According to reports from The Information, revealed last week, Twitter is now considering a $1,000 monthly subscription fee for businesses and corporations to keep their gold verification badges on the social media platform. 

Internal documents suggest that the social media company would also charge an extra $50 for individually affiliated accounts. That would put companies who intend to keep their gold verification $12,000 short per year. An expensive change for a feature that used to cost $0.

The first person to point out these new prices was a social media consultant named Matt Navarra. His tweets about the issue align with what The Information reported. Currently, there is no exact date for these changes to take place. The pricing for the gold verification is still being finalized and could change. 

Twitter Blue – the website’s subscription service – was set for $19.99 a month before Musk faced backlash and dropped the price to $8. Therefore, there is precedent for a possible price change. 

The gold verification checkmark is a recent feature on Twitter and came out last December. It’s designed to verify official companies and organization, and it’s a part of the Twitter Blue relaunch after a disastrous original launch in November, which drove thousands of brands away from Twitter due to impersonations.

When Twitter Blue came out last November, anyone willing to pay the $8 could become verified with a blue checkmark. It also didn’t require an identity check. That opened the door for hundreds of users to impersonate big corporations and tweet the most absurd things on “behalf” of these companies. 

As for the $1,000 gold verification charge, Twitter has yet to announce it. The social media platform did not comment on the matter as of yet. However, if it does turn out to be true, it would not be a surprising move since CEO Elon Musk took over late last year. 

Even before purchasing the social media platform, Musk said it would look for new ways to monetize the website. So taking a seemingly small feature meant to validate someone’s identity and charging big bucks for it fits Elon Musk’s pattern of business. 

Ever since taking over Twitter, Musk tried to increase revenue by doing massive layoffs, banning third-party APIs, and is working with the idea of a more expensive ad-free Twitter Blue subscription. 

Moreover, Elon Musk has previously said that Twitter is also looking into ways to compensate artists and content creators. The idea is to introduce features such as a creator fund or Coins. 

But as of right now, it seems like the Tesla and SpaceX CEO does not have enough financial footing to deliver on those promises. Perhaps the $1,000 monthly charge for a gold verification badge will help him get there. 

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