X is giving complimentary Premium subscriptions to accounts

Ever since Elon Musk took over Twitter (now X), the meaning of being verified has become rather elusive. Nowadays, anyone can become verified if they pay a monthly subscription fee for a Premium membership. However, it appears that some users don’t even have to pay. According to a report, X is giving out complimentary Premium Accounts.

If you’re curious, getting verified on X doesn’t quite have a high barrier to entry. There are three payment tiers that allow you to become verified. The lowest one will cost you $3/month if you sign up via the web. If you sign up using either the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, it will cost $4/month.

The most expensive plan costs $16/month ($22/month if you sign up through your phone),  and this gives you all the features along with reduced ads, access to the Grok AI model, Etc.

X is giving out complimentary Premium memberships

If you’re a person who’s been wanting to get a verification check mark without paying the monthly fee, then you’re definitely going to have to build up a following. The company announced that it would give complimentary checkmarks to users who have over 2,500 verified followers. So, this is not going out to just anyone. In order to get over 2,500 verified followers, you’re probably going to have to rack up tens of thousands of followers altogether.

If you score as many followers, you will get a complimentary subscription to the standard $8/month X Premium subscription. If you’re able to double the amount of verified followers you have, then you’ll get a free subscription to the Premium+ account. That’s the highest-paid account.

It’s a bit confusing why the company chose to do this. At this point, pretty much any person who wants to be verified can do so. It is as easy as paying $3/month. So, most people who aren’t verified remain unverified by choice. So, pushing the verification on them just seems like an annoying move by the company.