Should you subscribe to Twitter Blue / X Premium?

How to qualify and become eligible for Twitter Blue / X Premium

To be eligible for the paid version of Twitter and obtain the blue checkmark, your account must be more than 90 days old, have a verified phone number, and have no recent changes to your display name, username (@handle), or profile photo within the past 30 days.

The stated goal—which we will revisit below—is to prevent accounts carrying a verified blue checkmark from engaging in deceptive or fraudulent practices, such as impersonating others or using fake identities. It also aims to curb the influence of automated bots that pollute Twitter with fake news.

Complete breakdown of exclusive features and algorithmic privileges

The premium subscription enhances the user experience with several exclusive capabilities. Specifically, it allows subscribers to:

• Display a verified blue checkmark.
• Publish longer Tweets.
• Upload longer, high-definition videos.
• Undo a Tweet immediately after sending it, before it becomes visible to other users.
• Group and organize bookmarked tweets into private folders for later reading.
• Use SMS two-factor authentication (2FA).
• Edit published Tweets within the first thirty minutes after posting.
• Customize the Twitter app icon on your smartphone home screen.
• Display a verified NFT as a profile picture.
• See approximately 50% fewer ads in your feed.
• Access a curated feed of top articles shared by the accounts you follow and their networks.
• Receive priority ranking and higher visibility when replying to other users' Tweets.

Additional secondary features are detailed on Twitter's official help page.

Subscription pricing models: web vs iOS/Android app store fees

• Monthly subscription via the web interface: €9.60 per month.
• Monthly subscription via iOS and Android: €11.00 per month.
• Annual subscription via the web interface: €100.80 per year.
• Annual subscription via iOS and Android: €114.99 per year.

Critical assessment: is Twitter Blue truly a good deal for brands?

When Elon Musk announced plans to introduce a paid subscription tier for the platform, criticism was fierce—particularly among politicians, celebrities, and journalists who had been pampered by previous management, which is certainly not Elon Musk's approach.

Yet a paid subscription model is clearly an excellent strategic idea, as it directly addresses several structural problems that no social network had managed to solve until now:

• Reducing ad dependency. As the saying goes, if it's free, you are the product. The only regret is that advertising isn't removed entirely in the base tier. Still, it is rather ironic to watch the very same people who complained endlessly about opaque personal data harvesting (required for targeted advertising) now complain about being asked to pay for a service.
• Joining a verified club. Paying a membership fee means entering a community where every participant is a verified human being with a payment method on file. You pay to ensure members are accountable and capable of genuine debate and exchange. Hordes of trolls spreading hate speech with impunity can no longer hide behind comfortable anonymity and face legal accountability if they subscribe to Twitter Blue. There is no need for bureaucratic regulatory machinery like the Digital Services Act (DSA). Non-subscribed accounts whose identities remain unverified will see their reach confined to their immediate circle of followers (often very small).
• Curbing the impact of bots. Unless Musk's security teams suffer a major breach, automated bot networks that amplify fake news at scale will be algorithmically throttled and gain far less traction than today.

Elon Musk announced on his Twitter account on March 28 that starting April 15, only verified Twitter Blue accounts will be eligible to appear in the algorithmic "For You" recommendations feed.

The "For You" tab surfaces algorithmically recommended tweets from accounts you do not yet follow alongside top posts from accounts you do follow. It is pinned at the top of your timeline so you can easily toggle between the "For You" tab and the "Following" tab. Logically, casting votes in polls will also require an active Twitter Blue account.

Strategic conclusions and recommendation

If Twitter is a valuable business channel for you, where you want to converse with real decision-makers rather than being deceived by automated bots or targeted by anonymous trolls, then yes—subscribing is well worth the investment.