Elon Musk's X raises Premium+ subscription to $22 per month

Here's a holiday gift from Elon Musk to X's most loyal customers: The cost of your subscription is going up by nearly 40 percent.

According to a new page on X's Help Center titled Premium+ Price Adjustment, the X Premium+ subscription will now cost $22 per month in the U.S., up from the previous $16 monthly fee. Annual subscription costs to X Premium+ are also rising, from $168 to $229 per year.

The move from Musk's social media platform was announced over the weekend and officially went into effect on Dec. 21 for new subscribers. 

Current subscribers will not receive any grandfathered rates. Current Premium+ subscribers received a notification that their current subscription will be moved to the new $22 per month pricing model after Jan. 20. Any renewal charges before then will still go through at the old rate.

Users outside the U.S. will also be hit with price increase, with costs even higher than the U.S. rates in some countries. For example, subscribers in Canada will see prices go from $20 to $26. In Australia, the Premium+ price will jump from $26 to $35. And, as TechCrunchpoints out, some countries such as Nigeria will see even bigger jumps in cost where the Premium+ price will leap from roughly less than $5 to a whopping $22.

It should be noted that these rates are for subscriptions made directly through X's website. X charges extra to cover costs when signing up through a mobile device and purchasing through a third-party marketplace like Apple's App Store.

What is X Premium+ and why is X raising its price?

X Premium+ was already the highest-priced tier out of all of X's subscription offerings.

Most users are likely familiar with X Premium, formerly known as Twitter Blue. The base Premium plan, which will still cost $8 per month, provides users with some additional features such as the verified blue checkmark, reduced ads on their feed, access to X's AI chatbot Grok, and the ability to apply for the creator monetization program.

After the controversial X Premium rollout, the company also launched additional subscription tiers such as a cheaper Basic plan, which will remain at $3 per month. This tier includes some Premium functionality such as the edit button, bookmark folders, user prioritization in replies, and the ability to post longer text and video content.

The X Premium+ plan was another new subscription tier rolled out by Musk. According to X, this plan includes zero ads throughout the platform, although the company says"occasional promoted content may appear." X Premium+ also provides users with the platform's article feature, access to X's new trends tool called Radar, priority support from X, and higher limits of use for Grok AI.

"Increased pricing allows us to invest more into making Premium+ better and better over time," reads X's update.

Musk's company also attributed the change to its new creator monetization model. Previously, X's payouts to users that are part of their monetization program were based on ad views. X now pays creators based on views of their content, regardless of ad impressions.

As previously reported, X's advertiser-based revenue has taken a big hitsince Musk acquired then-Twitter in late 2022. Due to many big advertisers fleeing the platform, the company has switched gears in an attempt to move towards a revenue model more dependent on paying subscribers.