Twitter Blue now costs $4.99 a month, up from $2.99

Twitter is raising the price of its Twitter Blue monthly subscription to $4.99 a month. Some subscribers started receiving emails from the company informing them of the price hike.

The price change goes into effect immediately for new subscribers. On the other hand, early adopters keep the standard $2.99 monthly rate until October.

Twitter says early adopters will get a notification at least 30 days before the increase goes into effect, so they can decide if they want to keep the subscription or not.

READ MORE: Twitter is testing a new ‘Status’ feature that no one asked for

READ MORE: How to sign up for Twitter Blue

Twitter hasn’t said exactly why they are raising the price of Twitter Blue. The email sent out to subscribers discusses building “some of the new features you’ve been asking for, improve upon the current ones you already love and sustain our mission of supporting journalism.”

Maybe that last point is the real reason. One of Twitter Blue’s features lets you read a selection of news blogs without displaying ads. With the current economic climate, it’s entirely possible that Twitter is having to pay more for that.

It’s also entirely possible that Twitter just needs more income. We don’t know how many people subscribe to Twitter Blue, but every dollar counts.

For example, the company posted a loss of $270 million last quarter, partly from the costs of dealing with Elon Musk’s messy takeover bid.

Twitter is also in the middle of cost-cutting, including re-sizing offices across the world and putting the opening of an office in Oakland on ice.

The company says that no layoffs are planned from the downsizing, they are simply switching to a remote-working arrangement.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere. His hobbies include photography, animation, and hoarding Reddit gold.