People frequently express surprise that Twitter is free, but it isn’t for everyone. Twitter Blue debuted in several countries last year, adding a few extra features for anyone willing to pay $2.99 per month.
Today, the service informed subscribers that it is raising the price (via Matt Navara), and it will now cost $4.99 per month in the United States.
That is unlikely to break the bank of information addicts who choose to pay for a service that still includes advertisements in their feed, but it may be enough to make people wonder if it is worthwhile.
The Twitter Blue package includes add-ons that range from extremely useful (an undo tweet window to fix typos, a customizable navigation bar, a list of Top Articles shared by people you follow, and ad-free access to articles on sites like The Verge) to trivial (the ability to choose from different app icons) to dubious (NFT hexagon profile pics).
In an email to users, the Twitter Blue team insists the higher rate “helps us continue to build some of the features you’ve been asking for, improve upon the current ones you already love and sustain our mission of supporting journalism.”
Notably, it makes no mention of Elon Musk, despite the fact that the company recently blamed him for a drop in Q2 revenue compared to the previous year.
Musk is now attempting to back out of his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter, but in happier times, he reportedly floated the idea of an unnamed subscription service outside of Blue that he believed could attract more than 100 million subscribers someday.
To read our blog on “Musk is trying to slow Twitter’s trial of a $44 billion deal, it claims,” click here