How to Make Money on X Without the Creator Revenue Program

Yes—you can make money on X without Creator Revenue Sharing through Original Content Rewards, Creator Subscriptions, disclosed brand deals, and direct follower payments. The outgoing program retires September 7, 2026; direct follower payments are the least gated option because they require no follower minimum, impression threshold, or X Premium subscription. No monthly fee, you only pay a small platform fee when you get paid. 8% platform fee when a follower pays for work, 5% platform fee on tips and goals. Card processing is separate.

Brillay has no follower minimum, no follower account is needed, and you set the prices and boundaries.

"Without the Creator Revenue Program" here means without X's retired Creator Revenue Sharing (ad-revenue-split) program specifically — not without every X payout program, since Original Content Rewards is a separate, newer replacement that began rolling out September 8, 2026 and has its own eligibility rules, covered below. That distinction is why this piece treats Original Content Rewards and direct follower payments as separate answers below. Disclosure: Brillay publishes this article; Brillay product details are described in this article, and Brillay's public How It Works and Pricing pages explain its setup and pricing.

As of September 9, 2026, X’s Creator Revenue Sharing help page says new enrollments stopped on August 7, 2026 and the program retired on September 7, 2026 (X Help — Creator Revenue Sharing).

As of September 9, 2026, X’s help page lists the retired program’s requirements as at least 500 verified followers, 5,000,000 organic impressions in the previous three months, an eligible paid X subscription, and residence in a supported country (X Help — Creator Revenue Sharing). X pays Creator Revenue Sharing and Original Content Rewards earnings every two weeks and holds a minimum payout of $30, so a creator below that balance is not paid in a given cycle (X Help — Original Content Rewards). If you never cleared those bars, you can still earn through routes that use different requirements or do not rely on X’s payout system at all.

What happened to X’s Creator Revenue Sharing program?

X closed Creator Revenue Sharing to new enrollments on August 7, 2026 and retired the program entirely on September 7, 2026, replacing it with Original Content Rewards, which began rolling out to existing members on September 8, 2026 and pays on qualified impressions from verified users rather than on an ad-revenue split (X Help — Creator Revenue Sharing).

Original Content Rewards replaces it. X's own Creator Revenue Sharing help page states: "Starting September 8, 2026, we'll begin rolling out access for existing Revenue Sharing members to apply for the new Original Content Rewards Program" (X Help — Creator Revenue Sharing). Rather than using the old ad-revenue-sharing formula, the replacement pays eligible creators based on verified users' impressions on original content (X Help — Original Content Rewards).

Making money “without the Creator Revenue Program” therefore means either qualifying for its replacement or choosing income sources that do not use that program. For a detailed timeline, did X end creator ad revenue sharing? explains the retirement dates and payout timing.

What are the ways to earn on X without ad revenue sharing?

Four practical routes remain now that Creator Revenue Sharing retired on September 7, 2026: X's Original Content Rewards program, X's Creator Subscriptions, brand deals negotiated privately with sponsors, and direct follower payments taken on an external page. The two X programs impose follower and impression thresholds; the other two impose none. A similar platform shift happened on YouTube, where the old Shorts bonus pool gave way to Shorts ad revenue sharing.

• Original Content Rewards: X requires at least 500 verified followers, at least 500,000 Home Timeline impressions from verified users on original content in the previous 90 days, and an active X Premium, Premium+, or Premium Business subscription (X Help — Original Content Rewards).
• Creator Subscriptions: X requires creators to be 18 years or older, active in the past 30 days, holding at least 2,000 verified followers and at least 5,000,000 organic impressions within the last 3 months (X Help — About Creator Subscriptions). X states that "creators are eligible to earn up to ~97% of the gross revenue earned from Subscriptions" and that "X does not take a revenue share," with deductions coming from third-party in-app purchase fees (X Help — About Creator Subscriptions).
• Brand deals and sponsored posts: A brand can pay you directly for content such as a sponsored post, product demonstration, campaign thread, event promotion, or Space appearance. X's Paid Partnerships Policy governs these posts through a disclosure label rather than a creator-program eligibility check, so no X follower or impression threshold applies (X Help — Paid Partnerships Policy).
• Direct follower payments: Followers pay on an external page for a defined outcome: a private answer, a custom video, a small service, a tip, or a project contribution. Brillay — the publisher of this article — lets followers make those one-time purchases from one clear link and pay by card as guests.

The two X programs also share a payout floor: X processes both Creator Revenue Sharing and Original Content Rewards payouts every two weeks with a minimum payout of $30 (X Help — Original Content Rewards). Brand deals and direct follower payments happen outside X, so X’s $30 minimum and two-week payment cycle do not apply.

