It’s not exactly unexpected but X, formerly Twitter, has gone and launched a couple more subscription tiers for users to choose from. In addition to X Premium, formerly Twitter Blue, there are now two more plans — Basic and Premium+.
The existence of these new pricing tiers was suspected at the beginning of the month but it was only once the service posted about it on X that it became official. As you might expect, there are some benefits to giving Elon’s company some (or more) money.
Something to Twitter about?
X Basic and X Premium+ are both live and you can sign up for them but they’re only available on the web browser version of the service. South African pricing, both monthly and annually, is known because this is an immediate global rollout.
If you’re keen on X Basic, a year’s access will set you back about R580. There’s a series of benefits to doing this, but mostly you’re getting longer tweets, the ability to download videos, background video functionality — the improved software experience, in other words. X Basic doesn’t do anything to eliminate ads, however. In order to get started on that, you’ll have to turn over R1,520 for the existing Premium package.
Even that doesn’t entirely eliminate ads in your timeline. For that, R3,040 is required. It’ll net you everything offered by the other tiers, plus two more features. Ads will be yanked from the For You and Following tabs and you’ll get a “Large reply boost”. Paying double for that pair will probably strike some as a great idea. For everyone else, there’s Premium. And if you’re still a Twitter newbie but are frustrated with the character count, Basic is the place to be.
