X Kills Creator Revenue Sharing, Launches Program That Only Pays for Original Content

X stopped taking new applications for its Creator Revenue Sharing program on Saturday, August 8, 2026. The legacy program gets fully retired on September 7. In its place, X launched the Original Content Rewards Program, which pays creators for original writing, reporting, photos, videos, memes and illustrations, according to X's official Creators account.

Allegra Jacchia, X's head of creators, said the previous payout structure rewarded engagement farming instead of originality, according to tuko.co.ke. Translation: people were getting rich reposting other people's viral videos and AI garbage with zero original input.

Nikita Bier, X's former product head who now advises the company, put it bluntly. He said creators should focus on "bringing net new content to the platform instead of maximizing payouts," per tuko.co.ke. If you didn't make it, you shouldn't get paid like you did.

How the new system actually works

Money now comes from "qualified impressions," meaning unique views from other paying Premium subscribers on the Home Timeline, with at least half the post visible on screen, according to tuko.co.ke. Repeated views from the same account, promoted impressions and fake engagement don't count.

The eligibility bar isn't low, but it's lower in one specific way than people might assume. Creators need to be 18 or older, carry a Premium, Premium+ or Premium Business subscription, have at least 500 verified followers, and rack up 500,000 Home Timeline impressions from verified users in the last 90 days, according to Engadget and TNW. That impression threshold is actually a steep cut from the old program's 5 million requirement, according to tuko.co.ke, which makes it easier for smaller creators to qualify on paper.

But there's a new catch that didn't exist before. X will now review a creator's history of posting original content before approving them, per tuko.co.ke. Lower bar to clear, but a new filter nobody had to pass through previously.

X spells out what counts as "original" with actual specificity. Adding a caption or text overlay that just describes what's happening in someone else's video doesn't cut it. Creative editing, meaningful commentary or real analysis on top of someone else's post does count, according to TNW. If your contribution adds nothing of substance, it's not original under X's rules, Engadget reported.

What happens to people already in the old program

Creators currently enrolled in Revenue Sharing keep getting paid through September 7, with payouts scheduled for August 14, August 28 and around September 11, according to tuko.co.ke. Starting September 8, they can apply for the new program, but there's no automatic rollover. Everyone, new or returning, has to meet the fresh criteria.

Payments under the new system go out every two weeks instead of the old ad-revenue-tied model, per tuko.co.ke.

The bigger context nobody's ignoring

This isn't happening in a vacuum. X updated its revenue-sharing weighting back in March to favor engagement from a creator's home region, a move widely read as a response to reports that dozens of popular pro-Trump commentary accounts were being run from outside the United States, according to both Engadget and TNW. Neither source confirms whether that regional-weighting policy carries over into the new Original Content Rewards Program. That's an open question X hasn't answered publicly.

TNW also points out X isn't alone in this fight. Snapchat recently banned AI-generated videos from its Spotlight recommendations to protect human creators, and YouTube has been cutting payouts for AI slop while creators complain the algorithm still punishes people who don't show their faces. Every platform paying for engagement is running into the same problem: reward clicks, and you get bots and copy-paste garbage. Reward substance, and you have to figure out how to actually measure it.

Whether X's "qualified impressions from paying subscribers" model actually filters out the bad actors, or just narrows the money pool to whoever can afford Premium, is something creators will find out starting September 8, when reapplications open. The requirement that impressions only count from other Premium subscribers means your audience of free-tier followers doesn't pay your bills anymore. Creators whose fans aren't paying $8 a month for a blue checkmark will feel this change.