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

Elon Musk TechCrunch reported. That represents a 37.5 percent increase, the largest since Elon Musk purchased the platform previously known as Twitter in 2022.

One stated reason for the increase is that Premium+ is now “completely ad-free”, with X claiming it represents a “significant improvement” over the previous ad-free experience. It also promised some other features. “Premium+ subscribers 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 an article on the help page. X also promised that more subscription revenue would be shared with creators.

Premium+ prices are also increasing by a similar amount in Europe, Great Britain, Canada and Australia. Existing users with monthly subscriptions will keep their current plans until January 20th, and prices for other tiers (Basic and Premium) will remain unchanged.

X introduced the Premium+subscription level for the first time in October 2023 and promises an ad-free experience that is only intended for them and adheres to schedules, together with existing premium advantages such as a blue check mark. However, users quickly noticed that ads were appearing elsewhere on X (Profiles, Answers, Discover, and elsewhere). Another update in August 2024 promised to eliminate those too, but X said users would still see “occasionally branded content in less common areas.” Now, it seems, they too will be defeated.

X reportedly lost 2.7 million active users in the last two months, while competitor Bluesky gained almost as many during that period. This has likely resulted in some loss of advertising revenue, which the platform may want to offset by increasing subscription prices.