Twitter Subscriptions gives creators a 'new' way to monetize their audience

Those on Twitter can now monetize their feeds, as the platform debuted its ‘new’ Subscriptions offering. But looking at the details, this looks to simply be a rebranding of the previous monetization feature called Super Follows which was launched back in 2021. Regardless, those on Twitter that meet the requirements will be able to monetize their feeds, giving those interested access to exclusive content and badges.

While some of the details about this feature can be found in the monetization tab on Twitter, there also seems to be some located on the Subscriptions support page located on Twitter’s Help Center. But this could be remnants from the old Super Follows program as there are some discrepancies. As far as requirements go, Twitter requires that the user who are trying to activate Subscriptions have at least 500 followers, 25 tweets within the past 30 days, and are over the age of 18.

This is according to the monetization section on Twitter. As far what kind of content can be distributed, Elon Musk has chimed in through his own Twitter account, sharing that tweets, long form tweets, and even “hours long” video can be shared too. In addition, there will a subscriber exclusive Twitter Spaces, where users can all join and listen to exclusive audio content as well. Furthermore, users will be able to navigate to a Subscribers Tweets tab (iOS only), making it easier to find all the exclusive content in one place. As far as monthly subscription plans, they’ll be available starting at $2.99 per month, with the next tier up costing $4.99 per month, and the most expensive option coming in at $9.99.

As far as how much a creator can make, Musk clarified that for the first year, Twitter would not be taking a cut of the money earned by those on the platform. This is quite a huge incentive, and should give the program a good jump start in the first year. Of course, there are going to be processing fees, but this will still leave a large portion of the money of creators. While Musk stated roughly around 92 percent should be available, the Subscription support page states around 97 percent should be available. It’s unknown at this time which number is the true figure as the company doesn’t have an official media team. The amount will be less if a subscription is processed directly through the app, as the Apple App Store and Google Play take a percentage.

Twitter has also detailed that a creator will earn less once they cross a $50,000 threshold in lifetime earnings, but will still take home 80 percent after that. The firm has a thorough breakdown of how earnings work on its Creator Dashboard. Of course, these details could change, as stated before there are discrepancies. But, for now, the feature for creators is only available to those in the United States, but those in other regions will be able to purchase subscriptions on iOS and Android. If you’re making a purchase from the website, this will be restricted to those in the US, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. Just to note, for now, in order to interact with Subscriptions content, you’ll only be able to do so through the iOS and Android app.

Although this is a nice feature to roll out for creators on the platform, it’s definitely a different vision from what Musk promised a couple of months ago. In February, he proclaimed that creators would be able to start earning from shared ad-revenue, which would be a big deal. This hasn’t happened yet and while it still could happen in the future, from what we’ve seen over the past several months, anything can take place at a moments notice. So for now, creators will have to be content with Subscriptions, and hope that it evolves into something more over the next year or for however long it’s around.