Elon Musk’s X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has made a major pricing move in India, slashing its Premium subscription fees by up to 48%. The price reduction applies across tiers, making features like the blue tick, long-form content, and editing capabilities significantly more affordable for Indian users.

This move is seen as a direct push to expand X’s premium user base in one of the fastest-growing digital economies, while simultaneously countering declining global user growth and competition from platforms like Meta's Threads and Koo in India.

Major Price Cuts Across Tiers

As per the update on the X platform’s official pricing page:

• Mobile App Premium Plan: Monthly cost reduced from ₹900 to ₹470, which is a 48% reduction.

• Web Premium Plan: Now priced at ₹427/month, down from ₹650, marking a 34% drop.

• Basic Plan (Monthly): Cut from ₹243.75 to ₹170, approximately a 30% decrease.

• Basic Plan (Annual): Slashed from ₹2,590.48 to ₹1,700, a 34% reduction.

• Premium Plus Plan (Web): Dropped from ₹3,470 to ₹2,570, about a 26% price cut.

• Premium Plus Plan (Mobile App): Reduced from around ₹5,100 to ₹3,000/month.

The price differences between the web and mobile versions are due to app store service fees, typically charged by Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

What Users Get With Each Plan

Premium Plan Features:

• Blue checkmark (verification)

• Editing posts after publishing

• Longer posts with extended character limits

• Prioritised ranking in replies and search

• Monetization eligibility

• Access to advanced creator tools

Basic Plan Features:

• Long-form posting

• Edit feature

• Background video playback

• Downloadable video access

Premium Plus Plan Features:

• 100% ad-free experience

• Full access to Grok AI including SuperGrok and Grok 4

• Support for publishing long-form content including articles

• Monetization with higher revenue share

Grok AI Integration And Premium Push

One of the standout offerings for Premium Plus subscribers is Grok AI, Musk’s in-house artificial intelligence chatbot that is seen as a challenger to ChatGPT and Gemini.

This plan includes:

• SuperGrok (contextual AI assistant)

• Grok 4 with improved language understanding

• First access to upcoming experimental features

The pricing update makes India one of the cheapest markets globally for Grok-enabled subscriptions, indicating the company’s focus on building an AI-integrated ecosystem starting with user-generated content and monetization support.

Why India? Strategic Focus on Emerging Markets

With India boasting more than 100 million social media users and one of the largest English-speaking populations, Musk’s team appears to be banking on scale rather than high-margin subscribers.

India has long been considered a key test market for global tech companies. By slashing prices here, X is possibly looking to:

• Increase user adoption of paid features

• Improve user stickiness and engagement

• Combat rising competition from local and global rivals

• Gain data-driven feedback on Grok AI usability

Musk previously hinted at "major updates to X’s monetization and AI tools", and this price slash seems to align with those larger platform strategies.

What It Means For Creators And Power Users

The lower prices are expected to benefit creators, influencers, and professionals who use X as a tool for:

• Content marketing

• Audience engagement

• Monetization through subscriptions and ads

• Customer service and brand building

This also offers an opportunity for smaller creators to enter the monetization fold and build their brand without large upfront costs.

Comparisons With Global Pricing

India’s new rates now stand among the lowest globally. For example:

• In the US, Premium is priced at $8/month (₹665 approx.), and Premium Plus at $16/month (₹1,330 approx.).

• In Europe, the base Premium can cost over €11/month (₹995 approx.) due to regional compliance and tax considerations.

This pricing strategy makes India a unique case where users now receive nearly global-level features at half the global price.

Musk’s Vision and Market Reception

Musk has consistently promoted X as an “everything app” with goals of social networking, payments, news, and AI all in one platform. This move reflects his vision to:

• Democratize access to tools

• Push more users into the Premium ecosystem

• Drive adoption of Grok as a daily-use AI companion

The Indian digital community has reacted positively, with many influencers calling it a "game-changer for serious users".

Conclusion: A Move to Monetize At Scale

With deep price cuts across subscription tiers, Elon Musk’s X is positioning itself as a feature-rich, AI-enabled, and affordable platform for Indian users.

While ad revenue may still be the backbone of social media economics, Musk is betting big on subscriptions, AI, and creator monetization — and India might be the tipping point to make that bet pay off.

This strategic pricing revision opens the door for wider adoption of verified accounts, AI features, and long-form content tools, potentially reshaping the digital influence economy in India in the coming quarters.

The Upcoming IPOs in this week and coming weeks are Monika Alcobev, NSDL, Anthem Biosciences, Spunweb Nonwoven.

The Current active IPO are Smartworks Coworking, Asston Pharmaceuticals, CFF Fluid Control.

Start your Stock Market Journey and Apply in IPO by Opening Free Demat Account in Choice Broking FinX.

Join our Trading with CA Abhay Telegram Channel for regular Stock Market Trading and Investment Calls by CA Abhay Varn - SEBI Registered Research Analyst.