X is shutting down its existing Revenue Sharing program and replacing it with a new Original Content Rewards program, according to an announcement posted via the platform's official XCreators account on August 8, 2026 (TechCrunch).

The company stopped accepting new enrollments into the Revenue Sharing program on August 7 (X Help Center). Existing participants will continue earning through that program until September 7. Starting September 8, creators can apply for the new Original Content Rewards program (TechCrunch).

X's Allegra Jacchia wrote that the existing Revenue Sharing program had reached a point where its incentives were misaligned, and that "the better decision was to start fresh and build a program designed to reward originality" (TechCrunch).

The eligibility thresholds for the new program are steep. Participants must subscribe to one of X's Premium tiers, maintain 500 verified followers, and reach 500,000 Home Timeline impressions from verified users within a 90-day window (TechCrunch). The program is available globally to creators who meet its requirements (X Help Center), and X's Creator Monetization Standards require participants to be 18 or older (X Help Center).

X has drawn specific boundaries around what qualifies as "original content" under the new framework. Qualifying material includes original reporting and analysis, photos and videos created by the poster, and memes or graphics designed by the poster themselves. Commentary also counts as original content, but X stipulated that content which "regularly incorporates material created by others must contribute meaningful original value to qualify." Posts copied from another account, downloaded from one account and re-uploaded to another, or reposted without meaningful transformation are explicitly excluded (TechCrunch). The program is designed to reward creators who produce original, high-quality content in any format, including posts or Articles (X Help Center).

The "misaligned incentives" framing is notable. X's previous Revenue Sharing program tied payouts to impressions from verified users, which created a straightforward incentive to maximize reach. The new program keeps an impression threshold as a gating requirement but introduces an originality test as the qualifying condition for participation. That shifts the program's logic from "generate engagement" to "generate engagement with content X considers original." The distinction matters because it places X in the position of evaluating whether a given post constitutes original work or derivative reposting, a content-moderation judgment that is harder to automate consistently than counting impressions.

The carve-out for commentary that incorporates others' material, contingent on "meaningful original value," leaves significant interpretive room. Reaction content, quote-posts, and remix culture have been core engagement drivers on the platform. Where X draws the line between transformative commentary and reposting without meaningful transformation will determine whether the policy rewards the behavior it intends or simply creates a new category of edge cases.

The eligibility bar also narrows the funnel considerably. The 500,000 verified-impression threshold within 90 days, on top of a Premium subscription and 500 verified followers, means the program is effectively targeted at creators who already have meaningful traction on the platform rather than those building an audience from scratch. Whether that gating serves X's goal of surfacing original content or simply concentrates payouts among already-established accounts is a question the program's early results will need to answer.

For creators currently in the Revenue Sharing program, the transition window is tight. Earnings continue through September 7, and applications for the new program open the following day. The gap between wind-down and re-enrollment is effectively zero, though there is no indication in the announcement that existing participants are guaranteed acceptance into the new program. They will need to meet the same eligibility thresholds as any other applicant.

The broader signal here is that X is tightening the relationship between monetization and content provenance. Platform monetization programs have cycled through various incentive structures over the years, and the trajectory from pure engagement-based payouts toward originality-gated rewards reflects an ongoing recalibration of what platforms are willing to pay creators for. Whether the originality requirement is enforceable at scale, and whether creators adapt their output to meet it, will be the practical test.