X ends revenue sharing, launches original content rewards on September 8

X will replace its creator Revenue Sharing program with a new Original Content Rewards system beginning Sept. 8, 2026, and existing Revenue Sharing members will be the first invited to apply. To qualify, creators must have at least 500 verified followers and at least 500,000 Home Timeline impressions from verified users in the previous 90 days, with replies excluded from the count.

The new framework shifts X’s payouts away from broad ad-revenue splits and toward verified reach tied to original posts. X Creators says the program is designed to reward creators who bring original ideas, expertise, reporting, creativity and other meaningful additions, while excluding copied posts, reposts and other low-value or duplicative material.

That change favors accounts with already established audiences and a steady stream of original work, while making life harder for smaller creators, repost-heavy pages and accounts built around reply traffic. Because impressions must come from verified users on the Home Timeline, creators who rely on conversation threads, meme recycling or engagement bait will have a tougher path to qualifying. The new rules also make payouts less predictable for anyone still trying to build an audience, especially since access starts with current Revenue Sharing members and requires an application.

X’s Help Center says Creator Revenue Sharing is available globally, but it also states that X may modify or cancel the program at any time for business, financial or legal reasons. That caveat underscores how fragile creator income can be on a platform that has repeatedly reworked monetization under Elon Musk, pushing users toward Premium subscriptions while trying to reduce spam, reposting and AI-assisted gaming of payout systems.

The shift follows earlier tightening. In August 2023, TechCrunch reported that X lowered ad-revenue-sharing eligibility from 15 million impressions over three months to 5 million impressions over three months. The new Original Content Rewards program goes further by narrowing the pool to verified users and by tying rewards to original content signals rather than to the broader ad inventory that once underpinned creator payments.

For creators, the practical question is no longer just how much attention a post can generate. It is whether that attention comes from verified users, lands on the Home Timeline, and can be traced to work X considers original enough to pay.