How do the monetization routes compare?

The four routes differ mainly in their audience gates. X's programs require 500 to 2,000 verified followers, 500,000 to 5,000,000 impressions, a paid X Premium subscription, and a $30 minimum payout. Brand deals and direct follower payments are private transactions outside X's programs, so no X follower, impression, or subscription threshold applies to either.

Every X-program figure in the table above comes from X's own help pages. X's Paid Partnerships Policy confirms that sponsored posts are governed by a "Paid Partnership" disclosure label rather than by a Creator Revenue Sharing, Original Content Rewards, or Creator Subscriptions eligibility check, which is why brand deals carry no X program threshold (X Help — Paid Partnerships Policy). Check X’s current pricing before choosing a program: as of September 9, 2026, its US web pricing page lists Premium at $8 per month or $84 per year and Basic at $3 per month or $32 per year (X Help — X Premium FAQ).

Brillay publishes this article, so the last row is self-reported: creators can use Brillay at any follower or impression count, and the payout cell reflects Brillay's public Pricing page, which states that Stripe pays you out. Readers should treat those two cells as vendor claims checkable against those pages, not as third-party findings.

For a broader program comparison, see X (Twitter) monetization requirements in 2026.

How can you earn through brand deals on X?

A brand deal is a private contract: a company pays you directly to publish agreed content promoting a product, service, launch, event, or campaign, and the money never passes through an X creator program. Because brand deals sit outside those programs, no X follower or impression threshold applies — but each sponsor sets its own selection criteria. That is different from a paid request on Brillay, which is a one-time purchase with nothing to publish on a schedule and no subscription for either side to maintain.

X's Paid Partnerships Policy governs disclosure for these posts through a "Paid Partnership" label, and X applies that label rather than a Creator Revenue Sharing, Original Content Rewards, or Creator Subscriptions eligibility check (X Help — Paid Partnerships Policy). X's Paid Partnerships Policy also bars certain categories from Paid Partnership promotion outright, including adult and sexual products and services (X Help — Paid Partnerships Policy). Sponsors, meanwhile, commonly screen on audience fit, engagement, location, expertise, or previous results.

A practical pitch should tell the brand:

1. Who your audience is and why it matches the campaign.
2. What you will create, such as one post, a thread, a video, or a Space appearance.
3. Your proposed fee, publication date, and revision terms.
4. What reporting you will provide, such as views, clicks, or engagement.
5. How you will disclose the commercial relationship.

In the United States, the FTC says creators must disclose a material connection to a brand, place the disclosure where people are likely to notice it, and include it with the endorsement itself (FTC — Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers). That means a clear label such as “Ad” or “Sponsored” should be easy to see rather than hidden in a profile, at the end of a long thread, or among unrelated hashtags. A creator running a niche X account — a startup-news commentator or a threads-format explainer, for example — can pitch a relevant brand directly once they have a defined audience, even without clearing an X program's follower or impression bar.

A short opening pitch message covers the five points above in a few lines: audience and niche, the exact deliverable (e.g., one thread plus a pinned post), your fee and delivery date, what you'll report back, and how you'll label the post as an ad. Keeping each point to a single sentence makes the pitch easy for a brand to approve quickly.

How do you get paid directly by your X followers?

You get paid directly by posting one Brillay link in your X bio or replies. Followers pay upfront; you can decline a request. No X program is involved, so X's 500-verified-follower and 500,000-impression floors do not apply to this route at all.

Brillay publishes this article, and Brillay's own How It Works page lists no minimum follower count, verified-follower count, impression total, or X Premium subscription among its setup steps: claim a username, enable the offers you want, add the link to your bio, and connect Stripe. You do not need a large audience: a few engaged followers who already ask for your advice, feedback, art, or videos can buy a specific outcome. Followers pay upfront before you begin; keep each paid request clearly scoped and retain the order and delivery record. You choose a fixed price and delivery time for each offer: for example, try a $25 Paid Question, a $25 portfolio review through Custom Work, or a $35 Personalized Video, then adjust for demand, expertise, and the time the work takes.

Put your Brillay link in your X bio, or share it when someone asks for advice, feedback, a commission, or another paid request. A follower opens the page, chooses a clearly scoped offer, pays by card as a guest before you start, and gives you the details you requested. For Custom Work, write exactly what the follower gets, what you need from them, and what is not included; one delivery closes the order. That defined outcome is the reason followers pay instead of only reading free posts: they are buying a private answer, a specific review, a custom video, or a clear way to support work they already value, not a vague donation.

With Brillay, one link can hold Paid Questions, Personalized Videos, Custom Work, Tips, Goals, and Brand Collaboration Inquiries.

