The platform will end new Revenue Sharing enrolments and move creators towards a system centred on original work and verified impressions
X has announced a major change to its creator monetisation system on Friday, August 7, 2026, ending new enrolments in its Revenue Sharing programme and introducing the X Original Content Rewards programme to place greater emphasis on creators producing original work.
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The platform said existing Revenue Sharing participants would continue earning through September 7, after which the programme will effectively give way to the new model.
X announced the change through its X Creators account, describing the new initiative as a way to reward people who contribute original ideas, expertise, reporting, creativity and commentary to conversations on the platform.
“Today, we’re introducing the Original Content Rewards Program, a new way to reward creators who bring original ideas, expertise, reporting, creativity, and commentary to X,” the company said.
The change represents a notable adjustment to how X approaches creator payments.
Rather than simply rewarding activity within its existing revenue-sharing framework, the platform is placing originality at the centre of its next monetisation model.
X said it would stop accepting new applications for Revenue Sharing from Friday. Existing participants will receive three final payments, with two scheduled for August 14 and August 28, while the final payment covering earnings accumulated through September 7 is expected around September 11.
Existing Revenue Sharing creators will be able to apply for the Original Content Rewards programme from September 8, provided they meet the new eligibility requirements.
The first payment under the new programme is scheduled for August 28 for eligible creators already entering the system, while existing Revenue Sharing participants who transition from September 8 are expected to receive their first payment on September 25.
Under the new model, creators will earn from qualified impressions generated by their original content, with payments made every two weeks.
X defines qualified impressions as unique views from Premium users on posts appearing in the Home Timeline, provided at least 50 per cent of the post is visible.
The company said repeated impressions from the same account on a single post, paid or promoted impressions, artificially generated traffic and fraudulent impressions would not count towards payments.
The new requirements also set a relatively high threshold for creators seeking to qualify.
Applicants must be at least 18 years old, live in a country where the programme is available, maintain an account in good standing and operate either a personal or business account.
They must also have an active X Premium, Premium+ or Premium Business subscription, at least 500 verified followers and 500,000 Home Timeline impressions from verified users during the preceding 90 days.
The requirements mark a significant change in emphasis from the earlier Revenue Sharing system, under which X required eligible creators to have at least five million organic impressions over three months, alongside 500 verified followers and a qualifying Premium subscription.
X has also made clear that creators cannot simply recycle material from elsewhere and expect to qualify.
The platform said original content could include threads, videos, memes, graphics, illustrations, reporting, analysis, commentary and reactions where the creator adds meaningful value to an existing discussion.
“Building on existing conversations is a core part of X, but simply reposting someone else’s content is not enough,” the company said.
Minor alterations such as cropping, filters, borders, watermarks, speed changes or basic text overlays will generally not be regarded as meaningful transformation on their own.
The policy also excludes content copied or substantially reproduced from another creator, material downloaded and reposted from X or another platform by someone who is not the original author, automated content, disinformation and misleading material.
Creators will additionally be responsible for ensuring that they have the necessary rights, permissions or licences for material produced by other people.
The stricter approach reflects a problem X has already acknowledged within its creator economy: large accounts have been able to repost material produced by smaller creators and benefit from the resulting engagement.
In May, X said it had identified accounts that were programmatically re-uploading content from smaller creators to circumvent attribution and monetisation rules. X’s product leadership said the platform was working to identify those posts and allocate qualifying impressions to the original creator.
That earlier adjustment offered an indication of where the platform’s creator strategy was heading. The new programme takes the principle further by making original authorship a central condition of eligibility.
The move also follows a period in which X expanded its creator monetisation ambitions.
In an earlier 2026 update, the company said it had more than doubled its Revenue Sharing pool and changed the way payments were calculated to focus on verified Home Timeline impressions from Premium users.
X’s decision to replace that system therefore does not represent a retreat from creator payments. Instead, it signals an attempt to make monetisation more closely tied to the type of content the platform considers valuable.
For creators, that could encourage more investment in reporting, original commentary, specialist knowledge, storytelling and entertainment rather than the rapid circulation of material created elsewhere.
The approach could also make originality more important for accounts that have traditionally relied on aggregation, viral reposts or lightly edited material to build large audiences.
X said creators who violate the programme’s requirements could be removed temporarily or permanently, depending on the seriousness of the violation.
The company said the purpose of the new programme was to recognise people who make the platform more useful by starting conversations, shaping them and moving them forward.
“We want to recognize creators who break news, share expertise, tell stories, create entertainment, and contribute meaningful perspectives to the conversation,” X said.
For the wider creator economy, the shift highlights a growing tension between scale and originality.
Platforms can generate enormous engagement from recycled material, but the creators who produce the original work may receive little recognition or financial benefit when that material is repeatedly copied.
X’s new system attempts to address that imbalance by putting authorship and meaningful contribution closer to the centre of its payment structure.
The practical test, however, will be whether the programme delivers meaningful earnings for creators while maintaining a fair and transparent system for determining which impressions qualify.
For now, X is making a clear statement about the kind of content it wants to encourage: original, recognisable work that adds something of its own to the conversation.
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For creators already earning through Revenue Sharing, the coming weeks will be a period of transition. For everyone else, the message from X is increasingly direct: originality is becoming the currency it wants to reward.
Victory Emmanuel is a journalist and contributor to Freelanews.com, covering news, business, and public affairs.
