Elon Musk-owned popular social media company X, which recently made xAI’s latest version of the Grok chatbot free for all users on the platform, is now raising the price of its top-tier subscription service, Premium+. Going forward, users in the US will have to pay $22 per month for X’s Premium+ plan instead of $16, reflecting a 37.5% rise. Likewise, the annual subscription for the same plan is hiked from $168 to $229, representing a 36.31% increase. The revised prices have come into effect as of December 21.
Acquired by Musk in 2022, the company explains that existing subscribers whose next billing cycle starts before January 20, 2025, will be charged at their current rate. However, the new rate will apply starting with the first billing cycle after that date. Some countries, including Nigeria (now ₦34,000 monthly, up from ₦7,300) and Turkey (~₺770, up from ₺300), seem to be impacted the most. In India, the monthly plan for the Premium+ service is now ₹1,750, up from ₹1,300. As for the annual pricing, users in India will now have to pay ₹18,300 (up from ₹13,600). Meanwhile, the monthly price in the EU will go up from €16 to €21.
The timing coincides with a WARC Media report, which claims that the social media platform’s ad revenue lowered by nearly half (~ 46.4%) between 2022 and 2023, from $4.5 billion to $2.2 billion year-on-year. In fact, this decline is predicted to continue, with revenue in 2024 expected to reach $2 billion, and even lower in 2025. However, other social media platforms have experienced comparatively strong growth in ad revenue during the same period. While considering India, X’s revenue in the country plummeted by nearly 90%, falling to ₹21.16 crore in FY24 from ₹207.70 crore in FY23, while its profit dropped by 94% during the same period.
“This significant enhancement is reflected in the new pricing. Premium+ subscribers will enjoy higher priority support from @Premium, access to new features such as Radar, and higher limits on our most cutting-edge Grok AI models, ensuring you’re always ahead of the curve,” X said in a post.
The company also highlighted the revenue-sharing model with creators to reward content quality and engagement, rather than just ad views. The Premium+ subscription fee also contributes to this system, where creator earnings are tied to the overall value they bring to X, not the impressions of ads.
Launched in October 2023, the X Premium+ plan is designed to offer an ad-free browsing experience across the platform and many other features. These include post-editing, the ability to undo posts, longer video uploads, top articles, background video playback, reply boosts, and more. Interestingly, this development comes months after X reportedly witnessed millions of users switching to Bluesky following Trump’s victory, as Musk openly came out as a staunch supporter of US President-elect Donald Trump.
