X Replaces Revenue Share with Original Content Rewards

X has quietly drawn a line under its old revenue-sharing setup and rolled out a much tighter reward system for creators. The original program will stop accepting new sign-ups immediately and will be fully shuttered after September 7, while a freshly minted Original Content Rewards Program takes its place.

At its core the shift is simple: X will now pay only for content it deems genuinely original. That includes written reporting or essays authored by the creator, photos and videos shot by them, and memes or graphics they actually produced. Reposting or lightly annotating someone else’s material won’t cut it unless you add clear, substantive commentary or perform creative edits that change the piece’s meaning or value.

So where do you draw the line? If you slap a caption on a clip that merely describes what’s happening, X won’t call that original. Add analysis, context, or a creative re-edit and you might. Think of it as a quality gate: small tweaks are ignored, substantial contributions get rewarded.

To be eligible for payments, creators must be at least 18, live in a supported country, subscribe to Premium+, Premium, or Premium Business, have 500 verified followers, and have amassed at least 500,000 eligible timeline views from verified premium users in the past 90 days.

Note the emphasis on who is counted: only unique views from users with premium subscriptions and verified accounts will factor into the view totals. That makes the program less about raw virality and more about sustained attention from a paying, verified audience. And creators must keep meeting those thresholds after acceptance to continue receiving payouts.

Existing participants in X’s old revenue-sharing plan won’t be migrated automatically. Once they qualify for the new regime, they must reapply on September 8. If you weren’t in the prior program, you can apply to the Original Content Rewards Program right away.

The move reshapes incentives. It nudges creators toward producing distinct journalism, commentary, and crafted media rather than chasing recycled clips and cheap engagement. Is that an upgrade for quality or a new gatekeeper for monetization? Either way, it’s a clear signal: on X, originality now carries the price tag.