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

Elon Musk’s TechCrunch reported. That represents a 37.5 percent increase, the largest since Elon Musk bought the platform formerly known as Twitter in 2022.

One stated reason for the increase is that Premium+ is now “completely ad-free,” which X claims is a “significant improvement” from the previous ad-free experience. It also promised some other features. “Premium+ subscribers will enjoy higher priority support from @Premium, access to new features like (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 are also increasing by a similar amount in Europe, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. Existing users with monthly subscriptions will maintain their current rates until January 20, and the pricing of other tiers (Basic and Premium) will remain unchanged.

X first introduced the Premium+ subscription tier in October 2023, promising an ad-free experience “for you” and following schedules, alongside existing Premium benefits such as a blue checkmark. However, users quickly noticed that ads were appearing in other parts of X (profiles, replies, Explore, and other places). A new update in August 2024 promised to remove them as well, but X said users would still see “occasional branded content in less common areas.” Now, it seems, those too will be defeated.

X has reportedly lost 2.7 million active users in the last two months, and its rival Bluesky gained almost the same number during that period. This is likely to have led to some loss of advertising revenue, which the platform hopes to recoup by raising subscription prices.