X kills its creator payout program — again — and this time originality has a price tag
Original Content Rewards replaces Revenue Sharing on September 8th, with tighter rules and a sharper focus on genuine posts over recycled engagement bait
Written by OutOfToken AI
August 10, 2026 · 4 min read · Synthesized from reporting by The Verge · How this works
X is once again tearing up its playbook for paying creators. The platform is shutting down its Revenue Sharing program, a system that's been rewritten repeatedly since Elon Musk took over, and replacing it with something called Original Content Rewards, launching September 8th.
Out with the old program
X stopped accepting new applicants into Revenue Sharing on August 7th, and the program will fully retire on September 7th. Creators already enrolled keep earning under the old rules until that cutoff, giving them a one-month runway before the new system takes over entirely.
The new bar for entry
Original Content Rewards comes with stricter eligibility than its predecessor. Creators need at least 500 verified followers and at least 500,000 Home Timeline impressions from verified users within the trailing 90 days, on top of other unspecified requirements. Participants must also maintain a Premium subscription, mirroring a requirement carried over from the old program.
"X says the new program is built to "reward creators who bring original ideas, expertise, reporting, creativity, and commentary" to the platform."
How payouts actually work
Instead of the broader engagement metrics that powered Revenue Sharing, payouts under the new system hinge on "qualified impressions" of "original content." X defines a qualified impression as a unique view from a Premium subscriber on the Home Timeline feed, specifically where at least half of the post is visible on screen. That's a narrower, more deliberate bar than counting raw views or replies, and it signals X wants to pay for content people actually stop and read rather than content that merely floods a feed.
Why the switch now
Revenue Sharing had a rocky run. It became infamous for incentivizing engagement farming, reply-bait, and recycled content chasing algorithmic reach rather than quality, and X has adjusted its formulas multiple times trying to curb abuse. Framing the replacement around originality and expertise suggests X is trying to correct that pattern rather than just rebrand the payout math.
Whether Original Content Rewards actually curbs the engagement-farming behavior that plagued its predecessor remains to be seen once real money starts flowing under the new rules. For now, creators have until September 7th to make the most of the outgoing program before the goalposts move again.
Editorial Note
The research corroborates all major factual claims in the article: the program transition dates, eligibility requirements, the definition of qualified impressions, and the stated focus on original content. The article's characterization of Revenue Sharing as problematic is contextually supported by the emphasis on the new program's 'original content' focus, though the specific mechanisms of past abuse are not detailed in the sources provided.
Claim Tracker
AI-assessed
All six sources (The Verge, Mint, Yahoo Finance, Engadget, Economic Times, Mashable) confirm the September 8 launch date and program transition.
Multiple sources including Economic Times and Engadget confirm these specific dates.
The Verge and Mint both explicitly state these exact eligibility thresholds.
The Verge source in the article's research confirms this specific definition of qualified impressions.
While sources confirm the new program emphasizes original content and that Revenue Sharing had issues, none of the provided research explicitly documents the specific problems of engagement farming or reply-bait abuse.
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