• Paid Questions, where a follower pays to ask one typed question and you reply once in writing.
• Personalized Videos, where a follower requests one custom video and you deliver it through Brillay.
• Custom Work, where you sell commissions and small custom work such as a review, mini audit, feedback, or custom asset.
• Tips, where a follower sends a one-time thank-you amount and nothing is owed in return.
• Goals, where followers contribute to one named funding target with a progress bar and no all-or-nothing cutoff.
• Brand Collaboration Inquiries, where brands submit budget, timeline, and deliverable details into a separate brand inbox.

You set a fixed price and delivery time for Paid Questions, Personalized Videos, and Custom Work. Followers choose one-time amounts for Tips and Goals, while Brand Collaboration Inquiries collects a brand’s budget, timeline, and deliverables. Paid Questions, Personalized Videos, Custom Work, Tips, and Goals are one-time payments rather than memberships; Brand Collaboration Inquiries is free, and paid creators can receive payouts in 41 countries. Connect Stripe inside Brillay to receive creator payouts.

This route does not replace an X program. The follower pays directly on your Brillay page. If you later qualify for Original Content Rewards or Creator Subscriptions, you can still keep your direct-payment link running alongside them.

If you are comparing ways to get paid directly, look at Patreon, Ko-fi, Buy Me a Coffee, and Brillay based on whether you want memberships, one-time paid work, fees, or buyer account requirements. Each Paid Question, Personalized Video or Custom Work order is one priced request on the same page: the price, the scope and the delivery window are published, the brief is collected at checkout, and the follower pays upfront by card as a guest, so the work arrives already paid for and already specified.

What should you do next?

Pick the route your account already qualifies for. Above 500 verified followers and 500,000 verified impressions in 90 days, apply for Original Content Rewards; above 2,000 followers and 5,000,000 impressions in 3 months, add Creator Subscriptions; below either bar, pitch brands directly or take follower payments on an external page.

In order:

1. If you have at least 500 verified followers and 500,000 verified Home Timeline impressions on original content in 90 days, consider Original Content Rewards from September 8, 2026 (X Help — Original Content Rewards).
2. If you have at least 2,000 verified followers and 5,000,000 organic impressions in three months, consider Creator Subscriptions for recurring follower income (X Help — About Creator Subscriptions).
3. If you have a defined niche and engaged audience, pitch relevant brands with a specific content package, price, and disclosure plan.
4. Regardless of audience size, add a direct-payment link where followers can buy a defined interaction. Brillay publishes no follower requirement and no monthly fee; its platform fee is on Brillay's Pricing page (Brillay — How It Works and Brillay — Pricing).

For your first week, choose one result followers already ask you for—such as a $25 private answer, a $25 portfolio review, or a $3 Tip—set a clear price and boundary, add your Brillay link to your X bio, and post: “If you want a private answer or want to support my work, it’s here.” Framing the link around a clear choice makes it feel less like begging and more like giving followers an easy next step.

Frequently asked questions

Can I make money on X if I never qualified for Creator Revenue Sharing?

Yes. Creator Revenue Sharing, which retired September 7, 2026, was only one route (X Help — Creator Revenue Sharing). Original Content Rewards and Creator Subscriptions have their own published thresholds, brand deals are negotiated privately with sponsors, and Brillay — this article's publisher — has no follower minimum and gives followers a way to pay directly.

Is Original Content Rewards easier to qualify for than the old program?

It has a lower numerical impression threshold but counts a narrower type of impression. Creator Revenue Sharing required 5,000,000 organic impressions in the last 3 months, while Original Content Rewards requires 500,000 Home Timeline impressions from verified users on original content in 90 days; both require at least 500 verified followers and a paid X Premium subscription (X Help — Creator Revenue Sharing and X Help — Original Content Rewards).

Do I need X Premium to receive direct follower payments?

No. Brillay lets creators start taking payments at any follower count or impression total, independently of an X Premium subscription. X Premium is required for Original Content Rewards, and X Premium starts at $8/month or $84/year on web in the United States (X Help — X Premium FAQ).

Does a direct-payment link use X’s creator payout system?

No. A follower who purchases an offer through an external Brillay link pays outside X’s creator-program payout machinery, and the creator connects Stripe inside Brillay and payouts go to their own bank. X's own programs keep their separate terms: X pays Creator Revenue Sharing and Original Content Rewards every two weeks with a $30 minimum payout (X Help — Original Content Rewards).

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Advertising disclosure — the Brillay option. The factual sections above are sourced to X Help and FTC guidance; this closing note is promotional. Brillay publishes this article and sells the direct-follower-payment product described in it; its current fees are on Brillay's Pricing page. Create your free Brillay page if that is the route that fits your account.