How Many Followers on X Do You Need to Get Paid?

To get paid for your posts on X you need at least 500 verified followers, at least 500,000 Home Timeline impressions from verified users in the last 90 days, and an active Premium subscription. You also have to be 18 or older, live in a supported country and post original content. Those are the rules for X's Original Content Rewards program, which replaced Creator Revenue Sharing in 2026. To sell monthly Subscriptions to your fans, the bar is higher: 2,000 verified followers, 5 million organic impressions in the last 3 months, and Premium as well.

X monetization requirements in 2026

X has two main ways to pay creators directly. Each has its own rules, and you apply for each one separately in Creator Studio.

What counts as a verified follower on X?

A verified follower is a follower with a blue checkmark. X says the blue checkmark means the account has an active Premium subscription and meets X's checkmark rules. It does not mean the person's ID has been checked. In the EEA, X now calls these accounts "Premium" users rather than "verified".

This is why total follower count is a poor guide on X. You could have 5,000 followers and still fall short if fewer than 500 of them pay for Premium. Your monetization settings in Creator Studio show where you stand.

How does the X Original Content Rewards program work?

Once you are accepted, X pays you based on qualified impressions on your original posts. X defines these as unique impressions from Premium users on the Home Timeline, where at least half of the post is on screen. Some impressions never count:

• Repeat views from the same account on the same post.
• Paid, promoted or artificially generated impressions.
• Fraudulent impressions.

X does not publish a rate per 1,000 impressions, so any "X pays $X per million views" figure you see online is a guess, not an official number. What X does say is that the content has to be your own. Copied posts, posts with only small edits, compilations of other people's work and reuploads from other platforms do not earn. Commentary does count when you add your own view.

How to apply for X monetization

1. 1Subscribe to Premium. Both programs need an active Premium plan, and for Original Content Rewards you must keep it to stay in the program.
2. 2Check your numbers. Open Creator Studio from the main menu and look at the eligibility status for Original Content Rewards or Subscriptions.
3. 3Submit the application. When you meet every requirement, send the short application. X reviews it and tells you the result.
4. 4Set up payouts. In the US, payouts go to an X Money account. Everywhere else, you connect a Stripe account and complete Stripe's identity check.

Which countries can get paid on X?

Original Content Rewards is available in more than 100 countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, France and most of Europe. X's help pages list every country, and the Subscriptions list is slightly different, so check your own country on the page for the program you want.

How do X Creator Subscriptions pay?

With Subscriptions, fans pay you a monthly fee for extra posts and closer access. You choose the price from the price points X offers. X says creators can earn up to about 97% of gross subscription revenue and that X itself takes no cut. The deductions are app store fees from Apple or Google, payment processing fees, and refunds or cancellations.

You get nothing until your earnings reach $50. Below that, the balance rolls over to the next month. Payments arrive about 60 days after the end of the month the money came in. If you are eligible but not picked straight away, X puts you on a waitlist.

Other ways to make money on X

X's payout programs are not the only option. Many creators earn more from things they arrange themselves:

• Brand deals: companies pay for posts or threads that mention their product. Brands usually look at how many people engage with your posts, not just your follower total. Our guide to what a good engagement rate looks like is written for Instagram, but the idea is the same on X.
• Your own products or services: use X to send people to something you sell, such as a newsletter, a course or client work.
• Other platforms: if your audience also follows you elsewhere, compare the rules for getting paid on TikTok and monetizing Facebook.

Can you buy followers to get monetized on X?

It will not get you there. X counts verified followers and impressions from verified or Premium users, and it leaves out paid, promoted and artificially generated impressions. X's rules also ban paying others or using bots to inflate likes, follows or views, and accounts that do can be removed from the program. Some people still use a followers package to make a new profile look less empty, but it breaks X's rules, does not replace good posts and does not count towards payouts. Original posts that people want to reply to are what unlock X monetization.

If your follower count is falling instead of growing, read why you might be losing followers.