X has built a real paid-subscription business, but it has not publicly shown that the business is large enough—or profitable enough—to replace advertising. The company has expanded X Premium, introduced a much more expensive Premium+ tier centered partly on Grok, and continued developing creator and business subscriptions. Yet X does not disclose Premium subscribers, churn, recurring revenue, or subscription revenue as a separate financial line.
The best available public estimates show meaningful consumer spending, particularly through mobile apps. They do not establish the size or durability of X’s overall subscription operation in 2026.
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What the public evidence actually shows
Appfigures estimated that X generated approximately $200 million in cumulative mobile in-app purchase revenue from X Premium and related subscription activity between the service’s launch under the former Twitter Blue brand in 2021 and 2024. TechCrunch reported the estimate on October 15, 2024.
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A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11Appfigures estimated that X collected at least approximately $140 million after app-store fees. Both figures require caution: they are estimates rather than audited company disclosures, cover mobile purchases rather than the entire subscription business, and may include uncertainty about the mix of Premium products and other in-app subscriptions. Web purchases were excluded, even though X generally offers lower web prices than mobile prices.
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For September 2024, Appfigures estimated about $14.7 million in mobile in-app purchase revenue. Depending on whether most users purchased the roughly $11 mobile Premium plan or the roughly $4 Basic plan, the implied number of paying users ranged from about 1.3 million to 3.7 million. A separate assumed tier mix produced an estimate of roughly 1.4 million paid users.
Those figures are useful for showing scale, not for declaring an official subscriber count. They depend on assumptions about pricing, tier mix, monthly versus annual billing, refunds, platform fees, and which subscriptions are included.
Appfigures estimated mobile in-app purchase revenue grew about 30% from the second quarter to the third quarter of 2024. In a later update, it estimated January 2025 net mobile revenue at approximately $14.6 million, down about 18% from December. That was also an independent estimate, not a figure reported by X.
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For context, Bloomberg estimated—based on financial documents reported by TechCrunch—that X generated approximately $1.48 billion in total revenue during the first six months of 2024. Comparing that figure with cumulative mobile subscription billings is not an accounting calculation: the periods and definitions differ. It does, however, illustrate why subscriptions appeared to be a relatively small part of X’s overall business at that time.
Sources: TechCrunch’s report on the 2024 estimates and Appfigures’ January 2025 update.
“Subscription revenue” is not one X product
Any analysis that combines every paid feature into one number risks obscuring how the economics work. X has at least three distinct subscription businesses:
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1. X Premium
This is the consumer-facing subscription, now divided into Basic, Premium, and Premium+. Features include post editing, longer posts and videos, formatting, bookmark folders, reduced advertising on Premium, and no advertising across X for Premium+.
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2. Creator Subscriptions
Fans pay individual creators for exclusive content and perks. X says creators may earn up to approximately 97% of gross subscription revenue, after accounting for deductions such as payment-processing fees, app-store fees, cancellations, and refunds. That means Creator Subscriptions may be more important to X as a retention and engagement tool than as a large direct revenue source.
They can give creators an incentive to stay active, help supply exclusive content, and encourage fans to keep using X. But “creators can earn up to 97%” does not mean X has a guaranteed 3% net take rate.
3. Premium Business and Premium Organizations
This is a separate business-to-business product involving business verification, gold checkmarks, affiliate accounts, support, and other organization tools. X’s official page lists a U.S. Full Access price signal of $1,000 per month, with additional affiliate seats listed at $50 per month, before taxes and fees. That makes it a specialized enterprise monetization opportunity, not a typical consumer subscription.
Sources: X’s Creator Subscriptions information and X Premium Business.
Current X Premium pricing and positioning
According to X’s official pricing page, the U.S. web plans reviewed were:
| Tier | Monthly | Annual | Positioning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $3 | $32 | Core customization, editing, longer posts and videos, formatting, and other entry-level features |
| Premium | $8 | $84 | Basic benefits plus blue-check eligibility, reduced ads, creator-monetization eligibility, ID verification, Media Studio, and higher Grok limits |
| Premium+ | $40 | $395 | Premium benefits plus no ads, higher Grok limits, priority features, Radar Search, and Articles |
Prices vary by country, taxes, payment method, and platform. X says web pricing is generally lower than iOS and Android pricing because of app-store fees. The company’s Premium+ price update took effect for new subscribers on February 18, 2025, linking the higher price to expanded Grok 3 access, higher usage limits, and an ad-free experience.
See X’s current Premium features and pricing, its Premium FAQ, and the Premium+ price update.
