How much would Elon Musk charge for Twitter Blue subscription and how would verification change?

Elon Musk has been moving fast to make changes at his newest acquisition. After canning top executives he plans to sack around a quarter of the staff at Twitter. He also has a vision of how to bring in more revenue to the company.

Taking to Twitter on Tuesday he explained his new idea for how the social media platform will verify accounts with its blue ticks. Gone will be “Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark.”

However, the new “Power to the people!” system will come at a price for users. People that want Twitter Blue accounts will have to cough up $8 per month. This is less than the monthly $20 that had been reported by The Verge on Monday.

How will the new Twitter Blue subscription work?

The privilege of the blue checkmark will come with some advantages for those willing to pay. The $8 per month will apply to the US only with prices “adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity,” according to Twitter’s new owner.

Those that fork over the monthly tithe will also get “Priority in replies, mentions & search, which is essential to defeat spam/scam” as well as the “Ability to post long video & audio” and “Half as many ads.” Users will also be able to bypass paywalls to those media companies and publishers that are willing to work with Twitter. The idea is to “give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators.”

People who are public figures will get a secondary tag below their name, which already goes for politicians. According to earlier reporting by The Verge, users who already have a blue checkmark will have 90 days to pay up or they will lose it “according to people familiar with the matter and internal correspondence.”

How does the new Twitter Blue differ from the old?

Musk hasn’t said when the new subscription service would go into effect nor given full specifics. Up till now, Twitter Blue wasn’t tied to being verified. The $4.99 per month service gave users the ability to edit or undo tweets, customize their navigation bar and set an NFT as the user’s profile picture. They were also able to read ad-free articles, something that has reportedly been removed as of Tuesday.

Previously, getting an account verified was up to the social media platform. The marking indicated that the account wasn’t a bot but instead a credible “authentic” Twitter account. The blue badge of honor was limited to certain subset of users who were high-profile such as companies and influential individuals who might be parodied or whose name or brand might be used to spread false information.