Elon Musk Says Some X Accounts Will Get Premium Features For Free
Elon Musk has announced that from now on, some X (formerly Twitter) users will get access to X Premium features without having to pay for them. The free access will be applied to accounts automatically, according to his tweet, but only if they are eligible by meeting certain minimum thresholds. Some users will also get free access to Premium+ features, which is a higher tier above regular Premium, including access to things like the less-restrictive AI chatbot Grok and a lack of advertisements.
Going forward, all 𝕏 accounts with over 2500 verified subscriber followers will get Premium features for free and accounts with over 5000 will get Premium+ for free
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 28, 2024
It's unclear what inspired this change and whether it will remain as-stated in coming weeks. Musk has a history of announcing new plans and changes on X, only for them to be refined or nixed later on. Still, the news may be enough to bring some users back to the platform, as meeting the minimum number of subscribers will grant them the once-coveted blue verified checkmark without having to pay. This wouldn't be the first time some people got the blue check for free — at one point, X was applying it to some celebrity accounts without asking.
X Premium comes with several major perks
According to Musk, accounts that have at least 2,500 verified subscribers will be granted access to X Premium even if they haven't signed up. To get free access to the Premium+ features, however, you'll need to have at least 5,000 verified followers. It's unclear at this time whether there will be a grace period when features remain available to accommodate small subscriber fluctuations when near the threshold, but such details will likely arrive in coming days. What can users who meet the eligibility criteria expect?
Whereas "basic" X users are granted access to what the company calls "essential" premium features, including the ability to set custom app icons and post longer messages than was possible during the Twitter days, Premium adds on things like revenue sharing, fewer ads in general, and the blue checkmark. The Premium+ subscription has the most features, however, ones that will most appeal to creators and power users. Those include access to Grok (in applicable territories), access to a "Following" timeline, and the removal of advertisements from the "For You" portion of the feed.