reason for the hike is that Premium+ is now “completely ad-free”, with X claiming it’s a “significant improvement” 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 advanced 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 also increase by a similar amount in Europe, the UK, Canada and Australia. Existing users on monthly subscriptions will retain their current pricing until January 20th, and pricing for other tiers (Basic and Premium) will remain unchanged.

X first introduced The October 2023 Premium+ subscription tier that promises an ad-free experience “for you” and the following timelines along with existing Premium perks as a blue tick. However, users quickly noticed that ads were appearing elsewhere on X (Profiles, Answers, Explore and elsewhere). ONE further update promised in August 2024 to remove them as well, but X said users would still see “occasional branded content in less common areas.” Now it looks like they too will be defeated.

X has reportedly lost 2.7 million active users in the last two months, with rival Bluesky gaining almost the same number in that period. This has likely led to some loss in ad revenue, which the platform may hope to recoup by raising subscription prices.