To make money on X itself, creators use three built-in features and one set of brand rules: Original Content Rewards, which pays for qualified impressions on original posts; Creator Subscriptions, which charge followers a monthly fee; Tips, which link your profile to third-party payment apps; and sponsored posts carrying X's Paid Partnership label. The entry bars differ widely. Original Content Rewards, for example, needs a Premium, Premium+ or Premium Business plan, 500 verified followers and 500,000 Home Timeline impressions from verified users in 90 days, according to X's Original Content Rewards help page.
Much of what ranks for this question still describes Creator Revenue Sharing, which X retired on 7 September 2026, so this page starts from X's current help centre as we read it on 1 October 2026. Each route gets a short summary, a requirement or two and a link to the detail. Selling your own products or promoting a page on another platform is a separate job, and our promotion guides cover it.
Programme eligibility table
| Route | Who pays you | Headline requirements | How money reaches you | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Original Content Rewards | X, based on qualified impressions from Premium viewers | 18 or over, a listed country, Premium, Premium+ or Premium Business, 500 verified followers, 500,000 verified Home Timeline impressions in 90 days, original posting | Every two weeks above a $30 minimum, through X Money in the US or Stripe elsewhere | Rewards help page |
| Creator Subscriptions | Your subscribers, through X | 18 or over, active in the past 30 days, 2,000 verified followers, 5 million organic impressions in three months, plus profile and security checks | About 60 days after the month X receives the money, above a $50 minimum | Subscriptions FAQ |
| Tips | Individual fans, off X | 18 or over and a username on at least one supported payment service | Directly through that service; X takes no share, though the service may charge fees | Tips help page (archived July 2026) |
| Paid partnerships | Brands, under your own agreement | The Paid Partnership disclosure switched on, and a product outside the prohibited industries | Whatever your contract with the brand says | Paid Partnerships Policy |
The two X-run programmes each have a full guide: X Original Content Rewards eligibility, originality rules and payouts, and X Creator Subscriptions setup and content rules. The rest of this page covers what they share and the two routes that sit outside them.
The baseline behind every paid feature
Anyone who earns money or currency from X through its creator products falls under X's Creator Monetization Standards. Their eligibility section is the quickest pre-check, because it applies before any programme-specific threshold:
- You live in a country where X's monetisation programmes run, and you are 18 or older.
- Your account has been active for at least three months.
- Your profile is complete, with an account name, bio, profile picture and header image.
- Your email address is verified and two-factor authentication is on.
- The account is not designated as state-affiliated media.
- You are in good standing: no repeated breaches of the user agreement or the monetisation standards, and no earlier removal as an advertiser or Amplify publisher for policy violations.
- You hold an active Premium, Premium Business or Premium Organizations subscription.
- You have connected an X Money account or a verified Stripe account and completed identity verification.
The same page sets conduct rules for every monetised account. You may not request money or engagement in exchange for sexual services, or for anything illegal or harmful; you may not use paid features as a required entry method for contests; and you may not mislead people about who receives the money. Breaking the standards can mean reduced reach to people who do not follow you, paused or revoked earnings, removed content or loss of access to X.
Monetisation settings walkthrough
X's documents name the same area three ways: older pages refer to monetisation settings, the Subscriptions terms to Settings and privacy, then Monetization, and the current help pages to Creator Studio. Look for Creator Studio in the side menu first. In order:
- Choose a Premium plan that the programme you want accepts. The tier lists differ between documents, so check before upgrading.
- In Edit profile, fill in the name, bio, profile picture and header image.
- In your security settings, verify your email address and switch on two-factor authentication.
- Open Creator Studio. The Original Content Rewards page links to it directly and says your eligibility status for that programme is visible there at any time.
- Set up payouts once, since both programmes use them. US creators need an active X Money account; creators elsewhere connect Stripe and complete identity verification through it.
- Apply to each programme only when Creator Studio shows every criterion as met. Subscriptions applicants who qualify but are not selected join a waitlist.
- For Tips, open Edit profile in the iOS or Android app, select Tips, accept X's General Tipping policy, switch on Allow tips and add at least one payment username. The archived help page says Tips is not available on the web.
