X will soon no longer be free to use

X (formerly known as Twitter) has been free to use since pretty much its inception, but that could change soon. This is according to X’s owner and CEO Elon Musk who revealed that the company is working towards a change that would see users charged a subscription fee to use the platform.

This was revealed during a livestreamed conversation about AI with Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. According to Musk, the plan is to start charging users a small monthly fee which will allow users to continue to use and access X.

As to why they are making this change? According to Musk, this is the only way he can think of to combat the issue of bots. Musk has brought up the issue of bots before when he initially floated the idea about buying X (when it was known as Twitter back then). One of the reasons he almost walked away from the deal was due to the number of bot accounts.

The logic Musk is working with here is that by charging users a small subscription fee, it would discourage bot creators from spamming the platform with bots since they would need to pay a fee for every account they make. It is unclear how much X plans to charge users and when these changes will be implemented, but if you’re not keen on paying to use X, then it might be time to start exploring alternatives.