The pricing creates two competing interpretations. A $40 Premium+ plan could raise average revenue per paying customer without rapid subscriber growth. But that price also limits the potential market and may push price-sensitive customers toward Basic, the standard Premium plan, or cancellation.
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What is X trying to sell?
X Premium is no longer simply a paid verification product. Its current pitch combines:
- Status and identity: blue-check eligibility and ID verification.
- Distribution: reply prioritization and other visibility-related benefits.
- Reduced advertising: fewer ads with Premium and no ads with Premium+.
- Creator monetization: eligibility for creator revenue sharing and Creator Subscriptions.
- Artificial intelligence: higher Grok usage limits, with more extensive access in Premium+.
- Publishing and productivity: longer posts and videos, editing, Media Studio, Articles, and Radar Search.
This bundle may appeal most to creators, power users, journalists, public figures, political and media professionals, and organizations. For casual users, the central X experience remains available without paying. That makes Premium an optional upgrade rather than a service required to access the product.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why subscription growth is structurally difficult
The free product is good enough for many users
A user can generally browse, post, and follow accounts without Premium. X must therefore persuade people to pay for secondary benefits rather than basic access. That is a harder conversion challenge than selling a product whose core functionality is locked behind a subscription.
The checkmark’s value is contested
The original paid offering was closely associated with the blue checkmark. Once verification became purchasable and X changed its verification rules, the badge no longer carried the same universally understood signaling value. For some users it remains useful; for others it may be neutral or even undesirable.
Ad-free access creates a substitution problem
Premium+ gives X subscription revenue, but it also removes advertising exposure from paying users. A serious assessment must ask whether subscription proceeds compensate for the advertising revenue those users might otherwise have generated.
The relevant question is not simply whether X collects $40 from a Premium+ customer. It is whether the incremental subscription contribution exceeds the advertising contribution the company gives up, after payment fees and the cost of serving features such as Grok.
Mobile purchases are less efficient
Apple and Google take fees from many in-app purchases. Web checkout can improve X’s economics, but it may introduce more friction. Customer price, gross billings, platform-adjusted proceeds, refunds, recognized revenue, and contribution margin are different measures.
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Creators may care about monetization. Businesses may care about identity and support. Heavy users may value fewer ads. AI users may compare Grok with standalone AI products. A single bundle has to satisfy very different customers while remaining simple enough to sell.
Advertising remains a competing priority
The subscription push developed alongside X’s effort to diversify revenue after advertiser departures and public conflict involving Elon Musk. TechCrunch also reported efforts to rebuild advertiser relationships, including a deal involving Unilever. The available evidence does not prove that advertising problems caused subscription weakness; it shows that X has been pursuing subscriptions partly because relying on advertising became less dependable.
How to evaluate X’s subscription economics
A useful revenue waterfall looks like this:
Customer payment → app-store or payment fees → creator payouts where applicable → X revenue → infrastructure and feature costs → contribution margin
The $200 million Appfigures estimate is best understood as an estimate of mobile consumer spending over multiple years. It is not automatically X’s recognized revenue or profit. Web transactions may increase total receipts, while platform commissions, refunds, promotional pricing, creator payments, and the cost of AI features reduce what X ultimately keeps.
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteThe most important metrics would be:
- Net paid subscribers
- Net additions and churn
- Recognized subscription revenue
- Average revenue per paying user
- Revenue after app-store fees
- Revenue after creator payouts
- Conversion from active users
- Retention by tier
- Web versus mobile purchase mix
- The effect of paid users on advertising revenue
X has not publicly disclosed these metrics in the evidence reviewed. Without them, revenue estimates alone cannot show product-market fit or profitability.
What can be concluded in 2026?
The October 2024 TechCrunch headline is a dated report, not a newly verified August 2026 finding. X has clearly continued investing in paid products: it has expanded the Premium bundle, increased Premium+ pricing, emphasized Grok, maintained ad-free positioning, and offered separate creator and business monetization products.
What remains unproven is whether those changes produced:
- a large and growing Premium subscriber base;
- low churn and strong annual renewals;
- substantial subscription revenue relative to advertising;
- healthy margins after fees, creator payments, and infrastructure costs; or
- a durable replacement for lost or reduced advertising revenue.
It would be inaccurate to state as fact that X subscriptions were still flat or failing through August 2026. The public evidence supports a narrower conclusion: X has a functioning, measurable subscription business, but it has not provided enough transparent data to demonstrate that subscriptions have become a major or durable alternative to advertising.
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