- Before publishing a sponsored post, open the Content Disclosure settings in the post composer and switch on Paid Partnership so X labels the post.
- Write down each application date, decision and payout setting, so you can answer quickly if X asks for evidence in an appeal.
Which route fits your account
| If your account mostly… | Look first at | Main catch |
|---|---|---|
| Publishes your own commentary, explainers, threads or video | Original Content Rewards | Copied, lightly edited or aggregated posts do not earn, and asking for likes or reposts breaks the rules |
| Has a large audience that wants more of you | Creator Subscriptions | The highest audience bar, plus a duty to deliver the benefits you describe |
| Has a small but loyal following | Tips | Payments happen off X, and your details may be visible to people who tip, depending on the service |
| Attracts brands in your niche | Paid partnerships | Disclosure is mandatory and several product categories are excluded |
| Sends followers to an adult subscription page | None of the above, in most cases | X's monetisation rules restrict adult content, so treat X as a promotion channel |
The last row deserves a word. Original Content Rewards excludes sexually explicit content, the Monetization Standards list adult or sexual content as restricted for monetisation, and the Paid Partnerships Policy bars adult and sexual products and services. If your X account mainly drives fans to a page elsewhere, the work is promotion rather than monetisation on X, and our X marketing guide for subscription creators and X profile conversion audit cover it.
Brand deals and Tips: the rules people skip
X's Paid Partnerships Policy counts more than cash deals. A post needs the Paid Partnership disclosure when a brand gifted the product, paid you in money or in kind, gives you commission through an affiliate link or discount code, or has you under a commercial agreement such as an ambassador role. The policy also says the product, service or call to action must be clear without anyone having to click a further link, and that you are responsible for complying with advertising law, including the US Federal Trade Commission's endorsement guides.
Its prohibited industries include adult and sexual products and services, alcohol, contraceptives, dating and marriage services, drugs, health and wellness supplements, pharmaceuticals, tobacco, weapons and weight-loss products. Australia, the EU and the UK add financial products and gambling. In the UK, X points creators to the influencers' guide to making clear that ads are ads from the Committee of Advertising Practice and the Competition and Markets Authority; in the US, the FTC's Disclosures 101 for social media influencers covers the same ground. To price the work itself, use our creator rate card worksheet and send brands an influencer media kit that reports only figures you can show.
Tips work differently from every other route because the money never passes through X. According to the archived Tips help page, your username on each payment service you add becomes publicly linked to your X account, and the page warns that details such as a full name and address may be shared with the recipient or others under that service's terms. Read each service's privacy settings before you link it. The same page says you must be 18 or over to send or receive tips, that a tip does not entitle the sender to exclusive content, and that X may change which services are offered in each country.
What changed in 2026, and what older guides still say
- Creator Revenue Sharing closed to new members on 7 August and ended on 7 September 2026, according to its retired help page. Guides that tell you to qualify for ad revenue sharing with 5 million organic impressions describe that old programme.
- That 5 million organic impression figure still matters, but as the Subscriptions threshold in the Subscriptions FAQ, not as the route to impression payouts.
- Original Content Rewards counts only impressions from Premium viewers on the Home Timeline and pays only for original content, so posts built from reposts or compilations of other people's work no longer earn from impressions.
- US creators in both X-run programmes are paid through X Money, while creators elsewhere still use Stripe.
- Some ranking articles also describe paid ticketed Spaces. We could not find a current X help page for that feature when we checked, so look for it in your own app before planning around it.
Limitations, and what to re-check
This overview reflects X's help pages and terms as we read them on 1 October 2026. Original Content Rewards is new and X can change or cancel any programme at its discretion, so re-check the requirement figures, the Premium tiers each programme accepts and the payout routes before you upgrade a plan or apply. The live Tips help page would not load for us on that date, so the Tips details come from X's own page as archived on 20 July 2026; confirm the options in the app.
Nothing here estimates earnings, because X publishes no fixed rate for impressions and the Subscriptions terms leave the revenue share to X's discretion. Disclosure law differs by country, and income from any of these routes is taxable in ways that depend on where you live, so check with a qualified tax adviser, and with the advertising regulator in your country when brand deals are involved.