Elon Musk says X/Twitter to charge all users subscription fees

X owner Elon Musk has indicated that the social network formerly known as Twitter is preparing to charge all users for accessing the platform.

In a live-streamed conversation with Israeli prime minister, Musk said the company was “moving to a small monthly payment” for the use of the X system.

“We’re moving to having a small monthly payment for use of the system,” Elon Musk said.

He suggested that such a change would be necessary to deal with the problem of bots on the platform.

“It’s the only way I can think of to combat vast armies of bots,” explained Musk. “Because a bot costs a fraction of a penny — call it a tenth of a penny — but even if it has to pay…a few dollars or something, the effective cost of bots is very high,” he said. Plus, every time a bot creator wanted to make another bot, they would need another new payment method.

Musk didn’t say what the new subscription payment would cost, but described it as a “small amount of money.”

Currently, Twitter only charges users for its subscription service X Premium, which offers perks such as a verified account checkmark and costs $11 a month in the US for iPhones and £11 in the UK.